Catharina Maura

Desperate and out of options, Elena Rousseau walks into a gentlemen's club, ready to sell her body in a last attempt to save her mother's life. She didn't expect Alexander Kennedy to be there, and she certainly didn't expect him to propose a marriage of convenience instead. Marrying Alexander means knowingly becoming a tool in his revenge plan. But what choice does she have? Better the devil you know than the one you don't.

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Forever After All

“She’s beautiful, and she looks so incredibly sweet. Far too sweet for a man like me.”

“A reminder of what happens when I allow myself to fall in love, when I allow myself to be weak.”

Sophia

“Does that mean you intend to have… lovers?”

I tense. “No,” I snap. “Neither you nor I will have any lovers. Don’t even fucking dream of cheating, Elena. Don’t even fucking look at another man, you hear me?”

Her eyes widen in surprise and I hate the way she’s looking at me—as though she’s trying to read me. I relax slightly when she nods. I don’t know what I’ll do if I ever catch her straying, but I do know any man that touches her is going to be six foot under before he realizes what’s happening to him.

“What about divorce? What if one of us falls in love with someone else?” she asks.

The mere thought of her leaving me infuriates me, and she isn’t even mine yet.

I shake my head. “It’s not an option. I won’t ever sign the papers. If we were to divorce, my grandfather would disown me without a second thought. I won’t do it. If you agree to this, you’ll agree to a life without love. Think it over carefully.”

“Elena, if you want to marry into this family, I’ll marry you,” Lucian says, his eyes blazing with sincerity.

 heart feels so full it might actually burst. I smile at him but shake my head. The mere idea of marriage to Lucian is so absurd, it never even occurred to me.

“Over my dead body,” Alexander snaps, moving closer to me. He puts his arm around my waist and pulls me to him, moving me out of Lucian’s reach.

She looks at me, smiling through her tears. “Elena, my son’s heart is broken, and it has been for a very long time. Maybe it’s damaged beyond repair, but maybe, just maybe, it takes the right touch.”

Alexander blinks, and I push past him, getting into the car. My heart is aching today. I’m tired of being reminded that I don’t mean anything to anyone, that I’m just a thing to be owned, used, and discarded. I know I have no rights to Alexander, but I’m sick of feeling like I’m a mere object.

“Baby,” I say, “it’s not like that at all. I just ran into her, that’s all.”

Her eyes flash with anger as she points her index finger at me. “Don’t you call me baby. I’m not your baby,” she yells, and she’s got me enthralled. Why the fuck does she need to be so beautiful when she’s mad?

Alec leans in and presses a kiss to my forehead, and I can’t help but tease him. “Though… I thought you didn’t believe in forever?”

He chuckles and shakes his head. “I do, if it’s with you. You’ve got me believing in forever, after all.”

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