Burn Me Once, Burn With Me novel Chapter 2

She was delicate and petite, her cheeks flushed as vividly as spring blossom beneath him. A faint, intoxicating fragrance lingered around her, clouding his already fraying composure.

Almost as if under a spell, he leaned down.

Foreplay lingered, slow and drawn out, until at last, lost in a haze, he claimed her. Amid the fevered confusion, he thought he heard her crying softly.

"Cassian, I don't want this…"

Is this the tactic then, playing hard to get? If she truly didn't want this, why would she yield to the pressure from his mother? It's quite hypocritical.

A surge of anger flared in him. The second time, when he took her again, he pinned her wrists above her head, his kiss rough, almost punishing.

"Ruby, you brought this on yourself."

At dawn, buttoning his shirt, he didn't look back as he addressed the trembling figure crying beneath the covers.

But he'd barely stepped outside when he was met by men waiting at the gate.

"Mr. Veyne, we have evidence. Your employee, Ruby, is suspected of stealing corporate secrets. We're placing her under arrest…"

"If our investigation is correct, she's also your wife…"

Cassian's eyes narrowed, his jaw clenched tight.

"Don't spare my reputation. I've said before—when you catch the culprit, press the maximum sentence."

They dragged her from the bed, half-dressed, clutching a coat around her shoulders.

In the rain-washed courtyard, she dropped to her knees, sobbing, pleading with him.

"Cassian, please, you have to believe me—I didn't…"

"If I believed you, what would we need the police for?"

He stood beneath the eaves, hands shoved in his pockets, unmoved.

"I won't accept any form of leniency. No amount of money will change my mind. People who do wrong must pay the price."

They hauled her away.

She kept looking back, step by painful step. Her tear-swollen eyes were rimmed red, her neck still marked with bruises from his passion. Tears splattered onto the wet stones, mingling with the remnants of the rain.

Cassian pressed his parched lips together, forcing himself to look away.

"Get the car ready. I'm going to work."

Strange.

What exactly was she doing?

She knew full well her husband had come to collect her—yet she lingered inside, deliberately provoking him.

She had completed her sentence. Now a convict, why maintain such stubbornness?

Didn't she realize? With a criminal record, she could never return to being the celebrated, dazzling star of the legal world she once was.

The driver shook his head and pressed harder on the gas.

In the back seat, Cassian had already opened his tablet, sifting through urgent emails. But his brow was furrowed, and irritation simmered beneath his calm exterior.

Later that night, in the garden at Northridge Manor, fallen petals blanketed the rain-dark stones.

Cassian stepped out of his study.

He wore a dark set of loungewear, moving quietly until he saw the light glowing under the bedroom door.

Without hesitation, he quickened his pace.