Prologue
A sharp scream tore from her lips the moment he pushed inside, stretching her until she was not just full, but overwhelmed.
“Aah!”
It felt as if she were literally being torn apart. A blinding, unfamiliar pain brought tears streaming down her face. As if to soothe her, Clifton leaned down, pressing kiss after kiss to her cheek, his tongue lapping at her tears.
“Shh,” he murmured. “It will be over soon.”
It was a lie.
Even when she thought he must be all the way inside her, that there was no more of him to take, he kept pushing, driving relentlessly deeper. By the time he was fully buried within her, the faint, budding pleasure that had stirred inside her was gone, utterly extinguished by the pain.
“Why…?” Merdi choked out, her voice thick with tears. The agony was so much worse than she had anticipated that a desperate curiosity bloomed in its place. Why would he go to such lengths to have her like this? He could have any woman he wanted—women far more beautiful and skilled than she. Unlike her, he was unrestrained; no one would so much as whisper a word of blame if he returned after a night spent seeking pleasure elsewhere.
As if he understood her unspoken question, Clifton answered, his brow furrowed at the unyielding tightness of her body.
“What a pointless question, Merdi.”
With those words, he began to move. As he withdrew slowly, only to thrust back in, fast and deep, Merdi could no longer even scream.
“Because I want to have you,” he stated, his voice a low growl against her ear. “Right now.”
Merdi’s body seized by the overwhelming sensations.
“That is reason enough.”
His rhythm quickened, his hips a relentless engine. Merdi’s breaths came in short, sharp gasps, growing shallower until she could barely draw air.
“Hnngh…!”
Finally, as a ragged cry escaped her lips, Clifton drove into her with even harder. She gasped, her hips beginning to twitch in a pathetic attempt to match his rhythm. At the sight, a cruel smile touched his lips, and he leaned down to place a brief, bruising kiss on her cheek. He gave her no reprieve, plunging into her depths again and again while he slanted his mouth over hers.
Merdi was too overwhelmed to respond, her body consumed with the act of taking him, but he was determined not to miss a single thing. He plundered her mouth, stealing the very saliva from her tongue. Like a man devouring a ripe peach, Clifton consumed her, greedy and insatiable.
“Hah, nngh!”
At last, with a high-pitched moan torn from Merdi’s throat, he found his release. He pulled out right at the climax, his semen spilling across the hollow of her stomach. In the void pleasure left behind, a profound exhaustion settled over her. With no strength left to move, Merdi’s eyelids fluttered open.
Now that it was over, a question surfaced through the haze. Why was she here, entangled in this carnal act with a man who had been so utterly indifferent to her? Had he started to change the moment she demanded to annul their engagement? Or had it been when her own heart had finally turned away?
She closed her eyes, unable to find an answer. In the end, only he knew the truth. The memory of that day rose in her mind, the memory of birds chirping becoming a phantom echo of the moment her tedious, predictable life had shattered.
