Scandalous Arrangement

Chapter 9

BARBARA

I could hardly believe the events of the night before. He had really slept on the couch and left me to sleep on the bed by myself.

He had brought me to the edge of losing myself, stirred every emotion and every desire I had tried so hard to control all my life, and then walked away, leaving me to sit with the aftermath alone.

God, he had made me hornier than I had ever been in my entire life, and he had the nerve to snore too, unbothered, while I tried my best to sleep with my c**t throbbing and in need of him again. In need of that huge c**k he had the nerve to stroke in front of me, not letting me even touch it.

God!

I wanted to kill him. Really, God, I hated him with every fiber of my being.

I hated Lorenzo, yet thinking of him made me ache with a need that made me not even recognize my own horniness. I was still in awe of his self-control. He had done all that and for what?

His words kept replaying in my mind.

“This marriage will hold.”

The hell it would.

It wouldn’t.

I had lain still last night, fighting the urge to do what I had been doing for years: masturbate myself to sleep. I had lain there the entire night pretending I was unaffected while my mind refused to rest.

Thankfully, after hours, I had slept.

I wasn’t going to surrender to him. Not in this lifetime. I wouldn’t, not when I hated him more now. Not with the humiliation twisting painfully in my chest.

I had offered myself.

My pride.

My vulnerability.

And he had looked at me, touched me, but stopped.

What kind of man possessed that kind of restraint? And what kind of woman did that make me?

So he didn’t think I was attractive enough?

Wait.

Was he marrying me to keep me in the house like some trophy wife so he could take his inheritance, and then start sleeping with other women because he sure as hell didn’t find me attractive enough to sleep with?

The hell not.

That bastard thought he could make me submit to him, humiliate me, but he had something else coming.

If I had known how the night would end, I would never have agreed to the bargain.

I would never have allowed myself to fall into that trap, only to be left feeling more unsettled than before.

Now, with the gray morning light slipping through the suite curtains, the reality of it settled over me.

“Good morning, princess.”

My eyes opened at once to see Lorenzo lying beside me on the bed. Before I could react, he pulled me against him, his hands wrapping around my waist.

My skin reacted before my mind could stop it. I immediately pushed his hand away and turned so my back was to him.

He had no idea what even the smallest touch from him did to me. Even his nearness aggravated me.

“What is wrong, princess?” he asked.

Princess.

That word again.

He said it so easily, as if it belonged to him.

My jaw tightened, but I refused to turn around. I didn’t trust myself. I didn’t trust myself not to slap him. And I didn’t trust myself not to do something far more humiliating.

“My name is Barbara,” I snapped. “You should not call me princess. That title is reserved for my father. I am his princess, not yours.”

He chuckled.

That only made my anger burn hotter.

“You are my princess,” he said with that sharp confidence that always seemed to infuriate me. “And when we get married, you’ll be my queen.”

Married.

The word nearly made me choke.

He said it as though I had agreed.

Then he rolled out of bed and walked away like my words had meant nothing.

“I will not marry you, Lorenzo!” I shouted.

I sat upright, my hair falling around my face as I glared at him.

“I gave my body to you last night. I fulfilled my part of the bargain, so I don’t give a f**k if you refuse to fulfil yours. You promised. Now you will speak to my parents and end this ridiculous engagement.”

Standing near the bathroom door, he simply looked at me with that infuriating calm.

“Well,” he said, folding his arms, “you gave me your body, but I never took it. I didn’t take what you offered. That means the deal is still incomplete. You would know this if you were more involved in your father’s business instead of living from one party to the other, girl?”

My anger froze.

My chest tightened.

Jesus, I hated this man. I loathed him.

“And that means, Barbara, you will marry me.”

My entire body trembled.

“You bastard. You’re a beast, Lorenzo,” I said, my voice shaking. “I stood before you and gave you everything you asked for, and now you twist it into something that benefits you?”

My chest rose and fell with every breath, my skin flushing with anger and humiliation.

It was the fact that I had allowed him to see a part of me I never showed anyone.

My entirety.

And somehow, he had walked away untouched.

“Why have s*x with you once now when I can marry you and keep having s*x with you forever?” he said, a smirk on his face. He was clearly enjoying seeing me lose my s**t.

“You beast,” I spat, trembling with fury. “You want to marry me just so you can have s*x with me whenever and wherever you please—and you think I’ll just let you?”

I stood up, walking toward him just as he was about to open the bathroom door.

I shoved his hand away.

Then he pulled back, and I shoved him—hard.

For a second, he didn’t resist, letting me shove him until I got tired, my chest heaving, my eyes blazing with rage.

“What do you gain from fighting me, Barbara?” he asked softly.