Held by the Beast
Prince Lucian's Point of View
He had not expected her to look the way she did.
He had prepared himself, in the few seconds between the corridor and the open door, for the kind of scene Oliver Hayes would arrange. Something calculated. Something designed to appeal to a man's most basic instincts, wrapped up in the kind of presentation that was meant to communicate value.
What he found instead was a girl sitting at the edge of the bed in an oversized coat, with her wrists marked red from rope, looking at him with eyes that were frightened but had not given up.
There was something about that combination that he had not been ready for.
Her lips trembled slightly. She was trying to hold herself still and doing a reasonable job of it, but the trembling gave her away. She
