THE CONTROL: An Arranged Marriage Romance by Elena Monroe (ebook reader android .txt) 📕

flipping of the pages, but I didn’t know what to say. Bowen wasn’t someone who enjoyed small talk and neither did I, so I landed on the obvious. “Going to tell me what happened to your lip?”

Closing his book with a slam, he looked up but not at me. “Would you like to tell me about Denmark?”

Neither of us was capable of giving up our pasts, our truths, the parts of us that were so ugly that we even hid them from ourselves. We gave in, in our own unique ways like with our fingers, lips, hushed moans, and tension that buried the ugly deeper.

We both wanted the ugly from each other at any cost because we knew we could handle it.

Maybe we were gluttons for punishment, comparing wounds and making sure we both suffered enough being apart. “What do you want to know?” I retorted, expecting him to be too stunned to have any real desires.

Putting his book on the nightstand next to him, he crossed his arms and sat back. “Is this some kind of truce?” Shoving noodles between my lips, I nodded with my mouth full and he continued. “Who was close to your stepdad in Denmark?”

Oh, shit. He was serious. 

Moaning and rolling my eyes, I enjoyed the noodles for all they were worth. Taking my time, I made him wait for the answer. “He had advisors, a board that kept their family name in mind, a consultant every time we had to make a family appearance, and a son who was at boarding school until he got kicked out and moved back in.”

Answering in half-truths was the closest I could get to a truce.

Without me asking or pleading for the same respect, he spoke while not looking at me, “Got into it with Donte… He can get out of line sometimes. He’s holding back information I need.”

“Like?” Shoving orange chicken in my not fully emptied mouth, I wanted to moan again but instead I enjoyed it silently, waiting for a labyrinth of an answer that wouldn’t really lead anywhere.

Bowen’s face dropped and his fingers fidgeted with the chunky ring he always wore. It was gold with a snake and the Clave’s C with four diamonds on either side. He was covered in jewelry like it was like his own brand of armor—bracelets and rings stacked against his pale tone.

None of it matched how beautiful he looked sitting there shirtless and vulnerable. 

“There’s something going on that’s apparently above my paygrade. I don’t like being kept in the dark. What I do is bad enough already.” His voice was strained and full of plotting. You could fall in the holes if you weren’t careful.

I didn’t know how to respond… When it came to what he did, it hit home in ways I didn’t want Bowen to ever know. He would only blame himself when it was pointless. I survived and that is all that matters now.

I had no doubt in my mind he would get the answers he wanted.

You would have to be simple-minded to go toe-to-toe with the devil and not sign over your soul willingly. 

Bowen’s phone rang, pulling focus from our truce when he held it to his ear. “Yes, mother?” I felt myself pay extra close attention, wondering if she was in fact looking for me instead of her ungrateful son who practically rolled his damn eyes.

Without much thought behind my actions, I snatched the phone from his ear and put it on speaker, dropping it down to my thigh peeking out from the towel I was still wearing. “CeCe! Oh my goodness, I’ve missed you.”

I just saw her at the contract signing but that didn’t count when your evil stepdad and even more evil mom sit next to you glaring at the people who gave more fucks than they did.

“Is that my Evey? I have wedding news,” her voice was excited and full of energy for it being this late at night. I couldn’t even imagine the life they led without any kids in their house. When we were kids, they went to parties and poured themselves into bed at dawn—living a much different lifestyle than normal parents.

Now, they probably did all of that with less inhibitions and commitments.

“I can’t wait to hear! You can’t tell, but Bowen is excited, silently excited.” I gave him a savage looking smirk when he rolled his eyes harder and waved his finger over his throat like I needed to wrap it up.

Bowen’s mom ran through minor details like catering, floral arrangements, and the music choices, trying to keep me in the loop even though everything was already taken care of. Bowen wasn’t paying attention at all and when I turned to find his expression, he was fast asleep with his head against the headboard sitting upright.

Quietly hanging up the phone and setting it on the side table next to me, I closed the Chinese food containers before I cuddled up to him, hoping he would just stay asleep.

The next morning, I woke up with Bowen’s dick pressing into my ass and his arm slung over my body, pinning me in place, and I didn’t care if my limbs went numb. Pushing my ass into him, I knew the friction I was taking was a risk, but pushing the limits was kind of my thing.

Stirring awake, Bowen sat up so quickly he didn’t give me time to adjust to the cold without him acting like my heated blanket. “Why are you still in my bed, Eve?”

It was short lived, that truce that made his humanity.

Bowen fell asleep before he could be pissed off that his mom had arranged for the horsemen and their counterparts to spend the night here before the wedding. All of the horsemen were scattered around LA and weekend traffic was