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

Her smile couldn’t have been bigger as she looked up at Bo. She was marrying our sinister fourth, a horseman of apocalypse, a wounded soldier of his own life without realizing this wasn’t her Bowey at all.

It’s Braeden, the wrong half of him, living as the protective layer to keep Bo safe.

EVE

Everyone was behaving and it made seeing the dynamics a lot easier—everyone had someone they were close with. But Bowen was more comfortable behind a piano with me on his lap and his hands moving around me.

All these years and he didn’t let any of them in.

This was the most of his true personality they had ever seen, and it was no wonder they all looked bewildered. This was the Bowen I knew before he turned Clave: fun, happy, talented, loving in ways kids shouldn’t know how to love.

He was the epitome of well-adjusted.

His eyes were down in concentration, and he had a big smile hanging from his lips as his fingers floated against the keys. He turned his face as his hands reached around me, and his lips caught mine in a quick robbery, one I was happy to be an accomplice to.

It was hard not to sink into him, especially after he said those three words. I thought would take a lot more convincing that I’m on his side.

Bowen was still drunk, and if he were sober, I wasn’t sure he would have kissed me at all.

It suddenly made me feel like the thief and there was no real denying it when the entire room would see it the same way.

Reaching my arms back around his neck, I leaned into him and decided to embrace it, thief or not.

His hands dropped from the piano, wrapping around me and holding me against the parts of him that were growing excited as his lips found my neck before making their way to my lips. I could feel my jaw go slack and my tongue blocking a moan from slipping out when I opened my mouth on his.

Drunk Bowen was letting me kiss him in front of people.

He traded in cruelty for kisses.

Pulling away, his eyes didn’t leave mine when he shouted to the room, “Everybody out. Go anywhere you want, explore, find my demons—just get out.”

Twisting in his arms, I straddled his lap wanting nothing more than to only stare at him, no obstructions, taking in every painful part of him because that’s how much the line between pain and pleasure blurs when you’re this in love.

I loved him so much it hurt.

“You’re dangerous for me, Evey.” He looked at me differently, like I wasn’t an inconvenience or some bad memory from his past like he normally did.

“Me?” I tried not to laugh at his words even though his hands slipped down to cup my ass.

His one hand came up, pushing the thin strap off my shoulder, letting the silk fabric fold down exposing my breasts. “You’re redemption I didn’t expect. What if I’m not worth it anymore?”

My hands smoothed up his neck to his face, forcing him to keep eye contact. “You’ll always be worth it. You’re worth it because I love you.”

I barely got out the last word before he crashed his lips onto mine. Nothing about him was holding back as we clamored for more of each other. I felt a chill take over my body as his mouth opened on mine and his tongue slithered against mine like a snake.

Too delicate to detect.

His hands held my ass as he stood up, and my legs instinctively wrapped around his waist. I wasn’t ready to rip our mouths apart and act like an individual again.

I seemed to weigh nothing as he took each step with ease, muscles tense and obvious. The strength in Bowey could melt my panties.

Bowen stopped at the top of the stairs, looking down the hall as he set me down on my feet, pushing his fingers to my lips. Once I paid attention, I clamped my hand down over my open mouth.

In the distance, you could hear a woman, no doubt Justice, moaning the word daddy.

I was trying so hard not to laugh when my forehead pressed against Bowen’s chest with my hand still covering my mouth.

The moaning got more intense, and it was obvious she was close to the goal of calling someone that in the bedroom.

I wonder what I would call Bowey.

I wonder what kinds of things would become a reality in the throes of him.

I wondered every part so much I had a blue vibrator to help act them out until tomorrow.

He spoke into my ear just above a whisper, “I have a gift for you. Come on.” Taking my hand, he dragged me behind him until we were safely behind his bedroom door.

Did it make me a bad person or a horny person that I wanted the gift to be his dick?

The moans got more dramatic, following us into his closed off room at the other end of the hallway. A laughter broke out between us when he looked around for his cracked phone.

This was the first laugh I had heard fall from his lips since we were kids, and it filled my heart to the brim to know he still could. Under all that doom and gloom.

I watched him open a group chat and type out the word: daddy?

KHAOS: I think we’ve found a new nickname… Vic the daddy.

GRIMM: Make it stop. My ears are bleeding.

VIC: That’s your one pass, DuPonte.

KHAOS: Why and how are you even texting? Aren’t you busy, daddy?

VIC: Learn to multitask.

Crossing my ankles, I laid back into his pillows, knowing all the guest rooms were occupied and I would