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

was frustrated when his fingers ran through his hair with a groan. “It was their private plane, Bo, they don’t fall out of the fucking sky. There’s foul play here. Someone killed them, and I can’t protect you if you don’t tell me.”

Sitting back, I poured the liquor into two glass cups and pushed one towards the Vic that was for some reason coming apart at the thought of her dead parents.

In his defense, he did have a hand in killing his wife’s dad.

This was triggering for him.

“I didn’t kill her parents. Believe me I want to… I can’t take credit for something I didn’t do.” The liquid warmed my throat and lurched its way down to my empty stomach.

Finally accepting the few fingers in the glass, I watched him debate drinking on the job before the contents disappeared. “There’s something going on there. Why would anyone want to kill them? It’s her parents, Bo, they’re all fucked but they’re all we got.”

“When I figure out what happened and what they did to her I’ll let you know.” I said it sharply, not giving him any ideas that I needed help. This was something I spent most of my time trying to solve.

Leaning back, I watched my phone light up with a text from Eve when I lazily picked it up. The last time she texted me, it was a photo of her wet and naked, just out of the shower.

Swiping up the thread with her texts, a new photo appeared of her in bed, tangled in the sheets and clearly naked.

It had become her new tortuous routine to send me photos after I made it clear that we weren’t having sex again until she could be honest.

She wanted me to know what I was missing, and my dick was pissed off at my control.

I knew I had to tell her about her parents right away, but something stopped me from pressing the button to call her. Instead, I stood up, leaving her trinkets behind and headed straight for her.

In the face of tragedy, I wasn’t the person you’d find comforting, not anymore.

The entire way back home I had to dig up my humanity and figure out how to be the guy that would make this news easier.

Her parents were fucking dead.

Their plane crashed and left nothing behind.

Slamming my palm against the leather-bound wheel, I shouted a solid fuck at myself for not getting any information from Vic before I left. Texting him, I asked him if Elias was on the plane too, hoping that maybe fate got to him before I could.

None of that mattered; all that mattered is that they are gone now.

None of this changed how badly I wanted the truth.

Now I wanted it even more and expected it to come slipping out like word vomit because her tormentors were gone.

BOWEN

I sat in the driveway for almost a half an hour trying to determine how someone like Eve would take the news. All I had to reference was her butterfly dying, and in that case, I told her it was sleeping for a solid week before she called bullshit.

Her parents aren’t a butterfly.

Exhaling, the memory of Braeden dying suddenly filled my forefront like a bad reminder that this would be painful no matter how it’s said. My mom was too broken to even muster up the words, and my dad was too busy making arrangements to tell me. I figured it out on my own since Braeden had left me a note under my pillow the day he traveled to the island.

He didn’t say outright that he planned to kill himself, but the note certainly left eerie prints all over. Paired with a crying mom and a dad who drank the pain away, it became clear Braeden didn’t leave me an apology note; it was indeed a suicide note.

Wrestling myself from the bad memories, I headed inside determined to handle this better than my parents did with me.

As soon as I stepped through the door, I shouted her name and listened for a response that never came. Jogging up the stairs, I forced myself to slow down. This isn't news I wanted to deliver.

“Eve?” I tried one last time before I pushed on the door handle of my room and found her inside. She was sprawled out in the center of my bed, legs open, with a toy pushed against her clit.

I begged myself to stop looking, but her moans might as well have been ropes keeping me in place.

Her skin was smooth, and I could smell her fragrance from the doorway—a receipt for seduction and turning bad guys good again.

Her delicate hand moved the toy between her legs and her nipples pinched into even harder buds. My hand snaked right down to my jeans without permission, giving myself a squeeze like it compared to my wife chasing an orgasm in front of me with no shame.

Holding up a finger, she continued on like I wasn’t here at all, and as my forehead touched the wall, I slowly started banging it, trying to make it stop.

“Almost done,” her small voice crept out, drenched in moans.

Fuck me.

I heard every wave of pleasure in that girl’s voice until her moans became silent screams. I knew she was done when I spun around to face her again and reminded myself of humanity instead of blurting out the bad news like I wanted.

Leaning against the wall, I avoided her eyes, hearing the blanket wrap around her nudity. “I have bad news…”

She sat up like I said we were divorcing, waiting for more when I continued, “There was an accident. Your parent’s plane was in an accident, Evey… they didn’t survive.”

The room felt heavy, I felt dizzy, and