Chapter 48 A Manufactured Morning
Evelyn woke to bright light spilling through the curtains.
For a while, her brain refused to work. Everything felt thick and slow, like she was underwater. Her body was heavy. Even lifting her fingers felt like effort.
She blinked again.
‘Where am I…?’
Her head ached dully. She tried to sit up, but her limbs felt weak and numb. Still, she slowly and carefully forced herself up.
That was when she felt it.
A thick, muscular arm wrapped around her waist possessively.
Evelyn stiffened.
Her eyes dropped to the arm, trying to play out what the heck was going on.
She shut her eyes, gripping her forehead, trying to calm the buzzing in her head.
‘Maybe I’m imagining it.’
Her eyes slowly opened again.
The arm was still there.
Her gaze trailed to the side.
And there, she saw a man’s bare upper body, face-down on the bed, wearing pajama pants. His hand was stubbornly wrapped around her tightly.
Evelyn’s breath stopped.
‘A man?’
The thought bounced around her fuzzy mind. She blinked, waiting for the hallucination to pass.
But he was still there.
A sudden, sharp understanding jolted through her. Her eyes flew wide. A scream tore from her throat as she scrambled back, trying to escape the bed. Due to the sudden inertia and her body still being slightly numb, she tumbled over the side and landed hard on the floor with a thud.
“Ow—!”
Gasping, she pushed herself up on trembling arms. That’s when she realized she was wearing nothing but a large man’s white button-down shirt. The cool air hit her exposed skin, making her shudder.
Trembling, she looked down at herself.
Her breath hitched.
Her skin was covered with marks. Reds, purples, faint blues—hickeys and bruises scattered across her chest, her stomach, the tops of her thighs. They stood out starkly against her pale skin.
She screamed again, louder, in fright.
Roman stirred on the bed, brows furrowing in irritation.
Evelyn didn’t even give herself time to think. She grabbed the nearest pillow and swung it at him.
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!” she shouted, voice shaking. Tears gathered in her eyes as she looked down at herself again, humiliated and terrified at the same time.
Roman groaned. “What the fu—” he stopped when he turned and saw that it was his wife in the room with him.
He froze slightly. The memory of yesterday came crashing down on him. He had lost consciousness again last night, until now.
He saw her looking down at her marred skin, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs. Hot tears dripped onto her thighs.
“Hey…” he called hoarsely. He slid off the bed and moved toward her. “Lyn—”
Evelyn shoved him hard. “Don’t touch me!”
She looked up at him, her eyes red-rimmed and filled with tears.
When her gaze finally focused on his face, her resentment immediately shattered into confusion.
“Roman…?” she whispered.
Immediately some of her memories came crashing down on her like a tidal wave, and at that moment, it was as if she was back to reality and the gap in her brain was been filled slowly. But, deep inside, she could still feel the absence of something important, a hollow space in her mind.
Seeing her wide watery eyes, going through different emotions—stunned, confused, understanding, then disoriented, all together.
Roman immediately understood that, a huge gap of her memory had become hazy for her, due to her trigger, and acute stress response, and also due to him slightly messing with her head. She’d lost chunks of time, causing a temporary void.
Roman’s gaze softened instantly. A pang of guilt hit him so hard his throat tightened. He pulled her into his arms before she could resist again.
“Silly girl,” he murmured warmly into her hair. “Did you forget you have a husband?”
Evelyn went still in his embrace, the solid reality of the man on the bed being her husband, calmed her frantic heart.
“Roman,” she said quietly, her voice muffled against his chest. “What happened last night?”
Roman chuckled, the vibration soothing against her. “You got a little wild, that’s what happened.”
She pulled back to search his face. “Wild?”
His smile turned teasing. “My father left a bottle of very strong white wine. You wanted a taste. I didn’t expect my proper wife to turn into a wildcat after a few sips.” His eyes darkened with playful heat. “And I have to say… I liked it.”
Evelyn’s cheeks flushed. She tried desperately to grasp the memory, but she couldn't.
She still glanced at the bruises all over her body, confused and slightly upset.
“I don’t think I was the one who went wild,” she muttered. “Look at me.”
Roman’s smile deepened. He lifted his hand to her lips, brushing her lower lip gently.
“For you…” he said softly, eyes dark, “baby I'm always wild. So you aren't entirely wrong in that aspect.”
The directness of his words, the possessive gleam in his eye, sent a fresh wave of heat through her. She looked away, flustered, feeling timid and exposed.
‘Why do I always turn into a mute around him?’
“Ah!” she yelped as he suddenly scooped her up from the floor.
“Roman!” She instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck.
He grinned down at her. “We’re taking a shower. And,” he added, his voice seductive “if you want payback for all those marks, feel free. I won’t stop you. You can mark me all you want.”
“I’m—hiss!” Her protest turned into a sharp gasp of pain. A stinging sensation flared in her palm and her thigh.
Roman’s smile vanished. “What’s wrong?” He set her down carefully on the bed.
That’s when he saw it. A smudge of blood on the pristine white shirt. And nestled against her thigh, almost invisible, were tiny, glittering shards of glass.
“Christ, Evelyn, you’re hurt!” he said, exasperatedly.
She looked at her palm, then her thigh, bewildered. “I… I didn’t feel anything until now.”
Fuck.
He cursed silently in his mind.
‘I Forgot I broke a glass last night, and I numbed her body also.’ He hissed, extremely annoyed at his carelessness, that has cursed her to hurt.