Page 42 of Wrong Marriage. Right Groom
Instead, I forced my breathing to steady, pressing my lips together for a brief moment before speaking.
“I... apologize,” I said quietly, my voice more controlled now, though still softer than usual. “I wasn’t expecting—”
I stopped myself.
That wasn’t entirely true.
I was always expecting it.
“I startle easily,” I corrected, lifting my chin just slightly—not in defiance, but in quiet self-preservation. “It won’t happen again.”
A lie.
Because reactions like that didn’t disappear on command.
They were carved into the body.
And no amount of composure could fully erase them.
I shifted my grip on my cane, grounding myself again.
“If you could... tell me where the chair is,” I added, more carefully this time, “I’ll manage.”
I didn’t want his hand on me.
Not when my body still remembered too much.
Not when his presence alone already felt like something I didn’t fully understand.
Rafael Pérez didn’t answer. He didn’t even retreat an inch.
If anything, he remained exactly where he was—close enough that I could feel the subtle shift of air around him every time he breathed.
His presence pressed against my senses, inescapable in a way sight had never been for me.
Even the faint rustle of his suit told a story—tailored, precise.
He was studying me.
I didn’t need eyes to know that.
I felt it in the way the room seemed to narrow around us, as though everything else had fallen away, leaving only his attention fixed squarely on me.
Then, at last, he shifted.
A chair scraped softly against the floor as he pulled it nearer.
“Sit here,” he said, his voice carrying a quiet authority that didn’t need volume to command obedience.
“Thank you,” I murmured.
My cane tapped lightly ahead of me, confirming the space before I turned and lowered myself into the chair.
The leather was cool beneath my hands, soft but structured, the kind of quality you didn’t have to see to recognize.
I adjusted slowly, placing my cane across my lap, my fingers curling around it instinctively.
Something to hold onto in a room that felt far too controlled by someone else.
