Page 48 of Bound Bride
This is heaven.
I never want to leave.
"Alright honey, do you want to get dressed before I move onto your legs?" the masseuse asks.
I nod and groan as I prop myself up and grab my bra from the stool nearby. "Oh my god," I murmur. "I've never felt looser."
"It's amazing, isn't it?" the masseuse replies. "You're signed in under Belyaev, aren't you?"
I glance at her and nod while slipping into my t-shirt. "Is that a problem?"
"Not at all. The Belyaev account is extremely lucrative. I was just thinking that it might be worth booking you in for a regular session until you're knot fre?—"
She stops abruptly as a voice rises up from outside the door and my blood runs cold.
"Isn't that funny?" booms Mathew's voice. "It'ssofunny that my sister's ended up at the same spa as me!"
"Sir—" Calvin tries but he's cut off.
"Is she in here?"
"Sir!"
The door barges open a moment later and Mathew sweeps in like a hurricane. "Rose! So fucking glad to see you! Could you give us a minute?"
As Calvin surges forward to grab Mathew, Mathew grabs the Belyaev masseuse by the arm and all but throws her into Calvin's hold instead, forcing him to stumble backward.
As they fall, Mathew slams the door shut and locks it, then he turns to me.
A single second passes where he just stares at me with white-hot anger burning in his eyes like an inferno.
Then he moves.
With speed like the lash of a whip, he tackles me with a growl and slams me into the opposite wall with one hand around my neck and the other grabbing my wrist.
"My baby brother," he hisses at me. "My fucking baby brother Daniil is dead. My little brother, do you understand? Your fucking monster of a husband killed my baby brother!"
I can't breathe. His hand locks around my throat like a familiar collar as my heart bursts to life like a frantic rabbit.
I claw at his forearm with my free hand and he lifts me away from the wall only to slam me back into it.
The force knocks my teeth together and I choke.
"This was supposed to be easy, you fucking little cunt. Instead, my baby brother is in the fucking ground because of you!"
Before I can even process everything, he drags me from the wall and punches me so hard in the gut that the force sends bile up the back of my throat, where it catches on the pressure of his hand. Then he throws me forward and I collide with the fountain.
"Mathew, wait—" I croak out as I drag in a breath.
He doesn't wait.
He grabs me by the air and plunges my head into the water while pressing his body up against me and holding me under with both hands.
Cold water closes over the top of my head, and the bubbling motor vibrates painfully close to my ear.
I can't breathe.
Panic surges through me, colliding with my racing heart and every muscle turns rigid.
