Seventy five

Zane's POV

I cursed under my breath as we broke the kiss. I let her take a while to arrange her silk gown. I moved a bit from her as my mind played over what happened the night before.

Belle couldn’t sleep all night; I could tell from the way she kept shifting in bed, her body tense beneath the silk sheets. I lay beside her, watching her.

I thought back to earlier that night when I walked into the Perri mansion, my mind filled with chaos, only to be confronted by an entirely different reality. I remember the way Belle’s mother was yelling, her voice shrill with rage, but none of that mattered the second I saw Belle.

She stood there, so fragile and strong all at once, and without thinking, I crossed the room and pulled her into my arms. Her soft, warm body pressed against mine, grounding me in the middle of the madness. She was everything. The only thing that made sense. The world could be burning down around us, and I wouldn’t care, as long as I had her.

Belle’s mother, however, didn