CH.50

A ghost of a smirk played across Knox's ruggedly handsome features. "Knox," he stated simply, betraying not a flicker of emotion.

Serena dragged in another deep breath through her lungs, giving voice to the question that had consumed her from the moment she first laid eyes on this devilishly good looking man. "Are you...my husband?" The tremulous words were laced with a potent mix of trepidation and breathless anticipation.

Knox shook his head slowly and deliberately, his piercing amber gaze never wavering from her face. "I am!"

Confusion clouded Serena's delicate features as a torrent of new questions flooded her mind. "Why did you marry me?" she pressed, frustration mounting at his evasive, cryptic responses as the burning, insatiable need for answers raged within her like an inferno.

His amber eyes were fixated on her, piercing into her very soul. Thy were like twin pools of liquid fire that threatened to drown her in their fathomless, smoldering depths. "Taken responsibility," Knox intoned, his deep baritone carrying a darker undercurrent that made her feel uneasy.

Serena was utterly perplexed. What could he possibly mean by taking responsibility?

"I don't understand," she admitted, confusion and frustration warring across her furrowed brow. "What kind of responsibility? What do you want from me?"

"You are here to fulfill my needs as my woman," Knox stated bluntly.

Frustration welled within Serena and a terse huff of breath escaped her fraying patience. His evasive non-answers and infuriatingly monosyllabic responses were staring to grate on her nerves.

Questions and unresolved tensions hung oppressive in the air between Serena and Knox - until the sudden shrill buzzing of his phone sliced through the suffocating silence like a knife.

Knox retrieved the phone from his pocket with casual, unhurried movements, glancing at the caller ID.

A slight furrow creased his brow before he answered with that deep, rumbling baritone. "Speak!"

“Let me go, damn it!” a shrill, feminine voice laced with irritation and a hint of childish whining that set Serena's teeth on edge from the first syllable filtered through. The shriek was audible to everyone in the vicinity.

"Babe, your incompetent goons won't let me in," she whined, her voice dripping with a sugary sweetness that made Serena's skin crawl. "I'm outside the villa right now, and they're refusing to let me pass. I even went to your office, but you weren't there. What’s going on? Are you still mad at me for last time?"

Serena watched as Knox's jaw tightened imperceptibly, the only flicker of emotion betrayed as he listened to the woman's indignant tirade.

"Behave yourself. I'll come to see you at the other villa." He spoke in a low, measured tone that brooked no argument.

The woman let out an indignant huff. "But I don't understand why you won't let me in. I want to see you, and I'm not leaving until –"

"Enough!" Knox's voice hardened to steel, cutting her off mid-sentence with a tone that allowed for no further discussion. "Go back to the villa."

A tense stillness ensued at the weight of his command.

Then finally, the woman relented with a sigh. "Fine. But you'd better make it up to me later, darling." The sugary sweetness in her tone carried an unmistakable undercurrent of intimacy.

With that, the line went dead.

Knox slipped the phone back into his pocket, his expression settling into an inscrutable mask as he turned his piercing gaze back towards Serena.

She had sat in stunned silence throughout the entire exchange, her mind whirling as she tried to process what she had just overheard.

Just who was this woman issuing demands of Knox with such familiarity and intimacy? Their exchange had dripped with far more than just casual acquaintanceship.

A pang of jealousy twisted in Serena's gut like a dull knife at the thought of her husband being involved with someone else behind her back.

And why did that woman's grating, whiny voice sound so hauntingly… so disturbingly familiar?

Serena fixed the man with a steady gaze. "Do you...have a mistress? Or a lover, perhaps?" her voice faltered slightly.

Knox regarded her for a long, stretching moment. Then, finally, he gave a slight nod. "She’s the—"

“I don’t want to know the details!” Serena cut him off. She felt her heart plummet at his stark admission and a painful ache blossomed in her chest.

She didn't want to share her husband with another woman, no matter what the circumstances or agreements might be.

Though she felt the lingering wounds from Alex's betrayal - the heartbreak, the shattered trust, the agonizing loss of the future she'd envisioned - she was willing to open herself up to this new marriage. To give it an honest chance at something real and lasting with this devilishly handsome man who had laid claim to her.

There was no denying the magnetic, primal pull she felt towards this man despite all his stoic reserve and the impenetrable walls he seemed to erect around himself.

There was an undeniable attraction that seemed to simmer just beneath the surface every time their eyes met, charging the air between them with an electric current.

He was a strikingly handsome man, his rugged features and aura of danger only amplifying his allure. The inscrutable mask he wore lent an air of mystery that piqued her curiosity in a way she couldn't fully articulate or understand.

"Can you..." Serena swallowed hard, steeling her resolve as she met Knox's intense stare head-on. "Can you give up your mistress and be a loyal husband to me?"

Knox remained utterly silent for a long, stretching moment. His expression was an impenetrable bulwark as he seemed to weigh and consider her words.

Serena held her breath, waiting for his response with desperate hope.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, ”No!” his deep voice utterly devoid of any discernible emotion.

That single syllable was like a tangible weight crushing Serena's tentative hopes under its implacable finality.

She opened her mouth to say something, but Knox swiftly raised a hand in an imperious gesture - effectively silencing her objections before they could even take form.

"Did you read the contract you signed?" he asked.

Serena felt her heart skip a beat, a tendril of icy dread unfurling in the pit of her stomach.

She had indeed signed that contract without so much as a cursory glance, too caught up in the dizzying whirlwind of events that had shaken the foundation of her life.

"N-no, I didn’t have the time," she admitted in a hushed whisper, feeling utterly numb in the wake of his words and the stark realization of her oversight. "Can I see a copy? So I can understand exactly what I've agreed to?"

Knox leveled her with an inscrutable look, his eyes glinting with an emotion that could have been cold amusement or outright disdain - she couldn't tell which.

"Too late," he stated flatly. "You had your chance to read it thoroughly. That negligence was your oversight, not mine."

Serena felt the blood draining from her face as the full gravity of his words slammed into her like a physical blow. What twisted, nefarious agreement had she so recklessly bound herself to with this man? Just what fresh hell had she stumbled into?

"Then tell me… Tell me what's so important in that contract that you can't even remain faithful to your own wife." she pleaded with a desperate urgency born of confusion and fear.