Chapter 179

Emmeline thought he would be pleased by her confession, but his harsh words cut her to the core, making her hazel eyes well with tears she refused to shed.

She looked at him brokenly, her heart cracking at his clear displeasure. “Aren’t you happy because you are the first to touch me?” she whispered in a trembling voice. “The first to claim me as your own?”

Zavian shook his head slowly in the negative, his expression unreadable. Then he leaned down until his forehead rested against hers with the hard planes of his body brushing against her soft, feminine curves as his features softened slightly at her obvious distress.

“I’m so happy, baby,” he murmured, stroking her bare arm with his thumb.

His touch rose goosebumps on her sensitive skin, making her body shudder and her breath trembling at the overwhelming effect he had on her imagination and long-neglected desires.

“But I don’t want to believe it because then the guilt would eat me alive,” Zavian admit