No Divorce? The Billionaire's Love Chase! novel Chapter 53

At York's sudden question, Claudia's hands froze.

After a brief silence, she answered in an unnaturally calm voice, "I want to make way for your happy little family."

York stared at her for a few seconds before speaking. "Claudia, you can believe whatever you want, but let me remind you of one thing: whether we get a divorce or not is not up to you."

Claudia let out a noncommittal "hmm" and continued to help him out of his suit jacket.

She still owed him a billion dollars. As he'd said, he was a businessman, and he never made a losing deal. If she couldn't pay him back, he certainly wouldn't let her leave so easily.

A tense, suffocating silence filled the room. Their faces were set in identical, grim masks.

York sat on the edge of the bed, his face dark and his eyes downcast, making it impossible to guess his true thoughts.

Claudia stared at the whip marks on his back, her brow furrowing involuntarily.

The first time he had taken a beating for her was when he had insisted on honoring their marriage contract. The Ferguson elders had looked down on her, the daughter of a fallen family, believing she could offer nothing to his career and would only hold him back. They weren't wrong; all their fears had come to pass in the three years of their marriage.

Looking back now, she realized York had likely married her partly out of defiance. Old Mr. Ferguson had despised Ann's ordinary background and broken them up, so York had deliberately chosen to marry a bankrupt heiress just to oppose his grandfather.

The more she thought about it, the more her heart ached and her anger grew. The pressure of her hand as she applied medicine to his wounds unconsciously increased.

York flinched from the pain, letting out a sharp hiss. Only then did Claudia realize she had been pressing too hard.

A few minutes later, she stumbled out of the bathroom, clutching a towel around her. She rushed to the bed and grabbed York's arm, desperately trying to suppress the heat rising within her. "Get up. Take me to the hospital."

If her guess was correct, the soup had been laced with a potent aphrodisiac.

Before she could finish, York pulled her into his arms. By the time she realized what was happening, he had her pinned beneath him.

Feeling the searing heat of his body, Claudia's breathing grew ragged. Her vision swam as she looked at him. "Calm down. They put something in the soup we just had."

York propped himself up on his hands, his crimson eyes, ravaged by lust, staring down at her with terrifying intensity. "Claudia, don't run from me."

The dim, yellow light of the bedroom cast a hazy, intimate glow over them. Claudia's long hair fanned out across the pillow. Under the effects of the drug, she looked flushed and sexy, a heart-stoppingly beautiful sight.