Chapter 1

I pushed a signed divorce agreement and a photo of a shirtless man across the table to Daniel White.

"Is it that I can't satisfy you?" He adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, his voice as cold and calm as ever. "Or are you not happy with yourself?"

I thought he hadn't understood me.

I pointed at the toy boy in the photo, the one I had stripped bare, and gritted my teeth as I reminded him. "Daniel, I cheated on you. So let's get a divorce."

He finally lifted his gaze. Those eyes that had always been distant and indifferent now looked impossibly deep.

He smiled slowly and deliberately, then tore the divorce agreement into tiny pieces.

With a sharp click, he locked the study door from the inside.

*****

The cologne scent in the study suddenly turned oppressive.

Daniel White stood up, his six-foot-two frame radiating an intense sense of dominance. He walked toward me, step by step.

His white shirt was still buttoned all the way to the top, every button perfectly fastened.

But the gaze behind the gold-rimmed glasses no longer belonged to the cold, restrained professor, Daniel. Now, it was the gaze of a predator sizing up its prey.

Damn, this wasn't how the script's supposed to go. Shouldn't he be shocked, pissed off, and sign the papers and walk out to protect his pathetic pride?

I automatically backed away, my back hitting the cold bookshelf.

"Audrey?" He lingered over my name, savoring it like it was a rare delicacy between his lips. "How far did you go with him?"

His fingertips, cold as ice, brushed against my cheek.

A shiver ran down my spine. I tried to act calm, but my voice came out shaky. "We did everything you can imagine and even things we probably shouldn't. He's so much better than you, in every possible way..."

But I didn't get to finish.

Daniel's finger pressed gently against my lips. His touch was soft, but his eyes were cold as ice. "Is that so?"

He picked up the photo and held it under the lamp, studying it as if he were analyzing a research paper. "The photo was taken from a low angle, which means the photographer was in a submissive position.

"The light is coming from the floor-to-ceiling windows behind you, so it must've been shot between three and four in the afternoon, the time you love basking in the sunlight.

"The man in the photo has taut muscles, and his expression is more anxious than pleased. Especially the tension in his trapezius, he's clearly on guard, extremely uneasy."

With every word he spoke, my heart grew colder. Shit, I forgot for a second he was a total psycho who specialized in behavioral psychology.

Daniel tossed the photo aside, and behind those glasses, his eyes flashed with a dark, unfathomable glint I couldn't decipher. "So, Audrey?

"Are you seriously trying to tell me, with this pathetic excuse for a photo, that you'd rather be with some loser like him than with me?"

He grabbed my phone and slipped it into a locked drawer without hesitation.

"Divorce?" He leaned in, his warm breath brushing against my ear. "Alright. But first, let me personally show you how badly I let you down."

He swept me up into his arms, holding me bridal style.

As everything spun around me, I caught that smile at the corner of his mouth, gentlemanly on the surface, but wild and a little crazy underneath.

Oh god, this mad guy was way too convincing. I wanted a divorce, not to get caught up in something this insane.

Daniel threw me onto the large bed. The mattress was soft. But it felt like a hunter's net, ready to trap me.

Daniel didn't pounce on me immediately. He took his time unbuttoning his cuffs, then rolled up his sleeves, exposing a section of his pale forearm.

His skin was delicate, the blue veins standing out clearly, giving him a kind of cold, restrained allure that felt almost untouchable.

God, after three years of marriage, this was as undressed as Daniel ever got.

What could I even expect from a man who wore pajamas all the way to bed, with his buttons fastened up to his collarbone?

Grumbling in my head, I still couldn't resist snapping back at him. "What? Are you planning to hit me? Professor White, so you know, hitting people is illegal."

He ignored me and pulled open the nightstand drawer. He took out an alcohol pad and a sealed metal box.

With my eyes full of confusion and suspicion, I watched as he meticulously cleaned each finger with the alcohol pad, one by one.

He looked for all the world like a surgeon about to perform some high-stakes operation.

Daniel's tone was like a professor giving a lesson. "Audrey, do you know how many sensitive spots there are on the human body?

"There are three hundred and sixty-one acupoints. Each one reacts differently, depending on how you touch it."

Come on, could Daniel not talk about this weird stuff like he was teaching a class?

I swallowed nervously, feeling like things were hurtling way beyond anything I could predict. "W-What are you trying to do?"

Finally, he finished cleaning his hands and popped open the metal box. Inside, it wasn't the scalpel I'd braced myself for. Instead, it was a delicate silver chain, shimmering with an icy gleam.

"Don't be afraid." Daniel walked over, letting the chain dangle from his fingers. "It's a little punishment for trying to fool me with such a lame lie."

The icy touch of the metal crept up from my ankle, making my whole body jolt. I instinctively jerked my foot back. But he caught it without even trying.

His grip was way stronger than I expected. He slowly wound the chain around my ankle, loop by loop, not rushing at all. Then he fastened the other end to the ornate bedpost at the head of the bed.

"Daniel, you sick pervert. Let me go." I kept struggling, making the chain rattle noisily with every desperate move.

"Pervert?" Daniel scoffed and leaned in, his warm breath ghosting over my ankle, sending a shiver up my spine. "Soon enough, you'll see what a real pervert looks like."

Just then, his phone started ringing.

Daniel glanced at the caller ID. It was Milo Torres, the toy boy from those scandalous photos, the guy he thought I was having an affair with.

Daniel tapped 'answer' and switched it to speaker, making sure I could see everything.

"Hey, Audrey, are you alright? Your husband didn't mess with you, did he?" Milo's anxious voice crackled through the speaker.

Daniel spoke into the phone, his voice calm and almost icy, like always. "She's busy right now. She's in the middle of her punishment."

As he spoke, he ran his fingers lightly up my calf, slowly moving higher.

My whole body went rigid. My cry for help stuck in my throat, coming out as nothing but a strangled gasp.