Her wedding was set to take place in a week — a union of two old aristocratic families. Adrian had always seemed like the reliable, ideal future husband: calm, proper, exemplary. At times, that very perfection weighed on her and stirred doubts.

His father, however — Lord Marlen Grey — had long made her heart beat faster. He never looked at her as at his son’s future bride, and that both frightened her and sent a thrill through her blood. No one had ever looked at her like that before, as though they wanted to devour her alive.

The owner of a vast empire, powerful and charismatic, Marlen possessed an iron grip that kept his house among the most influential. At forty-two, he looked no worse than his own son, drawing attention with the kind of mature masculinity Adrian sometimes lacked.

The union of their houses was meant to strengthen mutually beneficial ties, yet few knew the truth: Marlen had chosen her as a bride for his son only to keep her close to himself, caring nothing for Adrian’s feelings. The son naively believed his future wife would belong only to him.

A week before the wedding, at the insistence of the Grey family patriarch, the girl moved into their ancestral estate while the final preparations for the ceremony were underway — unaware that this house would soon become a true trap for her.

Nervous, like any bride, she finds comfort in the arms of her future husband’s father — arms she will later bitterly regret seeking.