Arranged
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1. ARRANGED by R.K. Lilley
SYNOPSIS
There were rules in the cash-for-beauty game. The money held power. The beauty followed the rules and jumped through the hoops.
The Bride
I knew what everyone would think if they knew the truth about my marriage. They'd be shocked and appalled. And rightly so. I was a young, modern, independent woman, and I'd done the unthinkable. I'd sold my virginity to a spoiled, rich boy. To a stranger who didn’t love me. And yes, I'd done it all for money.
The Groom
My bride was as gorgeous as she was unwelcome. As desirable as she was unwanted. I wanted nothing to do with her, but that didn’t seem to matter exactly the second she got close enough to touch. I wanted her to hate me more than she loved the millions she’d sold herself for. I wanted to spurn her, but unfortunately, I wanted to fuck her more.
BOOK REVIEW
R.K. Lilley delivered an angsty world of deception and superficialities where money rules over everything, even the matters of the heart, while raw emotions and pure feelings struggle but fight back with all they have. The starting point of the whole story was the purchase of a lonely girl’s virginity, not without her willingness and legal consent though (which questions and undermines existing societal norms and principles), by a privileged family with an unbelievable fortune but fucked-up ties within. And this is how the mechanism was set to motion.
My body didn't belong to me anymore. It was his. He'd staked his claim... As if that wasn't enough, he'd marked me. Little love bites on my breasts, hickeys on my neck. On the insides of my thighs were small, fresh bruises shaped like his thumbs. And in my chest, were small, fresh bruises from his careless ways.
Noura was well aware of the fact that selling her virginity to a rich complete stranger was scandalous but agreed to hand herself over to him in order to have the security (financial on the surface but more like emotional, some sense of belonging, in the core) she was desperately looking for. After the deal was sealed, Calder Banks Castelo owned her entirety but refused to treat her with respect, being disgusted by the whole arrangement.
“He hated me on principle, and he fascinated me in spite of myself.”
Calder hated his father for putting him into the position of marrying a woman for all the wrong reasons. Plus, he despised gold diggers (which was understandable given that he was painfully burnt by a woman he had handed his hopeful heart to once). He wanted to make Noura’s life miserable as a punishment for her supposed wrongdoings but then he got a taste of her and in an instant a war inside of Calder outbroke with full force. He wanted nothing more than to despise his gorgeous model wife but it turned out he craved her more than he hated her.
“In love there’s no free will. That’s how I know it’s real. I couldn’t stop it and I can’t deny it. This is it for me.”
The relationship between the main characters was a cat and mouse play with unforgiving sexual tension, a bloody battle of hearts and wills. Jealousy, cunningness, determination, passion, pride and prejudice, love and hate.
The story might not be the most unique and mind-blowing one out there, but it was an entertaining read, nonetheless.