Istumbled through an open doorway to my right and heaved in a gasping breath as soon as the shadows swallowed me. My chest was too tight, and I could barely draw in air. Sitting at that table with Tommaso Vitale and my cousins had been more than I could bear. I’d maintained my composure for as long as I could, but Alberto’s hand on my thigh had broken my careful poise.

Alberto, my older cousin, had always made my skin crawl. When we were children, he’d been my worst bully. As we’d matured, his bullying had turned more disturbing, and the way he looked at me when he hurt me…

My stomach lurched, and I doubled over as nausea gripped me. Blindly, I threw out a hand to support myself, and I fumbled as my fingers clutched at the spines of leather-bound books. A few tumbled to the floor, booming thuds rending holes in my tattered composure like gunshots. My hand finally clamped around a cool wooden shelf, and I managed to remain upright.

I blinked hard, forcing my lungs to expand and draw in oxygen. After an agonizing minute, my hammering heart stopped aching against my ribcage, and I managed to breathe. The shadow-draped library materialized around me, and I straightened, smoothing my dress.

I had to return to the ballroom. I’d excused myself, but I’d been gone for too long to have simply touched up my makeup in the bathroom. If I lingered, Luca might spank me again.

I couldn’t bear the humiliation. My body still burned from his mortifying touch after he’d given me the birth control shot. He’d primed my body for pleasure and then taken it away, and my core still pulsed every time his big hands brushed my body. Dancing with him had been almost unbearable, but his absence had been impossibly worse.

Not because of my cooled arousal, but because he’d thrown me to the wolves and left me to deal with them alone.

Heavy footfalls approached, stepping from the rug that lined the corridor onto the wooden floorboards of the library. I shrank deeper into the shadows and held my breath. I couldn’t let anyone see me like this. I needed another minute to force my serene mask back into place.

“Nora?”

My stomach dropped to the floor. I recognized Alberto’s drunken slur. He must’ve come looking for me and heard the books fall.

Cursing my uncharacteristic clumsiness, I tiptoed farther between the shelves, praying that he would give up and search for me elsewhere. I had to slip back into the safety of the ballroom, where my possessive new husband would ensure that my sick cousin kept his distance.