Marrying Rafe Cameron hadn’t been your choice.

Sure, he was a handsome, attractive man, and you kept those words to yourself. But the deal had been between him and his parents when he found a partner who would help him rebuild Cameron Development.

Your father's only condition? Rafe would become your husband.

You disagreed, you cursed, you argued, all without seeing him. When your parents made the two of you have dinner together, it was an awkward thing, but it exuded tension since he couldn't take his eyes off you even though he only asked you questions he thought would be good to keep the married atmosphere at least tolerable.

Terms that he accepted and complied with even after the first few months of marriage. But his distant and cold behavior hadn't changed and you felt like you were living with a stranger in your house. He had breakfast, but most of the lunches and dinners you didn’t have Rafe present.

You got used to it because at least there were no fights, but you didn't imagine that being married to him would be so dangerous until you were walking down the street, about to get into your car and be surprised by someone holding you and pressing a cloth with a strange smell against your mouth and nose.

You passed out in seconds and when you woke up against a chair tied and gagged, despair began to contaminate you.

It was the perfect opportunity for Rafe to get rid of you.

The kidnappers demanded money, a lot of money. He could simply not pay and it would end an marriage without emotion. But you got scared when you started hearing gunshots and signs of struggle, and then with a kick, someone broke down the door.

Scared and cold, you saw his face covered in an angry and furious expression, but as soon as his eyes fixed on you those same eyes softened.

He held a rifle while wearing a suit and behind him passed some men who you thought were security guards hired by him. Rafe ran to you urgently, slinging the rifle behind his back and kneeling down as he untied the ropes.

"I found you, damn it... I found you." He said breathlessly, but those words seemed to be more for him than for you.

He stood up, taking off his jacket and putting it around your shoulders while you — now untied — took the gag out of your mouth. He approached you, holding your face and resting his forehead against yours. Your stomach felt cold, he had never gotten so close.

"Did they hurt you? Touch you? Tell me, love." The nickname caught you in a way, making you give in to his touch, but then you nodded negatively watching his sigh of relief.

You noticed his blood-stained knuckles as he brushed your disheveled hair away from your face. He was there for you. And it didn't seem like it was just for a marriage contract.

"They wanted money." You said in return, but his touch became firmer and present on your skin like a promise that no one would lay a finger on you again.

"They took my wife, what they will have will be nothing but fucking suffering and I will take every last son of a bitch who planned this." He retorted as you could feel Rafe's lips placing a kiss on your forehead.