Chapter 216\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ellie POV\u00a0<\/p>\n
+25 Bonus\u00a0<\/p>\n
The night was blurring together. I\u2019d walked away from Nol, but I couldn\u2019t even tell how long ago. The party was going well into the night and showed no signs of stopping\u00a0<\/p>\n
Laughter, music, the smell of roasted food and wine-it all felt far away now. The world had softened into something dreamlike, golden and slow, as Nolan\u2019s hand found mine and pulled me gently back into the dance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I hadn\u2019t meant to say yes again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But then I\u2019d looked at him- really looked and the refusal had dissolved on my tongue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t belong in a setting like this. Nolan was all sharp edges and restraint, forged from a lifetime of control and command. Yet here, surrounded by firelight and laughter, he looked almost vulnerable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The stiff lines of his posture had eased a little. The hand at my waist trembled slightly, betraying nerves I\u2019d never thought he possessed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And his eyes-gods, his eyes\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2013\u00a0<\/p>\n
were fixed entirely on me\u00a0<\/p>\n
The music slowed to something softer. Voices faded into murmurs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I swallowed hard, trying to keep my breathing steady. I felt like I was under his spell, the way I had all those years ago when we\u2019d first met.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The mate pull was stronger than it had been in years \u2013 alive and insistent, a magnetic hum beneath my skin. Every shift of his hand, every inhale he took, I felt as if it were happening inside my own body.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It buzzed beneath my skin and made me want to hold him closer, to let it seep into my bones.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was maddening.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEllie,\u201d he murmured, his voice low enough that only I could hear it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My heart skipped. \u201cWhat?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you all right? You look\u2026 distant.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I forced a faint smile. \u201cI\u2019m fine. Just tired.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t a lie \u2013 but it wasn\u2019t the truth either.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The truth was that my entire body felt like it was betraying me. My pulse thrummed wherever he touched me. The warmth of his hand through the thin fabric of my dress made my skin ache with awareness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I remembered, vividly, how I\u2019d once begged for moments like this. The memories just kept coming back with startling clarity. It made my heart ache, and my stomach turn to remember how desperately, how pathetically, I\u2019d longed for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the early days of our marriage, I\u2019d been so needy for his attention that I\u2019d trained herself to take crumbs as blessings. A glance, a fleeting smile, a polite touch at a pack gathering \u2013 I\u2019d cherished them all, pretending they meant something more.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Nolan had been untouchable then.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019d kept me at arm\u2019s length, always polite, always distant Every time I\u2019d tried to bridge the gap between us, he\u2019d pulled away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And now here he was, holding me like I was something fragile.\u00a0<\/p>\n
11\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 216\u00a0<\/p>\n
+25 Bonus\u00a0<\/p>\n
My throat tightened.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This was old news, a familiar anxiety spiral. I\u2019d gone over all of this in my head a thousand times. But I still couldn\u2019t stop.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I felt like I had no idea who I was anymore. Was this the real me? Or was that frightened, desperate rogue the real version? Did that person I was back then even exist anymore?\u00a0<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t feel like it. That all felt like a different lifetime. How could I be certain that what I was feeling with Nolan now was genuine and that he wouldn\u2019t revert back to the cold, unfeeling man he\u2019d once been?\u00a0<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t stop the thoughts from spinning out of control.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t realize I\u2019d gone still until he spoke again. \u201cEllie?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I looked up at him. \u201cI was just remembering something.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He studied my face carefully, his stormy eyes fixed on mine \u201cGood or bad?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth,\u201d I said softly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His hand tensed at my waist, but he didn\u2019t speak.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you remember the first time we were invited to the royal gala?\u201d I asked suddenly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He frowned slightly, nodding. \u201cOf course.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI waited all night for you to dance with me,\u201d I said: \u201cYou didn\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He blinked. \u201cYou never asked.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI shouldn\u2019t have had to,\u201d I said quietly. \u201cYou were my husband.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The words hung between us, sharp and delicate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nolan\u2019s expression shifted \u2013 a flicker of something raw breaking through the composure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re right,\u201d he said finally. \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t have.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I bit my lip, the memories pressing in from all sides. \u201cI used to watch you from across the room and wonder what I\u2019d done wrong. I thought if I tried harder, if I was better quieter, prettier, anything \u2013 you\u2019d see me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Cold Marriage That Turned Warm 216 Chapter 216\u00a0 Ellie POV\u00a0 +25 Bonus\u00a0 The night was blurring together. I\u2019d walked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-unremembered-mate-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}