Valentina’s Paradise

One day, her ex-fiance, Aethelred, suddenly popped up in front of her. He had grown from a snot-nosed young noble boy to a lanky tall young gentleman. “…Fiance? What are you talking about? It’s been 6 years we broke off our engagement.” “What… do you mean? When did we break off our engagement?” Unbeknownst to him that he had been broken off for engagement, her ex-fiance carried a letter ordering for him to be spirited away. The complication was that the sender of the letter was none other than Duke Edgar, the man who will become Valentina’s husband. The even more complication was that a sly ex-fiance had no intentions of letting her go… *** “How about this question? After the two of you had completed the secret wedding vows that day… did the two of you have an official first night of marriage ceremony in front of witnesses” Valentina’s brain went blank. But Valentina knew better than anyone what he was trying to get her to acquiesce to. After gritting her teeth and slapping his face, Aethelred whispered in a mocking tone. “Ah, really… So the two of you never took the proper channels of being a legitimate couple.” His pitch-black eyes, glowing with ungovernable, unfamiliar excitement and heat,