I bought her for the winter.
Three rules. Work honest. Steal nothing. No harm comes to her under my roof. That was the only promise I ever made. She was supposed to be labor. Hands for the sacks.
A body to fill the empty hours of a bound demon who had stopped wanting anything. Then the merchants offered her a warmer town, coin, a life that wasn’t flour and cold and me.
She looked at the road… and stayed.
Now every cart that rolls into my yard makes the leash in my chest tighten. I mend her boots in secret. I leave cloaks outside her door.
I watch her sleep like the mill itself might try to take her from me.
She chose the cage. She doesn’t understand yet what that means to a creature who was never allowed to keep anything. I do.
Read on for a bought bride, a demon bound to his mill, forced proximity that turns into obsession, and a monster who will burn the valley before he lets her go. HEA Guaranteed!
