SCORNED EX WIFE Queen Of Ashes (Camille and Stefan)

Chapter 186

Chapter 186

The Italian sun beat down like judgment from above, turning their clifftop villa into a white-hot crucible. Sweat beaded on flesh, sheets soaked through, salt crystallizing on skin as bodies moved together in urgent rhythm. Camille's nails raked down Alexander's back, drawing blood he barely felt. Her legs locked around his waist like a vise as he drove into her with punishing force.

This wasn't lovemaking. It was exorcism.

Camille's cry echoed off stone walls as she arched beneath him. Her eyes flew open, pupils blown wide, meeting his gaze with naked vulnerability that flayed him alive. For one blinding moment, there was only this, her body taking his, her trust complete, her surrender absolute.

Then the moment shattered, and the demons rushed back in.

Alexander collapsed beside her, chest heaving. Five days in Amalfi had burned away pretense. Here, they devoured each other hourly, moved together like animals, slept tangled in sweat-soaked sheets. The physical intensity should have purged his mind. Instead, it only heightened his torment.

"Jesus," Camille whispered, voice raw. "You're trying to kill me."

Her casual words stabbed through him. Kill. Death. Uncle Richard swinging from a beam, face purple, because Victoria Kane had systematically destroyed everything he built.

Alexander rolled away, sitting up with his back to her. Scratches stung across his shoulders, physical pain that couldn't begin to touch the war raging inside him.

"Where are you going?" Camille's hand reached for him.

"Water," he managed, voice strangled.

In the bathroom, he braced himself against cold marble, staring at a stranger's reflection. Wild-eyed, hollow-cheeked, skin marked with evidence of Camille's passion. Not the face of a newlywed in paradise. The face of a man possessed. His phone vibrated on the counter. Another message from Victoria: *Latest scans show tumors shrinking faster than expected. Doctors calling it remarkable progress. Miracle recovery possible. Miss you both. Call when you can.*

Alexander's fist slammed into the mirror, shattering his reflection into jagged pieces. Blood welled from split knuckles as he staggered back, vision blurring. The fucking injustice of it burned like acid. Victoria fighting her way back from certain death, while his uncle had been given no chance, no reprieve, no mercy.

"Alex!" Camille appeared in the doorway, naked and alarmed. "Jesus, what happened?"

He clutched a towel to his bleeding hand. "Slipped. It's nothing."

She pushed past him, grabbing his wrist, unwrapping the already blood-soaked towel. "This isn't nothing. You need stitches."

"I said it's fine." He jerked away, immediately regretting his harshness when hurt flashed across her face.

"Talk to me," she pleaded, reaching for him again. "Something's been eating you alive since we got here. Whatever it is..."

"Drop it, Camille." His voice cut like the glass scattered across the tiles. "I mean it."

The silence between them stretched taut as a noose. Camille's expression hardened into something he recognized from her Kane training, assessment, calculation, strategy. Victoria's protégée surfacing from beneath the passionate woman he'd been fucking moments earlier.

"Get dressed," she said finally, voice cool. "I'll call the front desk about a doctor."

*** **

The local doctor spoke limited English, grimacing as he picked glass from Alexander's knuckles. Twelve stitches later, they sat in strained silence on the terrace, lunch untouched between them. The view mocked them, turquoise water sparkling beneath a perfect sky, lemon groves cascading down terraced hills, postcard beauty surrounding private hell.

"I found something in your suitcase yesterday," Camille said suddenly, eyes fixed on the horizon. "While looking for bandages."

stomach plummeted. The

looks remarkably like you." She turned to face him, expression unreadable. "Who

not the intimate shortening she used in their most private

hand, searching for words that revealed nothing while satisfying her curiosity. The war

important," he said finally, tone flat with finality. "Just things I didn't realize

carrying meaningless items that just happen to be carefully preserved? That just happen

word emerged like

thought she would push further. The strategist Victoria had trained assessed him, seeking weaknesses, calculating angles of

you promised to share your life with me, not just your

suffocating. Before he could respond, her phone chimed. Camille glanced at the screen,

Victoria," she said, already answering. "Victoria?

locked as he watched Camille's face transform, worry to relief to joy. Whatever news Victoria shared lifted the shadows from her eyes, brought color rushing back to her cheeks.

exclaimed. "The tumors are shrinking that fast? Oh my god,

chair scraping stone. He couldn't bear to hear more, couldn't stomach witnessing Camille's relief at the recovery of the woman who had crushed his family

called, covering the phone. "Victoria wants to talk to

to grab the phone, to scream the truth at Victoria, to tell her he knew exactly what she'd done to Richard Pierce. Instead,

to change this," he managed, lifting his damaged hand. "Tell

in time to vomit violently into the toilet. His body heaved until nothing remained but bitter

*** **

them in a restaurant carved into the

of feet

bare, hair swept up to reveal the elegant line of her neck. The diamond phoenix necklace Victoria had

she said, breaking the strained silence between them. "Three months ago they gave her months to live.

stared into his wineglass, searching for answers

little more convincing." Camille's voice held an edge. "She's my mother in every way that matters, Alex.

she was a destroyer dressed in savior's clothing, a wolf in grandmother's nightgown, lips still red from her last

he said, forcing softness into his voice. "I'm happy for you. For

hand. "Talk to me. Please. Whatever's happening with

Victoria systematically shredded his company, his reputation, his will to

their marriage days after it began. Destroy the happiness finally blooming in Camille after years of pain. Force her to choose between her husband and the woman who had saved her when she had nothing

nothing you can fix," he said finally. "Just

between them. Camille's fingers withdrew from

you want." The words

waiter arrived with their main course, murmuring in Italian as he arranged dishes neither of them now had any appetite for. Camille picked at

barely audible. "I've told you everything about me. My pain. My fears. My nightmares. And somehow, you can't give me even a glimpse of whatever's tearing you

gut, but he remained silent. What could he possibly say? That he'd married her while plotting against the only mother figure she'd ever

she placed her

unspoken words. Stars wheeled overhead, indifferent to human suffering. The cliffside path stretched before them, beauty and danger side by side, one misstep could send them

like his current situation,

*** **

moment alone with his torment, He removed his jacket, wincing as the movement pulled at his stitches. From

staring

brown at the edges.