Aquarius

The first time I hear the screams, the city lights are still glittering on Hugo Alexander’s glass tower.

Twelve men. One virgin queen promised to another. I was sold into an arranged fate long before Hugo ever said my name—yet he’s the first man in this kingdom who looks at my hands instead of my body.

Hugo is a philanthropist with ink on his cuffs and children’s drawings pinned above his desk, a savior of lost kids no one else will touch. He doesn’t offer to buy me. He offers me work: design a gown for his foundation’s charity auction and, in return, he’ll give me something I’ve almost forgotten how to want—respect, space, the illusion of choice.

Daylight in his penthouse smells like coffee and fresh fabric, the quiet comfort of two people learning each other’s edges. But after dark, the walls shudder with distant cries and breaking glass, and I realize the gentlest man in this house lives with nightmares that never learned how to sleep.

I can’t judge him. I move through his corridors with my own mouth sewn shut by loyalty. The man I truly love isn’t buried like they all believe; he’s submerged in the city’s underbelly, chasing answers that could get him killed. One careless word from me, one loose thread, and the hunters would find him.

Then a single night tears the careful distance apart—an abrupt reunion, one sacred rule shattered, a secret taking root beneath my heart. I’m no longer just guarding my freedom or his life. I’m hiding the most dangerous miracle I’ve ever carried.

If this truth gets out, it won’t just break a crown. It will burn the whole zodiac.

Aquarius is Part 11 of The Zodiac Queen, a dark, explicit romance for mature readers. Reader discretion is advised.