Love at First Novel by Gu Lingfei

Kathryn looked up at Pedro. "I want to touch your face," she said.

Pedro's expression was tense, his features hardened with anger. But after a moment, he leaned down, letting her reach him easily.

She ran her fingers across his face. "Your face is as hard as marble. So handsome, yet so rigid. I don't like seeing you like this. I prefer when you're gentle, like jade."

Pedro's voice was low and firm. "Miss, I'm not gentle like jade."

Years of brutal training at the base had shaped him into a hardened soldier. Gentleness was not in his nature.

Yet, when he was in a good mood, his sharp edges softened.

To her, he was always handsome, always polite. To her, he was gentle like jade.

And as she spoke, the tension in his face eased.

don't be angry," Kathryn said, her tone light. "Look at me I'm fine. I still have both my legs, my arms, and my head. They didn't chop me up and feed me to the fish. I knew their timing. I let them scratch my arm, nothing more. They were first-time killers, inexperienced and mentally weak. They panicked and only managed to scratch

mischievously. "Of

had

Neither had she.

and feed you to the fish!" His voice was cold and sharp. "If it weren't for

ways to make sure those three brothers never left prison. But Kathryn didn't

gave him a reassuring

My plan worked perfectly. I won't worry about them anymore.

own company. I want to move out of Jensburg. Aside

thought 'd die from the cold. When I was little, no one bought me warm clothes. I had to wear secondhand rags, and I nearly froze to death every winter. I survived over twenty brutal winters by luck alone."

her to wash the family's clothes

to haul water from the well to scrub the

her hands with pain every time she dipped