I wrinkled my nose. “I could come up with way better intentions than that.”
Lucian closed the distance between us, his fingers grazing the strands of hair around my neck. “Something you should know about me, pet, is I don’t bend or break. You can write the lines, or you can sit here until you do. Those are your options, and your defiance won’t change it. Is it worth your discomfort to prove a point that means nothing to me?”
I looked up at him, a maneuver that forced me to acknowledge his dominance over me. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because you misbehaved, and it needs to be corrected.”
“No.” I closed my eyes and blew out a breath. “I mean why are you acting like you’re my father or something.”
“You don’t have a father.” The heat of his hand disappeared from my neck, and when I met his eyes again, they seemed almost black.
“Everyone has a father,” I answered.
He shifted away from me. “In your case, he was merely a sperm donor.”
A rush of heat exploded into my chest as I slammed my hand down on the desk. “Don’t pretend to know me or my life.”
“I do know your life, and I won’t pretend otherwise, pet. It would be of no benefit for me to lie to you.”
“Yet I know nothing about you,” I shot back. “How is that fair?”
He stuffed his hands into his pockets and examined me with wary eyes. “What do you want to know?”
It felt like a trick question, so I proceeded carefully. “Why do you defend… people you think are innocent?”
“Because someone once defended me when I needed it,” he answered darkly.
“You were in prison?”
“Yes.”
A blanket of ice wrapped around me as my mind went wild trying to imagine what had happened. I wanted to ask more. I wanted answers desperately, but since I’d opened that can of worms, his whole demeanor had turned to steel. His eyes were arctic, and at that moment, his formidability scared me. I was too afraid to push him for the answers I needed.
“Anything else?” he asked.
“No,” I whispered.
He left the room and took my wits with him. I picked up the pencil and wrote one hundred lines.
Nice and neat.
SHE WAS QUIET WHENI finally took her to bed, and after the day’s events, I expected more of a fight when I nestled her against my body. But there wasn’t a fight to be had. And even though I knew I shouldn’t, I breathed her in. She still smelled of coconut oil and sunshine. Paradise, if there was such a place. It was ironic, considering she had been forged in the depths of hell.
My lips were inches from the vulnerable skin of her throat, and my dick was relentless. It had been since her arrival into my home and my life, and time had not calmed that. Constant fatigue was a close companion of mine, and I considered that eventually, the tension would wear off and my fading health would replace the growing need inside me.
I could only hope that was the case. We weren’t a week outside of our marriage yet, and already I wanted to break my vow that I wouldn’t take her. That was never part of the plan, and logically, I knew it wouldn’t help her. But logic wasn’t a factor when I pulled her closer and allowed her to feel the heat of my cock pressed against her ass.
She stopped breathing for a second, and I did too. I didn’t know why I was tempting my resolve when I was so tired, and she was soft and pliable against me. But when her lungs filled with air again and her beating heart calmed, she didn’t move.
Neither did I.
“YOU CAN PICK ONE DRESSfrom your closet to wear today.”
I swung my gaze to the bathroom door, where Lucian was already dressed in a black three-piece suit. He looked sharp. Tall, powerful, and devilishly handsome. My cheeks heated when I thought about the night before and his cock pressed against me. His warmth wrapped around me. I hated that I didn’t pull away, and even more so that I didn’t want to.
“Thank you,” I answered.
He told me what he’d come to say, but he didn’t leave. Instead, he lingered for another minute, his eyes on my body. I was still wrapped in a towel, and even though he’d seen most of me already, I felt exposed. Nervous. But something else too.