"Alphahole?" I blink.
Her cheeks redden. "Just a slip of the tongue, is all."
"I like it."
She rolls her eyes. "Of course, you’d take it as a compliment."
I lean further back in my chair. "Keep them coming."
"That’s it. That’s all you’re getting out of me." She pretends to zip her lips. "Also, you’re the one who should be speaking. It’s your list."
"And I pay you to do as I tell you, so why don’t you put down the attributes my wife should have?"
"Hmm, let’s see. Must be thick-skinned enough to put up with your crotchety temper, your general lack of politeness and your disagreeable nature. Must be meek and bow to your will. Must not have a single original thought of her own. Must do as she’s told at every turn." She peeks up at me from under her eyelashes. "How am I doing?"
"You forgot must bend over and let me fuck her whenever the need takes hold."
She swallows, and the pulse at the base of her neck speeds up. "You don’t mean that."
I raise a shoulder. "What’s the point of being married if there’s no sex-on-tap?"
"Why do you want to get married for that?" She tosses her blonde ponytail—yep, the woman has her hair tied up in a cheer-leader’s version of a hairstyle that has all that golden goodness fountaining down her back in a spring of curls, and fuck, if I don’t want to wrap it around my hand and tug her head back and bite down on the skin where her shoulder meets her throat and— "You have enough women lining up and willing to let you into their beds for that." She scowls.
"Ah, but only my wife gets me bare-back. No barriers between us, just skin on skin, and the closest I’ll ever be to any woman."
Her flush deepens. She shifts in her seat. "You’re talking dirty to shock me."
"No, I’m talking dirty to arouse you.”
She looks away, draws in a breath, then seems to compose herself. When she turns back to me, her gaze is shrewd. "Hidden behind all that crude, vulgar, sadistic behavior of yours is a romantic."
I allow my lips to curl. "Hidden behind that curvy, Barbie doll persona of yours is someone who’s attracted to the dark side of sex."
She tips up her chin. "I’m not denying the foray into BDSM at the club got me curious about the kinky side of making love."
And she calls it making love, which is so fucking cute. I prefer to call it an exchange of bodily fluids, a transaction, a way to get rid of this need that’s crawling inside me and waiting to break through my skin.
"At least I’m honest." She squares her shoulders. "Which is more than I can say about you."
I scowl. "What are you talking about?"
"That underneath all your bluster and overbearing personality, you’re lonely. You’re hurting. You’re wounded from what happened to you when you were taken by the enemy."
My muscles bunch. My stomach tightens. I glare at her, but for the first time, she doesn’t look away.
"Perhaps these are injuries you had even before, and likely, didn’t get a chance to address. And then, with the pressure you came under, all of it came to the fore."
"What is this, pop psychology 101? Or maybe it’s a quiz you read in one of your fluffy women’s magazine and now you think you can gauge what I went through based on it?"
She firms her lips. "That’s your fallback option, isn’t it? When you’re scared or you feel vulnerable, you strike out like a cornered animal."
"And when you’re scared, you get turned on."
"What?" She gapes.
"It’s true, isn’t it, Little Dove?" I use my nickname on purpose and am rewarded when her pupils dilate. Oh, she responds to my pet name so beautifully. How would it be to make her respond to my cock, hmm?
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, if I dropped to my knees and pushed my nose into your crotch, I’d find you gloriously aroused and dripping all over my chair. You’ve oozed cum all over your panties, haven’t you? Hearing me talk about fucking without a condom has your clit throbbing, your pussy squeezing down and coming up empty. You can’t wait to leave here and use your fingers to find relief."
"That’s not true."
"Oh?" I allow my lips to curl. "Want me to put it to the test?" I push up as if to rise to my feet, and she jumps up. "No, no. Stop. Don’t come near me."
"Then admit that you’re turned on when I use explicit words."
"I… I—"
I begin to rise to my feet, and she yelps. "Fine, fine. I do. When you use obscene words it, uh, does something to me."
"Describe it."
"What?"
"Tell me what it does to you."
Her eyes round. "No, I won’t."
"In which case—" This time, I do rise to my feet, and she throws up her hands. "Fine, it does weird things to my lower belly and between my legs, and my nipples tighten, and my breasts seem to swell, and my scalp tingles, and my toes curl, and moisture seeps out from my—"
"Cunt?"
She nods.
"Say it."
She shakes her head.
I glare at her, she pales, then squeezes her eyes shut. "Cunt."
"Didn’t hear you."
"Cunt!" she yells.
That’s when the door opens, and Abby walks in.
19
Penny
"Excuse me?" Abby looks from me to Knight then back at me. "Did you say—"
"Come in, little sis. That’s what Penny was saying, 'come in’。" Knight glances sideways at me, "Isn’t that right, Penny?"
Abby’s gaze narrows with suspicion then, to my relief, she nods. "So, have you discussed the list of attributes of your to-be-wife with Penny yet?"
"We were getting down to it when you walked in."
"There’s no getting out of this. You know that, Knight, right?" She walks over to stand next to him. "If you don’t find a wife and get married in the next month, you know Dad will not hesitate to disown you."
Knight’s jaw firms, a vein pops at his temple, then he jerks his chin. "A wife within a month and spawn on the way in the next year. That’s what he wants. That’s what he gets."
Her features soften. "I’m sorry our father doesn’t seem to understand what you’ve been through. Any other father would be worried about you and try to give you space to recover completely. In fact, he’d have stopped you from joining the company and told you to take some time to recuperate."
"And you think I’d have listened to him?" Knight’s lips curls. "Also, I debriefed before I returned to London."
"For forty-eight hours. You were a prisoner of war for six months, Knight. Six months—" She locks her fingers together. "And then, you come right back and do the one thing you were against all your life. Working for our father."
"I thought you wanted all of us to get along?" Knight tips his head.
"That was when I thought our father was changing. He met me and Cade and told me he was sorry for not doing his duty as a father. He vowed he was going to be different. And everything he’s done seems to point toward that. But then, not only does he not tell you to take time off and get to grips with what you went through, but he also puts pressure on you to get married. I tried changing his mind on it, but to no avail. He’s adamant that you settle down. He thinks it’s going to help you process what happened to you." She shakes her head. "I wish there was more I could do to help Knight, I do."