“And is she?”
“Oh yeah. Anybody who fucks with her finds out very quickly.”
She smiles. “You like her.”
“I do. Sharp as a tack, and mean as hell. If you have her on your team, you’re golden.”
“Must be lovely.” Lareina bites her lip, then lowers her voice. “Is her husband the one who drugged you and tried to make you work for him last night?”
I snort, thinking about Aunt Jeremiah’s scandalous baby daddy Ted. A lot of people in the family think she only slept with him to see if he was as good as rumors made it sound. But we’ll never know the truth because she never talks about it. You’d have better luck prying open a clam barehanded than squeezing information out of Aunt Jeremiah when she doesn’t want to share. “No. She’s never married, and even if she had,she wouldn’t have picked a man who goes against the family’s interests. Harvey’s from my biological mother’s side.”
“Doesn’t he know offering you a lot of money would’ve been more effective?”
I chuckle dryly. “Money doesn’t motivate me.”
“Ah. The two billion.”
My spine stiffens. “How do you know that?”
“You told me.”
“I must’ve been more out of it than I thought. Did I say anything else?”
She gives me a long look, tapping her chin. “Quite a lot, actually,” she says slowly. “Give me a moment and I’ll tell you what I think was important.”
Her teasing tone makes me want to kiss her. I wrap my hand around the back of her neck and pull her close. Our lips fuse; I pull her tongue into my mouth.
A delicious gasp tears from her throat, and her hands fist on my shoulders, as though she can’t decide between pushing me away or pulling me close. I stroke her tongue with mine unhurriedly, drawing out her reaction. Although the fists on my shoulders don’t relax, her mouth softens and she kisses me back. Her breathing grows shallower, and the heat from her skin is scorching. There’s an inexplicable addictiveness to her, and it’s both exhilarating and terrifying.
She squirms to get more comfortable, the movement rubbing her thigh against my already hard dick. Hot blood rushes through my veins, and it’s all I can do to swallow the groan building in my chest as I plunder her.
After a bit, I vaguely register that the car has stopped moving. I open my eyes, see the front entrance to my home and reluctantly pull back from Lareina.
She looks at me, her eyes glazed with arousal. It might be her lack of artifice and shield that makes me prone to lower myguard with her. I understand it’s a bad move, the kind that would earn me a loss in a chess game.
I get out first, hit the entry button for the house on my phone, then carry her inside. The huge double doors open automatically at our approach, showing the spotless foyer with its contemporary chandelier, all crystal and smoked glass. Bright sunlight pours in through the skylight, casting a halo around her. She looks at me with a shy smile, and behind her, the family’s coat of arm glints. PIETAS ET UNITAS. Above the motto, snarling wolves flash their fangs, reminding me of the wolf’s head in Mom’s cabin.
Complex, contradictory emotions stir in my heart. I want to hold Lareina and push her away, protect her and hurt her, keep her both close and at arm’s length. If I didn’t have any emotional baggage, I’d just revel in how beautiful and sweet she is, but there’s a tinge of trepidation that she’s too different from the others.
“Your home is pretty,” she says softly.
“It’s all right,” I say. I’ve never given much thought to the mansion, purchasing it because it had the right specs, right price tag and right zip code.
I carry her to the kitchen, since it’s time to grab a late lunch, but the scent of a cigar hits me. I freeze at the sight of Aunt Jeremiah at my kitchen island.What the hell is she doing here…?
She’s in a white bathrobe, her blood-red hair held by a black headband and some kind of green goo on her face. A wisp of smoke rises from the lit cigar in her hand, and a glass of Merlot sits in front of her.
She turns to me. If she’s cocking an eyebrow, it’s impossible to tell from all the goo. Her eyes flick to me, then to Lareina, then take in our outfits.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” she says drolly. “Did you elope with Barry’s fiancée?”
Chapter Thirteen
Ares
“Who’s Barry?” Lareina asks.
“The groom.” My aunt takes a sip of wine—mywine.
