Page 216 of Midnight Curfew

I clench my teeth as he still holds me, forcing myself to not give in. There are better men out there.

I enunciate every syllable. “I’m going to love pinning your fucking neck to the bed when I ride you after he’s already had me an hour before.”

He bares his teeth, his eyes practically turning red just before he covers my mouth with his, pulling me into his arms. Oh, fuck.

An electric current spreads from my lips to my chin and down my neck, and I can’t help it. I lean in, kissing him back, the music in my car switching to “enemy.” Of course.

Why is he doing this to me? Just fucking torture me for the treasure. I was reconciled a long time ago to the fact that he’d never be mine. Not the way I wanted him to be.

Holding the back of my neck, he breathes over my mouth, our lips so close.

“It was different when you came back, though,” he explains. “I couldn’t not look at you.”

I know it’s not true, but I let myself enjoy the thought.

“I knew I wanted you,” he whispers. “The way you look at me. The way I’m aware of only you when you’re close. The way I hated when you were cold or unaffected by me.”

I’m always affected by him.

“The way I can’t let you become him.” He meets my eyes. “You’re mine, and I want you to go back to how you were that last morning in bed five years ago.”

The morning he told me about his mother and became enamored of the muscles along my spine. I remember everything about that morning, because it was finally like he was starting to see me. I wasn’t just some interchangeable piece of ass to him, maybe.

“I trusted you that morning,” I say, my voice raspy.

I can’t get that back. He destroyed it.

Dropping his arms, he pulls out his phone, quickly bringing up a file. Moaning and grunting hit my ears, and I look down as he holds up a video between us.

My father’s in a tux as he bends Gabriela Cadena over a mahogany table in the cigar room at Fox Hill. She’s in a low-cut red sequin gown, her long dark hair hanging over one bare breast.

Oh, shit. This must be from the annual fundraiser event in April.

How could he be so stupid? He can screw anyone. Why her? Edward Cadena could kill him.

That man wouldn’t stop there, either. Lessons need to be learned. He could take Anna-Katherine as payment. He could kill me for being his son.

That’s why my father does it, though. Nothing gives him a rush, so he keeps pushing the envelope.

“We knew you had surveillance around town,” I murmur. “What are you going to do? Blackmail me?”

“Could I?”

Damn him. Yes, he could.

I don’t really care about protecting Garrett Ames, but Edward Cadena is ruthless. I don’t want his attention on my family.

Dallas tucks his phone away. “If that’s what I wanted, I’d be doing it already.” He takes my face in his hand again. “I won’t hurt you. And I’ll stop anyone who tries.”

He could get the treasure back with just that video. And God knows what else that family has on us.

The realization hits me, though, that he knew he had that video when I took the treasure. He knew he had it all weekend and yesterday in my bed.

It was never an option to use it, though, because he knew what Edward Cadena was capable of.

Tears fill my eyes. Fuck.

I kiss him, moving over his mouth and slipping my tongue in, the feel of him reaching down through my stomach to my legs.