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His words plowed through my mind and had the immediate effect of dousing my anxiety in kerosene. He was only doing this because he wanted to. Translation? He wanted me. Obviously, it had occurred to me. I wasn’t naïve. Men liked to get their dicks wet, and I knew it better than anyone. But I hadn’t shared my body with a man in four years.
I looked over his workspace. Tidy and clean. Minimalistic. These were the guys who scared me the most. The psychopaths. I could tell a lot from a man based on the way he kept his surroundings. Lucian’s life was orderly, and he would want his wife to be the same.
I squeezed my thighs together beneath the privacy of the desk. “There is nothing about a sexual relationship written in the pre-nup.”
“It wasn’t necessary to include it,” Lucian stated. “As I said before, there is only one rule to this arrangement. You do what I say, when I say it. It’s very simple, Gypsy.”
Arguing that it wasn’t fair would be a wasted breath. Nothing about this was fair, and he knew it. He didn’t care. He was exploiting my vulnerability the same way I had exploited men when I conned them. Karma really was a bitch.
“What if I don’t want to do something?”
He shuffled some papers around and plucked a pen from the holder, his attention more distant by the second. “Then we will discuss it like adults and come to a compromise.”
At this point, I wasn’t sure we were even talking about the same thing. If he was talking about sex, it didn’t show on his face. There was no excitement. No hint of impropriety. Nothing. But I couldn’t trust that.
“So, what if I say I don’t want to have sex at all?”
His lips tightened, and he turned his attention back to me. “How long has it been since you’ve let a man inside you?”
I squirmed, despite my resolve to appear brave. “That’s none of your business.”
“Every aspect of your life is my business.” Lucian clicked the end of the pen beneath his thumb, a steady drum beat. “Because I’ve made it so. When you’re my wife, you’ll be in my bed. For now, that’s all you need to know.”
I snapped the rubber band around my wrist to give my fingers something to do. The truth was that it didn’t matter what Lucian wanted me to do. He had me.
I knew last night that there was no escaping him when Ace cuffed the three of us together to sleep. Even if we were somehow able to run, I doubted we would get far. Lucian had been watching me for a long time if his evidence had anything to say about it. He’d prepared for this. He’d thought of every angle. And he knew that deep down, a life of running from the police was not what I wanted for my sister. I would do anything to give her a better life, and that was my weakness.
“I have a few conditions,” I murmured.
Lucian’s face was absent of the victory I expected. Instead, he was all business. “Such as?”
“Birdie goes free. And by free, I mean that you destroy every shred of evidence you’ve collected on her and call off your dogs, whoever they are. You won’t have anything else to do with her life.”
He cocked his head to the side and shrugged. “I have zero interest in what your sister does with her life after you say your vows.”
The word vows made me shudder, but I kept my focus. “I will have contact with her as much as I’d like by phone or email, and monthly visits.”
“She can visit you here,” he conceded. “As much as she’d like. Phone calls or emails are at your discretion.”
“Fine,” I agreed.
“What else?” He scribbled a signature down on a piece of paper, filing it away into a folder.
“The paperwork you showed me at the restaurant said we had to be married for two years before I could divorce you and receive a settlement. Is that correct?”
“Yes.” He squinted down at a message that had been left from his secretary. “Two years or my untimely passing. Whichever comes first.”
“Let’s hope for the second option,” I muttered under my breath.
When he looked up, his eyes were full of venom. “I’m a busy man. Do you have any other questions or are we done here?”
“Just one. What are the rules?”
His brows pinched together, displaying a level of impatience characteristic of someone who scoffed at the idea of ever needing to explain themselves at all. “I already told you. Whatever I decide.”
“That’s pretty vague.” I bobbed my heel up and down like I had all the time in the world. “I’d like to know what my life will be like. What boundaries will be in place. These things are important to discuss.”
