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“Yes. That was quite a show. I don’t think I have ever seen that old bat’s face turn so many colors.” He smacked the top of my desk as he laughed. “It was about time someone took a firm hand with her.”
“Yes, well. I needed to ensure she knows that Amelia is mine now, and she won’t be used as a spy in my home.”
Amelia telling her mother my secrets had never even crossed my mind, but my father wouldn’t understand that I wanted to protect her because I felt something deeper for her. The most Lucian Manwarring had ever felt for a woman was an erection.
Until Amelia, I had thought I was the same, but she had stoked something more inside me. I didn’t know if I would call it anything as innocent as love. We had made love last night, but that wasn’t the right word for how I felt.
What I felt for her was darker, primal, and possessive.
Maybe it was the only way I knew how to love, to covet her with the same ferocity I coveted power.
Still, my father wouldn’t understand that, and trying to explain it was an exercise in futility I didn’t have the time for. The longer I stayed and talked to him, the longer I was away from her.
She was my priority right now, just getting back to her.
I took the steel decanter of coffee Henry prepared every morning from my father and poured my first cup of the day. Henry always prepared the finest French roast coffee. I took my first sip as I settled into one of the other leather chairs in my office, as if it was business as usual. “Did she sign the contract?”
“Yes. The bitch ranted and raved for about another twenty minutes. Astrid finally calmed her down by asking what you meant about cows.” He let out a boisterous laugh.
I hoped it wasn’t loud enough to wake Amelia, though maybe if he woke her, I could taste her sweet pussy again before we figured out what to do for the rest of the day. I thought she was going to be my new favorite breakfast each morning.
“I want to move up the wedding.” The words just flew from my mouth before I had even thought them through, but the second I said it, I knew I meant it.
“Why on earth would we do that? It’s clear you have had that girl in your bed. She’s ruined now. We can string them along forever. Just holding the threat of dumping the little bitch will be enough to make her father agree to anything.”
“No, I want to get this done. I don’t want to give them a chance to figure out a way to wiggle out of this deal.”
“No one is wiggling anywhere.” My father scoffed. “We have them right where we need them. Astrid can’t strike while you can still replace his daughter and make her the laughingstock of society. He knows that with a few well-placed rumors, she will have to move to another country to find a husband. She will be damaged goods. Her life was ruined the second she climbed into your bed. We should hold that advantage.”
Strategically, he was right. This would make them our bitch, and the advantage it gave us was unmistakable. I still couldn’t stomach it. She was mine. I needed to make that fact known. Not she could be mine, or might be mine, or even would be mine, eventually. She was mine now.
“I don’t want to wait that long,” I said.
My father laughed. “What’s the rush? You already have her freshly fucked in your bed. There is no advantage to pushing this faster, and every advantage in stretching it out.”
My jaw tightened, and I clenched my fists. My heart pounded and demanded retribution for what he said. She was mine. No one spoke about her like that.
“She isn’t a whore. She will be my wife and the mother of my children.” I kept my tone as even as possible, but my patience was running thin.
“Are you sure about that?” My father finished his coffee and poured himself another.
“What do you mean?”
“The only reason she is in this mess, in your bed, is because her whore mother couldn’t keep her legs shut. If the boy, Harrison, wasn’t a bastard, then Amelia would be Mrs. Dubois and spend her nights bouncing on Marksen’s dick, not yours. You bought and paid for her, which makes her a whore.”
With a deep breath through my nose, I held on tight to control my rage and stop myself from making a mistake and showing my father how important she was to me. Lucian Manwarring was a vicious man, and soon I would usurp his kingdom. The last thing I wanted or needed was for him to have leverage to use against me.
“Don’t tell me you are falling in love with the girl.” He set down his coffee mug next to the coaster and sat up.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said. “I don’t love her. She is nothing more than a means to an end. Well, several ends. A woman like that is a tool used only to combine and grow empires.”
“Then why the rush?” He leaned forward and narrowed his eyes, searching me for any weakness. I refused to let him see the truth, so I explained it in a way I knew he could understand, even if it was complete bullshit.
“Because Harrison is smart, and I want to make sure this is a done deal before he catches on to what we are actually doing. He is preoccupied right now, preparing for elections. But eventually, he will check in on his family, and I don’t want there to be any possible avenues for him to step in and stop any of this.”
“You worry too much. I doubt he would care about one of the women in his family. Besides, we can just threaten to expose his true parentage, and he will fall in line just like his slut mother.”
“That isn’t—” A thud sounded in the hallway, and I turned to look. It was empty, but I could have sworn I heard something.
