Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Sophie
Hysteria slams against the base of my throat.
Frantic to dislodge him, I push with all my might, but the door doesn’t budge.
To his credit, he doesn’t laugh at my efforts.
“I understand you think you can run my life, install cameras in my office, and get me a driver I don’t want.”
Lucian’s midnight-blue eyes hold mine through the narrow opening, and the corner of his mouth lifts in that slow, appreciative curve I saw at dinner when he called me a brat.
My tummy flips over.
He leans one broad shoulder against the doorframe, the motion stretching the fabric of his suit jacket tight across his chest.
Behind him, Caleb shifts.
“All of this is a game to you.” My voice is shakier than I want. “I have a life I like, one I built. Clients who depend on me. A mother whose life literally hangs on treatments you dangle like bait. But I won’t have it.”
Caleb settles his hand on Lucian’s shoulder, and he nods.
“The payment for your mother’s next cycle was sent through last night.”
My knees sag, and tears of relief sting my eyes.
“We kept our end of the bargain.”
Before I’ve fully processed the news, he goes on. “And you’ll keep yours.”
Setting my chin, I meet his eyes. “I never agreed.”
“You’ll need to move into the penthouse in the next week. Once news gets out that you’re our intended, you’ll need the safety and security we can offer.”
Need?
Oh God. My breath threatens to strangle me.
They are criminals. Even if they’ve never been prosecuted.
“Would it be so awful?” Lucian muses. “Our protection. Your father’s peace of mind. Your mother’s health taken care of. The freedom to continue your practice.”
At what cost?
The silence grows uncomfortable, and I push my foot beneath his to get him out of the doorway.
“We do not expect you to thank us tonight.”
“Arrogant much?”
He goes on, dropping his voice another fraction, and it’s suddenly intimate in a way that makes the air feel thicker. “We expect you to fight us. And when you finally let go, you’ll realize you don’t have to carry all this alone.”
Lucian steps forward then.
The door gives way under the gentle pressure of his shoulder, and suddenly the space between us vanishes.
Caleb follows him into the apartment, and he closes the door behind them with a quiet, final click.
My back meets the wall before I realize I have retreated.
Purposefully, determinedly, Lucian advances, stealing my breath.
Slowly he lifts his hand to slide his fingers along my jaw.
He traces the line of my lower lip with his thumb, exactly as he did last night.
The contact sends electricity racing across my skin, and my lips part on a soft inhale.
“You can make this easy on yourself. Or you can fight the inevitable. The choice is yours.”
Caleb stands close enough that I’m hyperaware of him.
Lucian drops his gaze to my mouth. Hunger flickers, raw and unfiltered, in his eyes.
Even though I’m prepared, I’m…not.
He captures my mouth with a heat that steals the breath from my lungs, sweeping his tongue in without hesitation, tasting, demanding, every stroke deliberate and deep.
I’ve never ever experienced anything like that. Like him.
Of their own accord, my hands rise, and I fist the front of his shirt, meaning to shove him away.
But sensation overwhelms me.
His possession is hot and insistent. And the faint scrape of stubble against my chin sends awareness spiraling through me.
I can’t have this kind of response to a man I hate.
I…can’t.
Caleb feathers back my hair, his touch shockingly gentle in contrast with Lucian’s demands.
Desperately I try to push Lucian away, but Caleb strokes my jaw.
Instead of fighting, I open my mouth wider, meeting his kiss with a fierceness that shocks me.
Caleb slides a hand into my hair, gripping the bun and tilting my head for Lucian to take even more.
Now I’m lost, clinging to him, every nerve alive, my breasts pressed tight against his chest.
Shocking me, my nipples tighten, then become a low ache.
This can’t be happening, but the heat sears even more intensely, and I’m trapped between them to the point I can’t tell where his hunger ends and mine begins.
He breaks the kiss slowly, lips lingering against mine, breath mingling in the small space between us.
My eyes flutter open to find his eyes are filled with heat.
Then he smiles, slow and wicked, full of promise, a grin that says he knows exactly what the kiss just did to me.
“Until tomorrow night…”