Chapter 10
PIERCE
Ihad to stifle the growl which rumbled low in my chest.
Two weeks behind bars and she hadn’t broken.
Her hair was limp, her skin pale under the fluorescent wash, and there were shadows beneath her eyes that hadn’t been there in the courtroom.
None of it mattered. She stood with her chin up and her shoulders back, staring at me the way no one in my life had ever dared—like I was the one who should be in a cell.
My hand closed into a fist at my side. Opened. Closed again.
It was nonsensical. She was nothing to me, a sacrificial lamb to be slaughtered on the altar of my family’s vanity.
All I wanted was to back her against that piss-green wall and make her look away first.
She wouldn’t. I already knew that.
This whole mess started because of Jameson.
But now it was about her and me.
She backed up a step as I stepped further into the room. “Get out! Get out now before I scream for the guard.”
I shrugged out of my jacket. “Scream all you want. She won’t come until I call her.”
Madison circled around to the far side of the table. “You’re not allowed back here.”
“I’m allowed wherever I damn well please.”
I moved toward her. She retreated, always keeping the table between us.
“What do you want?”
“You,” I announced with a smirk.
She went still.
My attention dropped to the small hand clutching at the silk bow at her throat.
After all the photos of her in that baggy orange jumpsuit, seeing her in normal clothes was always its own punishment. I may have been a heartless bastard by having her arrested, but I had made arrangements for her safety while she was locked up.
Whether or not she realized it, she had been under my protection the entire time.
The cream silk blouse she wore today was just sheer enough to allow a glimpse of white lace underneath, and the A-line skirt swayed around her hips with every step.
With the chaste bow at her throat and her hair in a tight, austere bun, she was meant to appear demure.
Instead she looked like a naughty librarian begging for someone to punish her.
I wanted to push my fingers into her hair and rip out the band, to allow midnight black curls to fall in wild disarray and cascade down her bare back.
I needed this woman in my bed. Now.
“I...I...don’t know what you mean.”
My lips twisted into a cynical smile. “Yes, you do.”
She moved around the table once more. “You’re insane.”
I quirked an eyebrow. “I prefer eccentric.”
“You can’t seriously think...you can’t mean...oh my god, what the hell is happening?”
Her cheeks flushed a charming pink, making her alabaster skin glow.
I closed the distance, openly stalking her around the tiny room. “What’s happening is I own you. Your fate is in my hands. Say yes to me now and I’ll stop the trial.”
She stumbled as she tried to push the only chair in the room between us. She shook her head. “Not if you were the last man alive on Earth.”
I shoved the spindle chair to the side, not caring when it slid across the narrow space and crashed against the wall.
Didn’t she know by now it was dangerous to defy me? “You don’t have the luxury of telling me no. You either come with me or spend the rest of your life in prison.”
She was slightly out of breath from her attempts to evade me. “You won’t get away with this.”
Lunging forward, I slammed her against the wall. Before she could escape my embrace, I braced my hands against the wall on either side of her, caging her in. I leaned in, my lips brushing hers. “Babygirl, I already have.”
“Let me go, and I’ll leave town. You’ll never have to see me again.”
I didn’t even have to think about her offer. Never seeing her again was not an option. “No.”
She shoved against my chest.
I didn’t move.
With a cry, she balled her hands into fists and pounded them against me.
I let her vent her anger. I’d allow her that much.
After a few moments, she grabbed my shirt and collapsed against me. Her tears were warm against my skin where they soaked through the thin fabric. I resisted the urge to fold her into my arms and comfort her. “Court is about to go back into session. I need your answer.”
Her body stiffened. She raised her tearstained face to mine. “Is this the only way you can get a woman? By forcing her?”
I stroked her cheek with the back of my knuckle. “It’s cute you think I’d have to use force to get you to spread your legs for me.”
With a shriek, her arm flew up to strike me.
Catching her around the wrist, I twisted her arm behind her back and used my free hand to tilt her chin up, forcing her to face me.
She spit out, “I hate you!”
I smiled and said, “That’s what makes this so much fun,” before claiming her mouth.
My fingers pressed into her cheeks, forcing her mouth open for my assault.
She did not struggle for long.
I teased her lips with my own, savoring their lush sweetness before pushing inside. The edges of her sharp teeth scraped against the sides of my tongue, bringing forth graphic sensations of what it would feel like if it were my cock thrusting inside.
I pressed my body into hers, snatched her other wrist, and raised her arms over her head. Her bones were so delicate I worried I might snap them if I weren’t careful. I eased the pulsing ache in my cock by pressing hard against her belly.
My entire being was focused on her. The sounds of her ragged breaths and tiny whimpers. The taste of her rapid pulse as I licked the smooth column of her neck. The feel of her soft body submitting to my demands.
I was a beast trying to hold a butterfly without crushing it.
Breathless, I ended the kiss.
Pressing my forehead to hers, I whispered harshly, “You can’t win. Give in to me.”
She tried to turn her face to the side.
Transferring my hold of both of her small wrists to one hand, I wrapped my free hand under her jaw, holding her in place. “Answer me,” I demanded.
Her dark blue eyes blazed with defiance. “You expect me to be your whore? I’d rather go to prison.”
Everyone in my world said yes to me. Board members, judges, senators, women. And here was this woman, literally against the wall with my hand at her throat, choosing a prison cell over me.
“Brave words for someone who is facing half a lifetime behind bars.”
“Because you bribed all the witnesses and doctored the video.”
I smiled. There was no point in denying it. “All the more reason why you should accept my generous offer.”
“Go to hell.”
My hand closed around her throat the moment the refusal left her lips.
Her eyes widened.
I stared down at her and for one second, I wanted to break her. The way a child smashed a toy rather than let someone else have it.
I released my grip and stepped back, already missing her warmth.
I moved to my suit jacket and snatched it up. Without turning, I bit out, “Fine. Take your chances with the jury.”
I had resumed my place leaning against the back wall of the courtroom by the time they brought Madison in.
She searched the room till she found me. She then raised her chin and stubbornly looked away.
She had gotten under my skin. I just wasn’t used to hearing the word no. And the challenge of turning that no into an oh god yes was one I had every intention of winning.
The trial progressed quickly after the recess. There was no point in stopping it.
She had made her decision.
The only witness left was a firefighter who had been at the scene of the accident. He fell in line by claiming it was Madison, not Jameson, behind the wheel.
It was then no surprise when Madison’s useless attorney rose and declared the defense would rest without even providing a single witness. The CA’s summation was brilliant and to the point.
I should know, since I was the one who had written it.
Finally, the judge allowed the jury to leave to start their deliberations.
Madison fidgeted in her seat and tried to avoid glancing in my direction. She failed several times. Every time, I caught her stare and held it, each time a little longer than the last.
The jury was out for less than fifteen minutes.
The judge cleared his throat. “Madam Foreperson, do you have a verdict?”
A matronly woman with garishly bright red hair rose. “Yes, Your Honor.”
“Very well, in the matter of the People of the State of Virginia versus Madison Hastings, how do you find?”
“We find the defendant, Madison Hastings—”
Madison shot out of her chair. “Wait!”