Chapter 3
These conference rooms were used for holding prisoners for final conversations with their attorneys before trial. Which meant the walls were thick, the locks secure, and there were no cameras.
If I wanted, I could flip that skimpy schoolgirl skirt she was wearing up to expose her ass and whip it with my belt, and there wasn’t a thing she could do about it.
Rubbing her arm, she narrowed her gaze on me. “How dare you.”
“You might want to watch your tone, little one. The only thing that should be coming out of your mouth is an apology.”
“An apology? For what? You bribed the judge to… to…”
She didn’t even know how to put into words the trap I had so easily set for her.
The bars of my gilded cage had closed so rapidly around her, she never stood a chance.
However, she was wrong about one detail. I did not bribe the judge.
God no. Bribes were too easily traced or turned into extortion. Their greedy hands were always out for more. Absolutely not. Bribing a judge was bad business.
Blackmailing a judge, on the other hand...
Crossing my arms, I leaned against the door, further blocking her only exit. “To what? Do as your father asked?”
“He would never,” she said, her eyes wide.
The lie slipped easily from my lips. “Your father was a smart businessman. He wanted the best man possible to watch over his precious daughter.”
“I don’t believe you.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Whether you believe it or not, is immaterial. It’s now been affirmed by the courts.”
“A corrupt court.”
I smiled. “A court nonetheless.”
“He hated you,” she fired back. “He would have never trusted you with anything. He called you an unethical, evil bastard. There is no way my father gave a man like you control over my estate.”
Heat traveled up my spine as I rotated my shoulders, letting the anger flow through me before I grabbed her by her frail neck and pressed her against the wall.
Usually I would react with almost disturbing calm to such an attack, but there was something about hearing those sweet, full lips disparage my character that had swiftly and alarmingly gotten under my skin.
Stella’s fingers clawed at my hands, the gold bangles on her wrist clinking against the old masculine watch that was far too big for her.
I pressed my body against hers, pinning her to the wall, still holding her throat firmly in my grasp. She could breathe in raspy gasps, but that was more than she deserved.
“Listen closely to me, little one. It doesn’t matter what lies your father told you. The facts are simple. You belong to me now. I will now control what you do, where you sleep, and who you associate with. You can’t even buy a fucking cup of coffee without my permission.”
“I am twenty-six, an adult. I should have access to my own money.”
If this world were a fair place, then she would be right.
She would have access to her money, and it wouldn’t have been so fucking easy for me to control her.
Too bad for her, life was anything but fair.
Fortunes and empires were built by men bold enough to claim what they wanted.
Men like me.
And at this particular moment, Stella was in my crosshairs.
I needed an obedient wife with connections and breeding. Her fortune certainly helped as well. She would bear the next brood of Manwarring sons. Maybe she would give me children that obeyed.
It would be a challenge at first. I would have preferred a more mature woman.
The young still harbored silly notions like love and happily-ever-after. They talked incessantly about nothing and had no real drive or experience. Spending time with people her age was tedious at best. To have someone young seemed like an unavoidable chore.
But then there was the lure of witnessing her come into her own, as the woman I suspected she was capable of becoming. It would be like watching something at the very moment of creation.
How fascinating that would be.
It helped that I would be the one molding her, training her.
Like the omniscient god so many amusingly suspected me of being.
The gold in her gorgeous eyes glowed with fiery indignation. “You paid the courts off.”
I shrugged one shoulder as I focused on her mouth. “Semantics.”
Tears filled her pretty eyes and spilled down her cheeks. “Why are you doing this to me?”
Leaning so close I could smell the sweet vanilla of her perfume, my lips skimmed her jaw as I whispered into her ear, “Because I have plans for you, pet. Plans that include making you my wife.”
Her golden eyes widened with understanding, or maybe it was more fear. “I will never marry you. Hell will freeze over before I?—”
I cut off her words, pressing my lips to hers.
She fought me for a second, squirming against my hold.
That only made me tighten my grip on her throat and press against her harder.
She needed to learn she could fight me—but she’d never win against me.
Her only option was to submit.