Page 48

I couldn’t hold out any longer.
Now that I was done with a full day’s worth of enduring meetings and being in charge, I was ready to take this further with Sloane and show her how she would be mine.
She furrowed her brow, backing to hide behind the chair she’d been sitting in. As if that piece of furniture could keep her safe.
That was exactly what I had been doing. Keeping her safe. Protecting her from assholes like her boss or any other man who’d try to hurt her.
I tugged at my tie, trying to remember not to rush this. Not to hurry so I could savor every second of her submission. Because she would give it to me. She would submit. I didn’t blame her for being startled and defensive with my lingering in here and taking my tie off.
Enough of this.
It’d been agony staying away from her for two weeks, but I saw how much she’d needed to simply be. To eat and sleep and not worry. Her exhaustion worried me at first, but the more that I saw her nourished and provided for, I embraced the pride at being able to do that for her.
Watching her relax and breathe easier was my first reward, but that wasn’t the only reason I’d kept away for fourteen fucking days.
She opened and closed her mouth. Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the top of the chair. Seeing her flustered was a goddamn trip.
Oh, you still want to be stubborn and carry on with this silent treatment?
I tilted my head to the side in question, amused and curious how long she’d hold out. With my tie undone, I let it hang over my neck before I started pulling off my jacket.
Two fucking weeks, she’d been here. Relaxing, sleeping, probably getting bored. I originally planned to give her just enough distance and time so that she would lower her guard, but the wariness in her bright green gaze now proved that she was still the survivalist, fighting to stay on her feet.
Again, she opened and closed her mouth. Seeming to think twice about speaking, she let her gaze fall as she watched my hands.
Moving on to my shirt, I released one button at a time.
Too fucking long.
Every day, I obsessed with the secret that I was keeping her in my room. I’d slept in the living room on the couch, tormenting myself with not touching her. No one in the house knew she washere, only the maid and the two men who were with me the night I took her. No one would tell my brothers or grandmother that she was here, either.
Sloane was my secret. And I was fed up with this distance.
She cleared her throat, and I almost smiled at her losing this silent stare down.
She’d crack first.
I knew she would.
But it was a shame she had tried this silent treatment crap at all. We could’ve been talking all this time. Fucking too.
Or maybe not.
I planned to give her time and space to adjust to being my mistress here, but I’d also been too busy to spare any attention for her. If I wasn’t away meeting with men and spies as I stayed on top of the investigation of my father’s poisoning, I was tied up with calling the shots and making all the decisions as the boss in charge. My brothers and grandmother helped. We were a team. As the interim boss while Father recovered, though, I had a bitter taste of the responsibilities that came with being the top leader of the city’s most powerful family.
It stressed me out, pushing me to need this night with Sloane.
My grandmother’s persistent reminders about having an heir aggravated me too.
“What are you doing?”
I let a lazy smile take over my face. I won. She caved to the pressure of quiet between us, and I knew it would be only the first victory I’d have with her tonight.
I answered her by pushing my shirt off one side before shrugging out of the sleeve. “I’m here to show you why.”
The tendons and muscles in her neck flexed as she swallowed. “What?” It came out as a whisper as she lowered her alarmed stare to my bare chest.
I wanted to know what she thought of my tats. Of how I kept my body fit and trimmed to rule like this.