Page 25 of Corrupted Pleasure

My eyes widened, watching Juliette pour her bottle of cheap alcohol directly on the flames like she was emptying a water bottle. I hoped her attempt was to extinguish it but that was a dumb move.

“Juliette,” Wynter scolded her screaming. “What the fuck! Stop pouring alcohol on the fire!”

Her cousin didn’t move. Ivy screamed, shaking her hand while Juliette just stared at the flames. Like some kind of possessed voodoo doll. Grabbing her other hand, I yanked her away from it.

Ivy yanked the blanket I was still holding out of my grip and threw it over the fire.

The flames got bigger. “Shit that didn’t work,” Ivy screamed.

“Extinguisher?” Wynter shouted.

“Try the kitchen,” I told her, pulling Juliette further out of the fire’s reach.

Wynter ran out in the hallway and in the direction of the kitchen. Juliette’s gaze came to mine and there was something unsettling about the look in her eyes.

“Where’s the other bottle?” she demanded, suddenly strangely calm.

I blinked. “Why?” There was something unsettling about her right now.

“Because I’m going to burn this motherfucking place down,” she said eerily calm. “And then, I’m going to find the people that killed my parents.”

Shock had me forgetting about the raging inferno that was sure to kill us if we got too close.

“Burned them? But your dad-”

Before I could finish the statement, Juliette found the cheap alcohol bottle and threw it against the heart of the flames.

Boom.

I jerked back, pulling Juliette and Ivy along. Ivy’s screams pierced my ears. Juliette’s reason finally caught up and her screams joined Ivy’s. Though there was a certain edge of anguish and anger lacing her screams.

We had all lost our goddamn minds. And the fire extinguisher came too late.

CHAPTER10

Liam

Ileaned back in the chair in the conference room of my construction business. It was my booming legitimate business and often the front for laundering money from my illegitimate ones.

Restlessness ghosted under my skin. It had been a constant feeling for months now. Ever since I saw a raven-haired young woman who watched me with the eyes of a stormy sea. In my whole life, I had never seen a woman with such thick, glossy, black hair that I knew if I grabbed it, it’d be silky under my fingertips.

Then why aren’t you going after her?I kept asking myself.

Maybe there was a sliver of decency in me that recognized I should keep my distance. Especially since I knew a war with the Russians was brewing. It was inevitable. Or maybe instinctively, I knew that if I took her, there’d be no going back. I’d want her forever.

And it was hard to squash decades of worrying that another person would end up hurt because of this war I was fighting. Courtesy of my old man.

Each time I thought about her, the hollow space in my chest filled and my heart beat wildly. She was stunning. I wanted her. To fuck her senseless. To hear her moans as I thrust into her tight pussy. Hard and fast.

Could he be my sugar daddy applicant?Davina’s soft voice had a permanent home in my brain.

I wasn’t fucking old enough to be anyone’s sugar daddy. Fuck, would she call me daddy as I fucked her? I hoped not. I wasn’tthatmuch older than her.

Okay, okay.

Maybe compared to her age, I could be classified as a sugar daddy. Though it made me feel too goddamn old, so I fucking objected to the label. The business of melting her panties was an entirely different topic. Yeah, I was totally up for that one.

Either way, I needed to let her graduate. At the minimum. Then I’d figure out how to cash in the favor she owed me if I couldn’t get the woman out of my head.