Page 75 of Point of Contention

Irritation spread out across my shoulders and I tipped my head to either side, trying to ease the cramping in my neck. “You said they’re moving against me. How do you know this?”

“Because it was my idea.”

My body went rigid. “What did you just say?”

Rylan’s gaze flicked back and forth between my eyes, her brow furrowed with concern.

“It was my idea. The forced engagement, the trial by public…” He chuckled. “A media nightmare. All just a distraction so I could take over both thrones, combine the two companies into one. Rombauers and Reeds, together as they were centuries ago.” He boasted as if everything he told me couldn’t be held against him, as if he wasn’t revealing his secrets to the one man who could—and now would—take him down. Pride was a funny thing. Too much, and it would be a man’s downfall. “You don’t want the power that has been given to you. And you don’t deserve it.”

Rylan shifted and I remembered my task. Twisting my hand to press my middle finger at her opening, I slowly eased it inside.

Her lips parted on a contented sigh.

“What changed?” I asked Rombauer, keeping my cool even as anger ran hot through my veins. Keeping myself tethered to this woman who calmed me was the perfect antidote to the way Roderick made me want to slam my fist into something. Anything. Mainly him. “Why are you telling me this now?”

“Your father is a wild card I hadn’t planned for, the old sentimental bastard. I’m not enough for him, even though I’m his godson and a far better man for the job than his own ungrateful spawn.” He spat the word and my shoulders twitched. “He wants a Reed running the world. You, some bastard son… hell, he’d probably take a distant fucking cousin, twice removed if he could find one.”

My eyes widened as I held Rylan’s gaze.

An heir.

Had my father’s plan been a successor all along? Maybe Roderick had been the driving force between thrusting the engagement on me, but had my father, the cunning bastard, taken that idea and run with it? Created his own plan from bits and pieces of Roderick’s?

Force me to marry, then the next logical step is… children?

If I didn’t want the throne, my future son would.

Jesus,fuck, it made so much sense.

“Think of it, Cabot; it’s a perfect plan. Combining our legacies into one mega-conglomerate.”

I snorted. As if Reed Enterprises wasn’t already.

Rylan moaned softly, tilting her head back and pinpointing my focus on her once again. I pumped my finger faster, pushing as deeply as I could, then slid out and added a second finger, then three.

Her mouth opened on a quiet gasp of pleasure. I leaned in and flicked my tongue over that full bottom lip.

“Publishing, media, marketing, finance, international news… and now legal. The Rombauers wouldn’t workforyou; we’d workwithyou. A fully-realized and successful legal branch within the Reed umbrella.”

“So,” I said, smirking as Rylan’s legs twitched. “You formulated a plan to get rid of me—”

Rylan’s head tipped back up and she met my gaze, eyes widening.

I pumped my fingers faster, curling them with each stroke.

“—and when that didn’t work,” I continued, “you thought you’d tell me about it and I’d … what? Overlook it and work with you?”

“Well—”

“And, after hearing all of this, you thought I’d agree to move against our fathers.”

Roderick stammered, but I didn’t let him get another word in.

“You’re a child, Rombauer, a little boy playing at being a man. Vainglorious and insidious.” I leaned forward and dragged my teeth along Rylan’s jaw. “Your days are numbered, old friend. You, your old man, your entire fucking firm.”

Rylan moaned, then slammed her mouth shut.

I grit my teeth as my cock swelled. “If you dare cross me again, it will be the last thing you do.” I dropped the phone as he responded, ranting and raving like the spoiled child he was.