Page 55 of The Bonds We Break

I smile to hide the way her barb catches hold of me. “That’s why I try to be consistent.” Sliding my hands up her back, I feel the tension in her muscles. “Don’t conflate things, Rae. There’s you and me. And there’s what you mean to me and Saint.”

“Of course you can compartmentalize. You’re the stereotype of a man.”

I grind my cock against her seam. “Yes, I am.”

“Aren’t you even remotely sorry for what you’ve done?”

I’m not answering that. “You’re not a shit lay. What I say in public is not always how I really feel.”

“Would it kill you to apologize?”

I’m not answering that, either. “Is it a deal, Rae?”

“Fine. It’s a deal. But don’t be disappointed when I’m not churning out porn-worthy moans at the slightest touch.”

“Because porn-worthy moans are too good for you?”

She shakes her head. “Nothing wrong with consensually created porn when used appropriately. Just ...”

I wait a moment for her to finish that sentence. “Just what?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It obviously does to you.”

“As you’ve mentioned, how I feel about any of this doesn’t matter to you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“Okay, so I’m not always consistent. I want to know what the rest of that sentence was going to be.”

She looks up at me. “Just don’t be mad at me if I don’t come.” Her voice is a whisper. “You can be mad about everything else. Be mad that your club is a mess. Be mad that you opened your trust to my brother and he betrayed you. Hell, be mad that I said those things about you moments ago. Just ... not this.” The last two words come out on a choked whisper.

The need to protect her battles my need to humiliate her, and therefore her brother. Imeantto diminish her in front of them all. But what she’s telling me now hits hard and deep.

I’m playing with a real human being who never asked for this.

But I can’t back down.

Not now that the club knows I have her and why.

“So, our deal. You agree to live with me for six months, and you persuade Saint to accept it. In return for that, I agree that I will allow him back now with certain conditions, and in six months, I will let him back into the club unrestricted. I will allow you to work with your clients, even set you up with a home office in my house, and in return, you will give me any orgasms you have over the next six months. Deal?”

She shakes her head. “It’s still not fair. I’m still doing two things for you to agree to Ryker rejoining the club.”

“For fuck’s sake, duchess. What else do you need?”

“I need you to be monogamous.”

I laugh, hard, until I realize she’s serious. “No.” I say the word, even as I acknowledge to myself that I haven’t slept with anyone else since I met her.

“In that case, this is the deal: I will agree tosimplylive with you for six months, and in return, you will let me continue the work with my clients. I will get my brother to accept it, and in return, you will agree to him rejoining the club.”

I fold my arms over my chest. “What part of ‘you aren’t really in a position to deal’ do you not understand?”

She leans forward until her lips touch my ear. Her hot breath sends shivers down my spine. “The part of me that knows you’re still thinking about how to wring out one more orgasm from my aching pussy.”

The unexpected words do exactly what she intended. “Witch.”

“Maybe. Did you know three witches made the prophecies that led Macbeth to killing his best friend, Banquo, and then being beheaded himself?” she asks, as if she didn’t just taunt me with visions of eating her and fingering her and fucking her and using whatever sex toys I need to make her come again.