I froze in his arms, completely dumbfounded.
To an outsider, it would’ve looked like an embrace—tender, sweet, the coupling of two people crackling with anger and unwanted lust. To me, it was a torment—a farce.
Pulling back, he whispered, “Do you know we met when we were young? I barely remember, and I’m a few years older than you, so I doubt you will recall.”
“What?” My mind flew backward, trying to remember a fiendish little boy with icy winds in his soul. “When?”
He reached up, undoing my ponytail and running his strong fingers through the strands. “Back in London. We met for ten minutes. My grandmother escorted me. They made us sign something—you used a crayon that you’d been drawing a bright pink dress with.”
My heart stormed with denial. How could that be?
Jethro bared his teeth, his eyes locking onto my lips. “That was the first document they made us sign—the beginning of our entwined fate. However, soon you’ll be signing something else.”
Oh, God. My stomach revolted at giving him any more rights over me.
It wouldn’t happen. The only thing I’d sign when it came to the Hawks was their death certificates.
His thumb traced my bottom lip. “You can’t say no. You promised.”
I shook my head. “When?”
“When you ran. We agreed if you didn’t make it to the boundary, you would sign another document—one just between us that trumps everything else.” The tips of his cool, no longer warm, fingers trailed along my collarbone. He leaned in and placed the slightest of kisses on my cheek. “I’ve been rather busy, so haven’t had time to draw it up, but once I do, that’s the one I’ll treasure. That’s the one that will contain your soul.”
I tore from his grip.
I couldn’t stand it any longer.
I slapped him.
Hard.
Viciously hard and firm and so full ofanger.I wanted to smite him into the ground.
He hissed between his teeth as my palm print glowed instantly on his shaven cheek.
I seethed, “You’re forgetting that no matter how many contractsyou make me sign, none of them will own my soul. I own that. Me! And I’ll make you watch, before this is over, while I burn your house to the ground and bury your family.”
Jethro turned to a rock.
Grabbing the diamond collar around my neck, I hissed, “And this. I’ll find a way to remove it. I’ll tear every single diamond from the setting and donate it to victims of bastards like you.”
Jethro’s anger dissolved, almost as if he shed it in one swoop. His smile was forced, but the passion in his eyes was fire not frost. “Bastards like me? I don’t think thereareother bastards like me.”
Suddenly he lashed out, grabbing the diamond choker and dragging me forward.
My hands flew to cover his, cursing the huge flare of agony down my spine.
His lips hovered over mine, instantly igniting my overwhelming need to be kissed. How many times would he tease me and not deliver? How many times must he jerk me close, whisper his taste across my lips, and renege on following through? “I told you, you can’t get it off.” His finger trailed to the back of the necklace, tugging gently. “There is no possible way to get this off once it’s on. No key. No trick.”
I gasped, stumbling a little as vertigo played on the outskirts of my vision. “There has to be a way to undo it.”
After all, you took it from my mother’s corpse.
Jethro smiled grimly. “Oh yes, it comes undone when it’s no longer fastened tightly around something as impeccable as your neck.” His beautiful face twisted with something hideously evil. “Think of an old-fashioned handcuff, Ms. Weaver.” He forced two fingers down the collar, effectively strangling me. “It has to get tighter and tighter...” He tried to fit a third finger but it wouldn’t work. Dark spots danced in front of my eyes.
My heart bucked and collided.
“It has to revolve on itself to open, only then will the latch snap free and be ready to be fastened again.”
