My pulse explodes; the heat between my legs floods all around me. “Ruin. Me.”
The devilish curl of his smile is all I see as he thrusts forward, his cock splitting me open in one brutal push. His forehead presses hard against mine, as he lets out a ragged snarl. “This tight little pussy wasn’t built to take me, was it? Doesn’t matter. You’ll take it like a good little Omega Chi whore.”
I cry out, my nails digging into his arms. The stretch burns. Jasper was gentle, and kind, and Dredyn is anything but. Every inch of me is filled with him.
He barely gives me a moment to adjust when he begins to move. My body fights to take him, but I welcome him entirely. “Clenching like you want it raw. You like the risk? Like not knowing if I’m gonna fuck a future senator’s brat into you tonight?”
“Get me pregnant. See how fast the Syndicate makes you disappear.” The words are dangerous only because I mean them.
He stills for a fraction and then laughs, harder this time. “Now that’s the kind of recklessness I like.”
I cling to him, nails carving red trails down his back. When he growls in my ear, it vibrates all the way through me. The world fractures. Pain and pleasure knot together until I’m crying out with every thrust.
His hand knots in my hair, yanking my head back. “Look atme.”
His hips slam harder, crueler, his cock battering deep as my body clenches around him. The sound I make is a wrecked sob, and he laughs. “That’s it, cry for me. You sound filthy when you beg without words.”
With that, I shatter, my nails digging crescent moons into his skin, my whole body convulsing in an orgasm around him. He pounds me through it, refusing to let up.
His weight crushes me into the couch as the last shudders of his release pulse hot inside me. When he finally pulls out, I feel wrecked and messy. He doesn’t leave, though. He stays bent over me, arms braced on either side, sweat dripping onto my chest. “Listen to me, Hellcat. Don’t ever ask about Evangeline again. Not with me. Not with Jasper. It’ll only break him, and you don’t want to see what that looks like.”
Before I can answer, his hand slides up, fingers gripping my jaw until I have no choice but to meet his gaze. “And Chase?” His lip curls, venom in the word. “Stay the fuck away from him.”
A bitter laugh tears out of me. “You think Ican? My father, Milo, they put me in his path every chance they get. I don’t get to choose?—”
“You’re wrong.” His grip tightens, the heat of him sinking into my bones. “You’re Mara Black. You could burn down their empire if you wanted. And as OCK property…” His smile is all teeth, feral. “You have all the gasoline you need for it.”
He pulls back just enough to watch my face, his thumb dragging across my swollen bottom lip, smearing blood from where I bit too hard. “Stop thinking you’re just your father’s pawn. You belong to us now. And with us, you’re a fucking queen.”
THIRTY-SIX
MARA
The mirror is a liar and I love that for it. It shows what I want it to—my hair brushed, my skirt straight, my lipstick perfectly placed. But it can’t show the parts that move under my skin.
A week. Seven days until election night. Seven days until my father stands under the lights and the country swallows his mouthful of promises. The thought sits in my chest like a brick.
I fiddle with a button until my fingertip goes numb. Milo’s boys pad past, outside my door, laughing too loud—the sound of the jailers escorting me through my own life. My father thinks putting me here, under Milo’s roof, under Milo’s friends’ watch, keeps me safe. Keeps me tidy. Keeps the scandal off his suit. He’s wrong.
The knock is polite, but he doesn’t wait for a response. My father fills the doorway with his tailored suit.
“You look presentable,” he says.
I let the correct smile practice itself across my face without permission. “Thank you.”
“I came by because I thought you’d enjoy me picking you and your brother up, rather than having you meet us tonight.”
“I don’t need an escort,” I answer lightly, keeping my eyes on the lipstick in my hand.
“You don’t decide what you need, Mara. I do.” His gaze lingers on me in the mirror. “The last thing this family needs is another slipup from you.”
Heat climbs my neck. “I haven’t slipped.”
“You keep sneaking around with those Omega Chi boys, right? I know you keep running around with that trash. You think I don’t have eyes everywhere?”
I freeze, hand stilled on the lipstick.
“You are an embarrassment. If you don’t stop, I will pull you out of Ashen Grove. Do not think I won’t. I will do whatever it takes to protect this family.”
