“Probably forget I said that.”
“Share with the class, Ms. Darling.” He smirked, and I hated how much I loved it. “How wet do you get when you touch yourself?”
“That’s not what I meant.” I shoveled lies onto my truth, hoping to hide it.
“I’m going to enjoy making you tell me. You’ll tell me everything I want, and you know why?”
“Why?” I asked, because I was a weak woman giving in to afreaking gorgeous man that probably would never stand in front of me like this again.
He yanked my skirt down in one swift movement, then grabbed the backs of my thighs to shove me onto the counter, spreading my legs wide so I sat there exposed in front of him with just my panties on. “Because we Diamonds might disgust you, but we also get everything we want. Now take your shirt off.”
I lifted my chin even though I was so turned on I knew I was giving myself away—my panties couldn’t hide my arousal. They were wet already. “You get what you want because you take it rather than anyone giving you it willingly.”
His voice rumbled out deep, threaded in irritation. “What if I told you that from now on, you can take Franny anywhere in Paradise Grove that you want, Mia?”
“What?” Was he bribing me? Negotiating?
“Untie your blouse and you can.”
Jesus, that was hotter than I wanted it to be. I bit my lip before bringing my hands to the tie at my side. His blue eyes were there, watching with piercing intensity. “And you show me the rest of the house?”
“Fine. Take. It. Off.”
I undid the material. I gave in. I handed him my naked body on a platter, and as I dropped the fabric over my shoulders, I wondered if I ever really stood a chance at all.
Jameson
SHIT.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
The devil of the darling in front of me was that I couldn’t resist her. And she didn’t even try to resist me either. I’d clocked how her eyes flashed with recognition when I told her I was a part of the Diamonds. Still, she hadn’t left.
It wasn’t common knowledge that a secret society was laced throughout Paradise Grove, but it wasn’t a huge secret either. People talked, rumors spread, and people either believed it or they didn’t.
The thing about the news nowadays was that most people were so self-absorbed they barely even blinked when aliens were proven to be real. No one cared about a secret society … unless, of course, they could benefit from it or lose everything to it.
Ours was the most beneficial, the most influential, and the most powerful in the world. We could hand someone diamonds, or we could hand them the dagger that would end their life. Once people were close enough, they realized that and begged.
Begged for their life. Begged for wealth. Begged for their hopes and their dreams.
They squirmed for most everything. All of them.
But not Mia. Mia Darling had the audacity to turn her nose up to me and look physically ill. Maybe it was the fact that she wasn’t starstruck, that she didn’t bend to my will immediately, that she didn’t fawn over me when most women did. Or maybe it was the fact that she was so uptight and innocent that I wanted to peel back every part of her personality.
She was professional at every turn until it came to taking care of my daughter. Then she pushed and broke every rule. She was sweet to everyone, but when she talked to me, she was rude and disobedient. It fucked with my head enough that I’d avoided her for weeks. Avoidance only went so far when she pushed me in ways I couldn’t ignore, though. Coming into my basement was the last fucking straw.
Indulging in this would deter her and set us straight again. We get a fix and flush it out of our systems. I needed it after the night I’d had. What I didn’t tell her was that I’d already sent my men on a rampage, and that’s why Jacques was here bleeding out. I wouldn’t have us cowering inside my walls a second longer, not when I’d seen how happy Mia and Franny were outside of them.
Mia shouldn’t have been in that equation.
And I shouldn’t have used it as a negotiating tool to get her naked.
Yet, I was a Diamond and a Knight. I’d do anything for the upper hand. Or what I thought was the upper hand, because as that blouse fell from her shoulders, I almost lost my balance.
All the blood flowing straight to my cock must have caused it. And that was a problem for a man who had a million enemies … and one in particular who wasn’t admitting to attacking his daughter’s school. I couldn’t be distracted or have myattention elsewhere. She needed to be swept out of my thoughts and put back in a place where I didn’t give a damn about her.
Yet, her skin was smooth, supple, not a tattoo in sight other than a small one on her wrist as I dragged an inked knuckle over one breast. I was interested in why she hadn’t marked up her body more and wanted to ask, to see if her answer would be as judgmental as her comment about the Diamonds. Everything about the woman had become interesting to me. Why she liked fuchsia, even. The fact that I remembered such small things about her was getting to be ridiculous.
