“I’m the one who is going to protect you.” He sat and moved me onto his lap so I was straddling him. His cock hardened against me.
“Please,” I whispered, my fingers trailing down his chest.
“First, you’re going to tell me what you felt when you saw me slumped in that chair and you thought I was dead. No lying this time, babygirl.”
“I was afraid,” I admitted. The words came out smaller than I intended, and I hated him for hearing them.
“Of prison?”
“Of being alone again. Everyone leaves me eventually.” My jaw ached from clenching. I hadn’t meant to say that. I hadn’t meant to say any of it.
His warm hand cupped the side of my face, and I flinched but didn’t pull away. He pulled me down for a gentle kiss. “I’m not going anywhere, Madison. You are going to be the next Mrs. Worthington. I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it.”
“You didn’t make a promise, you made a demand.” I rolled my eyes, and he gave me a slow, dangerous smile.
“I suppose that’s true. Let me make it up to you now.”
“You’re going to let me go?” I asked with a little too much hope in my voice.
The corner of his mouth twitched but he shook his head.
I braced for the crash of disappointment. It didn’t come. What replaced it was worse, and I wasn’t going anywhere near it.
“I’m never letting you go, Madison. You are mine.” He lifted me from his lap and sat me on the desk. “But I suppose I can give you some answers. You have five minutes. Ask whatever you want, and I will answer honestly. But then I get twenty minutes.”
“That’s not fair,” I said.
“Babygirl, there is not a single thing in this life that’s fair. Your time starts now.”
CHAPTER 52
PIERCE
“Why does your ex want to kill you?”
“Because she blames me for our breakup. I may have walked in on her with Greyson, but our relationship was over long before that.”
“Why?”
I expected questions about Jameson. About why I was doing all of this to her.
Not about Skylar. Interesting. Was it possible Madison was jealous? Even more interesting.
“Because she needed things I wasn’t able to give her. She wanted my money, and that was fine, but she expected all my time, energy, and focus while I was busy with other things. And if I’m being honest, I never wanted to come home to her.”
The smart play was to let her think Skylar still mattered. Use her jealousy. But the words had already left my mouth, and I didn’t want them back.
“So she’s working with your brother now?”
I nodded.
“Why is Jameson trying to kill you?”
I pulled at the sides of her robe, untangling the knot at her waist and letting it fall open, exposing every inch of her to thecool air in the study. “Jealousy, mostly. Despite us being twins, I’m the firstborn. The heir apparent. So everything is mine. He’s always hated me for that. He expects the finer things in life, but he’s not willing to work for them. I am.”
I kept talking.
More than I should have. The concern in her eyes was doing something to me I didn’t like, making the truth feel easier than the lie.
