Page 67 of Theirs to Tempt: The Marriage Claim

Another fifteen minutes later, she opens the bathroom door, wearing a tightly belted robe, her hair damp at the ends.

Then she enters her room.

Instead of climbing into bed, she resumes her hunt, dragging a chair from the corner and climbing up to reach higher spots.

One by one, she finds most of the cameras, and she disconnects them, dropping them into the trash bin with satisfying little thuds.

She does better than we expected.

Annoyance flares through me, the kind that sharpens every edge of me.

I clench my jaw so tightly that a muscle jumps.

She is ours to watch, ours to protect, ours to possess in every way.

My fury turns cold, spreading through me like ice water over steel.

Caleb’s brow furrows beside me, his concern evident in the subtle tension along his shoulders. “Those cameras were there for her safety as much as our pleasure. If something happens tonight⁠—”

Another camera hits the trash. Then another. Her movements grow bolder, more triumphant, until she reaches the last one. She looks directly into the lens, that beautiful face breaking into a defiant grin, and she waves—slow, deliberate, taunting.

The feed cuts to static, then blank darkness.

The silence in the penthouse feels deafening, broken only by the distant hum of the city far below.

I leash my fury, twisting it into cold resolve.

She has pushed. She has challenged. And now she will learn.

There hasn’t been a brat in history that I haven’t been able to handle.

I raise my glass of Bonds in salute of her momentary victory.

But her triumph will be short lived.

Caleb looks at me. “You have a plan?”

“Most definitely.”

“And she’s not going to like it.”

I narrow my eyes. “You can count on that.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Sophie

“Start with the worst part,” Piper says.

I stare at her across the small café table. “I genuinely have no idea which part that is.”

Her eyebrows rise.

I wrap both hands around my coffee, buying myself another few seconds even though I’m the one who asked her to meet me. All morning I’ve been trying to sort through last night, and every time I think I have a handle on one piece, another one crashes into it.

Finally I exhale. “I went to the Retreat.”

Piper almost drops her cup. “You what?”