Page 72 of Theirs to Tempt: The Marriage Claim

Lucian tips his head to the side, as if to say touché.

Then he goes on. “You don’t make the rules, Sophie. Our woman will be protected.”

“I may not agree with that, but I understand there are areas where you’re not negotiable. And this is one where I am not negotiable. You will not spy on me without my knowledge.”

The two men exchange glances.

“If you want me to stop fighting you at every turn, you have to stop being irrational assholes. A camera in front of my place—that I have access to—would have been fine. I guess you two can decide how you want this to go.”

“Acknowledged.”

I sigh. That’s probably as much of an agreement as I’ll ever get out of him.

“Now I want to go home.”

“Before I can allow that to happen, there’s one other matter to discuss.”

I squeeze my eyes shut. After my show of defiance, there’s nothing left of me.

“Last night, after you ripped out the cameras and went to bed, what happened?”

My heart skids into a dizzying slide. “What do you mean?”

I know exactly what he means.

“You were told to masturbate, Sophie. To put on a show.” He captures my chin. “Did you?”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Sophie

My heart stops.

For one strange second, there’s no sound in the enormous penthouse. No distant traffic thirty-eight floors below us. No hum from the climate control. Nothing except the pounding of my pulse.

Lucian’s fingers remain beneath my chin.

“Did you?”

I could lie.

The cameras were gone. Every last one of them.

There’s no possible way they can know what happened after I went to bed.

But Caleb is standing behind me, silent and watchful, and somehow lying feels pointless.

“Yes.”

Lucian goes very still.

The single word seems to change something in the room.

His thumb moves once along the line of my jaw. “You masturbated.”

Heat rushes into my face. “You just asked me that.”

“I want to hear you say it.”