Page 51 of Reckless Seduction
But I can’t begin to fathom how a relationship like ours would work. Our father has named my brother and me both as heirs. We will rule the next generation of our family together, something that has never been done before. In taking this position, it means we will have to give up not only a marriage that revolves around love, but also our proclivities for sharing.
That has never been an issue before.
Even though we share, we have never fallen for the same woman.
Until Bailey.
There is something about our blue-eyed captive that sets our souls on fire. Our blood boils in our veins whenever she touches us. I mean, Jesus, the woman has me harder than a rock with just a simple glance. It is something neither of us has experienced before.
And it can’t last.
We are the heirs to one of the most powerful families in the Pacific Northwest, and nothing we deem to be good can last.
NINETEEN
Seamus growsquiet as I study the board in front of me. His jaw clenches, his hands tightening into fists, his thoughts no doubt taking a dark turn. I want to touch him. Comfort him. But the reality of the situation is that I don’t know if that’s all right.
Because I don’t know him.
I don’t know either of them.
And yet, I want to. Despite the obvious Stockholm syndrome I’m sporting. Fuck. All those years of dissingTwilight, and here I am pulling a Bella Swan. I do have a better excuse than her, though.
Two, actually.
Two wicked, wicked tongues.
I’m not ever telling them that, though.
“So what’s the plan?” I tilt my head to get a better look at him. “I’m assuming there’s a reason you woke me up at the butt crack of dawn.”
It’s not that we didn’t get any sleep. Because we did. Too much, in my opinion. This would be more worth it if they had fucked me like they keep threatening.
Instead, I was tucked into bed like a child and told to sleep.
Which I did.
Like the dead.
Still disappointing.
Seamus doesn’t say anything for a few moments, his eyes still on the board, but soon he shakes his head, the melancholy disappearing from his face as if it was never there.
“The plan,” he smiles broadly, the carefree man returning, “is simple. Ava is going to be attending the gala with Leon, one of Matthias’s enforcers.”
“Why isn’t she attending with him?”
His mouth twitches into a scowl. “Because the two of them still have some issues to work out, apparently,” he sneers. “No one outside of the family and his men knows they’re married. Not even my mother.”
“Oh.”
A twinge of sadness nips at my soul for his sister. Much like me, she grew up believing her family didn’t love or value her above what she could offer them. I was fifteen when it became abundantly clear that, to my father, the only usefulness I held was a marriage alliance and providing my husband with an heir.
It was at that age that I was forced to endure my first examination to make sure I was fertile and able to carry children. Because, according to Sarah, a woman is only as good as her womb. I nearly shoved the doctor’s forceps into her neck. Instead, I snapped back.
“Guess you’re pretty useless then, right?” I snarked. “Since all you birthed was a girl, and now you’re as barren as the Sahara?”
That earned me three days locked in my room with no food and barely any water.
