Page 34 of Reluctantly His

Fuck my life.

I’d done it again. I’d let my growing feelings for her cloud my focus.

From the jump, I had miscalculated everything.

First, I thought I could scare her into running to daddy to get me reassigned, only to get caught in my own trap the moment I kissed her.

After over a year of watching her from afar, enjoying her sweet beauty and the haunting stillness of her smile, I thought I had her figured out. I thought she was a pretty piece of pink cotton candy fluff.

I never saw her intelligence, her talent, her secret fire.

Until it was too late.

I was already trapped within her flames.

Now, when given the chance for freedom, I’d refused and argued with Lucian to stay on as her guard. Only to once again, have the decision proven disastrous.

“You’re still throwing away your talent,” I shot back.

Rising with the poise of a queen, she crossed to the door and turned to look at me over her shoulder. “So are you. But sometimes we don’t get to choose our own path. It’s chosen for us.” After swinging open the door, her tone was as cold as ice. “Sergeant Taylor, please take me home.”

CHAPTER 13

LUCIAN

“Are you fucking with me?” I asked as I rubbed my temple.

“No, sir,” responded Reid over the phone. “I’ve reconsidered our previous conversation and believe I’m better served overseeing the security detail while still investigating any future threats.”

Yanking on my tie knot, I pulled it over my head before working the buttons of my shirt. “Fine. I’m paying you to make these decisions. Besides, soon it won’t be either of our concern.”

“What does that mean, sir?”

My office door swung open, and Mary Astrid strolled in with my very flustered secretary following in her wake.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Manwarring. She stormed past me.”

I waved the secretary off. Turning to my desk, I said, “I have to go, Reid. Just handle it.” I then hit the speaker button, disconnecting the call.

Mary smirked as she sauntered toward me.

Placing her frigid hands on my chest, she deliberately ran her red claws down my skin. “Just like I remember all those years ago.”

Instead of just stepping back, I held my ground as I latched my hands around her wrists and pulled her off me. “That night is long in the past. I’ve told you never to come here.”

I’d made it a point to never regret anything I’d done in my life.

Regret was a waste of time.

Decisions were made with the best information in that moment. I was too busy running an empire to muck about second-guessing them. Regardless of how things unfolded.

The one exception to that rule was Mary Astrid.

One drunk, grief-laden night. I played it off as a crap fuck, one of many over the years, but the truth was that Mary was the first and the only woman I’d been with since my wife’s death.

I’d tried to move on several times but just didn’t.

It was easier to focus on materialistic things that I could rely on, like money.

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