Page 51 of Reluctantly His

Drag her away to some isolated shack on a beach on the other side of the world, where I would fuck her senseless until her belly swelled with my child.

Then there would be nothing her father could do to separate us.

Curling my hands around my steering wheel, I let out a howl of rage as I rattled the wheel with my grip.

There wasn’t a chance in hell I would do any of that for the simple reason that it would upset and embarrass Charlotte.

Charlotte.

My sweet babygirl.

My sweet, innocent martyr to her family name.

I knew all about the hard pull of responsibility when it came to the family legacy. I’d resisted a similar pull several years ago, but it had cost me dearly. I hadn’t spoken to my own father, or anyone in my family, for close to a decade.

She was right about one thing. Freedom had a steep price.

I went to a bar to drown my frustration in a few drinks, but my rage did not abate.

How dare they disrespect my princess like that?

They took that beautiful angel and made her feel worthless.

After several drinks and turning down a few women, I left my truck in the parking lot and walked back to the estate, hoping the cold air would sober me up.

I had been just drunk enough to actually consider doing this, and now I was sober enough to pull it off.

In only a few moments, I went from being outside to standing at Charlotte’s bedroom door. Being the head of security and knowing all the guards and alarm codes had their benefits.

It was well after 2:00 a.m. and she was curled up in bed asleep, like an adorable little kitten.

This was wrong. Her bedroom should be sacred, somewhere that no one could enter, let alone a drunk man with a massive chip on his shoulder, and a raging pierced hard-on.

“Princess, wake up,” I said, stumbling into her room.

“Reid?” she asked, blinking several times and clearing the sleep from her eyes.

“Shhh,” I said as I took off my shirt, throwing it to the side and then kicking off my boots. “We don’t want to wake anyone up.”

“No one else has a room in this wing anymore.” She sat up, pressing the thick down comforter to her body. I couldn’t see much. The light in the room came from some ambient city light outdoors, but mostly the full moon. “What are you doing here?”

“What I should have done days ago,” I said, unbuckling my pants and letting them fall to the ground.

Her eyes met mine, and I stood up straight, letting her take in all of me.

Slowly, her gaze trailed over my body, taking in all of my tattoos, the muscles from years of training, the scars, and the piercing on my already hard cock.

“Reid, this isn’t right.”

I leaned my knee against the bed and captured her face in my hands. “You don’t think I know that? You don’t think this all started as some bullshit plan to get you to run complaining to your father?”

“Well, it worked. I did! I kept up my side of your plan. You’re the one who told my father no.”

My thumbs caressed her cheeks. “Yes, you did—you beautiful, stubborn sweet pain in the ass. I was the bastard who went and fucked things up by falling for you. Fucking hard.”

She tried to look away, but I tightened my grip. “Please, don’t feed me some line. I get enough false flattery from the world because of my family name.”

I slowly shook my head. “It’s not some damn line, baby. For years, I watched from the sidelines as you were paraded through one event after another. I thought it was all an act. I figured there was no way you could be as sweet and innocent as that shy smile of yours hinted. That you had to be a spoiled brat behind the scenes. And I was right.”

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