Page 83 of Unwillingly His

“No, I want to stand.” She stuck her chin up in the air, making her new pink hair fall back, exposing her long neck and showing off the new piercings in her ears.

“Fine, but I am going to sit.” I went to the armchairs that were covered in feathers but otherwise unharmed, dusted one off, then sat. “First, I don’t give a fuck what you do to your hair. Dye it a new color every day. Get as many piercings as you want, but if you decide to get your pretty little clit pierced, it had better be a woman doing it.”

Stella rolled her eyes, but I could see she was trying not to crack a smile.

She could fight it all she wanted, but she liked that I was possessive. She liked that I wanted to keep her to myself.

“Come here.”

She took a few steps closer to me, but it wasn’t close enough. I grabbed her arm and pulled her into my lap.

“Listen to me very closely, baby girl. I need you to hear everything I say. Is that understood?”

“Yes,” she mumbled, her head bent low so her hair fell in a pink curtain, hiding her face.

“I have no interest in your father’s money. I am managing it because that is what I do. I am also trying to track down some things that don’t make sense in your father’s books to protect you from whatever shady dealings your father may have been involved with.”

“My father wasn’t like you. He didn’t have shady dealings,” she sniffed.

“Your father was, at minimum, into some insider trading. But I think it was more, something with the Russian mafia,” I explained.

She shook her head.

“I don’t know for sure either way yet, and for the most part, I don’t care. I’m not judging him. I am just trying to make sure that no one is going to come after you.”

“But—”

“No, I said listen.”

She pressed her lips together and hid in her hair again.

“Before your father died, he was working on a deal to marry you to Ziegler. Do you know who that is?”

She nodded.

“Do you know what he did to Charlotte? How he put her in danger to stage some fucking PR stunt? Used her as a human shield and got her shot?”

I hadn’t wanted to believe it when I heard it.

In fact, I didn’t, but when I saw the video, I banished him back to his country. The little pissant didn’t listen. He tried to take my daughter again. So I ruined him. I had his creditors call in his debts, and his title was stripped. But he got to Deiderich before I could finish him.

“When your parents died while you were still in the hospital, I got a notification that Ziegler was back. He had a plan to claim you. He was going to forge the certificates and then have you institutionalized if you didn’t go along with it.”

“He couldn’t.”

I leveled a look at her that said she wasn’t that stupid.

“I chased him out of the country again and took ownership before he had the chance to get back to the city.”

“You stole my money to protect it?”

“You are young and in pain. He could have taken advantage of that. Where would you be? Married to a man you didn’t choose, who beats you.”

“You have beaten me.” Her voice was timid.

“Have I? Or have I taught you the things your body can handle and how a little pain makes the pleasure so much deeper?” I brushed her hair out of her face, tucking the cotton candy locks behind her ear just so I could see her blush.

“You really don’t care about the money?”

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