Page 169 of Seizing Control: Part One

Break.

“Carter,” my wife says my legal name in the loving tone she reserves just for me. As always, the sound makes every dumbarse hope I’ve ever had for us collect in the middle of my chest like a ball of lava. My need for her singes my soul, yet I can’t bring myself to meet her eyes. “Look at me.”

My eyelids droop.

I shake my head.

“Please?”

The submission in her voice is unexpected. It adds a lick of intrigue to the turbulence buffeting me from pillar to post. Banks my affection for her. Stokes my anger at her. Even as the alcohol makes my brain slow, my reaction is swift as I collar her throat with my right hand. With my left, I shove her backward, enjoying the gasp that leaves her lips when her shoulder blades connect with the wall, then I cup her crown with the same hand that pushed her to absorb the impact as her head snaps back from the force.

Eyes wide, I stare down at my duchess. “I’m lookin’… ain’t seein’ nothin’ I want, but.”

Her cheeks flush pink.

Her bright gaze gleams wetly.

Her chin gives a little wobble.

“Don’t be a fuckhead,” Toker warns. He’s so close to me that I can feel his breath on the back of my neck. “I’ll take her home—make sure you don’t see her until ya apologise.”

“Home?” My smirk is cruel as I ask, “Where’s your home, Cherub? It hasn’t been with your husband… I know that much. So, wife, tell me where you’ve been for the past two months?”

“Okay, husband…” she retorts without pause. Blue eyes flashing, my wife fixes me with a malicious glare. “I’ll tell you.” Again, her breathy tone hits me in the chest. I burn with desire to kiss her, but I rein it in. Opening myself up to rejection, hot on the heels of Cub’s confession is a recipe for disaster. I’m barely hanging on by a thread as my wife stretches to her full height within my constricting grip. She lifts on to her tiptoes, fighting my hold on her neck as she angles her mouth to mine. My duchess’ lips brush mine as she says, “I was at Hades’ farm. Sleeping in Zeke’s old bed.”

My fingers tighten around her throat.

I curl my top lip into a snarl.

A feral sound rumbles from the depths of my soul.

With my bulk, I leer over her and pin her hard between my body and the wall.

“You were where?”

Her nose wrinkles when she gets a face full of beer breath, then my wife rallies to snap back at me, “You heard me.”

“I’m givin’ you a chance to backtrack before I do what I’ve been promisin’ for months.”

“Remind me, Carter… what have you been promising?”

“Startin’ to think it might be the only way to bring you to heel.” Heart pounding, I dip my head to inhale the scent of her shampoo mixed with her perfume. I smell Zeke and myself on her. It’s enraging. As the darkness I’ve been fighting for more than a decade takes over, and I feel the full force of my jealousy seize control of me, I brush my lips over the shell of Cherub’s ear. My next words are for my wife’s hearing only, spoken in a low murmur that makes her shiver, “I’ve warned you more than once… I’ll spank that arse of yours scarlet.”

Seemingly oblivious to my tenuous grip on sanity, my duchess smirks.

On a logical level, I know that I’ve given her the reaction she wanted. Proven that she is still under my skin when I should’ve made her believe I’m impervious to her proximity. But I’m too far gone to heed the mental caution clanging in my brain as Cherub repeats, loud enough for everyone in our immediate vicinity to hear, “I was at Hades’ farm. Sleeping in Zeke’s old bed.”

The bikers in the compound freeze like someone’s pulled a gun.

“Fuckin’ hell,” Toker curses.

Cherub’s grin widens.

My hand moves from her throat to her nape.

I want to shake her.

It takes every ounce of willpower to settle for gripping her arse with my other hand instead. I knead her soft curves too hard. Hold her too tight. When I press my hard-on to her belly, Cherub immediately softens in my angry embrace. Her breasts pillow against my ribcage. I’m shaking as I lift her off her feet, a stuttering breath of relief ripped from me when she readily hooks her legs around my waist.

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