Page 187 of Seizing Control: Part One

“Hunt.” When he spins on his heel, I follow him to the front door. My brother lets the door slam shut in my face. I open it, jogging out to the driveway just as his Harley rumbles to life. “Hunter. You needa listen to me—you can’t go diggin’ into this shit. It’ll blow up in your face. You’ll put everyone at risk. It’ll all be for nothing.”

“Then tell me the truth,” he yells over the growl of his engine. I shake my head. “Fuck. You. Slash. I’m sick to death of you treatin’ me like a liability.” With his fist, Hunter pounds his chest. “I’m a fuckin’ asset. Your secret weapon… if you’ll trust me.”

“I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Venom would use me… Venom trusts me.” My brother hits me with a toothy grin that makes him look borderline insane while he pulls a necklace free of his jacket. The moment I see the hunting knife charm with the sapphire handle he’s showing me, I comprehend that I had lost this fight before it even began. He was testing me, and I failed. “He’s gonna come back, and when he does, he’s gonna take his life back too. All your lies and games and secrets will be for nothin’.”

“Please, Hunt… listen to me?—”

“Nah, fuck you… I’m done with your excuses.”

Revving his Harley, my brother peels out of the driveway.

Mouth open, I watch him go.

I allow myself a moment to spiral, then I storm back inside the house and out the patio doors to the back yard. My wife is in the pool with Nadia, Delia, and the younger old ladies. She turns to me when I approach. The smile on her face lightens the fear in my heart enough that I can feign pleasantness.

“Slash, you should come swim with us.”

“I will,” I tell her. Wolfish grin spreading across my face, I add. “If you come and help me pick out a pair of board shorts.”

Doubt flickers in her gaze for a moment, but Cherub rallies. “Okay.”

It takes every ounce of willpower I possess to keep from slamming my wife against the side of the house and fucking her raw for everyone to see. I need to claim her. Make everyone understand that she’s mine, and she always will be.

Rather than give into my base instinct, I follow her upstairs.

We step over the threshold into our bedroom, and I pounce.

Stripping the towel from her body, the bath sheet drops to the floor, and I circle her waist with my arm as I spin around to perch on the edge of our bed. My dick strains against my zipper. My fingers are clumsy when I free my cock from my jeans. There’s a bite in my grip when I hold Cherub’s waist while I use my free hand to roughly untie her bikini top. When her breasts bounce free, I palm her right tit and suck her left nipple into my mouth. My teeth seesaw over the engorged nub until she hisses. My duchess sinks her fingers into my hair, and she yanks. I let go of my wife’s waist to yank the ties on her bikini bottoms free.

Once she’s bared to me, I lean back to feast on her form with my eyes.

The tattoos her prim and proper work wardrobe usually hide are stark against her perfect skin.

Venom’s marks.

Memories of her life with him.

The sight of them enrages me.

Fisting my cock, I rasp, “Sit.”

“Slash?” My wife takes a small step away from me. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” I snap back at her. “Will be even better once you do as you’re told.”

When Cherub sinks her teeth into her bottom lip, I turn feral. Coarse need floods my veins. Instinct clouds my judgement. I see red. A haze of hatred for Venom. For Cherub. For Hunter. For the hand I’ve been dealt in life.

“Sit on my cock, duchess, or get the fuck outta my sight.”

“Carter…”

My wife’s lapse into my legal name tells me everything I need to know. It’s permission and submission rolled into one delectable package. I collar her throat and use my grip to drag her onto my lap. Cherub’s fingers wrap around my length, steadying my cock before she sinks down over me. The initial push inside of her body is ecstasy, my girth forcing its way into her tight heat, making her whimper when I refuse to take it easy, despite my brutal piercings and her lack of arousal.

“You can feel me, can’t you?”

“Yes.”

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