Page 41 of Seizing Control: Part Two

Scroll back through my messages.

Open up the old thread when I find it.

There’s one text in it.

Slash informing that Lily conceived on the night he married her.

Carefully scrolling through the photos that I took upon my arrival, I select the best one, the image where she’s smiling straight at me, then I type out a stream of consciousness that should act as fair warning and a declaration of war.

LAZARUS: This is what you’re missing out on

LAZARUS: Man up or lose them forever...

LAZARUS: Because I won’t allow her to sit around pining for you

LAZARUS: And I definitely won’t allow Garrett to grow up fatherless

LAZARUS: Mine and Lily’s unborn baby will be lucky to have him as a sibling

After hitting send, I toss my phone onto the bathroom basin. The water is hot when I step under it, yet I barely feel the heat as I battle to control my jealousy. I shouldn’t have to goad him into coming back. He should never have left her to begin with. Whereas I had a reason to go, he has no excuse, except cowardice.

My motives, while prideful, have always been pure.

Slash is selfish, driven by fear, and fuelled by a lack of courage.

Once again, I contemplate adding him to my list. It would be so easy. I could kill him, pin it on the Maddison clan, and support Lily through her grief. I mean, it is a fair turnabout. He was supposed to help her mourn my passing, not piss off to the other side of the country because he couldn’t hack the job.

My temper ignites.

The urge to punch Slash in the face is irresistible.

Counting through a breathing cycle, I regain control.

After making quick work of rinsing myself off, I step out from under the water. I can’t hear any talking from the bedroom as I dry myself off, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. My phone lights up on the basin, and I snag it immediately.

SLASH: Stay the fuck away from my wife and kids

As responses go, it’s rather predictable. Still, it makes me smile. He has skin in the game now, the reappearance of his only rival for Lily’s heart. It should put a bomb up his arse, so much so that I expect he’ll ride back into Perth within days. Slash will reappear, like a vulture determined to pick over a kill that he abandoned, now someone else is showing interest in it.

And once he’s home, he’ll throw down an ultimatum and take himself out of the running altogether. If I’m lucky, Lily might even knee him in the balls again as a parting gift.

The thought makes me chuckle.

Towelled off, with almost dry hair, I pad my way across the thick carpet to Lily’s bed. She’s reading something on her tablet, but lowers the device to smile at me when I approach. I grin back at her. Her eyes widen as she takes in my nakedness. With her hair fluffed around her head on the pillow, one shoulder and arm exposed, and half her leg kicked around the side of the blanket, she steals my breath away.

I was the sole recipient of this picture-perfect vision for years.

I’m beyond grateful to be treated to it again.

“Did you know that a reverse harem is a relationship with one woman and as many men as she can handle?”

“Is that a challenge, Lily? Are you saying I’m not enough for you...”

Her smile widens into a smirk. “Nah, just reading a new book.”

“Hmmm.” I pull back the covers so I can run my eyes over her beautiful body. Clad in a skimpy satin nightdress with lace covering her breasts, she’s a sight to behold. “It sounded like a challenge to me...”

When I kneel over her with my knees on either side of her hips and my weight braced on my legs, Lily’s skin breaks out in goosebumps. I run my palms along her arms to her shoulders, then down her chest. Cupping her breasts, I test the new weight in my hands. When I flick my thumbs over nipples, she whimpers.

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