Page 49 of Bitter Secrets

His words sank into her like weighted darts. “Am I included in that?” She stared at a spot just beyond his left ear. “Did you target me because you thought it was the quickest way to get to the next level?”

“What do you think?”

Her stomach iced over at his quick comeback. He wasn’t thrown by the question and didn’t try to change the subject.

“You know what I believe.” She forced herself to look at him. “Prove me wrong.”

He eyed her coolly and seemed in no hurry to pick up the gauntlet she threw down. The only sound in the office came from the insistent tap of rain on glass and the hum of the scanner that happily ate up the contract.

She slammed her hands against his chest. “Say something!”

“I knew right from the start that you didn’t fit into your father’s world. You didn’t measure up to your sisters and were unhappy, neglected, lonely.”

His brutal summation of her felt like a punch in the gut.

“I played my hand. I wanted to see how far you would let me in. I didn’t expect you to be so accommodating.”

Rage obliterated all rational thought.“You son of a bitch!”

She went for his face. He grabbed her wrist, but not quick enough. She scored a hit on his cheek before he crushed her fingers in his. She screeched and tried to smash his balls, but he shifted to protect himself, unbalancing her, so she toppled off his lap. She fell on her ass, but was on her feet before him. She managed to kick his shin before he whirled her around and bear-hugged her from behind. When she tried to stomp his foot, he bent her over the desk. Her arms swept out, sending stacks of paper, fountain pen, phone, and keyboard flying. She assumed he would release her to save his precious paperwork, but he stayed put behind her.

“You were so trusting, so responsive,” he taunted.

She thrashed, but it got her nowhere. She might as well be battling an immovable boulder. “Shut the fuck up!”

“So pure and ready to give yourself to someone. Your father was a fool for leaving you unprotected and vulnerable to a man like me. He should have known I wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation to taste something so fucking sweet.”

She shoved his computer off the desk. The ominous crash and flare of sparks should have worried her, but she was too enraged to care about fires or personal injury. She slammed her fist on the desk so hard, it went numb. “Get off me!”

She felt a gust of cold air as he lifted her dress.

“You touch me, I swear to God I’ll—”

He smacked her ass hard enough to knock the wind out of her. She erupted beneath him, kicking and screaming, popping buttons off her dress and bruising her thighs on the desk drawers as she kicked, all to no avail. She fought with all she had, but it wasn’t enough. When she slumped over the desk, sweating and panting, he wrapped her hair around his hand to hold her still as he kissed her cheek.

“You let me claim what I shouldn’t have had access to in the first place. You should know not to feed a poor man. He’ll never leave you alone.”

A tear splashed on the gleaming desk.

“The poor man’s become a rich man. Now he can afford to gorge, but nothing measures up.” He rocked against her stinging ass. “There’s an empty well inside him that nothing can fill. He’ll topple companies, destroy relationships, pay millions to reclaim what he once got for free.” He buried his face in her hair. “He didn’t realize that he was still starving.”

A heavy hand on her back applied pressure, ready to pin her if necessary, but there was no need. She had nothing left. There was a rasp of a zipper, and then he was fitting himself to her. She was ashamed that she was wet enough to take him. He raised her knee and placed it on the edge of the desk, opening her wide for him. She rested the side of her face against the wood grains as he began to move, trying to insulate herself from what was happening and his brutal confession. She managed to mentally distance herself until the end, when he fucked her hard enough that her nails scrabbled over the sleek surface. He bit her shoulder as he came, battering her against the desk until he was empty.

The moment he disengaged, she straightened and brushed her dress down. She kept her back to him as she skirted around the desk and headed for the door. She was halfway across the room before he blocked her way. She stared at his throat, unable to look him in the eye.

“Get out of my way,” she said in a dead monotone.

He picked her up. She prepared to fight, but what was the use? She wouldn’t win against him. When had she ever? Instead, she shut her eyes and let her arms and legs hang limply as he carried her out of the office. Her face rode his shoulder as he walked. He settled her on the bed in the master suite and began to undress her. She lay like a lifeless doll as he pulled off her boots and discarded her clothes.

She closed her eyes and willed him to leave. She started when he cupped her cheek. She turned in the opposite direction and got her lips captured by his. She clawed at him, but he didn’t back away or allow her to break the kiss. His tongue glided over hers, coaxing her to respond when all she had for him was rage and hopeless despair. When a hand slid between her legs, she recoiled, but he didn’t back off.

He swallowed her protests. Despite her struggles, his touch remained gentle. It was worlds away from what he did to her in his office. That was pure domination, him completely stripped of all civility. That was the beast she’d always baited but had never seen completely unleashed. And this… this, she didn't understand.

It went on forever. She begged him to stop, but he didn’t take his hand away until the sheets beneath her were bunched up and damp. When he slid inside her again, she grunted in surprise. How the hell could he be hard again? He brushed kisses over her wet cheeks as he rocked against her.

“You never should have come up to me that night,” he murmured against her ear. “You should have kept your distance like your sisters, not that that would have saved you. I noticed you before you approached me. Your laugh carried across the room.”

When she let out a choked sob, he hummed in the back of his throat and nuzzled her while he continued to fuck her.

---