Page 11 of Now You're Mine

Lucas was right about one thing; she doesn’t give a fuck about Tyler or what happened to him. This is about revenge, plain and simple.

A while later—I don’t even know how long—the door opens and Lux walks into the room with her new lapdog trailing behind her. Ash glares at me as he walks in, and I feel Lucas’s hand on my arm, holding me back like he knows I’m ready to throw down.

I clench my jaw and force my gaze to Lux. “We need to talk.” I pause, my gaze sliding to Ash, then back to Lux. “Alone.”

If I have her alone, then there’s a slim chance I can talk some sense into her. I have to try, anyway, because this shit is crazy, and shehasto know that.

She lifts a brow. “You can’t say whatever it is in front of yourbros?”

“No, I can’t,” I say through gritted teeth, just trying to keep my shit together. Fucking-A. I need to push my fist through someone’s face. Scratch that, I need to push my fist throughAsh’sface, and every second I’m in his presence, we move closer to that happening.

Lux flicks her gaze over me, and sighs, turning to the guys. “Can you guys give us the room?”

“Give you the fucking room?” Lucas sputters. “What are we the fucking wait staff?” He scoffs, and glances at me, like,do you hear this bitch?

“Lucas…” I say. “Guys. Just…give us a minute.”

Lucas throws me a look, and I throw one right back, like,trust me, dude.

Finally, with a harsh sigh, Lucas pushes off the desk and moves toward the door. “Come on, guys.” Christian and Jackson follow him, but Ash is rooted to the spot, still staring at me like he doesn’t trust me with my own consort.

“You, too, dipshit,” Lucas calls over his shoulder to Ash.

Lux nods at him, just slightly, and only then does Ash turn and head toward the door. He’s fucking whipped, and they’re not even together. I pause. Are they?

Fuck, I don’t even need to go down that road. She’s sleeping in my bedroom, and to be honest, it’s why I haven’t fought her taking over my room. If I were to insist she leave, who knows where she’d end up? Ash’s bed?

I watch Ash turn reluctantly and move toward the door. He’s the last to leave, so he shuts the door behind him.

I’m facing Lux, and she’s looking back at me with a strength I’ve only briefly glimpsed in her before. In her white robe, the deep hood pulled over her head, her chestnut waves flowing over her shoulders, she looks….powerful, like the queen I made her.

“Well,” I say, moving to the desk, I lean against it and pick up Lucas’s half-smoked blunt from the ashtray. It hangs limplybetween my lips as I use Lucas’s cheap lighter to get it going. Once it’s lit, I take a deep draw, the fragrant smoke filling my lungs. “The queen thing looks good on you,” I say, my gaze raking over her.

I should bend her over the sofa and fuck her right now.

She might feel empowered now, ripping my whole fucking life apart, but sex is where I’llalwaysbe in control. She could be queen of the entire fucking world, and she’dstillopen those sweet thighs on my command.

Even when she says “no,” she means “please, God, yes,” and that’s something she can’t fake. I know her too well at this point.

Her eyes narrow, like she’s already suspicious of my motives for wanting her alone. Good. She should be. “You can’t stop me from dethroning you,” she says. “...if that’s what you wanted to talk to me about. Things have already been set in motion.”

With the blunt still hanging from my lips, I push off the desk and move to stand in front of her. We’re only inches apart, and she sucks in a sharp breath.

There.

There it is.

That sharp breath is the only indication that my proximity affects her, but as much as she’s trying to hide it, her body will always betray her when it comes to me. That’s a fucking fact.

I let my gaze wander over her lazily before climbing up to collide with her vibrant moss-green eyes.Fuck,she’s beautiful when she’s angry.

I take another draw from the blunt, then hold it out to her. For a second, she doesn’t do anything, but eventually, she takes it from me, sucking in a long pull. Her eyes close briefly as she pulls the smoke into her lungs, and holds it for a second, before releasing it.

Smoke fills the air between us, and her eyes flutter open as she hands the blunt back to me. Pinching it off, I shove it into my pocket. “You know you can’t do this,” I say calmly.

“Do what?” she has the balls to ask.

“Destroy a society that’s been in existence for over a hundred years.” My hungry gaze falls to her lips. What I would give to taste them right now. My entire trust fund, probably. “And anyway, what would it do in the end? Would it erase what happened with my brother last year? Would it bring Bree back?”

---