Page 75 of Servitude to Serpents

I swallow hard, glaring at the clouds passing by the window of my jet.

I can’t fucking do it…

God, I—

“Sir.”

My eyes cut toward Stuart as he rubs his hand down his face, having just woken. “Should we still plan to stop by the range before heading to the estate?”

I want to say no.

I want to go home and crush her to my chest, soak her in.

“Yes, thank you.”

He nods.

She’s a tool.

Nothing else matters but this.

I’ll do what needs to be done because I always have, no matter how uncomfortable. I’ve killed too many, made too many plans. Too many cards are in play to back out now. I’ll do it because this is about more than me. It’s more than the man who helped my father raise me, the one who dedicated himself to my revenge. It’s more than the way my father shoved himself in front of me that night. I was fucking cocky, young, ready to prove myself. So, I took the information Tyet offered greedily. When my father and Stuart told me it didn’t feel right, that nothing was free, I didn’t listen. They trusted my gut.

They trusted me like he’s trusting me now.

To be a man of my word.

A man of my convictions.

An eye for an eye. That’s how our world works.

When it’s time for Pup to take back the eye my world owes her, I’ll be the first to jerk mine from its socket, nerves and all.

I fired every weapon in my arsenal before I relented and headed home. The destruction failed to offer the release it generally does. My shoes press on the hardwood, and I know without checking the camera she’s waiting for me. I can feel it in every fiber of my being. Somehow, overnight, she turned from something I bought to humor myself, from nothing more than a pretty hole to pleasure myself with, to someone I treasured. My body, in the blink of an eye, attuned itself to her. I became hyperaware, every fiber of my being calling, screaming out for her warmth.

I round the corner, finding her in her submissive position in front of my desk, dozing against it.

“It’s late isn’t it, pet?”

She leans up, rubbing her eyes. “Welcome home, Master.” Those pretty doe eyes turn on me, devastating in their impact. My jaw clenches, looking away from her as she crawls over to me, wishing for the first time in my life I could shut my cock off.

“Thank you. You should get to bed.”

“I thought you might find use of me…” She lifts her eyes from my shoes, looking up at me from under her pale lashes.

My cock jerks. “Bed. Now, Pup.”

She frowns, slamming her eyes back down as her breasts heave under her silky nightgown. Royal blue. Even unintentionally, she torments my self-control as I step around her. “Because you found use of someone else.”

I halt, her words stunning me for a moment. She’s jealous. That turns me on as much as it frustrates me. Again and again, I’ve thought of taking another to wipe her from me, only to find my cock entirely uninterested. “If I have, it would be no business of yours, would it, dog?” I seethe, stalking over to her wide, shocked eyes as I jerk her over my shoulder, landing two hard smacks on her ass before marching down the hall and depositing her on her bed.

“Sir! Please!” She screams, the sound digging into my gut like a blade. “I’m sorry—" I slam the door before she can reach it, locking it behind me. Then, like the masochist she’s turning me into, I stand there and listen to her beg me to come back, my back meeting the wall beside her door as I slide down it.

Stuart’s disproving glare meets mine as he halts in the hall, a stack of papers in his hand. He shakes his head, tossing the stack to my feet before taking a deep breath, no doubt editing whatever he was about to say. “Do what you need to do to sort this out.” He gestures to the door, to the crying woman inside it. “You have less than two weeks before we need her to do her part, for you to do yours.”

I look away from him for the twelfth time today, debating sucking off one of my shotguns.

“Have you even told her what’s expected of her?”

---