Page 37 of The Reluctant Wife

“The ring you inherited from our grandmother; you didn’t give that to her.”

Arthur’s wife, Laura had left each of us brothers a ring from her jewelry collection. She also gave us instructions that we were to give it to the woman with whom we fell in love. It never occurred to me to give it to Jane. That’s how uncommitted I was to that relationship.

When I stay quiet, Tyler sighs. “It’s okay to admit you didn’t love her. You don’t have to feel guilty for what happened to her. You couldn’t have stopped her from going on that mission, and you know it.”

“If I hadn’t fought with her, she might not have felt compelled to sign up.” I glance away.

“As a former Marine, I don’t need to tell you that we’re all aware of the risks when we embark on that life. You know better than to blame yourself for what happened.”

I rub the back of my neck. I want to believe him. A part of me knows he’s right. Another part of me can’t get over the lingering guilt that coats my insides. Perhaps, I never will. I take another sip of the Macallan. “Either way, who said anything about falling in love?”

Tyler’s features gentle. "You deserve to be happy, Ryot. If you’re given a second chance, I hope you won’t be so afraid of what happened in the past that you’ll shut yourself off from possibilities."

His words send a tremor of hope through my guts. I make sure to bat it away and scowl at him. "I don’t need you telling me what to do. You focus on finding who was behind the hit on the princess. Leave the rest to me."

"But—" he begins to protest.

I hit the screen and disconnect the call. Fuck. My brothers are nosy so-and-so’s. You’d think, being the alpha males they are, they’d keep our discussions on safer topics. But fuck, do they love to gossip. And they're up in each other’s business. To be fair, despite pulling away from my family after Jane’s death, even I kept tabs on Nathan's, and Knox’s, not to mention, Quentin's love lives. I also agreed to attend Arthur’s family Sunday lunches, as a way of keeping up with everyone. Much as I might protest, I'm cut from the same mold. I toss back the rest of the whiskey, then place it on the counter and turn back. My breath catches.

She’s standing inside the doorway by the table pushed up against the wall. The moonlight streaming in from the windows kisses her figure, and casts shadows on the valley between her breasts, on the dip of her waist and the hollow between the tops of her thighs.Fuck my life.She’s naked.

18

Aurelia

His gaze rakes me from head to toe, his perusal slow. There are no lights on but the glow from the stars outside bathes him. It picks out the silver in his irises, which seem to glitter as he devours me with his eyes. The air between us sparks with unsaid emotions. My pussy clenches. He takes a step forward, and another. The force of his presence seems to fill the space and circles around me, lassoing me in place. He drags his gaze up my legs to the space between my thighs and stays there. A throbbing sensation tightens my veins. He glides closer, still closer. Stalking me, holding me in place with intent writ in every angle of his chiseled body.

I’m aware, I’m naked. I’m aware that he’s a predator who’s looking at me like I’m his next meal. And I have a sneaking feeling he’s going to love to play with me first. I must have been crazy to think I could walk in here without any clothes on and expect to leave without facing the consequences of taunting him.

I might be royalty, but he’s the king of all he surveys.

He's an alpha male used to getting his way. An apex beast, at the top of the food chain.

His arrogance, his dominance is imprinted in his every lethal step. In how his chest planes bunch, stretching the shirt he’s wearing, straining at the buttons. He’s abandoned his jacket and undone the top three buttons, and I can make out the trail of hair that disappears into the lapels. His shoulders seem to swell. His powerful thighs strain his pants. And the bulge between them is massive. I stare openly at the virility he wears like a badge. The man’s packing. No wonder he has such a swollen ego. It’s not the only part of him which is swollen either.

A snicker escapes me, and he inclines his head, the movement sharp. His gaze is even sharper as he raises it to my face.

Our eyes clash, his green with gold and silver sparks in their depths. In this light, they seem hazel, almost surreal. An alien from another world who’s come to carry me off to his lair and have his way with me. A gust of wind blows in from the open doorway to the deck. Goosebumps pop on my skin. He stiffens, then spins around and walks back to slide the door shut. He pivots and prowls toward me again.

My belly twists. My toes curl. The blood thrums at my temples, in my veins. My nipples tighten. My breasts ache. He pauses in front of me, so close the heat from his body singes my skin. A buzzing sensation gathers in my lower belly. My breath comes in short, choppy bursts. He reaches down and unfastens his belt buckle. The scrape of the leather against fabric as he pulls it off lights up my nerve-endings. The hair on the back of my neck stands on end. Then, without taking his gaze off my face, he folds the belt in two and thwacks it against his palm. I gasp.

He nods in the direction of the table next to us. "Bend over."

"What?" I squeak.

“You knew you had me when I couldn’t take my eyes off how you licked the food off your fork with your pretty pink tongue in the restaurant. You knew if I saw you without your clothes, I wouldn’t be able to resist you.”

“Y-you can’t resist me?”

His features take on a tortured expression, then he shakes his head as if to clear it. “I told you I cannot overstep the line between protective personnel and principal and jeopardize your safety. Yet, you persist in finding ways to tempt me. You insist on shaking my concentration. On shredding my control so I can’t do my job of keeping you safe. Ergo you put yourself in danger. And I cannot have that." He wraps his free hand around the belt fold and stretches it.

The hiss of the leather against his palm causes a strange yearning to jolt up my spine. My pussy clenches painfully. My knees tremble. I should be afraid of what he can do to me. Of what he’s asking me to do for him, but I want so badly to please him. Want to feel that leather against my skin. Want to feel his hands on me. Want him to control me.Gah! What’s wrong with me? I don’t bend for anyone. But him? What about him? Will I bend for him?

“You’ve been disobedient. I told you, whatever is between us cannot come to fruition. Not until I’ve completed my assignment as your bodyguard. But you did not listen to me. You decided to force the issue by seducing me. You decided to take matters into your own hands. And now, I’m going to takeyouin hand. I’m going to punish you for disobeying me.”

“You’re punishing me because I prevented you from doing your job? Because I tried to seduce you, and you fell for it? You realize how illogical that is?”And how perfect.This is what I wanted all along. I was never spanked as a child, and that he’s going to be the first to deliver it with a belt turns my insides to mush. I want him to be so focused on me. For him to lose hismind until he could no longer resist me. Only now, I feel like I’ve been caught with my head inside the lion’s mouth.

I try to laugh but it comes out as little more than a little thread of noise. One that causes him to flare his nostrils. Oh my god, he can smell my fear and my arousal; I’m sure of that.

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