Page 7 of Kiss of Fury

Brody, dressed in the ridiculous spaceship clothes, padded into the main room.

“Did you brush your teeth?” she asked.

“Yes.”

She eyed him dubiously.

“I did! See.” He bared his teeth.

“Okay. Bed for you.”

“Can I have some water?”

She found a glass, filled it from the cooler, and handed it to him. He took a single sip and handed it back.

Verity pressed her lips together. “Bed. Now.”

“Will you read me a story?”

“Not tonight. I’m tired.”

“Please?”

Enough already!“Once upon a time, there was a little boy who refused to go to bed, and he made the adults angry—” Fury said.

Verity glowered at him, but the kid turned and marched into his room. She followed, emerging less than a minute later. “I’ll thank you to leave the discipline of my child to me.”

“I would have thankedyouto have mentioned youhada child,” he countered.

She approached the table with the same reluctance the kid had displayed about taking a bath and going to bed.

After she seated herself, he said, “Explain yourself. And don’t give me any bullshit about how you disclosed you had a kid in the fine print. You’ve given me ample cause to invalidate the Cosmic Mates contract and send you packing.”

Chapter Four

Verity twisted her hands, remembering the first glance of Fury as she’d gotten out of the conveyance. His big smile welcoming, he’d seemed overjoyed to meet her. Now he sat with his arms folded across his chest, his blue eyes as cold as ice chips, his lips compressed into a slash across his stony face.

Throwing herself on his mercy and praying he had a heart big enough to forgive her lies and accept her and her son offered the only chance for salvation. If he followed through on the threat to repudiate them, she had no idea what she’d do. She had no other options.

“I lied because I was desperate,” she confessed.

He didn’t say anything.

“Brody is a Dorn.” She waited for a flash of recognition.

No response.

“Kyle Dorn is his father.”

Still no reaction.

“You haven’t heard of them?” she asked incredulously.

“I know who the Dorns are.”

The Dorns were a wealthy, progressive family involved in the powerful, influential tech and movie-making industries. Media darlings, they received fawning public accolades for their donations to social justice causes. But it was behind the scenes where they wielded the most power. Their dark money swayed elections, putting into office senators, judges, attorneys general, and even a couple of presidents, to ensure they and their companies remained immune to the laws everyone else had to follow.

But back when she was a student, she hadn’t known any of that. Too busy working as a nurse’s aide while putting herself through college, she’d paid scant attention to politics. She’d pretty much accepted the Dorns’ public reputation at face value. Ignorance had left her unprepared for the future.

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