Page 66 of Beyond the Hate

He shackles my wrist and tugs me out of bed. “Never.”

Damn him. He knows how much I enjoy being the first at anything. And I can’t deny I’m curious to see his house. I know he had it built to specification before he moved back to Smuggler’s Hideaway.

“I guess I can suffer through a tour of your house if it makes you happy.”

He chuckles and holds up a robe. “You can wear this. Unless you want me to ravage you in every room of the house.”

I pretend to consider the question. “How many rooms are there?”

“There are seven bedrooms and…”

I hold up a hand. “Enough. I’ll wear the robe.”

He helps me into the robe and tightens the sash around my waste. “I like you in my robe.”

I lift up my arms and wave my hands but they’re hidden by the material. “It’s a bit big for me.”

Eli rolls the material up my right arm until my hand appears before switching to the other arm. “I like you in my robe,” he repeats.

I nod to his hardening cock. “I can tell.”

He digs a pair of sweatpants out of a drawer and dons them. “You ready for the tour?”

“As long as coffee appears sometime in the near future, I’m ready.”

He grasps my hand. “We’ll start in the kitchen.”

He leads me out of the bedroom and down the stairs to the kitchen. My jaw drops open at the sight of it. “This kitchen is bigger than the one we have at theFive Fathomsrestaurant.”

He shrugs as he makes his way to the coffee machine. “I wanted a kitchen where Mom could prepare holiday meals. With six boys in the family, she needs the extra space.” He smirks. “We have a tendency to steal food while she’s cooking.”

He switches on the coffee machine.

“Are you certain you know how to operate this machine?”

He glares at me. “It’s not my fault the coffee machine at the distillery is possessed by the devil.”

“Is this a frequent occurrence? Appliances in your life being possessed by the devil? Because rumor has it you ruined the coffee machine atApparoo,too.”

He growls. “Who told you?”

I giggle. “Dakota. Your assistant is quite helpful.”

“I guess I don’t need to wonder how you managed to get in my office to prank me any longer.”

I smirk. “You still need to wonder. Dakota didn’t help.”

“You always were a troublemaker,” he mutters as he starts the coffee.

“False. Chloe and Sophia are the troublemakers.”

He snorts. “And they forced you to join their shenanigans.”

I nod. “Exactly.”

“As if anyone could force you to do anything you don’t want to,” he mutters.

I wish he was correct. But he’s not. My evil stepsisters and stepfather have forced me to do many things I didn’t want to do. All in the name of family. They don’t understand the meaning of family. But I go along with it for the sake of my mother. My stepfather would bully her even worse if I didn’t attend certain events.

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