Page 62 of Black Sheep

“So tell me what you would’ve done if you hadn’t…if the army wasn’t…”

“Rammed down my throat? It’s okay, you can say it.”

Except it isn’t okay. Not by a long shot if the hands clenched tight on the steering wheel are an indication.

“Same thing you would’ve done, I suspect, if lust for power hadn’t made you decide that being Finnan’s whore was more your speed; I would’ve chosen my own fucking path.”

I flinch. “I’m not his whore.”

“Then you’ve done something with that interior design degree you were so giddy to achieve?” he asks.

My lips firm, shame and rage boiling my insides. “You would’ve found your own path? Really? When the two of you are forged from the same damn fire you may as well be one person? Isn’t that why you’re both so intent on destroying each other? So there can only be one to assume all the power?”

His thighs bunch in latent aggression as he navigates early-morning New York traffic. “I’m nothing like him.”

The hollow in my shattered heart mocks me as I sit there, knowing he is exactly like his father while wishing he wasn’t.

“You have the power to do so much, Axel. And yet here we are,” I say, my voice bleeding emotions I can’t stem.

He guns the car through an amber light then turns sharply down a ramp into an underground parking garage. He pulls into a private slot and kills the engine. Silence engulfs the car for tense seconds until he turns to me.

“No, darling. We’re here because you had the power. And you chose to abuse it. You chose the wrong fucking team.”

I don’t get the chance to ask what power he’s talking about because he pulls out his phone, conducts a terse conversation with someone called B, then hangs up. He turns his undeniably magnificent body toward me. Even seated, the chiseled perfection of his abs is on full display through his open jacket. The shameful throb that never quite abated kicks up again between my legs. I drag my gaze away, hoping not looking at him will help allay his effect on me.

I can’t do anything about his intoxicating smell, which is filling the car. So I search for a distraction. Remembering my phone, I turn and look for it. The car is a two-seater with very little space behind the seats. But my phone is nowhere in sight.

“Looking for this?”

I glance over to find him clutching my phone.

I hold out my hand. “Yes. Can I have it?”

He slots it into his jacket pocket. “In good time.”

I throttle back the panic that rises. “You can’t withhold my phone from me, Axel.”

Gray eyes narrow with sharp intensity. “Who are you calling at five in the morning?”

“No one. But that’s not the point.”

“Isn’t it? Imagining you have any power here, at all, is only going to bring you disappointment, baby. I advise you to dial down your expectations.”

“I’m not cowering before you just to give you a cheap thrill,” I snap back.

A lazy finger drifts down my cheek, leaving a path of heat. “Don’t sell yourself short. Not now. Not when I’ve paid such a heavy price to have you again.”

“What did you pay?”

He taps me on the nose. “Don’t concern yourself about it. Just know that nothing you give me will be considered cheap.”

A weary sigh bursts free before I can stop it. “Axel—”

The click of heels halts my response. I twist in my seat to see a familiar figure striding toward us. It’s the woman who approved my application to join Axel’s club. The club that grants individuals their darkest fantasy atonements on a plate.

When Finnan handed me the file, I was too distraught to look at it. I didn’t read its contents until twenty-four hours later, when his warning that I needed to step up my game or else forced me to. At first, the depravity behind the concept turned my stomach. Until further investigation mitigated my preconceptions.

First of all, no one is forced to do anything they don’t want to.

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