Page 25 of Vicious Heir

An ugly thought occurs to me. “Does that mean you’re not going to?—”

“Nobody alive can change my mind with a threat. If I want to marry you, I will.”

I have to look away again. The intensity of the way he’s looking at me sends shivers down my spine. “I guess this is really happening.”

He comes over and pulls me to my feet. Then he lightly brushes his lips against mine.

“This is happening,” he says with a vicious smile. It’s terrifying and arousing, and I feel myself tumbling, free-falling through horror and excitement.

I extract myself and make excuses. My head’s full, and I don’t want to stay out too late. “I need to get back before my grandmother notices.”

“Luca will drive you this time.” His face hardens when I open my mouth to protest. “Hewilldrive you. No excuses.”

I leave his office. I got what I came for and a lot more.

Now a new mystery is opening itself. I need to figure out what’s going on with this Demir Yilmaz guy and what it has to do with me.

Chapter 9

Lucy

Kennedy looks like she’s going to lose her mind. “Let me get this straight. You had me cover for you so you could sneak out to your future husband’s club? And then you two had kinky sex?—”

“It wasn’tthatkinky,” I say, covering my face with a pillow.

“He zip-tied your hands behind your back, gave you a safe word, then used your face like?—”

“Okay! Okay! I really, really regret telling you all that.” I peek at her, smiling sheepishly. “Can we just pretend like I never mentioned it?”

She rolls her eyes. “Oh, yeah, sure, I’ll just act like you never told me you got face-fucked by a mafia Don.”

“Kennedy!”

“But what’s really bugging me is the stuff about this Gray Wolf organization.” She paces across my room, frowning down at the floor. “Adriano doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would overreact to something, right?”

“I agree.” I stretch my legs, lounging on my suite’s couch near the bay windows. “When he was over here, he seemed pretty pissed.”

“And your grandmother was doing her level best to pretend like she didn’t have a care in the world. Which means she’s stressing.”

“He thinks she’s lying to him.”

“Girl, I don’t think Helena Willing-Morris has ever told the truth about anything in her life. Lying is a given with that old frog.” She glances over sheepishly. “No offense.”

“It’s fine. I know how you feel about her.” And mostly I agree, but I find it hard to say so out loud. “What can we do about it, though?”

Kennedy considers. Where I’ve always been the good rule-follower, desperate for approval, my best friend has a wicked streak. She’s always trying to get me in trouble, mostly out of boredom. I pretend like I don’t love it, but the truth is, my life would be extremely sad and dull without her around.

“We should break into her office and see what we can find.”

And now I regret every decision I’ve made in my life.

“No, absolutely not.” I sit up straight, waving my hands. “No way inhellam I doing that. Grandmother would kill me. She’d disinherit me! She’d burn my trust fund out of spite.”

Kennedy shakes her head at me. “Come on, think about it. Helena needs you right now. Whatever’s going down with this Demir guy, it must be serious. She’s desperate for your future husband’s money and power. You’re basically untouchable so long as you’re engaged to that guy.”

She’s got a point. Except she’s also insane.

Grandmother’s office is off-limits. She has made it clear over the years that one toe past that threshold means death. And I think that’s literal murder. Her office is the heart of the Willing-Morris family power, and there’s no way she’d ever let a worthless nothing like me anywhere near that place.

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