Somehow, I’d started this masquerade to get under his skin, but I’d successfully gotten under my own. My breath became a pant. My skin sparked with need. My core twisted with wetness.
Jethro’s lips parted, his fingers clutching harder and harder around my nape. “I know what you’re doing, and no, I don’t want to know why.”
The air throbbed thick and hot, threading around us with blatant need. “I don’t care. I’ll tell you anyway.” Licking my lips, I murmured, “I want you to fuck me, Jethro Hawk, so you can see that you may own my body, but you will never own my soul. By taking me, you’ll finally realize that I’m the strongest one here. That I can manipulate you into wanting me.”
Taking a huge risk and gambling with my life, I reached up to cup his cheek.
He flinched but didn’t move away. “The moment when you fill me, you’ll see. That moment when you douse me in your cum, you’ll be completely in my power. I’ll own you. A Weaver owning a pet Hawk.”
And when I’d collared and blinded him, I would use my bird of prey to hunt on my behalf. I would teach him to tear out the hearts of my enemies and obey my every whim. Because I was done being controlled. I was done being a girl.
I’m unconquerable.
Silence fell thick and cloying. We both didn’t move, our breathing ragged and torn.
Then Jethro released me, stepping back with unmeasured steps. “Confidence will only hurt you in the end.”
The back of my neck tingled from where he’d held me. “I guess we’ll see. Unless you plan never to sleep with me.”
Ignoring that, he snatched my wrist and dragged me toward the door. “Enough. I’m done with your games.”
I stumbled after him, following the muddy wake of his anger. “Where are we going?”
His voice dropped to a hiss. “First, you have a history lesson, and then…”
My heart fell into my toes as he wrenched open the door and tugged me into the corridor.
I couldn’t help myself. I had to ask. “Then?”
Smiling cruelly, he said, “Then it’s time for payment. Today is your First Debt, Ms. Weaver. The Debt Inheritance has begun.”
FUCK IT ALL to hell.
It’d taken the longest session of my life to claw back my chilly shell. It’d taken more out of me than even the first lesson taught by my father.
But within ten minutes, Nila fucking Weaver had found the smallest of cracks and used a crowbar of words to snap it wider.
Too bad for her, I wasn’t giving in today. I had a job to do—a mandate to fulfil—and I would carry it out to the best of my ability. If I didn’t, everyone would see. And everyone would know that the firstborn son was weak.
I’d been watching Kestrel and his sneaky smiles. I’d been stalking Daniel and his maddening glares. They both wanted what I had. And I wouldn’t give my father any reason to think I couldn’t tame Nila like any self-respecting Hawk. Cameras around the house would report how I treated Nila to Cut and the Black Diamond brotherhood. Spies would be on the lookout, judging my final test to ensure the Hawk fortune was going to the right brother.
This was the ultimate test. The Debt Inheritance was more than history and payments—it was an important sequence of events that every firstborn Hawk had to complete in order to inherit his legacy.
If I failed…who knew if my father would let me live. A firstborn son didn’t necessarily inherit everything—not if death stole him too soon.
And judging by family records, there had been a few that hadn’t passed the examination.
I can’t afford to fuck it up.
Not if I wanted to keep Nila as mine.
Not if I wanted to keep my own life intact.
And not if I wanted to…protect…her from men who would undoubtedly be worse than me.
Protect.
What a strange, horrible word. It came layered with responsibility and commitment. Both were fucking vile on my tongue.
As I dragged Nila down the corridor, I gritted my teeth at the flashes of light on hidden camera lenses. What Nila didn’t know was this was all a charade and we were the main attraction, playing it up for the audience behind the curtain.
In a way, we were both controlled—her by love, me by…
Clenching my jaw, I shook my head. Get out. You found that silence. Time to find it again. The cameras are rolling, the puppeteers are tugging, and it’s show-time.
Stalking past the corridor that led to the bachelor wing—my bachelor wing—I kept tugging my unwilling Weaver toward the first part of the debt.
I was lucky that so much of the house was segmented just for my use. My brothers shared with the Diamonds. Their quarters far exceeded any other compound, but they still had strict rules to follow.
My stomach tensed, thinking of last night’s business. We always conducted the bulk of our work at night. Ten of us had fulfilled the brief, and I’d cranked up my newest Harley that’d arrived from Milan, thanks to Flaw, and thundered through the darkness to ensure a new diamond shipment made it intact to the cutters and dealers.
Diamond smuggling was fucking dangerous. Not only was the law out to prosecute, but every sticky-fingered arsehole wanted a piece. Diamonds were the easiest, most convenient way to move wealth—small but worth a fortune. The Black Diamonds had formed, not for the love of riding and a brotherhood of like-minded bikers, but purely to kick the shit out of anyone who managed to get close enough to rob us.
Before, we’d moved merchandise with armoured vans and suits in broad daylight. But vans were such easy targets—so damn obvious.
So, we’d evolved.
Ten bikers…six with diamond cargo, four without. We rode in formation with guns armed and ready to defend. Police scanners kept us off roads where roadblocks were prevalent, and our fierce notoriety steadily grew.
Robberies were still attempted—shit, they always would be. Opportunists would give anything to intercept even a small shipment. Who wouldn’t for an easy catchment of over three million pounds’ worth of stones?
But we never chose the same route twice, we never let thieves walk away with their lives, and we earned the reputation of ruthless murderers.
After dealing with Nila and the mess she caused inside me, I’d craved an ambush. I’d wanted some motherfuckers to pounce, so I could give myself to mayhem and teach them a lesson. I’d wanted a fight.
But the night remained silent apart from our grumbling machines, and the delivery went smoothly.
By the time I crawled into bed at four a.m., I suffered a knot of tension in my gut and no amount of fantasising about fucking Nila could stop it. I’d laid in bed going over what happened in the forest. I gripped my cock and imagined sliding inside her and showing her once and for fucking all she couldn’t win—no matter that she had. I’d never had an orgasm so intense, so draining. Her mouth had been alchemy. The release she’d given left me silent inside…but different to the icy silence I’d been taught to wield.