Page 20 of King of Deception

“You’re the one who screamed my name.”

I might hate him. My hand comes to my stomach as it rolls. “What do you want, Gris?”

Between my breakfast with Mrs. Wingate and now this, my brain fritzes with static, my head spinning.

He leans closer and I catch his fresh woodsy scent. Even as he’s the one who’s torturing me in this moment, I want to curl into that smell, the strength of his body. It’s so crazy, it only makes my head spin more.

“I want…” He leans even closer, overwhelming my senses. “For you to break it off with your fiancé.”

I stare at him for a beat, then two, as I try to process those words. He wants me to end things with Preston? “Why?”

“Because, little princess, I can’t have your brother making more powerful friends.”

He did all those things in the hotel room to get at Mason. I really am just the instrument of his revenge.

It makes me sick to think of how I responded to him. What I let him do to me. How I let him use me and now he’s going to hurt my family.

The bile in my throat rises and I know I’m going to be sick.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Gris

Arabella has gone deathly pale,and I fight my own instinct to pull her close. Comfort her.

This is not like me.

I don’t get all gooey for women, I don’t have a soft center.

But I’ve never been closer to taking back my words as her frantic and wild eyes search the limousine.

And then she makes a dive for the empty champagne bucket, grabbing it and hugging it to her chest as she tips her head down and heaves into the bucket.

“Fuck,” I growl out, reaching out to gather up the silky strands of her hair to hold them back.

I’ve had this hair in my hand before, gathered up in my fist as I watched that stunning mouth wrap around my cock. What she lacked in skill, she more than made up for in enthusiasm. It was the best blowjob of my entire life. I can’t even imagine what she’d be like with some practice.

My other hand comes to her forehead, helping to hold the weight of her head as she empties her stomach.

I know she understands the full measure of what’s happening. What she did with me in that hotel room is a secret capable of taking Kincaid Enterprises and blowing it to the four corners of the world.

It’s also possible that it destroys my family along with it. I’ve been playing every side and that’s a gamble that could backfire.

I hate that I’m the man holding the guillotine over her head. I feel deep in my gut that I should be protecting her.

But that’s not the play here.

Wrongs need to be righted. Futures made and others destroyed.

That thought steals my spine as she falls limply back on the seat. I take the bucket from her hand, opening the limo door, and step out. Knocking on the driver’s door, I hand him the bucket. “Get rid of this.”

He’s professional enough not to ask, but I see his brows rise as he takes the bucket. I climb back in to find Arabella exactly where I left her.

“You want me to end my engagement?” she asks, tossing a hand over her eyes as she leans back on the seat. She looks like she might be sick again.

“That’s right.” I sit next to her, brushing her hair back from her forehead. She’s too limp to resist as her lip trembles, her hands shaking right along with it. Fuck.

“And if I don’t?”

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