Page 72 of Lamb

“Getting the fuck away from you,” she replied, drawing my attention back to her face.

“Bullshit,” I grunted. “If you really wanted to get away from me, you wouldn’t have told me you were gonna do it. And you sure as hell wouldn’t have left a paper trail so I could find you.”

“Okay, then I’m here visiting family.” She shrugged.

“Oh, you’re visiting someone all right. But who is it really?” It wasn’t just the pills that had given me pause or the realization that she’d go as far as to make sure no one knew she was taking them. It was also the messages I’d seen in her burner. The phone she didn’t know I knew about because sheactuallywas trying to hide that.

She narrowed her glare at me. “Javi ispracticallyfamily. And a potential investor.”

“He wants to fuck you.”

“Lots of people want to fuck me, Dr. Lambert.” She flicked a wrist between us. “Case in point.”

“Except I did just fuck you, little lamb. Over and over and over…” I reached out a hand, brushing it across her nipple until she shoved my arm aside. “You don’t need investors for a company that isn’t yours,” I groaned, giving myself one long, hard stroke. It didn’t matter how many times I fucked her last night. It wasn’t nearly enough. For me or my cock.

“But it will be mine. Won’t it?” she hissed. “As soon as you make a widow out of me. Isn’t that what you said? That you wanted your brother in the ground.”

“You don’t need anything with his name on it. You want something of your own, you can have Briarwood. I’ll work for you,” I told her, and I meant every word. She could have it all.Mylast name included.

Marisela blustered out a humorless laugh. “I don’t want Briarwood. I’ve never wanted Briarwood. Besides, it doesn’t have his name on it anymore. We’re in the middle of rebranding, or haven’t you heard?”

“You’ll never get the board to agree to a full takeover as long as there’s another Prescott to contest the vote.”

“Good thing your ridiculous jealousy took care of that for me, then, huh?”

“He’s not dead yet, Marisela,” I reminded her, hating the way the threat tasted on my tongue.

“It’s only a matter of time, Adrian. You won’t be able to stop yourself.” She leaned forward, lowering her voice asshe skimmed her lips over my cheek. A gesture as tender as it was bristling. “Not when every time you look at him, you picture him touching me. Kissing me, fucking me.”

The hair on my neck rose on end. I couldn’t tell if she was bluffing or not. If she wanted the fucker dead or alive. Or if I’d just been another piece on her board this whole time.

I didn’t like the idea of my little lamb playing me. But I didn’t hate it either.

I grabbed her jaw with my thumb and forefinger, pressing down just enough to show her I was serious. “Stop with the games, Marisela. Come home or I’ll drop Tate on the closest doorstep. Alive enough to keep you from rebranding anything.”

She grinned. “Except you can’t do that without him pointing the finger at you.”

“He can’t point something he doesn’t have,” I countered.

“We both know you won’t send him back. You wouldn’t do that to me.”

“I won’t kill him for you either.”

“I don’t believe you,” she hissed. “I want his body, Adrian.”

I lowered my face until we were nose to nose. “You’ll never find all of it, Marisela.”

She pulled back to glare at me. Defiance narrowing her eyes. Arrogance doing the same to mine. “Then I’ll just wait five years and have my dear husband declared dead.”

I nodded once. “You do that then. Just remember,whatever happens next, you asked for it.” I grabbed my boxers off the floor, yanking them back up my legs before doing the same with my pants. Then I headed towards the bedroom door, my shirt slung over a shoulder when I added, “Oh, and Marisela… when you do seek out my help again—because you will—make sure to bring the girl. My colleague won’t be nearly as patient with her as I’ve been with you.”

85

MARISELA

The girl was a peculiar little thing. Always on edge. Her eyes unnaturally wide as though she were just waiting for some monster to jump out of the shadows, at the same time she suffered from a complete lack of self-awareness. The kind of creature that was better off on display in a zoo than left to its own devices.

It was annoying. How easy it was to creep up on Emily without her noticing.

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