Page 46 of The Stallion
I quickly pushed myself off the couch and stalked across the room to her.
Bria didn’t move, not even a flinch. Her arms were firmly held, crossed over her chest, closing herself off with her hip pushed out like the sassy siren she was.
“But nothing.” Once in front of her, I wrapped one arm around her waist, pulling her close against me. I raised my free hand to cup the side of her beautiful face, tracing my thumb along her cheekbone. “Whatever my sweet girl wants, she gets. No questions asked. You want to dine like a celebrity on The Strip every night? Done. You want to switch up your car every month out of pure boredom? Sure, why not? You want a ten-thousand-dollar champagne bath before bed? I’ll join you.”
“Money isn’t everything. You can’t buy love and affection.” Bria hissed through her teeth, trying to wiggle her body free from my grasp.
I could hear her disgust dripping from her tone.Well shit.
Here, I took her as a woman of frivolous value. Someone who would spend every dime I had just for the fuck of it. And now I feltmyself wanting to backpedal from my words, realizing the massive error in judgment that I had made in saying them.
I didn’t care about the money. Everything I had spent over the years was for a purpose.
The McLaren may have been a little overkill, but the house and the furniture were all meant to build a life and a family; it was never just for me—it was for them,for her.
For the woman who would inevitably come into my life and become my better half.
“No, you’re right, it isn’t. And I’m not trying to buy anything from you. Money means nothing to me—” I stopped myself from continuing with a hard swallow, my emotions carrying my words to a place I wasn’t nearly ready to enter. “I have to get ready for my meeting… We’ll discuss your car later when I return.”
I let go of her and stepped away, heading into the bedroom and shutting the door behind me. I then dragged my hands through my hair as I tried to reel myself back in.
My skin felt as if it were buzzing, a sensation I was completely unfamiliar with until I met her.
Bria was doing things to me with every form of contact we had, and I didn’t know how long I could hold out and avoid them—to keep my feelings in a neutral space.
She wasn’t at all what I had expected—she was so much more.
And I was fucking all of this up.
“Threeweeks,”Dustinconcluded,sitting comfortably behind his desk and rolling the bottom of his rocks glass.
“Three? Don’t you think that’s a little too soon?” I assumed I would have at least a month to work with Bria and help her transition into her new life.
“You skipped the line and the entire process with your marriage to your wife. I could schedule her for tomorrow instead if you’d like?” His tone was one of boredom and unfazed indifference.
This was nothing more than a punishment for breaking the rules.
While working closely together, Dustin and I rarely saw eye to eye. I had nothing against him, but my being a Legacy caused us to butt heads more often than not.
I knew just as much about the inner workings of the MUR as he did, and we'd be on an equal playing field if it weren’t for his last fucking name. Mine was better.
I clamped my mouth shut before saying something I knew I’d regret later. I worked far too hard to get to where I was, and yes, while I fucked up the steps required to marry, Bria was the woman I needed, and I wasn’t about to lose that chance by spending weeks following the fucking protocol.
They always pissed me off—the rules of leadership.
Dustin’s father created them during his reign, and he hasn’t even held his own fucking son accountable to the same standard as the rest of us.
There was always something to be said about nepotism and being above the law.
“Good. Since we both agree, I’ll schedule her test for three weeks from today. If I were you, I’d spend that time wisely—preparing her.”The jackass.
Throughout my drive home, I constantly massaged my forehead as I thought about how I would approach the subject with Bria.
How do you prepare someone from outside of our world to commit murder…
Do I tell her outright or wait until I detect the slightest hint of affection from her?
Who was I fucking kidding…
