Page 31 of When the Last One Falls
His back straightened, hating the facts. “Just make sure that you get her pregnant soon,” he repeated. “Get rid of those fucking pills.”
I shot him a look. “Not only do I not need your advice, but you can also get the fuck out of my house,” I bit out. “Don’t make me remind you who makes all this shit possible, Dad. Of course, you can still leave everything to Beau if you want to.”
My father’s lip curled in distain, but my point had still been made. “I’ll see you on Monday.”
I gave him a terse nod, not bothering to walk him to the door. While I didn’t have servants, I did have a housekeeper, Janie Vernon, and she was quite capable of showing Dad to the front door. I also had a driver, Milo Wilcox, but he was more than just a driver. I considered the guy a friend, and he handled anything around the house that Janie couldn’t.
Forgetting about my father and my household staff, I headed back upstairs to the beauty asleep in my bed. Even if I fucked her all day today and tomorrow, I knew that it still wouldn’t be enough. I had no idea how I was going to get through my workday without her, and if that wasn’t being henpecked, then I didn’t know what was.
My only salvation was to make her just as addicted to me as I was to her, and I was going to start by burying my face back in between those thick, soft, creamy thighs of hers.
Chapter 21
Keris~
There should be a limit on one’s own stupidity, really. I was stupid for ever letting myself fall into my parents’ trap. I was stupid for ever thinking that Brantley Kingston was a decent person. I was stupid for not searching harder for a solution to my sister’s medical care. I was stupid for letting my friends convince me that my marriage to Brantley could work. Lastly, I was very fucking stupid for ever thinking that Brantley would care about me. Last night had been about getting me pregnant, and why wouldn’t it be? The terms of my inheritance weren’t a secret. Everyone on the planet knew about the history of the mines and that daughters needed to be had in order to keep ownership of the island. I had no idea how I could have forgotten that Brantley would know that, and like the good businessman that he was, he’d make sure that his stake in those mines were ironclad.
God, I was such a fucking idiot.
When I’d woken up from some more sex-fueled exhaustion, I’d gone in search of Brantley, hoping that he might want to soak with me in that huge tub of his. I had officially let my guard down, hoping that I might have what neither of my friends had. I’d had hopes that my marriage was going to be a good one. I’d envisioned a queen and her king showing the world what it was like to love and respect their partner.
I’d been open to loving Brantley Kingston.
However, it hadn’t taken me long to find him, the raised voices of both him and his father drawing me closer. I hadn’t set out to eavesdrop on them again, but as soon as I’d heard the word pregnant, I most definitely had gone to eavesdrop. My first thought had been Rochelle, my stomach sinking at the possibility of her being pregnant with Brantley’s child, but it hadn’t been that at all.
Brantley needed to get me pregnant, so it wasn’t masculine need, control, dominance, or even sexual desire that had started us down this road last weekend. My newfound desires aside, Brantley had thrown me on the bed that night to get me pregnant. His apology last night, and everything that had followed afterwards, had just been to ensure that I gave him daughters. No wonder it’d been easy to give up all those other women; he wasn’t going to need them. Brantley had always planned to make sure that I got pregnant, so that explained him having no problem taking it from me. Like a certified fool, I had fallen for his empty explanations. He had awoken something in me, and I’d been so focused on how I’d fallen down the rabbit hole that I hadn’t suspected that I hadn’t fallen, so much as Brantley had pushed me.
Luckily, we hadn’t moved any of my stuff into his bedroom yet, so gathering my things, the plan was to take a shower, get dressed, then get the hell out of his house. Living with Lindsey was still an option, and it wasn’t like I was broke. I made a good living working at the gallery, so it wasn’t like I didn’t have a healthy savings account to help me get through this shitstorm.
I wasn’t sure how long I burned myself in the shower, but I hadn’t gotten out until I had scrubbed every inch of my body-twice. I’d done my best to wash away every touch, every kiss, and every memory, though I knew that I’d been running a fool’s errand. I felt branded, and I knew that it was going to take more than one shower to rid myself of last night.
When I walked out of the bathroom, Brantley was sitting in one of the decorative armchairs, eyeing me like he knew something was wrong. I hated how my body began singing with just one look at him, but it wasn’t like he was the only man on the planet that could make me cum. Sure, he knew exactly what it took to make all my dark fantasies come true, but that’s what sex clubs were for if I needed it that badly later down the line.
“Why didn’t you come get me?” he said, almost sounding like he was accusing me of something. “I would have taken a shower with you. We could have even taken a bath if you’d wanted to.”
“I didn’t want to interrupt you and Darius,” I answered evenly. “What with you two making plans to get me pregnant and all.”
His chin lifted as he stood up from the chair. “Eavesdropping again, I see.”
“Really?” I huffed tartly. “Eavesdropping is the bigger sin here? Forget my parents losing everything and selling me to you. Forget your father spitting on the sanctity of marriage and drawing up that contract. Forget how our wedding had been cold and humiliating. Forget how you’d made your views on our marriage pretty clear, lie or not. Forget the mistress that you like to share. Forget that Ares Cormac wants to make me collateral damage. Forget that you took something from me without permission just to prove a point. Forget lying to me about every-fucking thing.” I could only scoff at him. “Yeah, my eavesdropping is clearly the biggest offense here.” I tightened the towel around my body. “I can totally see how this is all my fault.”
Brantley slid his hands in the pockets of his grey sweats, still shirtless, still looking like the biggest mistake of my life. “And my father showing up uninvited here is my fault, how exactly?”
“I don’t give a shit about your father showing up here uninvited,” I spat. “Are you really going to stand there and deny conspiring with Darius to get me pregnant?”
“Conspiring?” he echoed.
“What else would you call it?” I challenged. “I heard you, Brantley. I heard you reassuring him how you were going to do what’s expected of you, birth control pills or no birth control pills.”
“Because you’re under the impression that I wasn’t planning on having kids before you?” he fired back. “Newsflash, Keris; I was always planning on having children with my wife. I had always planned on leaving my legacy to my offspring.” He looked livid, but I didn’t care; I was livid, too. “No matter what that fucking contract states, as my wife, you were always going to give me children.”
I straightened my back. “Well, good luck with that now,” I said, barely recognizing my own voice. “If you think that I won’t run to my doctor and pay for a hysterectomy just to spite you, then you’re fucking wrong. Unlike you, your family, and my family, I don’t give two fucks if those mines end up in the hands of the Central American government anymore.”
In a flash, Brantley had his hand fisted in my damp hair, yanking on it so hard that I had to squeeze my eyes shut from the sharp pain shooting throughout my scalp. “And if you think that I won’t tie you to the fucking bed and keep you here prisoner until you deliver every child of ours on that same fucking bed, thenyou’rewrong.” My eyes snapped open, and his blue gaze was burning hot on my face. “You seem to be under the impression that I’m indulging you because you like for me to take that pussy of yours, but you’re forgetting that I stillownyou, Keris. You can call me every name under the sun, but I’ll still fucking own you. Like the car I drive, the phone I use, the house that I live in, the office that I run, and every-fucking-thing else, you’re the wife that I fuck.” His fist tightened, and I was pretty sure that there was a real threat of him yanking out some of my hair. “Tell me again about this supposed hysterectomy you’re going to have and see what happens.”
“Yeah, because you don’t think that Faron will call the police or check up on me when I begin missing work?” I shot back daringly. “How about Huntley and Dylan? My sister? You might talk a good game, but there’s no way that you’d get away with keeping me prisoner here.”
His lip lifted at the corner, his sinister smile sending a dark shiver down my spine. “One quick email or text to our friends and family about the long, much-needed, over-due honeymoon that we want to take, and I’ll have you holed up on an island somewhere for fucking weeks.”
