Page 49 of Princess of Pride
I know what would have happened to her if they’d gotten away. She would have wished for death.
Before touching her, I wipe my bloody hands on my pants, then slide them under her limp body, lifting her with ease. She’s small compared to me and thin, except for her voluptuous breasts. She’s gorgeous, but she’d look even better with a bit more weight on her. With how stubborn she is, I doubt I could force anything into her pouty mouth—least of all my dick. I’ve been fantasizing about her sucking me off ever since I saw her in the ballroom at her family’s estate three years ago, licking icing off her finger during dessert. Those lips were made for sin.
The party was to celebrate me making partner. Garyn, Emery’s father, offered me anything I wanted. I almost asked for his daughter, but she was young—just turned eighteen. I also knew Garyn well enough that he’d insist I take Pippa, the favorite daughter. It was obvious that Pippa got her parents’ full attention and would submit however necessary to keep it that way. She needed it like an addict needs their next fix. Emery was different. Despite being ignored more than acknowledged, she stood in that ballroom with her shoulders back and her chin high. Both daughters were beautiful and dressed to entice, like pretty dolls their mum had removed from her display cabinet for the night, but Emery was resilient in a way that worked best for my plan. That was why I chose her to bemine.
Emery
A jostle stirs me awake, but my eyes refuse to open. My whole body feels as detached as my mind, like I’m buried in deep thick sludge. Slowly, awareness creeps in. I’m cradled on someone’s lap with strong arms supporting my neck while gentle fingers caress my outer thigh.
White noise sounds, the kind you hear on a plane. Am I on the jet?
“I told you if you let him get close, he’d go after her,” a man says with an accent that sounds like Wes’s.
“That’s why I have you and Connal,” Lachlan retorts. “For fucks sake, she was under your watch.”
“You expected me to follow her into the Ladies’?” Wes snaps. “She would have flipped out.”
“She wouldn’t be drugged and passed out in my arms like a rag doll,” Lachlan fires back.
“Guys, try to relax,” says a Scottish accented man. Rory? “We got her back. He didn’t even get to take her.”
“But he could have,” Lachlan says, his voice quieter but no less lethal. “Without her, the plan goes south. Three years wasted. This can’t happen again.”
Plan? I wish my brain didn’t feel like thick mush.
“It won’t,” Wes says. “She doesn’t leave the castle once we arrive. No one can get to her there. It’s a fucking fortress.”
“I can’t keep her locked away for the next three months or more,” Lachlan says. “Having her this close to everything is a different kind of risk. She won’t stand for it, either. Look at how she acted already, and I barely cornered her. Imagine her trapped in the castle.”
“You should have picked the other sister. She’s equally as beautiful,” Wes says.
“I never would have chosen her,” Lachlan replies. “Beside’s she’s married now. And this has nothing to do with beauty.”
“No?” Wes mocks. “With the way you can’t stop touching her, I’d say it does.”
Lachlan’s hand stops rubbing my thigh.
“You could have strapped her in a seat and left her,” Wes goes on, “Yet she’s in your arms.”
Lachlan snorts. “Fuck off.”
“I think she moved,” Rory says with nervousness.
Did I? I can barely feel my body.
“Her eyelids twitched,” he adds.
Fingers brush my hair from my cheek and turn my head so that my temple rests against a strong chest.
“Emery?” Lachlan’s tone is as gentle as his touch. It confuses me. Once my brain is functioning normally, I’m going to sort out the conversation I overheard, if I can remember it. There’s something else I need to remember—something about my mom.
I try to seem unconscious and not to twitch my eyelids. It isn’t hard to do with how my body doesn’t seem connected to my brain.
“She’s still out,” Lachlan says with confidence. “The doctor said she could be out for a while depending on how much they injected into her. She should be fine by the time we reach the castle. When we get there, Rory, I want you to keep her company.”
“You want me to babysit her.” He doesn’t sound happy. “Why not have someone else do it?”
“She likes you.”
