Total pages in book: 178
Estimated words: 170884 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 854(@200wpm)___ 684(@250wpm)___ 570(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 170884 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 854(@200wpm)___ 684(@250wpm)___ 570(@300wpm)
His words cut me deeply.
This fucker.
Panic flared deep in the core of my very being. “Van, think about this.”
“I have.” He nodded. “I am.” He looked me up and down. “What a shame you turned out to be, Ling. You’ve taken us from being one of the most prominent and trusted firms in the southern hemisphere to being your own personal playthings, treating our men like children then punishing them when they misbehave. Our reputation has suffered in your command. Your ‘I don’t give a fuck’ attitude has cost us more than you’re worth, I’m afraid.”
What the fuck? He’s never spoken to me as such.
“So here’s what’s going to happen.” He took a step closer to me, and I didn’t trust the peacefulness in his tone. “You’re going to sit here, in this room, like the doll you were born to be, and you will listen to whatever it is I say because you know I have your best interest at heart.”
That was the plan? He was locking me away like a retarded sibling?
My blood began to boil.
Did he even know who I was?
That was so not happening.
“You will no longer have anything to do with The Dragons. You won’t see them; you won’t talk to them. You won’t even see our brothers anymore because I know how great a manipulator you are. When the time is right, you will live at my house with me, where I can keep an eye on you at all times.”
My anger rose to hot, heavy rage.
He took another step forward. “And when you invite me into your bed,” he spoke low, “I will come to you.”
My heart started to beat faster.
The rage turned to white, blistering fury.
No. None of this was working for me.
“We aren’t normal, Ling, and I’m sick of trying to be something I’m not. So I’ve decided to stop fighting the darkness inside me and embrace it instead.” And he smiled so viciously that I saw my father in that hollow grin. “It’s quite freeing. I can see why you live the way you do. I think you’ll find I make a half-decent king. And, in private—” Another confident step closer. “—you can be my queen.”
My insides twisted painfully, and when I lowered my eyes, my brother mistook my position for one of submission.
I heard pride line his voice as he reached out to cup my cheek warmly. “My pretty little doll.”
We were royalty in our own rights, but I had something my brother would never have. Tenacity. It was something you were either born with or you weren’t. It couldn’t be taught. Lucky for me, I had the shit in spades.
Playing the role he very clearly wanted me to play, I reached up slowly to smooth his lapel and I kept my eyes lowered, as I asked a hushed, “Come to bed with me?”
Van wrapped his arms around me, resting his hands just below the small of my back. “Do you want me, Ling?”
Did I want his highness?
No. “Yes,” I muttered quietly, and when he moved us towards the bed, a calmness I’d rarely felt flowed through me, radiating warmth in a cold situation that would not end well no matter how it played out.
At the side of the bed, I ran a hand down his chest to his stomach, lower still until my fingers rested just under his navel. “Lay down.”
As his eyes fixed on me, he did as I asked, and when I climbed over him, I put my hands to his chest and sat low on his stomach. I leant in close until my front met his and I could feel his heart thumping in his chest. He was excited by this, our shame. His heart called to mine; it beat for me and me alone, and I slid my hands under the pillow, pressing myself into him in a purely sexual way.
My brother’s eyes hooded in pleasure, and I smiled coyly in return. “Are you sure you want this? I’m a dangerous woman, Van.” My voice turned breathy. “Once you have me, you’ll never be the same.”
Van’s soft smile made my stomach ache, and when he uttered a rough, “I love you,” I came to realize he did.
He really did.
Van thought The Dragons would thrive under a king, but he didn’t appreciate what The Dragons had when they had it. I know he thought he was doing what was best, but he was already making terrible decisions, and regretfully, I wouldn’t stand for it.
“You think The Dragons need a king, brother mine?” I asked sweetly, trailing kisses along his jaw.
“I do,” he grunted out as I ran my tongue along his chin.
Did I want my brother?
I wanted a lot of things.
I wanted him to understand me.
I wanted him to realize his error.
And most of all, I wanted him dead.