Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 107115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Todd made gagging noises. “Stop making me puke. I always knew you were a stupid, spineless cow, but you don’t even take a breath without his approval. It’s disgusting.”
She sent her husband a withering glare, refusing to dignify his bullshit.
He wasn’t repelled; he was jealous. During their marriage, he’d tried repeatedly to bring her under the press of his overbearing thumb, but he’d never succeeded and that drove him insane. He couldn’t grasp why she’d refused to yield an inch to him but now willingly submitted her happiness, body, and heart to Matt. Madison wasn’t about to waste her breath explaining that Matt had never tried to steal her power. Instead, he had gifted her not just with pleasure, but with the freedom to be herself. He hadn’t offered her decadence and luxury in exchange for her soul. He had simply given her his protection and understanding. He had given her himself.
“Thank you for your unsolicited opinion, Todd. You know how much I value it.” Madison smiled tartly…then realized he wasn’t stepping out of the other side of the vehicle. “You’re not coming up?”
“Why the fuck would I do that when you and Romeo will just sit around and eye-fuck each other?”
Relief swept through Madison. “Well, I have no doubt you’re capable of finding a strip club or an orgy, even on a Sunday night. Enjoy.”
“Fuck that. My new pet will be sneaking out of her window once her parents go to bed. She’s not ready to let me breach her precious hymen yet, but I’ve already taught her that gagging on cock until I spew all over her face is perfectly normal. I’ve even trained her to lick herself clean for me and swallow every drop.”
His depraved smile made Madison shudder. “She’s sixteen. She’s a child.”
“With the body and the sex drive of a woman. She also thinks I’m the perfect fuck-you to her controlling father. Why would I say no? Now get out of my car. And remember, whatever you do…I see everything.”
The queasiness she’d been feeling since the moment they’d arrived at Winston and Agatha’s mausoleum tumbled her stomach again. Madison swallowed back bile, along with the insult on the tip of her tongue. Sparring with Todd would only encourage him. Instead, she settled her fingers in Ethan’s and climbed from the limo.
“You okay?” he asked.
She shrugged, gesturing to Todd. “Yeah. Todd’s crap is nothing new.”
“Wow. When my dad married my ex-girlfriend, I thought that was fucked up, but damn…”
He wasn’t wrong. And dinner tonight had been a shit show of epic proportions. Then again, once she’d heard the Westbrooks would be there, she’d expected nothing less. And poor Genie. The woman’s grief at losing her only child was palpable.
Sighing, Madison turned back, expecting Matt to exit the limo next. Instead, neither man moved. She stopped breathing. Shit, was Todd threatening him?
A small eternity later, Matt emerged, his face full of both menace and satisfaction.
“What did he say to you?” She bent to glare at Todd.
Matt slammed the car door before she could. Then the limo sped off. “I told him exactly what I thought of him. Ethan, would you mind sweeping the interior and getting the luggage settled upstairs. I need to talk to Madison.”
Her fingers shook as she retrieved her keys from the purse she’d dragged from DC to Louisiana and back again before she tossed the ring Ethan’s way. “You’ll need the fob for the elevator. Top floor, unit on the left.”
He caught them with one hand. “Burglar alarm?”
She shrugged. “Todd didn’t see the point. The unit is on the tenth floor, and no one can even get on the elevator without a fob, much less near a door or window.”
“How will you two get upstairs?”
“The attendant will buzz us up.”
“You got it.” With a jaunty, two-fingered salute, he headed into the opulent lobby, waved to the attendant like he owned the place, then disappeared into an elevator.
She whirled back to Matt. “What do you mean, you told Todd what you thought of him? He won’t take that without retaliating.”
“He just did. Where can we go?” Matt glanced up at the exterior cameras monitoring the front of the building.
And not be surveilled? She spun around and came up empty. Every place she saw, security cameras lurked, from the Thai joint down the street to the drugstore at the end of the block. The apartment building itself was a high-security complex. Everything here was captured and cataloged. Too many high-profile residents and visitors to be less than diligent.
Madison shoved down frustration and foreboding. She didn’t want to be here. So many memories, and all of them terrible. Worse, even when Todd wasn’t around, he crushed her chances of finding any peace or happiness. Like before, he’d locked her in a gilded cage that no one looking from the outside in could see. And this time, she’d dragged Matt into her captivity.