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 sniffed like he didn’t believe her. “And you fucking smell like him, too, you hillbilly whore.”
Matt half turned to face her, silently demanding she look his way. “You don’t have to listen to anyone determined to hurt you or tear you down.”
“Shut the fuck up. I’m her goddamn husband! She’ll listen to whatever I say,” Todd growled, glaring at Madison. “Go wash that low-life’s stench off you.”
When he reached for her with a furious grip, Matt stepped between them, warning Todd away with a glare. “I told you on day one that you don’t touch her, especially without her consent.”
“I can touch her whenever I fucking want, in whatever way I want.”
“Try it and see what happens. This time, I’ll hurt more than your hand.”
“Fuck off.”
He ignored Todd. “Do you consent to him touching you?”
Madison didn’t hesitate. “No. Never again.”
“Shower.” Todd demanded. “Now.”
“I’ll shower when I feel like it. Maybe tomorrow. Or the next day. I love how I smell.” Madison drew in a deep breath and smiled. “And I’m enjoying being pleasantly sore all over. You know, from my massage.”
Todd’s face darkened. “You’re going to regret that.”
“Let it go. I know you hate to lose, but I’m not a trophy. I’m a woman. A human being. Maybe it’s time you learned what most everyone else knows: You can’t win all the time.”
“Pershings never lose.”
“There’s a first time for everything,” she quipped as she walked, loose-hipped and sated, down the foyer and across the open living space toward the hall.
Matt flashed Todd a smile full of pure fuck-off, then followed Madison to her room.
At the door, she paused, her eyes bright and twinkling. She was proud of her bravado. He was, too. Cowing to Toddhole wouldn’t have made him any less malicious. Matt was glad she’d recognized that and hadn’t backed down. In fact, he’d wished she’d given the douche more verbal shit. But Matt knew, like she did, that Todd’s retribution was coming.
“That felt good.” Her smile was half shocked, like she couldn’t believe she’d given back as good as she’d gotten.
“I’m sure. Get a good night’s sleep.”
She frowned. “Will you be all right until five a.m.?”
His body felt as if a Mack truck had hit it, but he wasn’t about to dump that worry in her lap. “Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow evening.”
“Good night,” she whispered longingly.
“Good night.”
Reluctantly, Madison shut her door, not taking her eyes off him until the slab of wood snicked into its frame. Matt sagged against the wall, wishing he could curl up beside her warm, naked body and hold her all night long. Since that wasn’t possible, he’d settle for guarding Madison to ensure that Prince Pershing couldn’t hurt her while she slept.
Matt should have known Todd would never make anything that simple.
He sauntered up the hall, hands shoved in his pockets. “What is it with you, Montgomery? Do you get off on fucking other men’s wives? Is that why you’re fucking mine?”
Matt refused to give him the satisfaction of an answer. He simply looked through the son of a bitch, even when Toddhole launched in his face, teeth bared.
“You think you can just fuck with me?”
Actually, I’m not acknowledging you at all.
“Maybe you don’t understand how long my arm is or how powerful my family is.”
You would be a nothing twerp, subject to the same rules and laws as everyone else, if it weren’t for your grandfather.
Todd cocked his head. “Or maybe you’re the kind of guy who needs to see all I can do for you.”
The only thing you can do for me is to get the fuck out of my face.
“You think you’re infatuated with my wife. You think her pussy is gold. But I can give you platinum. I can give you diamonds. I can give you cunt so rare and perfect that most men would lay down their lives to have it for even a single night.”
Does this fucker even know how not to objectify women?
“I’ll prove it. In the meantime, this is as close as you get to touching Madison. I’ll make sure of that.”
As Todd sauntered off, dread gonged in Matt’s gut.
Over the next week, Pershing kept his promise.
First, he ensured that Matt was never alone with Madison. He stayed home every goddamn night, glued to her side, sitting too close on the sofa and hovering in her personal space. Madison did her best to ignore him, but eventually she retreated to her bedroom just to escape. Todd’s smug glare made Matt itch to end him in the slowest, most painful way possible.
Worse, his determination to separate Matt from Madison meant that he couldn’t search Pershing’s bedroom. Since he’d left the skull-topped signet ring in the empty safe inside the Dungeon of Discipline, following a clandestine phone call back to his bosses, it was burning a hole in his mental pocket.