“He wasn’t thinking with his heart,” Lucas argued. “It was his little head making the decisions for him.”
“You don’t know that,” I snapped, knowing darn well it was entirely possible he was right but not caring in the least. Someone had to defend my mom, as she was no longer able to do it herself.
“Enough,” Mr. Wilkinson grunted. “Let me get through the rest of this and then the two of you can squabble like children without my having to listen to it.”
I crossed my arms over my chest defensively, only to drop them when I noticed Lucas doing the same as we both listened intently.
“Jonathan also made arrangements for any children Lucas might have, with specified amounts for trust funds to be set aside and such.”
“Not like that’s going to happen any time soon.”
My hand drifted to my stomach, the very place where his baby might already rest. I hoped like hell he was right and I was suffering from some strange, lingering illness instead of pregnancy. I’d take just about any kind of sickness as an explanation right about now.
“The final stipulation is that in order to inherit, you’re both expected to reside in the family home for the next year.”
The room was suddenly filled with absolute silence. You literally could have heard a pin drop. I must have heard him wrong.
“My father set his will up so she,” his nose wrinkled in distaste, “and I have no choice but to live together for a year?”
“Yes,” the lawyer confirmed. “He said if anything happened to him and Di, he wanted to be sure you both had family near.”
“She’s not my family,” Lucas growled.
“But she is,” Mr. Wilkinson insisted. “She’s your step-sister.”
“Get out,” Lucas rasped.
I levered up and out of my chair, wanting nothing more than to get away and think.
“Not you,” he hissed, wrapping a hand around my upper arm and holding me in place.
“Are you kicking me out of my own office?” Mr. Wilkinson asked.
“My step-sister,” he barely gritted the word out, “and I need a moment alone to discuss our living arrangements.”
I waited for the door to shut behind the lawyer before turning to glare up at Lucas. “There’s an easy enough solution to all of this.”
“Oh, yeah?” he drawled. “What’s your bright idea, sweetheart?”
I felt a stab of pain in my heart at his scornful use of that particular term of endearment. The last time he’d called me sweetheart, he’d groaned it in my ear while telling me how good it felt to be inside me. I wasn’t sure what I’d done to earn his disdain, but it only reinforced my decision. “I’m going to walk away from the inheritance.”
“Sure you are,” he scoffed. “Because after luring me into your bed in order to get me to give you an art show, you’re the kind of woman who will walk away from several hundred million dollars.”
Several hundred million dollars? Whoa!
“I can practically see the dollar signs in your eyes.”
“First of all, I didn’t lure you into my bed,” I retorted, jabbing my finger into his sculpted chest. “You’re the one who propositioned me.”
“Like you weren’t in my gallery with the express purpose of sleeping your way into a show,” he muttered.
“The only reason I slept with you is because I wanted you,” I seethed. “Forgive me for being stupid enough to be attracted to you. Don’t worry, though. It won’t happen again. I’ve learned my lesson where you’re concerned.”
It felt as though time stood still as we stared at each other. It wasn’t my intention, but I’d thrown down a verbal gauntlet, one Lucas was quick to pick up. My heart raced in my chest when his eyes flared and he jerked me against his chest. I gasped in surprise, and he took advantage of the parting of my lips to drive his tongue into my mouth as he claimed it in a punishing kiss. He shifted forward, and I bumped into the desk behind me. Lifting me up, he roughly parted my thighs and settled my knees at his hips as my ass landed on top of the edge of the desk. My skirt rode up, bunching at my hips and exposing my panties.
His fingers headed straight for my core, shoving my panties out of the way before sinking deep. I was embarrassingly wet, but Lucas grunted in satisfaction as I moaned in pleasure. The hand at my hip disappeared, and I heard the sound of his zipper going down. It was quickly followed by the crinkle of foil, and then he drove inside me in one smooth thrust.
I buried my head in his shirt to muffle my screams as he thrust in and out, so hard I heard the desk creaking underneath me. This was an anger fuck, pure and simple. My head knew it, but my body didn’t seem to care as I felt an orgasm quickly building. When one of his hands slid between us to pinch my clit, I flew apart, biting his chest in an effort to keep quiet.
“Fuck yes,” he groaned. I felt the heat of his come as it filled the condom.
I was still shuddering, my pussy fluttering against him, when he pulled out of me and ripped the condom from his still-hard dick. He tied it off and glanced down at the trashcan full of my puke before shaking his head and shoving it into his pocket. After he had zipped his pants back up, he helped me down from the desk and watched me get my clothes straightened.
“Now you’ve learned your lesson. Don’t make me teach it to you again, my darling step-sister,” he murmured in my ear before releasing me to stride out of the office, slamming the door behind him.
I was befuddled from my orgasm, but I knew enough to understand Lucas was the last man I should be attracted to after the way he’d walked out on me, not to mention his reaction to seeing me today. And yet, none of that seemed to matter to my traitorous body. How in the world was I going to survive living with him for an entire year? And what the heck was I going to do if I was pregnant with his baby?
Chapter 4
Lucas
It was utter, fucking bullshit! What was my dad thinking? He’d never even met the scheming, conniving, gold-digging, sexy, gorgeous... Stop it right now!
Not that I could actually cast the first stone at the moment, considering I’d just fucked my “step-sister” in the lawyer’s office after he read my dad’s will. Reaching the parking lot, I strode over to my car and stopped, placing my forehead on the cool surface. I was still overheated from our little sexcapade and burning with anger at myself, and my dad. I hadn’t planned to touch her ever again, but the second she told me I’d never get another chance to fuck her, I couldn’t help myself. I was driven by the need to prove her wrong, and prove to her and myself, that she was still as attracted to me as I was to her.
I guess I should be thankful for small mercies. At least he didn’t give her half of the company. Whatever, if Dad wanted to play this game, I’d go along with it, if only so I could prove my theory about Jade and her mom correct. A possible solution popped into my head. If I pursued her, relentlessly, maybe kept her tied to my bed, wait no, let’s not cross into kidnapping territory. But, if I made her uncomfortable enough, I might be able to get her to run. And, get some mind-blowing sex out of the deal.
The idea was shot down when I remembered the fucking board. Shit. There would be no hiding who she was from the media. They never stopped digging into my life. Being forced to live with her meant keeping our relationship platonic. We would have to play the part of step-siblings. Because, if the board got wind we were sleeping together, blood-related or not, it could cause a major scandal.
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Wrenching my car door open, I slid onto the black leather seat of my Ferrari. Turned it on and burnt rubber out of the lot. I returned to my penthouse in the city, leaving my car with the valet, and taking my private elevator to the top. After throwing my keys in the vicinity of the entry table, I went straight to the bar and poured myself a drink. Looking around, I took in the sleek, modern design of my home. I never really cared for the way my place was decorated, but I was too busy to put any effort into changing it.
I’m not sure if I’d admit it to anyone else, but I
preferred my ancestral home. It was warm and lived in, a mixture of comfortable and somewhat antique. My grandfather built the mansion and gave it to my parents as a wedding present. My childhood was spent there, my mother died there. She hadn’t been able to get pregnant again until I was almost fourteen, but she and the baby were lost due to complications. I’d always known I would inherit it as their only living child.
Until my father decided to make sure I had “family” if anything ever happened to him. Well, I wasn’t going to go down quietly. Jade could take her millions and get the fuck out of my life, but I would be keeping the house. Someday, when I decided to have kids, they would grow up there.
Finishing my drink, I put the glass in the sink, and called up a moving company. Then I packed a couple of bags and set off for my father’s...no, it was my estate now that he was gone. Well, mine and Jade’s for the time being, I thought darkly.
Once I arrived, I took my bags to the master suite and set them on the floor in the hallway. I stared at the closed door, memories of my childhood assaulting me. I hadn’t been ready to go through my father’s things yet, but I’d had everything stored neatly in the basement until the time was right.
Taking a deep breath, I opened the door and stepped inside. It looked the same, but without the small personal touches. He’d always joked about this room belonging only to the man of the house and his wife, not so subtly hinting that he was itching to pass it down to me. His way of telling me to get married and give him grandbabies.
I was ready to step into the role of the man of the house, even if I intended to occupy this room without a nagging wife. My saving grace was knowing my father hadn’t moved the arm candy he’d just married in yet. To the best of my knowledge, she had never slept in this room.
I retrieved my suitcases from the hall and began to put things away. My solitude was eventually interrupted by the sound of someone at the open bedroom door.
“Oh, excuse me.” Jade’s sweet voice washed over me and my dick immediately hardened. Rather than turning from the closet with my obvious erection on display, I barked, “What do you want?”
The silence stretched a little too long and I wondered if she’d taken off, but when I turned around, she was still there, glaring at me.
“I was looking for a room to settle into, jackass. But, this house is a maze and I ended up here. So, you need to get down off that high and mighty horse, for which I’m sure he would be extremely grateful. It can’t be easy carrying you and your ego around. And point me in the direction of the empty bedrooms, I’ll get out of your space.”
I pressed my lips together, making every effort not to either laugh or groan. She was fucking gorgeous when she was angry, those green eye full of fire, her spectacular tits bouncing with her rapid breaths, and her blonde hair hanging loose and wild around her. I stepped to the right where a small sitting area was set up and shielded my reaction to her behind a chair.
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her to take the farthest bedroom in the opposite wing but when my mouth opened, that wasn’t what came out.
“Your room is next door.”
Jade gasped, “Surely there’s another—“
“It’s not up for discussion, Jade. The door to the right is your room,” I said with authority. What the fuck was wrong with me? When I’d thought about her so far away, my mind and body both went on strike and started picketing the decision. My mouth was obviously the union leader because it had ordered her to sleep one wall away from me. Worse still, the rooms had a connecting door.
Mentally kicking my own ass, I knew I needed to get out of her presence. “If you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.” I stared at her meaningfully until she spun on her heel and marched into the next room. Once again able to breathe deeply, I waited for my hard-on to go down, as far as it ever would around Jade. Then I took off for the office located on the first floor.
***
Since I had no idea I would be moving in this quickly, the house was very understaffed. When my stomach started growling, I looked at the clock and was shocked to see it was already after seven.
I stood and stretched before wandering toward the kitchen to see if there was anything to make a decent meal out of, then laughed at myself. I couldn’t cook worth shit, so I needed to find the menu drawer. Or start one.
As I neared the room, I heard music playing and someone moving around. At the door I stopped short, as though I’d run into a brick wall. Jade was dancing around the kitchen, her hips swinging, her body moving fluidly to the beat. I watched her in silence, the erotic picture in front of me making me lose all ability to think.
Then, as though from muscle memory, I was suddenly stalking her until I caught her, gripping her biceps and hauling her into my arms. Sucking her gasp of surprise into my mouth and replacing it with my tongue. All of my blood rushed to my groin and I groaned as I grew painfully hard.
My hands made their way down, over her tight ass, to the back of her thighs. I bent my knees and lifted her, guiding her legs around my waist and backing her up against the wall.
She moaned as I ground my cock into her pussy, shivers wracking her body. I needed her more than anything else at that moment. I reached for my zipper when a loud buzzer tore through my haze of lust. What the fuck?
Pulling back, I looked for the cause of the offending sound and recognized the cook timer on the stove was going off. Something was bubbling in a pot on top, and clearly a dish baking in the oven.
My stomach chose that minute to growl fiercely, reminding me it was empty. With the spell broken, I lowered Jade to the ground, doing my best to ignore her whimper of protest. I stepped back, my hands on her waist to steady her until she slapped at them, and I let go. She hurried over to the timer and shut it off, pulling from the oven what looked like ... freshly baked bread? No way.
This seemed like a scene from a movie, the little wife in the kitchen making her man dinner. Except this was anything but a movie, Jade was the last woman who would ever be my wife, and I wasn’t sure she would be willing to share.
My stomach roared in protest and I considered the dangers of seducing some of this food out of her.
“I brought some groceries because I wasn’t sure if the house was stocked,” Jade said, stirring the pot and keeping her back to me. “Mr. Wilkinson explained nobody had been in residence. I was going to ask what you wanted to do about dinner, but I couldn’t find you. “
She started hunting around and I finally snapped out of my trance, helping her to locate dishes and silverware.
“I made minestrone soup, salad is in the fridge, and there are fresh rolls. Help yourself.” She was still avoiding my gaze and it was beginning to annoy me, but I worried about what I’d do if I looked into her intoxicating eyes. So, I helped myself to the food, put it on a tray, thanked her quietly, and ran to my office like a coward.
A little after midnight, I took my dishes to the kitchen, rinsed and put them in the dishwasher, then went up to my room. I hesitated at Jade’s door, my hand itching to reach for the handle. Did she sleep in silky little nighties? Or a pair of boxers (I felt violent at the thought that she might be wearing another man’s clothes) and a t-shirt? Or, I swallowed hard, in the nude?
I groaned and forced my feet to step one in front of the other until I was shut in my bedroom. Keeping my eyes anywhere but on the connecting door, I stripped and took an icy shower. After I had dried off, exhaustion hit me, and I practically stumbled to the bed and passed out.
Several hours later, I woke in the darkness from a distant sound. Instantly alert, I sat up and listened. It sounded like—well, like someone was getting sick. After a moment, I realized it was coming from Jade’s ensuite bathroom. I threw the covers off and raced to her room.
Chapter 5
Jade
Ugh! Could tonight get any worse? Apparently it could, because another convulsion shook my body and I lost whatever contents remained in my stomach from dinner. Minestrone soup wasn’t fun w
hen it came back up, especially not when it had been paired with a salad.
Make that much, much worse. “Jade? Are you okay?” Lucas’s question was spoken gently through the door, in a tone I hadn’t heard from him since before he turned into an ass and stormed out of our hotel room.
“Do I sound like I’m fine?” I muttered under my breath.
The opening of the door was the only answer I got to a question he couldn’t have possibly heard. Then he was on his knees behind me, one hand bunching my hair at the back of my neck while the other rubbed my back in soothing strokes. Jerky Lucas was hard enough to resist, I couldn’t possibly expect myself to fare any better with this caring version of him. At least I didn’t have to worry about falling victim to the chemistry between us anytime soon, since I felt like death warmed over and probably looked like it too.
When it seemed as though I was done, Lucas helped me to my feet and settled me on the stool in front of the vanity. The freaking vanity! This house was nothing like anywhere I’d ever lived before and I couldn’t help but feel intimidated by the visible signs of wealth all around me. Well except maybe for the gourmet kitchen. It had truly been a joy to cook in there.
My stomach gurgled and I shoved all thoughts of food from my mind while taking the cold washcloth Lucas was handing me. Before I could use it, his hand was on my forehead, checking for a fever. I slapped it away and swiped the washcloth over my face.
“I don’t think you have a fever.” He sounded genuinely concerned. “And I ate the same dinner as you, so I don’t think it’s food poisoning.”
I wished I was lucky enough to have food poisoning. “It’s not.”
“Maybe it was whatever you had for breakfast? That could explain why you were sick in Mr. Wilkinson’s office earlier.”
So could the baby I was beginning to think I was carrying. Not that I was going to tell him that, so I kept my mouth shut and let him continue.
“You should have made something lighter for dinner,” he chided. “As much as I enjoyed the soup, chicken noodle would have been better if your stomach was still upset.”
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