by Lana Grayson
“Close your eyes.”
Nicholas had often issued such orders, but this time it wasn’t accompanied with a collar and blindfold. He opened a door and crossed his arm over my waist. I rested against his chest as he whispered to me.
“This is for Bumper.” His hand rubbed my tummy. “I didn’t want to wait.”
I peeked open my eyes.
Oh, this man.
The nursery was styled like a farm. A mural of painted blue skies overlooked fields ripe for a harvest. Little barns and animals printed on the walls—horses and cows and the sheep Dad never actually bought but threatened to ranch in Montana. The white and wicker furniture looked exactly like the ones from the pictures of our farm when my great-grandparents first settled the land. He decorated with a rocking chair and crib, changing table and shutters over the windows. The mobile was made from little barnyard animal figurines.
“I hired Atlas to do the work.”
“Nick, this is…” My words broke.
Run.
Stay.
Hide.
Fight.
My options became more limited the longer I waited and the bigger I grew. This was just the sort of perfection that would blind me to the true danger.
“I know you’re scared,” he said. “Even if you won’t admit it. But I want you here, with me.”
“You can’t promise me we’ll be safe.”
“I can. I will.” He kissed my temple. “Sarah, I’m a man who has always received everything I’ve ever wanted the instant I demanded it. You are the one exception to my rule. I can’t buy you. I can’t own you. I have nothing to offer you except my heart, and even if you refuse it, you are the reason it beats.”
“Nick…”
“I want you and the baby. You are my world. You are my family. A real family.”
He gave me a devilish smile, pulling a package from the top shelf of the dresser. I tugged the ribbon and opened the box, grinning at the tiny pink onesie.
“I couldn’t help myself.” Excitement warmed his voice. “After decorating with all the farm themes, I needed a little something else in here.”
“Daddy’s Princess?” I wrinkled my nose. “You’re going to spoil her before she’s born.”
“Absolutely.”
I covered the box before the pink seeped out and every secret spread. Nicholas took my hand.
“Tonight, I want to celebrate. We have the companies. We have Bumper.” His smile was so rare, so perfect it almost startled me. “Let’s celebrate tonight. You know how much I love you.”
“It’s not about how much you love me,” I whispered. “It’s about how much he hates me and my family.”
His fingers brushed my belly. “It’s one family now, Sarah. And nothing he does will change that.”
“Everything can change it.”
“Only if we let him.” Nicholas kissed me once more. “I dare him to try in what little time he has remaining.”
The trace of his lips on mine warmed with every whispered promise and murmured devotion. He meant to leave for the party. I pulled him into our bedroom instead.
Nicholas grinned.
We embraced in a fierce and passionate kiss, every quick nibble answered in the same fervor, the same intensity, the same realized desires.
So much for his celebration. My dress slipped from my shoulders. Nicholas’s gentle mouth caressed my skin, dragging from my puffy lips to the pulsing heat in the hollow of my neck. He kissed where the material fell away over my flushed breasts.
My body was changed now. Noticeably. I was soft curves and delicate swells. My breasts plumped, full and beautiful. Nicholas hummed, taking a nipple into his mouth. The warmth swirled around me, entirely too sensitive for little more than his tender attention.
He lowered me to the bed, but for the first time, hesitated before lying over me.
He kissed my visible tummy.
“I have to be more careful now,” he said. Bumper kicked at the sound of his voice.
“We’re tougher than we look.”
“I’m not taking any chances.” His fingers hooked within my panties. “Not when there’s so many other ways to enjoy you.”
The silky tease of my panties slipped over my hips. His hand never left my tummy. It hardly ever did. I knew he was tempted by the thought of getting me pregnant, but I feared once it happened, Nicholas would realize how truly barbaric such a practice had been. Or that his excitement would pass and I’d be taken and ruined all from the same moment.
Not so.
Not ever.
Not with the nursery and the gifts, the kisses and the touches, the honesty in his voice when he declared his love.
How gently he whispered to the baby when he thought I’d fallen asleep.
I believed him when he vowed a life of family, trust, and warmth. But it was so hard to give him that part of me. Loving him, trusting him was a strange form of surrender that wasn’t found in bindings or chains or whips.
Trust was completely consensual, independent of him and what he could offer and what he had done. It came from me. I had to trust myself first.
He touched me, and I softened. He kissed me, and I groaned. He delighted me with the slip of his tongue, and I was lost.
I loved Nicholas Bennett—I loved him more than the Atwood land, more than the legacy left by my father and brothers, more than the money and the fame of our families. And not because I’d sacrifice everything that was me to be with him, but because he’d do the same. Because it didn’t matter if we were Atwood or Bennett.
We were together. All of us.
The heat of his tongue swept through me, building deeper, hotter. I drew him to my lips as my body shuddered. One flick of his tongue wasn’t enough.
His clothes slipped away. As I softened, every bit of him hardened, including the part meant most for me. His muscles, his abs, his voice, everything tensed with raw confidence and a quick possession. The swelling of my body was made by him, but the masculine victory was tempered by how he looked at me in such awe and adoration.
“Promise you’ll stay with me, Sarah.”
I’d promise him anything while my pulse raced and my core demanded more of his touch.
And I’d probably keep those promises too.
Despite the warnings and the fears and the darkness, I’d stay with him until the end.
However quickly it would come.
He lay beside me, his hand over my tummy. His cock sunk into me. I closed my eyes, and the thickness only tightened the need inside me. For once, his breathing shuddered more than mine. I loved hearing his quiet grunt, the not-so-hidden profanities that destroyed the composure of a man as powerful as Nicholas Bennett when he thrust within the woman he loved.
He was as gentle as he could be, but his touch was never rough, only demanding. The simple, desperate movement that offered so much but took even more. I mewed, matching his intensity, resting against the heat of his chest. His hands caressed every part of me, tickling over my breasts, my tummy, and finally in the crest he claimed.
I flinched as he rubbed my swollen clit. The sensation overwhelmed me into shocked shivers of pleasure. Neither of us would last, but we weren’t savoring. I needed that burst, the quick blending of passion. A promise of everything warm and wild.
He pinched my clit as I tensed, clenching against his thickness. The first jet of his heat within me caused my own peak, and I clutched his arms, the bed, my own body.
We shuddered together in a shared, perfect pleasure.
A perfect trust.
And I knew what it meant. Trust was my most reckless sacrifice of all, and letting him love me the most dangerous promise I’d ever make. My heart was his to cherish or shatter.
It wasn’t a weakness to love, but it took so much strength to survive.
We rested, panting, loving. For the first time, I let myself imagine that this would be our reality. Our few delicate moments could stretch beyond stolen hours or days and last for a lif
etime.
Nicholas sighed, pulling from me despite my soft protest.
“We’re supposed to be at my party,” he said.
“You’re just lucky I didn’t name myself CEO of the Bennett Corporation.”
“Exceedingly fortunate.”
We dressed quickly. No powder or makeup hid the flush over my cheeks. We arrived only an hour late, well within the earned grace period of a Bennett. The Atwoods were usually given two hours until high society questioned us, but who was counting the seconds?
The Bennett Corporation spared no expense when celebrating the most monumental change in the company’s history. A completely altered board and new CEO meant one of the fanciest and most exclusive country clubs opened its doors for a night of dining, dancing, and reckless drinking.
A full-scale orchestra blared classical music, and every important person with a well-known family on the West Coast joined in the cacophony of money, power, and celebrity.
Reed greeted us with a broad smile and edged us from the well-wishers for a moment of privacy.
“And just where have you two been?”
Nicholas accepted a drink and toasted his brother. “I showed Sarah Bumper’s nursery.”
“I hope I get the encore tour.”
I blushed, wishing I had something stronger than ginger ale to endure the hungry stares of my two step-brothers. Someone was missing. I searched through the tuxedos and evening gowns.
“Where’s Max?” I asked.
Reed shrugged, attempting to look carefree. He failed. “Haven’t seen him. He’s probably coming later.”
Or not at all. Reed didn’t need to make excuses for his brother.
We parted as Senator Mackin arrived to shake Nicholas’s hand. The greying, walking/talking suit beamed an elect-me personality. He wagged a finger.
“Ms. Sarah Atwood. I remember you from when you were just a little tyke.”
“Most people do, sir,” I said.
“Certainly not little now.”
I glanced down. I wasn’t that big, and Bumper would probably be petite. The dress did accentuate the bump. I thought I looked rather cute.
“I should congratulate you, Ms. Atwood,” he said.
Nicholas held my hand. “Thank you, Senator.”
What the hell was he doing?
The realization took a moment to brighten the senator’s face, but the shock remained. At first, I prepared for the scandal, the dreaded word step-brother. Instead, he laughed.
“An Atwood and Bennett baby?” he hooted. “Jeez Lousie, that’s gonna be the most powerful kid in California. Boy or girl?”
“Boy.” We both answered quickly, reflexively.
“Well, congratulations! I feel like I ought to start my campaigning now. In thirty years that little boy is going to own us all.”
He shook Nicholas’s hand again before parting to chase either a waitress or the drinks she carried. I tugged Nicholas to my side before he dared to slink away.
“So…” I perked an eyebrow. “We’re just…telling people then?”
“Why not?” he said. “Sarah, I love you. And I love Bumper. And the truth will come out soon enough. Why not celebrate it?”
“Celebrate it?”
“We’re here, aren’t we?” he shrugged. “Surrounded by everyone powerful and influential. It’s a perfect opportunity to reveal it.”
I meant to frown, but the tingle of excitement buzzed through me.
He was right, but Nicholas didn’t see the true opportunity. We were here, celebrating his ascension to the top of the Bennett Corporation, succeeding his father and seizing his empire. Nicholas had the power, the company, the heir.
And I had him.
It was the perfect opportunity to announce our blessing and twist a knife that already dug into Darius’s heart.
Now, the bastard had no family. No company. Absolutely no meaning left in his life. Everything Darius once prized in the world was lost to me. Even his heir held my hand as he made his rounds to visits friends and business associates.
“Ms. Atwood!” A balding man, flushed by too many drinks, shook my hand and grinned at Nicholas. “Paul Baxtor. Vice-President of Research and Development at the Bennett Corporation.” He exhaled, smiling wider as he looked me over. “I read through your work, Ms. Atwood. You are…absolutely brilliant!”
He knew how to flatter me. “Thank you.”
“I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with you. We will make history, you and me. With your intelligence and understanding of these genomes, the world is going to change.”
The damn hormones. Nicholas thanked him for me as I choked on my own pride. I fanned my face to suppress the weepy tears.
“Let’s get you something to eat,” he said.
“Hear that?” My sniffle became a giggle. “Change the world. Me. All this time you Bennetts were trying to make an heir when you could have had me instead.”
“Hindsight is 20/20.”
I shook my head as a passing server offered a variety of shellfishes and seafoods. Not good for me at the moment, not a particular favorite otherwise. I aimed for a cracker with cheese though I really wanted a snow cone. I managed to find crushed ice at the bar and some soda just as the crowd cried for a speech.
Nicholas was a lot of things—handsome, confident, devoted. He was also a Bennett. His arrogance masqueraded as charm, but the world hadn’t offered him everything he dreamed. Instead, he took it. Seized it on the back of a motorcycle, seduced it from an enemy, and stole it from a father who no longer deserved the respect of his son.
It wasn’t a speech. It was his coronation.
He rose to the band’s stage and accepted the microphone from the conductor. The lights focused over him, and every eligible and not so eligible woman in the room sighed.
The shadows captured his chiseled chin and jaw line, and the tuxedo tailored the strength of his shoulders and chest. If pride were truly sin, then every moment with Nicholas had bathed me in hellfire.
“I want to thank you all for attending.” His voice needed no microphone. The party would’ve stopped breathing if it meant capturing his every word. “This is a monumental day for the Bennett Corporation, but this will be only one of many. I foresee success, prosperity, and many more celebratory moments in our future.”
The audience applauded. I recognized a lot of people—some friends of my family and others people of wealth and fortune that had pledged their loyalty to Darius Bennett. Dad would never have tolerated a moment like this.
And he would have disowned me long before Bumper was ever a concern.
“These next few months will come with many challenges and changes,” Nicholas said. “But I’m pleased to begin this new path. This company has always been forged on a legacy of family and pride. Lessons passed father to son. I am fortunate to take this opportunity and expand that vision. For the first time, the Bennett Corporation will be overseen by the entire family.” Nicholas made the decision himself, one of his first, one he had planned for so long. “I am dividing my portion of this company equally between my brothers and me, as it should have been done long ago.”
Reed hooted from the crowd. “That means the next round is on me!”
Nicholas didn’t yet regret that decision though the few chuckles and demands for the highest caliber whiskey rumbled through the people. I searched, but Max didn’t hide in the shadows.
He wasn’t here.
I hated that it no longer surprised me.
“It isn’t just the leadership of the Bennett Corporation that’s changing,” Nicholas said. “It is our future. Sarah Atwood is the fourth member of our Board of Directors, a name which—just a year ago would have crumbled the very foundation of the Bennett Headquarters to the ground…brick by brick, if memory serves.”
He was right.
And if he wasn’t careful, I’d still do it.
His words drew the attention to me, and by extension, sparked a fury of whispers primarily conc
erned with my visible little Bumper. His gaze fell on me too.
Oh, Christ. He was serious about revealing it.
“Sarah Atwood is not simply a member of this board. I am in love with her.”
The hormones didn’t like this. I flushed as genuine surprise raged through the audience. The astute ones in attendance quickly did the math on my condition.
“Sarah’s position on our board isn’t the first blending of Bennett and Atwood,” he said. “And I am beyond proud and excited to announce the pending arrival of the next generation of our families in just four months.”
Dad would be rolling in his grave. Probably Mike and Josiah too. Nicholas’s call for a toast silenced most of the gossip, but I was the one who needed the drink the most.
Reed edged his way to my side. He faked a pout.
“All that, and me and Max don’t even get a credit in this union?”
“Be glad it’s Nicholas announcing it and not your father.”
The toast passed with clinked glasses and general merriment, but Nicholas replaced the microphone. I caught his glance as Max stormed through the crowd.
Max took my arm. Squeezed too hard.
His eyes were rimmed red, and his hands shook. Either his patience or his liver would give out first, but the Bennetts refused to talk about it, even when Max crashed a formal party in jeans.
“Come on, baby,” he said. “We’re getting you out of here.”
He looked ragged, but his voice was cold and sober. A genuine applause rose from the crowd.
And I knew why we had to leave. I shook Max away and refused to run.
I expected it.
Why hadn’t they?
As if he planned the very moment to coincide with his son’s speech, Darius Bennett sauntered into Nicholas’s celebratory party with a grand, serpentine smile, shaking hands with friends and greeting those who hadn’t been told of his sins, lies, and perversions.
The Bennett Board of Directors, with the exception of Bryant Maddox, resigned with full honors and every respect. That included Darius, even if his sudden departure perplexed all who knew him.
I anticipated a fight, bloody and brutal and rife with more abuses than I endured before. But Darius chose another path. It wasn’t peace, it wasn’t retreat.