“I won’t tell anyone.”
“You just told everyone.” He growls. “Fucking Christ, Mercedes. What were you thinking?”
“I’m thinking I want to feel your cock inside me,” I murmur as I kiss my way along his jaw.
“You’re drunk,” he answers flatly as if that will stop this nonsense.
“And I’m wet, too.” I reach for the hem of my dress, trying to drag it up, but his hand catches mine in an iron grip, and he shakes his head.
“No.”
“No?” I taunt him. “What are you going to do about it?”
His eyes flash with what I’m certain are a few ideas, but I don’t give him space to breathe life into them.
“Give me what I want, or I’ll find someone who will.”
“Like hell you will.” He releases my arm to grab my jaw, branding me with the heat of his fingers. “Think long and hard before you make those kinds of threats. Because I have no problem ending any man who tries to touch you.”
I think that’s supposed to scare me, but all it does is make him even hotter right now.
“Give me what I want.” I grind my hips against him. “Or so help me God, I will go up to my room tonight and finger myself so hard there will be nothing left of my virginity. Then when I’m lying in my marital bed, and my husband is fucking me with his hard cock—”
“Enough!” he roars, the blistering heat of his anger searing my lips. “You watch your goddamn mouth, Mercedes. I’m not going to tell you again.”
“Is that an order, your honor?” I purr against him. “What will your verdict be if I don’t?”
“You don’t want to find out.” He releases my hands to pry me off and put me back into my seat, but I squeeze my thighs around him and resist.
“You said it yourself.” I stroke his erection with my palm, and his anger falters, eyes shuttering. “You’re going to give me away to another man. You’re going to hand me over yourself. Maybe I should invite you to stay for the wedding night so you can watch him fuck me. That will give you something to remember me by.”
His lips curl into a cruel smile. “What a good idea, little monster. You know two can play that game, right? Perhaps I should take you to the Cat House, and you can watch me fuck my favorite courtesans all night long. Watch the way they kneel before my cock, worship it, and then swallow my come—”
“Fuck you.” I shove against his chest, and this time, he captures me and hoists me back onto my side of the car without an ounce of gentility.
“That’s what I thought,” he murmurs darkly.
I turn to face the window, my jealousy eating me alive. I hate that he knows it. I hate that I don’t know if he really means it. Just because he gave me his assurances once doesn’t mean anything. There’s nothing to stop him from going to the Cat House every night and partaking in whatever or whoever delights him. I have to assume if he hasn’t been touching me, he must be getting his pleasure somewhere else. And even though I was the one to start this game, Judge quickly proved that he’s always going to be the one to finish it. Because he has all the power, and I am merely a pawn.
The drive is tense and silent, and he doesn’t try to change that. Not until we pull through the gate at his property and the driver delivers us to the front entrance.
“No.” Judge clips out as I try to exit myself and make a dash for the house.
He grabs me by the arm, hauls me out, and leads me toward the stables.
“What are you doing? Leave me alone.”
“What you did tonight with Ivy isn’t going to fly.” His voice is colder than I’ve ever heard it, and I suspect the anger behind it has nothing to do with Ivy at all, but rather the things that were said in the car.
“I hate her,” I snarl. “Just like I hate you.”
“Ten minutes ago, you wanted to climb on my dick,” he reminds me in a biting tone. “And you don’t hate Ivy. You proved that when you showed concern for her when I had her locked up in the cellar here. She’s supposed to be your enemy, yet you felt sorry for her. That doesn’t make you strong, Mercedes. It makes you weak.”
“You’re the fucking weak one!” I shove at him again, but it gets me nowhere. He’s like a brick wall, and I’ve never seen him as closed off as he is right now. “Who are you to talk, Lawson fucking Montgomery? You think you’re special just because you’ve been granted some bullshit title by IVI? Well, I have news for you… everyone thinks you’re an asshole! That must be why even your own family doesn’t come around. I’ve seen the photos in your study. I know you have a brother, but it’s funny nobody ever mentions him. I guess he can’t stand you either. What did you do to drive him away? It must have been—”
My words are cut off abruptly when he swings me around, and his hand whips toward my throat, cutting off the very breath from my lungs. I know I’ve made a grave mistake when I look into his eyes and see a fury unlike any I’ve ever witnessed in him.
“Don’t ever presume to know anything about my goddamn family.” He squeezes my throat tighter in his grasp, and I claw at his hands. “Do you understand? If you mention them again, I will unleash on you a pain unlike any you’ve ever known.”