Richard

I nodded and sighed as I took it from him, bringing it to my lips. This was the good stuff, not the fifteen-dollar bottles I’d picked up from the grocery store once or twice back when I’d been in charge of ExecuSpace’s company parties. Those days seemed so far away now. I’d been shrouded in opulence for so long that I could barely remember what it was like to struggle. Had I become my mother?

I didn’t realize I’d said that last part out loud.

Preston’s eyes darkened as he looked down at me. “No, Maddy,” he said, sitting on the edge of the tub. “You’re nothing like Vivian. Don’t you ever think that. Okay?”

I smiled at him thinly and took another sip of my champagne. I wasn’t in the mood to argue. “What do we do now?”

He rolled up his sleeves and sighed, kicking his shoes across the bathroom floor. Then he reached into the water and pulled my wet feet into his lap, soaking his slacks as he massaged along my arches with exquisite care. I moaned and sank into the water, purring like a kitten as my Preston worked my soles.

“I’m not giving into my father’s demands,” he said, gently stretching and rubbing each of my toes. I nearly swooned. “We’ll find a way out of this. It may have to be extreme, but if you’re willing to go for it, then so am I.”

I opened my eyes. “What exactly are you proposing?” I asked him.

“I’m not sure yet. But it may involve withdrawing everything from my account and starting all over someplace new. Would you be willing to do that with me, if it came down to it?”

I sat up a little, studying his face. “Are things that serious between us?”

Preston shrugged. “They could be. I don’t know. But that’s a last resort. In the meantime, I can simply say I’m not interested in being a larger part of Harvey Enterprises until his plans for the future include you, too. Maybe there’s still time for me to change things from the inside—hold his feet to the fire over this. I am his only heir, and the only one who knows enough about the family business to take it over once he’s out of the picture. Without me, the board would cut this company to shreds and dine on its carcass.”

“Do you think that’s enough leverage?” I asked him. “And what about my mom?”

“That’s up to you,” he told me, gliding his fingers up my ankles and calves. “What do you want to do about that?”

I pursed my lips in thought. On one hand, Preston’s father manipulating my mother for his own gains didn’t sit well with me. She was a terrible person, sure enough, but did she deserve to be used and lied to like that?

On the other hand, didn’t she sort of have this coming? I couldn’t say that out loud, of course, but my mother had been more awful than ever since she and Mr. Harvey had hooked up. It might serve as some kind of sick vindication to tell her the truth: that she was no more special to him than any other woman who would silently put up with his shit.

“I’m not sure,” I said at last. “If it were me, I know I’d want to know. But my mother isn’t me. In fact, she isn’t most people. I’m not sure she’s even human.” I sucked in a sharp breath as Preston fondled the very sensitive backs of my knees. “I can’t say with any certainty that she wouldn’t blame me for this, somehow, or that she might turn a blind eye and accuse me of lying to ruin her happily ever after. She might just write me off as jealous and tell your father to make your life hell until you got rid of me, or something.”

Preston smiled. “That’s not going to happen,” he told me as he slowly crawled into the tub.

“Preston!” I shrieked, watching his clothes stick to his body. His white button-down clung to his hard, muscular chest, revealing the tone of his skin beneath, and I laughed as he prowled toward me. “You’re getting soaked!”

“So are you,” he breathed against one of my nipples cresting the surface of the water. Then he bent his head down and took it between his teeth, gently laving it with his tongue as he nibbled and sucked and made me sigh.

“Oh, hell,” I muttered. “We’re getting ourselves into so much trouble…”

Preston didn’t seem to care about that. He only grasped my opposite breast with his hand, crushing it between his fingers as he drew his body up against mine and parted my legs with his hips.

“It’s worth it,” he assured me, inspiring chills up and down my spine. I slipped my arms around him, running my dripping fingers through his hair as he pressed his growing erection against my slit under the water. “Bend over the side, Maddy, while I turn on these jets.”

I blushed but did as I was told. After the day we’d had, I needed Preston inside of me. With just a gentle touch, he’d brought me to this place again, a place where no one and nothing mattered more than the man of my dreams claiming me. It didn’t matter that some silly piece of paper might complicate our lives. Stepbrother or not, I was going to do this.

He helped me up onto my knees and turned me around, my back against his chest as I gripped the high edge of the tub. I pressed my stomach against it, my heaving breasts hanging over the side as Preston spread me with his knee, my pussy positioned right against the place the jet would bubble up from.

I stuck out my ass and rubbed it against his swelling crotch, moaning as he continued to tantalize my nipples with his fingertips. Then he drew one hand away, reached over, and turned on the control for the jets, and I threw my head back in utter bliss as the one I was straddling pounded perfectly against my clit.

“Oh, God,” I moaned, squirming as it pummeled me.

The silken fabric of Preston’s slacks fell away as he pulled his cock free of them, pressing it against me from behind. He parted my folds, sliding his tip against my slippery opening while I writhed and shuddered on the jet teasing me into utter oblivion.

“You’re so perfect,” he whispered, nuzzling my hair before digging in deep. I cried out as he filled me, his thick shaft stretching my pussy wide as he grabbed onto my tits with both hands and pushed all the way up to his hilt. “I need you, Maddy. No matter what happens, say you’ll stay with me.”

I scrabbled for purchase on the slick edge of the tub as my stepbrother began to thrust in and out of me. Every movement of his hips splashed water onto the tile floor. I could feel waves of it surging up over my back, wetting my hair and crashing over me like Preston was the ocean itself, and I was being swept away by the tide.

I had never felt like this with any man before. And I knew, deep down in my heart, that I never would.

I let myself believe that this could work. I released the fear inside of me and took Preston in deep, finally giving him unfettered access into my soul, my precious core.

“Yes,” I hissed, throwing my head back against his shoulder as he grunted into my ear. “I’ll stay, Preston. I’ll always stay. I promise.”

“Nothing will tear us apart,” he groaned, laying feverish kisses upon my neck as he took me. Before I knew it my orgasm was upon me and I screamed, bucking against him, the water now flowing freely out of the tub as we both undulated in ecstasy. “I swear it, Maddy. I’ll take care of you, always.”

And then my stepbrother was spilling inside of me, filling me to the brim with his seed. I shuddered beneath him, feeling as though we’d made a pact, a bond that couldn’t be broken by anyone, not even our families.

Everything would work out. I was sure of it. We’d run away together, if we had to. Preston had promised me as much.

I turned and kissed his lips, no longer thinking of him as the man who would become my stepbrother, but rather the man who would make my deepest, wildest dreams come true.

Later, I would hate myself for being so damn blind.

Despite all the money I had, all the privilege extended to me by mere virtue of my birthright, it was only now that for the first time in my life, I felt truly powerful.

I had long viewed my status as a billionaire as more of a curse than a blessing. Maybe in some other family it would have been different, but in the Harvey family, I lived in a gilded cage. People always thought that because