A Debt Repaid (The Debt Duet 2)

But I had to get us home safely first.

And now I’m here in my study, and she’s up there, all by herself, probably drinking the tea Jill took her. We’re pretending everything’s back to normal, and we’re one happily married couple … but it’s not. Not until I’ve finally made her mine. Until she finally submits, and her heart belongs to me.

I thought having her under my control and owning her body would be enough, but I was wrong. I want her heart and soul too.

I take one last sip of my drink and put my glass down, then get up and go up the stairs, ignoring Jill’s stare from the kitchen. I know she doesn’t approve, but Jill doesn’t get to decide. Charlotte’s had enough time to gather her bearings, and now it’s time to talk.

I knock on her door as a courtesy.

“Come in,” she says. A lopsided grin spreads on my lips. I expected her to tell me to go away. I’m surprised.

I open the door and step into her room. She’s sitting at her boudoir, sipping her tea, while staring into the mirror. She’s still in the clothes she got at that man’s place … Deion, I think she called him.

I place my hands on her shoulders, and mutter, “Did Deion buy you these?”

She cocks her head and looks at me through the mirror. “His daughter did.”

“What else did they buy you?” I ask, trawling her neck for a necklace with a small charm in the shape of a moon.

She eyes me for a second, and the silence is deafening. “Nothing. I got it for free …”

“What?”

“Love.”

I stare back at her, my nostrils flaring in the mirror. “Love?” I snort. Of course she’d say that.

She clutches the necklace. “It’s the only thing you can’t buy.”

She’s provoking me, trying to make me out as the bad guy, but I won’t play this game with her no more.

I lean in and whisper in her ear, “But you didn’t love him back.”

The wickedness on her face disappears like snow before the sun.

I curl a strand of her hair around my finger. “Admit it.”

She sucks on her bottom lip. “He was kind. And gentle. A loving father. And everything else you could want in a man.”

“But you didn’t want him.” My fingers dig into her skin. “You didn’t want him to touch you.” My lips press a soft kiss to her skin, right below her ear. “To kiss you.”

Goose bumps cover her body in no time. She enjoys what I do, and she always has. She just refuses to come to terms with it. But I will make her see the truth.

“He never tried,” she hisses.

I raise a brow. “Really? Never?”

“Never,” she repeats, shaking her head.

“Not even a little bit? Even if he didn’t, he must’ve thought about it.”

“No, he wouldn’t,” she answers, frowning at me in the mirror.

“I know how men are,” I reply.

Her lip curls. “Not all men are like you.”

“Lie,” I say, glaring at her through the mirror. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

She cocks her head, tilting it up to hold her head high. “Why do you care so much?” A vicious smirk spreads on her lips. “So you are jealous …”

I tighten my grip on her shoulders, and she immediately jolts up out of her seat.

“Nothing will change the fact that you’re my wife, and you and I belong together. It doesn’t matter who came between us.”

“Right … But you still want to know if I’m a virgin,” she mocks as though that’s the only thing I’m interested in. But I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t the truth because I do want to know. I need to know if someone other than me has claimed her pussy. Because that right, to be the first and only man to come between her legs, should be mine.

“Nothing about you has changed,” she retorts with a snort.

“Did you expect it to?” I ask.

“Yes … Actually, I did. I was gone for such a long time, I thought maybe you’d finally come to your senses.”

“So you thought about me after all.” The smirk on my face makes her eyes smolder with heat.

My hand travels down her shoulder. “Did you fantasize about me touching you? Did you miss my hands on your body?”

“I missed nothing,” she hisses as I grab her breast and squeeze. Still, her nipple grows taut underneath my hand.

“You missed having me near … handing over control to me … letting me do whatever I wanted to your body to stop your mind from wandering,” I whisper, pinching her nipple.

Her eyes roll into the back of her head before she snaps them shut, but I saw. I definitely fucking saw.

“You can say it’s not true, but I don’t believe the lies you tell me, Charlotte,” I groan, ripping open her shirt to fondle her tits. “You didn’t even want that man. No matter how good or charming he is, he would never be able to give you what I give you.” One hand plunges down between her legs, and I clutch her pussy right through the fabric of her leggings and push my finger against her clit. “Complete and utter bliss.”