Controlling Interests: A Step-Brother Romance (The Legacy Series Book 2) (20 page)

It was why I loved her. And why I had to protect her.

“Sarah, we need a concession first.”

Her excitement turned to despair.

For as easily as I read her, Sarah cracked through my barriers. She was the first person besides Max who ever fractured that façade. Neither of them should have wielded that power, but Sarah learned more about me in three months than Max had in a lifetime of banishment in my shadow.

“What kind of concession?” She hesitated. “Nick, what the hell is going on?”

“My father is waiting for you downstairs.”

“Isn’t he always?”

“Sarah, he also knows the trust might be awarded early.”

She gnawed on her lip. She bit the puffiness more than she kissed. In another world, I would never have let it happen. She’d have no worries, no fears. Just passion and pleasure and every promise of love.

“You know he wants an heir,” I said.

Her voice embittered. “More than anything.”

“There’s a doctor waiting downstairs with him. He’s here to administer the fertility drugs.”

I prepared for a slap. She retreated instead, forsaking the distance between us. The few feet felt like miles, so far it was as though she had never once settled within my embrace.

“Fertility drugs,” she said.

I held her gaze. “Yes. An injection. One medication delivered in the days before ovulation, another to induce it.”

“But I’m—” She whispered. “Does he know I’m infertile?”

“No.”

“Then why the hell would he force me to take
fertility drugs
? Nick, you can’t let him do this.”

“He’s convinced our timing is wrong. Or that we’ve not studied your cycle correctly.”

Sarah groaned. “Even if I
could
, there’s no guarantee I’d conceive if you took me on the right day at the right time.”

I nodded. “He knows. He…doesn’t like the odds.”

“Darius Bennett doesn’t like
nature’s
odds, so he’ll pump me full of chemicals before admitting defeat?”

“Sarah—”

“No way,” she said. “I’m not letting him touch me with any drugs. It’s not going to happen.”

“It’s only for a short time. Until I secure that last investor.”

“It’s
hormones
! This is dangerous!”

“We only need a month or two—”

“
Two
months
?” Sarah held my gaze. “Nick, I am
not
doing this. What happens if I get sick? Or if they cause some sort of crazy cancer? Or if I actually…”

She didn’t say it.

Despite the horrors she faced and the fortune slipping through my fingers, I still hoped.

What if the drugs helped to get her pregnant?

What if she conceived?

What if my every demand to dominate her ended with an heir?

She would have my child. My legacy in the world. A new generation of Bennetts richer and more powerful than we ever dreamed.

As quickly as the temptation struck, my mind darkened.

What if that child was used as a pawn in a horrific game between feuding families? What would he do when he learned he was conceived in domination and darkness instead of the love of two people?

It was the first time I thought of the heir as an actual baby. A part of me. Living. Breathing. Cuddled against Sarah’s breast.

My vision seared with fury.

No one would ever hurt Sarah, but I’d kill before anyone harmed our child.

“Doesn’t matter,” she said. “It’s still impossible.”

Then why did the thought still hurt so much?

“Do this for a month,” I said. “We’ll give my father what he wants, and he can waste his time hoping for a miracle. This is going to end, Sarah. I promise you.”

“I won’t take the drugs.”

“We don’t have a choice.”

“There’s always a choice!” Her voice layered with frustration, sadness. “Reed offered to run away with me.”

The implication was a knife to the heart.

Max earned my ire for daring to mark her skin, but I never expected betrayal from Reed. My youngest brother had more courage or common sense than me.

“Why did you stay?”

“Because of
you
.” Sarah didn’t dare fall into my arms. She straddled the same insecurity I battled, trapped between passion and fear. “I wasn’t about to leave you. I’m in love with you, Nick. Even though I
know
it’ll only end badly.”

“It won’t. I promise Sarah, I will earn everything for you. The company, our wealth, your freedom. It’ll be yours.”

“I don’t want it.”

“Don’t give up now. Don’t let my father scare you. Trust me. I can do this for you.”

“It’s not for me. You’re doing it for yourself.”

“I’m not.”

Her voice trembled. “Downstairs, the most evil man in the world is prepared to do horrible things to my body. Your plan is to let it happen.”

“If he knew I was organizing the amendment, he’d murder you this instant.”

“So, you let him inject me with hormones.”

“Sarah, I promise you—”

“Are you hoping I’ll get pregnant?”

My silence was the answer she feared and expected.

She struggled just to look at me. “How can I trust you when this plan is an easy way for you to get what you want?”

“I’ve never been dishonest with you. You knew every time I took you, I was trying—”

“And if it works?”

“You said it wasn’t possible.”

“But where does it end?” Her voice hollowed. “More drugs? More sex? What if he decides to do it himself—”

“He won’t.”

“I can’t take that chance.”

“Sarah—”

“And what happens if you’re successful?” She hardened. No longer the little fairy trapped in my grasp but a force of nature roaring for destruction. “How do I know you won’t seize control of
my
company?”

“How do I know you’ll return my stock when you take over the Bennett Corporation?”

Silence. The stalemate broke only with her whisper.

“Don’t you dare judge me for being scared,” she said. “Not when the collar is around
my
neck, and the scars on my body came from the hands of a
Bennett
.”

“Sarah, I don’t judge you. You are the strongest, most amazing woman I’ve ever met.” I touched her cheek, my thumb brushing the hint of freckles dusting her skin. “If I had a fraction of your courage, this would already be done.”

“Don’t say that. You’re the only reason I’m holding myself together.”

“I don’t deserve you.”

“You’re probably right.” She leaned into me. “I know you can be a good man, Nick. I want to feel safe with you.”

“You are.”

“Prove it?” It wasn’t a challenge but a plea.

“I can. I will.” I held her tighter. “Max may protect you from pain, and Reed might have offered to take you away, but I am the only one who can end this madness.”

“Then what aren’t you telling me?”

It wasn’t a secret—it was the one truth that would devastate her. I couldn’t reveal the board’s interests yet, not when I needed her cooperation to take the drugs that would save her from my father.

“I haven’t told you I loved you today.”

She pushed. I didn’t let her escape.

“I haven’t you told you how much you mean to me. How badly I hate what he’s doing to you.”

“Ready to shout it from the rooftops?”

“No. This doesn’t have to be shouted,” I said. “I tell you, over and over, that you’re mine. And I like that thought. Part of me demands I prove it to you every morning and night. And part of me wants to kill my brothers for touching you.”

She went still. I bumped my forehead against hers, breathing in her sweet, fruit-kissed scent.

“I have no right to claim you, Sarah Atwood. In truth, I belong to you. I’ve been yours since the moment we met. Now every time I hold you, kiss you, or slip inside you, I lose even more of myself.” I brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “But I would rather fade away completely than spend another second pretending to be the Nicholas Bennett I once was.”

“Sweet words from the man holding me captive.”

“Do this, and I’ll have more than words to offer you.”

“You’re asking a lot.”

“I always do.”

She sighed. “We can’t give him some other concession?”

“This is the last one.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” she whispered. “Don’t make me regret this.”

I already was, if only because her life measured in months and was worth only the billions her obedience secured. I removed the collar from her neck, but simply guiding Sarah to her new fate bound her more to me than if I forced her to crawl at my feet.

My father waited for us.

Introduced me to the doctor.

And Sarah trembled as he handed the prescription’s instructions to me.

“We must fire one hundred people from Engineering.”

My father expected my answer, studying me from beyond the desk.

I scanned my reports. “One hundred?”

“The quarterly reports aren’t great, and the board isn’t happy. What do you think?” He waited as I let the silence linger. “Nicholas. This is your first real test. I gave you the presidency of the engineering firm before the board felt it was appropriate. Don’t make me regret this.”

As if the board had any real say in our company’s decisions. I flipped through the pages. Checked the math. Tallied the salaries and healthcare, benefits and accumulated time. Twenty-one years old and I managed a multi-billion dollar branch of our company. No decision came lightly.

“I planned for fifty,” I said.

“We’re looking for stability.”

“I planned for sustainability.”

My father folded his hands. “This is business, Nicholas. Liabilities and assets. Either one hundred people are fired or—”

“Then fire them.”

My father nodded as I flipped through the papers one last time. He expected an explanation or a protest, but I could do nothing with the failing division he gave me. He tested me with the livelihood of one hundred employees. Any weakness, and it’d be another hundred losing their jobs to teach the lesson.

I didn’t speak the truth, but I didn’t lie to my father. Not entirely.

“My calculations were incorrect.” I accepted his offered whiskey. “I don’t like being wrong.”

“You’ll learn, son.” He toasted me. “I’ll teach you. One day you’ll run this company and family exactly as I plan, just as effectively as me.”

No.

I’d do it better.

My father expected me to inject Sarah myself. After the poking and prodding, bloodwork and inspections of her exposed and trembling body, the doctor and my father decided it would be me delivering her medications every morning.

Beginning right then.

She didn’t look at me. She didn’t look at the needle. And she didn’t look at my father.

She prepared herself for battle.

That was why I loved her. That was why I hurt her.  That was why I had to betray her this one last time. The drugs would either secure our future or rip us apart.

I pushed the syringe’s plunger.

It would be the last time I hurt her.

“Loop the rope under her breasts once more.” Darius studied me from behind his desk. “It can be tighter. I’m not taking a chance on her running.”

Max glanced to Nicholas before obeying the order. We were fortunate Darius didn’t notice.

The rope cast tight over my body, twisting over my breasts, binding my stomach, and, worst of all, stretching between my legs. It tugged my slit, and within moments of Max finishing his last knot, the pull of the nylon overwhelmed me. The sensation shifted from weird to painful.

“Walk, my dear.” Darius spared me no sympathy since the failed pregnancy test. If I was to make a public appearance at Reed’s charity gala, he would punish every moment of my freedom. “Are you comfortable?”

“No.”

“Good. Dress her. Adjust whatever rope shows through the material.”

He commissioned the dress from a French boutique. It glittered as if spun from sunshine itself. Nicholas bundled the silk and helped set it in place as the bindings limited my movement. The sleeves hung low over my shoulders, and the corset dazzled with subtle accented stones. The ropes hid perfectly under the ruffles as the gown teased the floor in sweeping, silken movement. No one would see what Darius Bennett hid beneath the silk.

That was a secret kept between a father and his little girl.

The stylists finished before the bondage. He surveyed my hair and pale pink lipstick as though I were a living doll—a toy for him to torture, dress, and exploit. The bright gown did nothing to age me. I looked like a girl off to homecoming, and the light makeup and darling curls masked me in angelic innocence.

A perfect daughter.

A helpless prisoner.

The thick ropes constrained my chest worse than the corset. Darius didn’t care. He planned for me to be uncomfortable and bound, unable to easily escape. The tug of the nylon burned against my breasts, ached my chest, and tormented my clit until it hurt.