Soren

The dress was criminal. Short. It should’ve been illegal. In fact, when this meeting was over, I was burning it to fucking ashes.

It hugged every lethal curve like second skin. It pushed up her fuller breasts, teasing her cleavage in the darnest manner. Enough to want to feel them. Not enough to feed your creative imaginations.

Her waist was cinched. Tinier. My fingers curled as I remembered what it felt like in my hands, how perfectly my fingers fit around her like a snug belt. She crossed those toned, taller legs over the other and a flash of smooth, ivory thighs greeted me.

Fuck me, I thirsted to have my face buried between them. I strained against my zipper and stifled a hiss as my hips bucked forward.

Jericho had cracked his glass upon seeing her. Mercer wasn’t doing much better. His hunger was a livid thing through the bond. Quinlan didn’t hide the fact that he was staring at her tits.

Anymore and we would be salivating all over her like common dogs.

She had only glanced once in our direction since she walked in. And it was to look at us like we were something disgusting to be scraped off her boots. Even recalling that little action made my stomach tighten with need.

Fuck. Get it together, I snarled at myself. But my body didn’t listen. All I could think about was bending her over this table, shoving that short dress up, and fucking that attitude out of her.

I wasn’t the only one suffering the same affliction because Mercer’s thigh slammed into the table as he tried to hide his erection, startling the lawyers. I almost laughed.

I tried to focus on other things. Anything other than sex. Like her hair.

Her hair was shorter than it had being two weeks ago when it was wrapped around my fist. Now, it teased her lower back in waves. I loved her frizzy hair, but this was good, too.

Kohl rimmed her intense blue eyes and they popped harder, making it more jarring to find that there was no anger in them.

Maisie’s hatred had cooled over and become ice. Ice so cold it burned, and I flinched because that frightened me more than her anger.

Fury meant a woman still cared. Indifference indicated the beginning of the end.

She noticed me staring and her eyes slid to mine. Usually, she might have looked away shyly. Even her lawyer who was checking me out had looked away from me with a blush.

Maisie held my stare.

Blue. Ice. Unforgiving.

She blew on her bubble gum, and without taking her eyes off me, she popped it.

The sound echoed through the room and my dick responded, again. Hell, Maisie only needed to be breathing and my dick got excited.

I looked away first, feeling a flush of embarrassment rise up my neck. What was I? Thirteen?

"Your Highness, are you listening?" Alden asked, and I blinked, noticing all four of Maisie’s lawyers were waiting on my response.

"Repeat the question," I said, and my gaze slid back to Maisie as she leaned forward in her chair, causing her dress to hike even higher.

The lawyer started speaking again. I barely heard shit.

"Let’s make this quick," Maisie interrupted, taking the marked up file herself like she meant business.

"I’ve amended the contract to suit my preferences. Here’s what’s happening and here’s what’s not happening," she added, voice as icy as her gaze. I wondered if she knew that just made it sound a whole lot sultrier.

I liked the almost professional air about her. It made me think of doing extremely unprofessional things to her.

What followed was the most painful negotiation I’ve ever had the honor of being a part of, and by the end of it, I was close to losing my mind because while Maisie hadn’t found her way out of the contract, she had found a way around it.

With three wretched words. "Then divorce me."

"I want the ’trying for an heir’ clause removed," she started.

"Impossible." Jericho crossed his arms. "It is a directive from the Queen herself. Our race’s largest responsibility is repopulation and as our bride, that responsibility falls on your shoulders, too. It cannot simply be removed or ignored."

"I didn’t ask to be your bride," she countered easily. "If you think I’ll let you grow another human being inside me without my own consent, then you’re way in over your head, Prince Ivanov."

Prince Ivanov? That was new.

Jericho didn’t like his new nickname very much. The violent one inside him rattled with displeasure. "Tell me if I need to spell my name on your pussy one more time, malyshka, so you remember how it’s pronounced."

Maisie froze. Alden choked on his water. Maybe I should’ve grabbed some popcorn.

Clearing his throat, Alden intervened before Maisie could reach across the table and slap Jericho across the face. "I believe what the prince is trying to say, Your Highness, is that that Queen values children above all else, and even if you were not married, you would still be obligated to fulfill that particular duty as a Lycan female. That cannot be changed."

Maisie paused and thought hard, and without betraying any emotion, she said coldly, "Then you will fix the timeline to one of my choosing. My decision. I state if and when copulation occurs."

When she said ’copulation’ it sounded like an insult. Mechanical. Detached. Like we were nothing more than breeding machines. I hated it because it sounded like my aunt telling me to go fulfill my duties all over again.

"Very well. You decide when we fuck," I corrected, emphasizing on the ’fuck’ to make her react, but she didn’t. Not even when her lawyers shifted uncomfortably. She didn’t bat an eyelid.

Naturally, that annoyed me.

So I decided to say the word ’fuck’ as many times as possible. "Fucking for conception and fucking for pleasure is entirely separate. You’re a little green, so allow me to list all the different kinds of fucking that exists. There’s obligatory fucking, there’s recreational fucking, there’s angry fucking, there’s hate fucking, there’s make-up fucking, there’s ’I missed you so much I’m losing my mind’ fucking, there’s desperate middle-of-the-night ’please don’t leave me’ fucking, there’s ’you’re wearing that dress so I’m going to bend you over the table right now’ fucking—"

I was breathing hard than I should’ve been.

"There’s slow, filthy, ’I’m going to ruin you for anyone else’ fucking. There’s ’we’re all taking turns until you can’t walk straight’ fucking. There’s ’you’re mad at us but you’re still soaking wet’ fucking. There’s even ’we’re supposed to be in a meeting but I can’t stop thinking about bending you over’ fucking, which, incidentally, is the kind we’re doing in my head right now." I smiled when a tinge of pink finally entered her cheeks.

It felt like I’d achieved some form of victory. "So, by all means, Adams, decide which form of fucking you wish to have control over."

The lawyers looked like they wanted the floor to swallow them whole.

Quinlan’s inward laughter flitted down the bond. "You’re a real piece of work, Soren."

Maisie stared at me for a very long time. I saw the rage and lust trying to break out of its cage. But then, she blinked and it was back to that unfazed, bored mask and then she dismissed me, by glancing at her lawyer. "In addition to the previous clause, I get to decide if and when there will be any kind, shape or form of intimacy between us. At any and every point."

My Lycan growled inwardly. It was an annoyed sound, but we both knew he liked her resistance way too much.

He thought we were complicating things. He also thought it would simply be easier if I filled Maisie’s mouth with something far more interesting than clauses.

Mercer said, "No."

Maisie blinked and smiled sweetly. "Then divorce me."