Rebellion (A Dangerous Man, #2) (9 page)

“And she threatened to sell them to the man who wanted to
take over my company if I didn’t marry her.” he states without feeling, “A man she
was sleeping with I might add, along with a few others.”

I stare at him, my mouth open. “You’re just saying that.”

He laughs. “Maybe you should try to get your information
accurate before you start throwing accusations.”

“It doesn’t make any difference.” I say. “Even if she did
all those things, it doesn’t change the fact that you don’t love me. I’m just
the girl who was foolish enough to marry you so you could teach your
ex-girlfriend a lesson.” I choke back a sob. “I can’t take it David.” I get up,
filled with resolve.

“What are you doing?” he asks, watching me.

“I am leaving.”

“Don’t threaten me.” The hardness in his voice almost makes
me pause. He rises to his feet, towering over me.

“Why not?” I spit at him. “Will you marry someone else to
teach me a lesson?”

He takes hold of my arm. “Don’t test me Sophie.”

I ignore him.

He turns away. “Fine, do whatever you like. Go back to
Ashford. I’m sure your little boyfriend will be more than eager to find you a
place in his bed. But while you’re at it, you might want to ask yourself why
you married me.”

“I love you.” I almost choke on the words, saying them makes
me want to burst into tears.

He laughs cruelly, “What love. Did you fall in love with
some stranger you hardly knew Sophie, just because he asked you out to dinner.
Get real sweetheart, this has always been about sex.”

“Not for me.”

“Then you’re a liar as well as a fool.”

I stare at him, tears filling my eyes. I don’t care that I’ve
nowhere to go. I can’t stay here.

“I hate you,” I tell him before I leave the bedroom, “I hope
I never have to see you again. Carole was right about you, you use people, and
when you’re done with them you toss them away like rubbish, you’re not worthy
of my love.”

He flinches, and for a moment, a wounded expression flits
over his face, then he turns away from me. “Do whatever you want Sophie.”

I spend the night in one of the guest rooms, with my bags
for company. Early in the morning, I hear him come into the room. After a few moments,
while I pretend to be asleep, he leaves. After he’s gone, I take a quick shower
and leave the apartment. A few weeks ago, I had a plan to go to Bellevue and
find a job, and now, that is exactly what I’m going to do.

P
syche, as mentioned in this book, was, in Greek and Roman
mythology, the youngest daughter of a king in ancient Greece. The fame of her
beauty was so much that even Venus, the goddess of love, grew jealous, and sent
Cupid, her son the god of love to work revenge on Psyche by making her fall in
love with someone horrible.

However, Cupid falls in love with Psyche and through a fake
divination, deceives her family into believing that Psyche must be made to
marry a monster. They take her to the mountains, from where she is borne to
Cupid’s beautiful palace by the west wind.

There, he visits her at night and makes love to her, always
leaving before morning, and never showing her his face. When Psyche’s sisters
come to visit her, they are jealous of the luxury of the palace, and convince
her that her husband is in reality a monster who will kill her and her unborn
child.

That night, while Cupid sleeps, Psyche fetches a lamp and
sees his face for the first time. Struck by his beauty, she pricks her finger
on one of his arrows and is filled with a feverish passion for him. When he
wakes up and sees what she has done, he leaves her.

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Thank you for
reading Rebellion.

Love,

Serena Grey.

Keep scrolling to read the Teaser for Claim (A Dangerous Man
#3) by Serena Grey.

Serena Grey discovered her first love when she was a child,
and that love, reading, has been her constant companion since then.

She still loves to read, but now she also writes, because
the stories in her head won't leave her in peace otherwise. When she's not
reading and writing, she enjoys cocktails, coffee, the Vampire Diaries, Smash,
and constantly drools over Gabriel Macht as Harvey Spector in Suits.

Claim

A
Dangerous Man #3

Serena
Grey

“M
AY I DRIVE NOW?” I ASK STEVE as he maneuvers the car
through the gates into the paved driveway.

He turns to look at me. His head is completely shaved,
giving him the look of a member of the criminal underworld. At least I think
so, in actual fact he is an ex-marine. “Not today.” he tells me.

He doesn’t talk much, but he always lets me drive when we
get to the house, even though I still have two years to go before I can get a
license. He says he has extreme confidence in my ability to drive, after all he
taught me himself.

When we get to the end of the drive, I see why he didn’t
let me drive. The shiny black Bentley that’s always covered up in the garage is
parked close to the front door. That can only mean one thing. They’re back.

I frown, “See you later kid.” Steve says as he stops the
car by the door. I climb out, shouldering my backpack. I’m not very eager to go
into the house. I drag my feet to the door, hoping I don’t run into them.

Inside the house, all is quiet. Maybe they’re tired from
their flight, or sailing or whatever, and have gone to bed already. I move
quietly. With any luck, I can hide out in my room until they go out to one of
the numerous parties they probably have lined up.

No such luck. When I open the door to my room, I find my
mother waiting for me.

Her eyes are bright and excited, as if she’s spent all
the time during her absence waiting to see me again. “David!” she exclaims,
wrapping me in a cloud of soft perfume as she gives me a hug, “You’ve grown so
tall.”

I mumble something in reply. I wish she would go already.
When I was really little. I lived for these moments, the returns, when she
would float back into my life after a long absence with stories of places they
had gone, and parties she’d been to. She would come with her beauty and her
exotic adventures, and my life in her absence, filled with school, reading, and
servants would fade to dull grey.

Now I just wish she would leave me alone.

She starts to talk about how she missed me. They were
gone for almost six months this time. I tune her out and sit at the edge of my
bed, looking at the picture on my desk of my father carrying me around his neck
when I was little more than a baby. He died when I was six. A drunk driver ran
a red light and crushed his car. My mother married Henry Weber almost
immediately. An idle millionaire who’s only desire is to travel and socialize.
She’s been travelling and socializing with him for nine years.

“You’re beginning to look so much like your father.” The
soft words cut into my thoughts, and I turn to her. She looks wistful.

I don’t say anything. I turn back to the picture.

She leaves soon after. They are going out to a dinner
party, and she has to prepare. I go downstairs to find Steve, he has an
apartment over the garage, and sometimes if I plead enough, he teaches me some
of his martial arts moves.

It’s while I’m walking across the lawn towards the
garage that I hear the voices. I turn back towards the house and see my mother
and Henry’s arguing through their bedroom window. I’m not surprised. They argue
a lot. Henry is a jerk. I can’t stand him, he can’t stand me, and I have no
idea how my mother can stand him.

I’m about to turn away, when he raises a hand and strikes
my mother across the face. I stand there frozen as she holds a hand to her cheek.
He turns towards the window, and seeing me, walks towards it and abruptly pulls
the curtains closed.

That was the first time I saw him hit her, but it wasn’t
the last.

Someone is trying to buy my company.

That’s what on my mind as Steve drives through the streets
of Ashford, the small town where I came to do a friend a favor.

The favor is a community college drop-out called Rick
Cruzman. He’s developed an innovative software for managing virtual money for
online trading and has been trying to market it for months. He got a few minutes
to sell it at a mediocre software conference at a business resort, Ashcroft Hills,
and because my friend, who’s happily retired from business, asked me to look
into him, I took a forty-five minute drive from my office in Seattle.

I was also curious, and restless, and desperately in need of
space to clear my head.

The software was interesting. I offered to buy it, and I
did.

I turn to look out of the window, my mind going back to my
original thoughts. Someone has acquired a sizable amount of Preston Corp stock on
the stock market. I shouldn’t be worried. With forty-five percent of the
company stock, I’ll retain control even if they buy every stock they can find,
as long as Carole doesn’t sell her twenty five percent, or as long as she sells
them to me.

Carole.

I can’t control the small flash of irritation I feel when I
think of her. Capricious, selfish, and vengeful Carole. We’re not currently
seeing each other, and these days, I’m mostly regretful that we ever did, and
I’m not a man who spends time being regretful.

Steve slows down to take a turn. From the back seat, I can
see his smooth shaved head, the same as when he used to drive me as a teenager.
He’s a little more bulky now, but still as taciturn as the day we first met.

I’m about to go back to reading the paper on my lap when my
eyes go to the window again, and I see the girl.

Her hair is gold, pale and wavy, and held back from her face
in a ponytail. Her figure is slight, yet curvy, and her eyes, as she gazes at
the car passing by are a deep, innocent green. She looks lost. Beautiful and
lost.

For a moment, I just stare at her, even as Steve picks up
speed and I have to crane my neck.

“Stop.”

Immediately the car stops.

“Back.” I say, still looking towards the girl. She’s gone into
the building where she was standing, but I can still see her through the glass
front.

Steve puts the car on reverse and backs up until he’s parked
by the spot where she was standing just a few moments ago.

I only pause for a moment before I follow my instincts and
step out of the car.

Carver’s Gifts. That’s what the sign says. Through the
glass, my eyes meet hers again. She is staring at me, looking frozen. I wonder
what I’m doing, going to talk to her.

For a moment, I consider getting back in the car.

But I don’t, instead, I walk to the door and push it open,
walking into the shop, and approaching her where she stands staring at me.

Her eyes are bright, her cheeks red, and her soft pink lips are
gently parted.

Immediately I’m filled with an insane urge to take her in my
arms and kiss those lips. It makes no sense.

“Good afternoon.” I say before I do something ridiculous.

She keeps looking at me, her eyes look strangely confused.
“Good afternoon,” She replies finally. Her voice is breathy and light, like a
soft breeze on a moonlit night.

The fact that I’m having poetic impulses makes me smile
slightly.

“Would you like to buy something?” She asks, in that breathy
voice. Her cheeks are very red, I notice. Why is she blushing?

I hadn’t even thought up a reason for being there. “Of
course,” I reply, “I’d like ah...” I look around, taking in the shop, I can see a
lot of pretty things in ceramic and glass “a gift for my mother.” I turn back
to her, and watch her eyes widen slightly.

“Okay.” She says, still looking at me. She moves towards me,
almost touching me as she walks past me deeper into the shop. She smells clean
and fresh, shampoo and soap. As her ponytail bounces past me, I have to try extremely
hard to keep my fingers from touching the soft waves.

“What do you have in mind?” I hear her ask as I follow her
through the shop, “We have um... a selection of items you can consider.” I’m only
half listening. I’m watching her slender waist and the smooth curve into her hips.
She turns back, and I have to look back up at her face. She looks so innocent,
I almost feel guilty for checking her out.

She steps back, away from me. She looks tense all of a
sudden. “We have um... These glass sculptures are all made locally,” she says.
She continues to talk, her words gaining speed with each second. I cannot tear
my eyes away from the natural pinkness of her lips as she speaks. I really want
to kiss those lips.

“What’s your name?” I interrupt her speech.

She looks bewildered. “Sophie.” She tells me after a short
pause. “Sophie Bennett.”

“Sophie.” I repeat. The name suits her, I study her for a
moment. She looks quite young. I find myself desperately hoping that she’s not
in high school or something else that’ll make me feel like a pervert for
checking her out. “And how long have you worked here, Sophie?” I ask.

“I... um...” She blinks a few times, and my eyes follow the
movement of her long lashes, “a few months.” She says.

“Interesting,” I’m curious. “College?”

She shakes her head.

She looks like she should be in college. “How old are you?”

She pauses, frowning as she licks her lips in a quick
movement, and the sudden hardness in my pants tells me how much I want her.
“Eighteen.” I hear her whisper.

Eighteen! I’m lusting after a baby.