âI want you to say it, Isabella.â
The devouring note in his voice and the look in his eyes had her heart ramming against her ribs as if unable to bear the confinement.
âI want you to say youâve craved reclaiming what we had. That every time you closed your eyes, I was there, in your mind, on your tongue, all over you and inside you, giving you everything only I could ever give you.â
Every word he said, soaked in hunger, seething with demand, brought a wave of wet heat surging in her core, her body readying itself for its master doing all the things sheâd yearned for, as heâd said, for years, during every moment she had to herself.
Yet she still had to resist. Because of what heâd done to her in the past. And now.
* * *
Claiming His Secret Son is part of The Billionaires of Black Castle series: Only their dark pasts could lead these men to the light of true love.
OLIVIA GATES has always pursued creative passions such as singing and handicrafts. She still does, but only one of her passions grew gratifying enough, consuming enough, to become an ongoing careerâwriting.
She is most fulfilled when she is creating worlds and conflicts for her characters, then exploring and untangling them bit by bit, sharing her protagonistsâ every heart-wrenching heartache and hope, their every heart-pounding doubt and trial, until she leads them to an indisputably earned and gloriously satisfying happy ending.
When sheâs not writing, she is a doctor, a wife to her own alpha male, and a mother to one brilliant girl and one demanding Angora cat. Visit Olivia at www.oliviagates.com.
One
Richard Graves adjusted his electric recliner, sipped a mouthful of straight bourbon and hit Pause.
The image on the hundred-plus-inch TV screen stilled, eliminating the unsteadiness of the recording. Murdock, his second-in-command, had taken the footage while following his quarry on foot. The quality was expectedly unsatisfactory, but the frame heâd paused was clear enough to bring a smile to his lips.
The only time a smile touched his lips, or he experienced emotions of any sort, was when he looked at her. At that graceful figure and energetic step, that animated face and streaming raven hair. At least, he guessed they were emotions. He had no frame of reference. Not in the past quarter of a century.
What he remembered feeling in his youth was so distant, it was as if heâd heard about it from someone else. Which was accurate. The boy heâd been before heâd joined The Organizationâthe criminal cartel that abducted and imprisoned children and turned them into unstoppable mercenariesâthough as tough as nails, still held no resemblance to the invulnerable bastard everyone believed himârightfully soâto be.
From what he remembered before his metamorphosis, and even after it, the most heâd felt had been allegiance, protectiveness, responsibility. For his best-friend-turned-nemesis Numair, for his disciple-turned-ally Rafael and to varying degrees for the Black Castle blokesâhis reluctant partners in their globe-spanning business empire, Black Castle Enterprisesâand their own. But that was where he drew the line in noble sentiments. What came naturally to him were dark, extreme, vicious ones. Power lust, vengeance, mercilessness.
So it never failed to stun him when beholding her provoked something heâd believed himself incapable of feeling. What he could only diagnose as...tenderness. Heâd been feeling it regularly since heâd upgraded his daily ritual of reading surveillance reports on her to watching footage of what Murdock thought were relevant parts of her day.
Anyone, starting with her, would be horrified to learn heâd been keeping her under a microscope for years. And interfering in her life however he saw fit, undetectably changing the dynamics of the world she inhabited. He broke a dozen laws on a daily basis, from breach of privacy to coercion to...far worse, in his ongoing mission of being her guardian demon. Not that this was even a concern. The law existed for him to either break...or wield as a weapon.
But he was concerned sheâd ever sense his surveillance or suspect his interference. Even if she never suspected it was him behind it all.
After all, she didnât even know he was alive.
As far as she knew heâd been lost since she was six. He doubted she even remembered him. Even if she did, it was best for her to continue thinking him gone, too.
Like the rest of their family.
So he only watched over her. As he had since she was born. At least, heâd tried to. Thereâd been years when heâd been powerless to protect her. But the moment he could, heâd given her a second chance for a safe and normal existence.