Chapter 3

Bella’s pov 

“And I will fuck you whenever, wherever, and however I want.”

The words would not leave me. They circled endlessly while I dragged my feet across the floor, watching Kane walk ahead. Broad shoulders. Straight, unyielding back. I could not look away even when I tried.

He is my sister’s boyfriend. Soon to be her husband. I slept with him. The memory itself is gone—blank, unreachable—yet my body carries every trace of it. Traitorous, aching, insistent.

My fingers found the red mark on my neck without conscious thought. His mark. Evidence I could not deny. I hated the ease with which I folded for him, the way resistance drained out of me the moment he spoke. Listen. Bend. Obey. That was all that remained.

And still, beneath the shame, a dark satisfaction stirred. This had been the secret I carried for years. I should have felt something close to victory. Instead the knowledge sat heavy and sour. Because the way I received what I wanted now threatened to break Lisa, and that truth pressed against my ribs with every breath.

“Get in.”

Kane’s voice cut through the noise. He was already behind the wheel, those eyes fixed on me—the ones that could silence every thought with a single look.

I cannot do this. Whatever game he is playing, I will not let him win.

“Why am I the one being threatened here?” My voice held steadier than I felt. My hands trembled; I locked them together to hide the shaking.

He did not answer at once. He stepped out of the car, walked around to me, and spoke with quiet finality.

“Because you are the one who stands to lose everything. Not me.” He opened the door and pushed me inside. The slam of it made me flinch.

I watched him settle behind the wheel, hands sure and controlled. The engine roared to life. In moments we were moving through the night.

“Lose everything?” The words came out sharp. “I don’t think so. You’re the one losing everything—your arrangement with us, my sister, the perfect wife who will open every door and protect every account. Your reputation. Your status.”

I kept speaking, the sentences tumbling faster. “If this gets out, the world will see exactly what you are. A man who could not keep his dick in his pants. A man who slept with two sisters. You’ll be finished. No one will stand near you once they know.”

I finished breathless, as though I had run a long downhill stretch. I was not certain the threats carried real weight. I only hoped they might make him pause. I could be many things after this night. I would not be his puppet. I would not be the body he reached for whenever it suited him.

He glanced at me. I held my breath and waited. Silence stretched. Then he laughed—low at first, then open and full, filling the closed space of the car until heat climbed my neck. Why did that sound make me feel small? Why did those eyes always strip every defense away?

“You’re a good talker,” he said when the laughter faded. His gaze found me again and held. I froze. The look pinned me in place, the way a predator holds something already caught.

“But it doesn’t touch me. Want to know why?” A quick check of the road, then back to my face. “I will not think about it your way. I will think about it mine.” A slow, knowing smile curved his mouth. “I only agreed to marry your sister because of my father. He decided, for reasons of his own, to pull an old friend out of bankruptcy.”

I stared. “What?”

Bankruptcy. The word sat wrong. Who was drowning? And why did he make the marriage sound like charity instead of partnership?

He smirked. “I forgot. You prefer nights of parties to days at the company. How were you ever supposed to know?”

“Do you mean… the company…” The rest stuck in my throat.

He chuckled. “Don’t look so lost, Bella. I mean exactly what I said. If you don’t want your family living on the streets of LA, you will do exactly as I tell you.”

His voice dropped, quiet and absolute. I swallowed against the sudden tightness in my throat. He smiled and turned back to the road.

“Stop fighting it. We both know this is what you have always wanted.” Another glance. I looked away, toward the dark blur of the window. Anything was safer than meeting those eyes.

“If you hadn’t thrown that ass at me, I might never have looked twice. Or maybe I would have. Nothing entertains me more than the two of you—one who pretends she doesn’t want it while her body begs, and the other a loyal little fool who still believes the world is kind.”

I clenched my fists until the nails bit skin, fighting the urge to strike him hard enough to leave a lasting mark. How had I ever loved this man? This calculating, filthy creature who moved people like pieces on a board and called it amusement?

How had I been so blind for so long? And why, even now—with the truth laid out in front of me—did part of me still lean toward the very thing that would ruin everything I claimed to protect?

Everything about him pulled. The clean line of his profile in the dashboard light. The expensive scent of his cologne filling the small space between us. My body answered before my mind could stop it, a low, unwanted heat gathering low in my stomach. I knew I should run. Far and without looking back. Instead I sat here, breathing him in, already lost to the one person certain to destroy me.

Kane looked over and smiled. My heart stumbled, then surrendered, even as every clear thought left in my head screamed for me to get out.