Sovereign Read Online Free Page B

that raged inside. I usually had an easy time of it. Not now. Not when my mother had seen fit to shove Stella into the same razorblade straightjacket I wore.
    Renee smoothed Mother’s hair, doting on her as if the woman were anything other than a venomous snake. “She was fine. She wasn’t hurting anyone.”
    I threw the syringe in the garbage and looked at Stella, her eyes haunted.
    “She’s hurt plenty.” I took Stella’s hand and pulled her from the room. She didn’t resist, shock settling on her like a lead weight.
    I took her to my room and locked the door behind us. She sat on the bed and leaned over, her head cupped in her hands.
    “Stella?” I knelt in front of her.
    “Why Teddy? Why? He’s the only good thing in this house, in this entire godforsaken family.” She shook her head and still wouldn’t look at me.
    I pulled her hands from her face. They were soft, so easily broken. But nothing about her was in pieces, not shattered the way I was.
    “The rules. It’s what makes us compete. It turns us against ourselves until the strongest comes out on top.” That was the explanation, but not the reason. Was there any reason for this torment other than providing entertainment for the depraved lot of us?
    “Why didn’t you tell me?” A tear rolled down her cheek and hovered at her jaw line before dropping onto my scarred wrist.
    “Power. If you’d known that from the start, you would have had the upper hand. Teddy is the heart of this family. You didn’t know that when you arrived. You could have used that information against us.”
    “But after? When you knew how much I cared for him?”
    “I didn’t tell you for the same reason I didn’t tell Lucius.” I grazed my thumb along her cheek, wiping her tears—the ones I’d caused—away. “How do you feel now that you know? Stronger? Better?” I shook my head. “You are weaker. It’s meant to be a spear in my side, as the Acquirer, to know what will happen if I lose. By the time you’d come to care for Teddy, I realized telling you would give you the same pain, the same weight, the same fucking dread that’s crushing me.”
    She put her warm palm to my cheek. I pressed into it, needing so much more from her than I could even admit to myself.
    “You’ve had to bear it alone.”
    The pity in her eyes, pity for me, almost broke what little of a heart I had left. “I’ve done what I had to do. I’ve been the man I had to be. I can’t lose Teddy. But you… You were the best choice and also the worst for my Acquisition. If I’d only known…”
    “What?” She edged off the bed and sank to the floor in front of me, her body pressing against me and her mouth tantalizingly close. “If you’d known what?”
    I couldn’t help myself. She was my weakness, my downfall. Everything about her was my undoing. I pulled her to me, her scent of vanilla and lavender filling my nose as her very essence filled my soul.
    I stared into her green eyes. Her heart was laid bare, though she’d never spoken the words to me. I’d acquired her, but she owned me. “If I’d known I’d fall in love with you.” I kissed her, needing her past all reason.
    She opened her mouth, and I slanted over her, punishing her sweet lips with my rough kiss. She was mine. I couldn’t give her up. I needed her raw and wild, rough and passionate. Grabbing a fistful of hair, I pulled her head back and bit her neck like a savage leaving his mark.
    She clutched at my shirt. I hated the feel of fabric between us. I needed her satin skin, her hot, wet cunt. I needed to bury myself in her and forget everything else except her taste, her breath, her life.
    I pulled my shirt off and yanked her to her feet before shoving her down on the bed. “Strip. Now.”
    I unbuckled my belt and slid the leather between my fingers. It spoke to me, told me to punish her. But I couldn’t wait, couldn’t stop myself from having her. Not this time.
    She bit her lip, her eyes half-lidded. I kicked