Magnate (Acquisition Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

awash in Vinemont, regret, and the faint scent of Lucius.

 
    Chapter Three
     
    Sinclair
     
     
     
    Stella slumbered peacefully on my chest, her red locks fanned out along my upper arm as if entwining with the vines that covered me. The sun had risen without any more bloodshed, though there had been plenty the night before. I’d killed men. My fair share, maybe more, to keep the Vinemont stronghold alive and well.
    I didn’t blame the farmers, or the instigators, or even the paid mercenaries our competitors hired to keep the unrest churning. No, I blamed the Sovereign. If Cal wasn’t squeezing us for an even bigger cut of profits, then none of this would have happened. The farmers were just collateral damage, pawns in a much larger war that was going on hundreds of miles north of here in the bayous of Louisiana.
    I smoothed my hand down Stella’s back. The tiny ridges marred her skin like braille beneath my fingertips. I’d written our story on her fair flesh in blood and violence. Regret tolled in me, but what I’d done was necessary. Just like all the trials.
    Her eyelashes fluttered against my chest and she let out an angelic sigh. Her breasts were pressed into me and her smooth thigh was slung over mine. She was soft and warm, a wet dream come to life in my arms. I breathed her in, her hair smelling of lavender and vanilla.
    I moved my hand back up and dug my fingers into her hair. I didn’t want her sighing. I wanted her screaming, my name on her lips, my ecstasy pulsing through her veins. But it wasn’t so simple. It never had been. I needed so much more from her than simple surrender. And the past two weeks without her under my control had been nothing short of torture.
    She had run away. My fist tightened.
    Away from me . Her eyes opened.
    She chose Lucius. I gripped her hard right at her scalp.
    “Vinem—”
    Before she could even say my curse of a name, I settled on top her, pushing my knee between her legs as she struggled. Her attempts to buck me only made my cock harder. She was my Acquisition. Mine. She needed to know it. I was foolish to indulge her for as long as I did. Foolish to let her hope, to let her think that she could hold any sway over my heart. Maybe if I could do this, if I could commit this transgression, I’d finally stop seeing her as something more than a possession.
    “Don’t.” Her eyes went wide, all traces of sleep gone and fear in its place.
    This was what I needed. Her fear. Her loathing. I slapped my hand over her mouth and stared into her eyes. She dug her nails into my back with her free hand while I pinned the other above her head. My cock was against her hot core, only the fabric of my boxer briefs separating us. I could take her. Take everything.
    “I should have done this the first day you showed up at my house, Stella.” I crushed my palm into her lips, surely bruising them. “I was weak. You made me weak. From the first moment I saw you, you were a fucking poison.”
    But then something sparked in her emerald depths. Not fear. Defiance.
    Her eyebrows lowered the tiniest bit, as if daring me onward. She let out a roaring sound against my palm, deep and guttural. The heat between her thighs had me pushing my hips against her. She was wet and wanting even as her eyes were full of vengeance. I wanted her, wanted every last morsel of her rage, her hate.
    Even so, I knew if I did this, she would never forgive me. And then I would have truly lost her. Could I bear it? It didn’t matter. I had to do it. Breaking her was the only way to win. And I would win no matter what.
    A searing pain exploded through my calf at the same time she bucked hard. She’d dug her heal into the wound. I rolled to my side and reached for my injured leg as she slid out from under me and off the bed. She scrambled away, the skin of her knees squealing against the polished hardwoods. I recovered and lunged after her, jumping on my good leg before sinking to my knees and gripping her by the