Til Debt Do Us Part (Married At Midnight #4)

Chapter 24

Twenty-Four

Dare

I find Talia in the darkened kitchen a little later. She looks up as I enter the room, and her brow puckers, but she doesn’t say anything.

I beckon her with two fingers, demanding rather than asking. "Follow me."

I walk down the narrow, dark hallway into the sunroom. I don’t wait for her. I take a seat on the first wicker couch I see, turning toward the door and crossing my legs.

When Talia appears at the door, she pauses. I look her up and down and jerk my head into the room. "Come here."

My tone leaves no room for argument.

She hesitates for several seconds, and I make myself wait, although I just want to jump up and grab her. But I need her to come to me this time. If she doesn’t, I will have to rethink this whole fake relationship.

Running my tongue over my teeth, I give her a cool smile. "Talia, don’t make me have to threaten your well-being. You wanted my money. You got it. So now you have to follow through on the deal. You must make people believe that you’re in love with me. I brought you here for that specific reason: so that we have the chance to get acquainted before we spend the rest of our lives together. But if you don’t want that, say so now. I can have my lawyers reverse the wire transfer, and you can go back to Harwicke."

She flinches as though I have threatened to hit her. Part of me feels bad, but I have to be determined, so that I win this little game between the two of us and I can inherit billions. She is merely a pawn in the Morgans' game of life-or-death chess.

There is no more time to deal with Talia gently.

"It’s either yes or no, right now."

She takes a timid step into the sunroom, and I let out a silent sigh of relief. I hold out my hand, expectant.

Talia licks her lips and approaches me, running her hands down her new dress.

She takes the hand I’ve offered and sucks in a deep breath. Then she sits beside me on the couch, looking up at me as she hikes her knee up over mine. Sinking against my body, she makes herself comfortable. The whole time, Talia’s gaze never leaves mine for a second.

"Like this?" Her voice is soft, almost seductive. I run my fingers along her arm, and she shivers.

"Just like that," I say, encouraging her. "I want you to be the best actress in a room full of phonies."

I see a flash of her pink tongue as she presses her lips together. She reaches out her trembling hand to touch my cheek, caressing it ever so gently. She rubs the tips of her fingers into the hair just behind my ear and then over the back of my head. I shudder, surprised at the touch.

It feels better than I expected for Talia to touch me of her own volition.

"Is this good?" she asks.

I nod, catching her hand and making eye contact with her as I bring her palm to my lips, then kiss her wrist.

Her skin is warm and smooth. Her breath catches in her throat at the movement of my lips on her skin. She doesn’t resist, but I notice her racing heartbeat as I swipe my tongue over her pulse point.

I sweep a hand down her thigh, causing her to jump.

"Dare," she says. A warning, more than anything.

I am not really listening. I tuck a strand of her copper hair behind her ear and look her dead in the eyes. "This is the way that you need to look at me," I grit out.

She gazes back at me, her blue eyes staring right into my soul.

"Like this?" she asks.

I have to admit, hearing her ask me for my approval stirs something in me—something hungry and primal. Like something is lurking just below the surface.

I smirk and readjust myself, moving her leg just so my stiff cock presses against the inside of her knee. I know that she notices the contact because I hear her gulp for air.

I arch a brow. "What? I’m just a man. You can’t expect me not to get turned on sometimes."

She shakes her head. "That isn’t what this is about, Dare. We are trying to make it look good, not feel good."

"That’s true." I tuck another strand of her hair back behind her ear and then move closer, my fingers entwining in her hair.

Turning her face up toward mine, I press my lips against hers. It’s slower this time, more languid, less rushed. I brush my lips over hers once and then press them a second time, more forcefully and passionately.

She gradually responds to my kiss, opening her mouth just slightly and letting my tongue enter her mouth. Our tongues writhe together, wrestling slowly, making my cock stiffen.

At length, I pull back. The next step should be to pull her onto my lap and pull down her dress so that her tits are there before me. I’ve never seen them, but I imagine that they are small, perky, and perfect, and ripe for tasting.

I drop my fingers to the neckline of her dress, admiring the creamy abundance of her breasts, and she pulls back. Skittering off my lap, she arches a brow. "Dare, that was over the line."

"Over the line for who? It seemed like the only thing to do at that moment."

"You know I have put a boundary there. No hands below the dress. We can fake it without having to actually have sex."

"Are you giving me boundaries, darling girl?” I give her a cool laugh. "I don’t believe in boundaries. Not between us. We are going to be married. We will not have secrets, and we won’t have boundaries either."

She laughs, looking disbelieving. "You are so contradictory; I can hardly believe it. You have done nothing but tell me how I should act since I’ve been unfortunate enough to know you."

"Yeah, so?"

“So.” She stands up and cocks her hip, pursing her lips. "Some people call those boundaries. And what’s worse is that this whole thing? It’s to fool your family. Where I come from, family is the only group of people that you can be your true self around."

"Well, you wouldn’t know what it’s like to have parents or grandparents. Maybe if you did, you would understand where I’m coming from."

She winces. "Jesus, Dare. You really don’t pull any punches, do you?"

She turns, stalking out of the room. I watch her ass sway back and forth as she goes, strutting in her high heels.

I release a deep breath, leaning my head back and putting two fingers against the bridge of my nose. That was not how I thought that would play out.

My phone buzzes, so I fish it out of my pocket, looking at the screen. It’s Tristen, a welcome reprieve from Talia’s dramatics. I answer, still annoyed and agitated from my interaction with her.

"Hello?"

"Hey. Where are you? I’ve tried to call you all day."

"I finally got Talia to agree to be my fiancée. So, I took her to the coast, up to Maine. You know that little vacation house we have?"

He huffs a laugh. "Yeah, I know the mansion you mean. That’s good news on the Talia front. I’m glad that our little stunt worked."

I pace at the window, looking out into the darkness. "Yeah. Thank you for hiring people to break into the bookstore for me and to show up at the restaurant that Talia works at to make a scene. I wasn’t sure that it would work, but it obviously did the trick."

Tristen laughs. "It just so happened that I had a construction job going on with workers nearby. I just paid a couple of them to fuck up the bookstore. And the other part, finding people on TaskRabbit who were willing to play along with my plan… that was easy and cheap."

"Well, I will pay you via a bank draft on Monday. I really do appreciate you helping to coordinate the job. All Talia needed was a little push. I knew that she was already really worried about her Aunt Minnie. But thinking about hiring people to show up at her restaurant and cause a scene? That was something that I really couldn’t have thought of on my own."

He chuckles. "Yeah, I’m not sure that I really approve of the way that you got Talia to agree to your proposal. But I am a creative bastard, if nothing else."

"Listen, it wasn’t my greatest moment either. But I’ll do whatever I need to do in order to win the company and inherit Remy’s billions."

"Hey, I’m not here to judge. I’m just here to provide material support where I can. What are best friends for?"

"All right, I will see you soon. I am going to have this wedding within the month, so I will see you there if not sooner."

"That sounds like a good plan. I’ll see you then."

I disconnect the call, a smirk rising to my lips. Sure, I might have pushed some invisible boundaries when I tricked my bride-to-be into saying yes to my proposal. But as they say, all is fair in love and war. In this case, it’s fake love and an inheritance battle, but it’s the same idea.

I go back to work for another hour, scanning pricing lists of the equipment that we would potentially need for drilling off the coast of Maine.

Around midnight, my head begins to throb dully. So, I tidy up my workspace and head upstairs to find a place to crash.

I make quite a bit of noise on the dark stairs, and when I emerge into the near pitch-black hallway, I open the first door that I find. It’s a bedroom, but there is no one inside. I frown, pausing for a second.

I want to sleep, and I have never been great at sleeping with another person. But this weekend is all about getting comfortable with Talia. So I need to find her bedroom. It’s not really what I want, but if we are going to convince everyone that our relationship is real, we need to at least be able to sleep in the same bed.

Besides, I can already envision how pissed Talia is going to be when I lumber into her room and start stripping.

I close the door with a smirk. It takes me a little bit of searching to find her in bed, dead asleep.

I open the bedroom door wide, noticing that she has chosen the room that is brilliantly illuminated by the glowing orb of the moon. It causes a bright square of moonlight to be thrown across the floor and odd shadows to leap up around it. The bed is quite large, and it is dressed in a dark blue comforter and white sheets. On either side of the bed, are two old bedside tables, made from the same pine wood as the walls and the floor. I creep forward, the floor creaking beneath my feet.

Talia is huddled beneath the comforter, her pillow clutched under her head, her mouth turned down. For a second, I think that she is frowning and might be awake. But when I take a couple more steps forward, she turns onto her back, her hand curling around her face, her copper hair spilling out across her pillow.

She’s not awake—not even close.

I remove my jacket and toss it on a wooden-backed chair. My shoes and socks are next, tossed carelessly aside. I don’t bother unbuttoning my Oxford shirt. I pull it over my head and discard it on the floor.

I begin to unbuckle my belt with my eyes fixed on Talia’s sleeping form. As I unbutton my pants and pull them off, I’m already at half-mast just looking at her full lips.

Her tits and pussy are covered up with blankets. But though I can’t see them, I can easily imagine them. I can feel her nipples under my hands, and my cock stirs as I imagine her creamy pussy just before I bury myself in it to the hilt.

No, that’s not right. What I actually imagine is her looking me in the eyes and spreading her thighs while she touches her clit and moans. I imagine myself standing over her, stroking my cock as I guide her to orgasm using commands.

I smile and I start moving toward the bed. I rest one knee on top of the comforter, seeing how Talia will react. But she just shifts slightly, turning her head towards me without opening her eyes. My cock throbbing, I say her name.

"Talia." I lean in closer, inhaling a whiff of her flowery scent.

She begins to blink, gradually coming to consciousness. When she opens her eyes, it takes her about three seconds to realize that I am leaning down over the bed, fully nude. She jumps back, her eyes widening, her expression one of shock and a note of fear.

"Dare, what the hell are you doing?"

"What I should’ve done the first time I met you. I know that you have already slept with Burn, but you’re my goddamn fiancée. And I’m attracted to you. There are sparks between us every time we touch. Why are we resisting so hard?"

She looks at me, her eyes never wavering from my face. "Dare, you are the one who said that I can’t fall in love with you."

"Who is talking about falling in love? I’m talking about two people fulfilling each other’s needs. It’s as simple as that."

She shakes her head and starts to turn away, but I grab her hand and reach to cup her chin with my other hand, forcing her to look at me.

"Tell me that you don’t lust after me.” I scan her face. “Tell me that you don’t dream about me and wake up with wet panties."

Her throat works as she swallows. Her eyes peer through me, spearing me, making me feel insubstantial. "You wanted it clean and free of mess. To keep things transactional."

"And they can be. But there's no reason we can't fuck and keep the rest of our deal."

She shakes her head. "Dare, that’s a terrible idea."

I see her gaze drop down to my cock, and I tense.

For a second, she licks her lips and then drags her eyes back up to my face. But I move like lightning, catching her lips with mine. She struggles against me, pushing me away. But I don’t let her go that easily. I sink my hand into her hair and knot my fingers in it. I kiss her hard and with a burning passion, my whole body throbbing with need.

Talia shifts, rising slightly, and the blankets fall away from her body. I see that she is wearing a lacy pink teddy that the glam squad left for her. I want to rip that teddy from her body and expose her naked skin to my lips, my tongue, my teeth, and my cock.

She keeps struggling, her hand clawing at my chest, leaving a series of long, shallow scratches. I am only encouraged by that, though. Dragging her over to the edge of the bed, I kneel over her, my lips twitching.

"Are you going to be a good girl, darling?"

"Never," she hisses. In the next moment, she slaps me, her palm across my cheek. But I am not even fazed. I grab her hands and force her back onto the bed, snarling at her.

"You want me. I can see it in your eyes. And you’re going to beg for me to fuck you by the end of the night."

Her expression contorts, and she shakes her head, her chin jutting out stubbornly. "I would never beg you. Not you, Dare."

My cock throbs. I take her lips, pressing mine against them almost violently, my tongue snaking against hers. She kisses me back, her tongue writhing with mine, but I am not looking for her compliance.

I like her fighting me, I like being the victor in our little games. It makes it all the sweeter when she eventually gives in.

"You need to make your peace with it. Once we sign the marriage certificate, that’s it. We are together forever. Consider that for the next time that we share a bed. We might as well fuck and get it over with."

Talia raises her chin, throwing her hair back. She sweeps the sheet up to her chest, holding it there. I hate to be the one to tell her that I can clearly make out the outline of her hard nipples through the sheet.

She still wants me, whether she is able to admit it out loud or not.

"I’ll marry you, Dare. I’ll have your child. But I will never give up any of my virtues."

I can’t help the full-throated laugh that leaves my chest. "What? What virtues? I’m pretty sure that I just showed you exactly who is in charge. Besides, it’s not like you’re a virgin anymore."

Her cheeks stain with blood. "I hate you."

"As we have discussed previously, you don’t have to like me to fuck me. And you definitely don’t have to love me to marry me. As long as you act like you’re my one and only in front of other people, I couldn’t care less what you think of me."

Her lips twist. "I’m still my own person, you know. I’ll raise my child knowing that there are other people in the world, people who suffer hardships, people who can’t afford million-dollar mansions or helicopters, or any of the other things that have been so important to your life."

"You know what you are? You are stubborn, and that’s not a compliment. I still hate all the things that you stand for."

"That’s perfect, because I will never be a Morgan at heart. We can tell everyone else a fairytale story, but we will both know that it’s a lie."

I stand up, thundering at her. "It doesn’t really matter because you will be a Morgan. And so will your child. So, you can just get used to lying to yourself now."

I stalk from the room, still buck naked and seething. What I yelled at her will definitely be true.

She will be a Morgan.

She’ll give birth to a baby that will win me billions. One day, this will all seem like a distant memory, and I will reign over the world as Talia’s husband and the head of Morgan Drilling Company.