Jade

At first glance, it appeared as though Lucas’s full attention was on Mr. Wilkinson while he slit open a sealed envelope and pulled out a stack of papers. But I felt the weight of his scrutiny on me as I sipped on the glass of water I’d been given and popped a piece of gum into my mouth. The hair rose on my arms the same way it had when I felt him looking at me the night we’d met. My gaze darted up quickly, only to find him sending me a sidelong glance before I tilted my head to stare down at my hands. The brief moment of eye contact was enough to send shivers down my spine while I remembered how his eyes darkened with lust until it was virtually impossible to discern the difference between his pupils and the dark brown of his irises. How it felt to dig my nails into the taut skin of his back as he hammered into me.

Crap! I shook my head when the clearing of Mr. Wilkinson’s throat penetrated through the sensual fog that seemed to wrap around me anytime Lucas was near. It was the same effect which had me agreeing to sleep with him within minutes of our first meeting. And it was distracting me from the important matters at hand—finding out what my mom’s husband of one day had left me in his will and finding a stick to pee on at the first opportunity. Finding out if I was pregnant had moved from a niggling doubt in my mind to a screaming alert of urgency. Right after I got the lawyer to repeat what he’d just said while I was shaking off my Lucas induced daze. Because clearly it had been important based on Lucas’s reaction.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” he roared. “There’s no way in hell my father was stupid enough to do this.”

“Do what?” I repeated, shifting my attention away from Lucas and back to Mr. Wilkinson. “I’m sorry, could you repeat what you said?”

“Jonathan made arrangements for you to inherit half of his personal estate in the event of his and your mother’s deaths. Had she survived, she would have inherited it in your place. A smaller settlement would have been made upon you, since she would have been alive to provide assistance should you need it. All of his shares in the company will go to Lucas, of course, and the other half of the personal estate as well.”

“He did?” I gasped, feeling stunned by this turn of events. I hadn’t even ever met him. Why had he thought to include me in his will? And why in the world did he think my mom would have helped me if I needed it? I’d been supporting myself while trying to make it as an artist without any help from her, using the money from the life insurance policy my father had left me when he passed away four years ago.

“Don’t sit there, pretending to look innocent,” Lucas growled. “You had to have known what your mom was up to; convincing my dad to change his will like this.”

“It was actually my doing,” Mr. Wilkinson interjected. “Jonathan stopped into my office a couple days before his marriage. He said he wanted to talk to me about the prenuptial agreement he’d asked me to draw up while Di was out dress shopping. He let me know it was no longer necessary, a decision I advised him against, considering the vastness of his estate. He was adamant and I had no choice but to abide by his decision.”

“That doesn’t explain the change in my dad’s will.”

“I asked him if he wanted to make any changes to it with the upcoming nuptials. I didn’t want to run the risk of having assets frozen if Di ever had reason to contest it in probate court, not with the company as part of his estate.”

“And at no point during this visit did it cross your mind to ask him if he’d lost his mind?” Lucas’s question was thick with sarcasm.

Mr. Wilkinson leveled him with a glare. “You and I both know your father was of sound mind and body. If making decisions based on love was grounds to overturn a will, then our legal system would be in serious trouble.”

“He wasn’t thinking with his heart,” Lucas argued. “It was his little head making the decisions for him.”

“You don’t know that,” I snapped, knowing darn well it was entirely possible he was right but not caring in the least. Someone had to defend my mom, as she was no longer able to do it herself.

“Enough,” Mr. Wilkinson grunted. “Let me get through the rest of this and then the two of you can squabble like children without my having to listen to it.”

I crossed my arms over my chest defensively, only to drop them when I noticed Lucas doing the same as we both listened intently.

“Jonathan also made arrangements for any children Lucas might have, with specified amounts for trust funds to be set aside and such.”

“Not like that’s going to happen any time soon.”

My hand drifted to my stomach, the very place where his baby might already rest. I hoped like hell he was right and I was suffering from some strange, lingering illness instead of pregnancy. I’d take just about any kind of sickness as an explanation right about now.

“The final stipulation is that in order to inherit, you’re both expected to reside in the family home for the next year.”

The room was suddenly filled with absolute silence. You literally could have heard a pin drop. I must have heard him wrong.

“My father set his will up so she,” his nose wrinkled in distaste, “and I have no choice but to live together for a year?”

“Yes,” the lawyer confirmed. “He said if anything happened to him and Di, he wanted to be sure you both had family near.”

“She’s not my family,” Lucas growled.

“But she is,” Mr. Wilkinson insisted. “She’s your step-sister.”

“Get out,” Lucas rasped.

I levered up and out of my chair, wanting nothing more than to get away and think.

“Not you,” he hissed, wrapping a hand around my upper arm and holding me in place.

“Are you kicking me out of my own office?” Mr. Wilkinson asked.

“My step-sister,” he barely gritted the word out, “and I need a moment alone to discuss our living arrangements.”

I waited for the door to shut behind the lawyer before turning to glare up at Lucas. “There’s an easy enough solution to all of this.”

“Oh, yeah?” he drawled. “What’s your bright idea, sweetheart?”

I felt a stab of pain in my heart at his scornful use of that particular term of endearment. The last time he’d called me sweetheart, he’d groaned it in my ear while telling me how good it felt to be inside me. I wasn’t sure what I’d done to earn his disdain, but it only reinforced my decision. “I’m going to walk away from the inheritance.”

“Sure you are,” he scoffed. “Because after luring me into your bed in order to get me to give you an art show, you’re the kind of woman who will walk away from several hundred million dollars.”

Several hundred million dollars? Whoa!

“I can practically see the dollar signs in your eyes.”

“First of all, I didn’t lure you into my bed,” I retorted, jabbing my finger into his sculpted chest. “You’re the one who propositioned me.”

“Like you weren’t in my gallery with the express purpose of sleeping your way into a show,” he muttered.

“The only reason I slept with you is because I wanted you,” I seethed. “Forgive me for being stupid enough to be attracted to you. Don’t worry, though. It won’t happen again. I’ve learned my lesson where you’re concerned.”

It felt as though time stood still as we stared at each other. It wasn’t my intention, but I’d thrown down a verbal gauntlet, one Lucas was quick to pick up. My heart raced in my chest when his eyes flared and he jerked me against his chest. I gasped in surprise, and he took advantage of the parting of my lips to drive his tongue into my mouth as he claimed it in a punishing kiss. He shifted forward, and I bumped into the desk behind me. Lifting me up, he roughly parted my thighs and settled my knees at his hips as my ass landed on top of the edge of the desk. My skirt rode up, bunching at my hips and exposing my panties.

His fingers headed straight for my core, shoving my panties out of the way before sinking deep. I was embarrassingly wet, but Lucas grunted in satisfaction as I moaned in pleasure. The hand at my hip disappeared, and I heard the sound of his zipper going down. It was quickly followed by the crinkle of foil, and then he drove inside me in one smooth thrust.

I buried my head in his shirt to muffle my screams as he thrust in and out, so hard I heard the desk creaking underneath me. This was an anger fuck, pure and simple. My head knew it, but my body didn’t seem to care as I felt an orgasm quickly building. When one of his hands slid between us to pinch my clit, I flew apart, biting his chest in an effort to keep quiet.

“Fuck yes,” he groaned. I felt the heat of his come as it filled the condom.

I was still shuddering, my pussy fluttering against him, when he pulled out of me and ripped the condom from his still-hard dick. He tied it off and glanced down at the trashcan full of my puke before shaking his head and shoving it into his pocket. After he had zipped his pants back up, he helped me down from the desk and watched me get my clothes straightened.

“Now you’ve learned your lesson. Don’t make me teach it to you again, my darling step-sister,” he murmured in my ear before releasing me to stride out of the office, slamming the door behind him.

I was befuddled from my orgasm, but I knew enough to understand Lucas was the last man I should be attracted to after the way he’d walked out on me, not to mention his reaction to seeing me today. And yet, none of that seemed to matter to my traitorous body. How in the world was I going to survive living with him for an entire year? And what the heck was I going to do if I was pregnant with his baby?