PROLOGUE
RITE AND RITUAL
Blood and cum: my bodily fluids combine together easily in the bottom of the glass tumbler, the liquid a dark crimson mixture when I’m done. The jerking off part was less fun than fucking, I’ll admit, but pressing the blade into my flesh and gathering the blood? That part was organic. The way the sharpened steel cut? The way my body bled? My dick stirs, growing hard again just thinking about it. I can’t think about that now, though. I have to concentrate. This ritual is important, a ritual the men of our family participate in but once in their lifetimes. I refuse to fuck it up.
Genevieve Kendrick sits on the edge of the bed, watching me. She’s nervous, I can tell, and that only adds to the thrill. She’s here of her own volition. She can leave any time she wants, but she won’t. We’ve been going back and forth, playing a cat and mouse game for so long, but she knows the truth just as well as I do: she ran, but she wanted to be caught. She hid, but she wanted to be found. She refused me, but she was always going to surrender herself.
Her long black hair twists in curls over her bare shoulders, almost reaching her hips. Her lips are swollen and red, her skin pale and flawless in the cool, glowing light of the city that floods in through the wide, stain glass windows. The Bastien house is one of the oldest, grandest buildings in the French Quarter of New Orleans. For the past two hundred and fifty-eight years, people have walked by the imposing entrance, choked with Spanish moss and ivy, and wondered at the architecture—the warm pink stone of the high walls that seems to glow when the sunlight hits it at the right time of day, and the chipped and flaking paint around the expansive windows on each of the three stories. They’ve thought to themselves, “Such a beautiful building. Such a remarkable place. How lucky the people inside must be, to live in a home like that.” If only they knew the reality of it. If only they knew that all who abide inside these four walls are fucking cursed.
The house is the only possible location for tonight’s activities, though. No one asks questions when you arrive under the cover of darkness here. No one raises an eyebrow when your guests are screaming out to God at the top of their lungs at three in the morning. Genevieve shifts on the bed, trying to look relaxed, but she’s not fooling anybody, least of all me.
“What are you going to do with that?” she asks, eyeing the small glass flask in my hands. She doesn’t look scared, per se. Maybe just…curious. Wary and curious. I like the look on her.
“Nothing you won’t enjoy,” I reply. “Stand up.”
Her hands clench into loose fists for a second. She gets to her feet, her long, cream colored silk dress swaying like liquid light around her body, hugging her slender frame and swelling over her curves in the most delicious way. She looks like she could be consumed. Drunk or eaten perhaps, a delicacy only a few men in this world could ever possibly afford. I don’t need to pay for luxuries like Genevieve, though. Women like her fall at my feet like I’m some kind of god. All it takes is a rough word, a few carefully chosen commands, the promise of a switch against their bare skin, and they are mine.
She knows about the body in the trunk of my car. She was sitting in the back seat when I met with Farriagamo. She saw him pull a knife on me, and she saw what I did with it when I took it off him. She watched him die, and she watched me drag his limp body from the side of the road and toss it like trash into the trunk of the car. And still…here she sits. Here, she waits for me to make her mine in every sense of the word. This is what it means to be alpha. To have someone completely under your control, no matter how wicked or evil your actions might be.
“Take this.” I hold the knife out to Genevieve. The silver of the blade is still covered in the blood and semen I was just mixing together. She stares at it, fixated on the fiercely sharp tip of the weapon where a bead of blood hangs, threatening to fall.
She has three seconds. Three seconds to take the thing before there will be consequences. I think maybe she sees me make this decision, maybe the expression on my face changes, because she jolts into action, crossing the room and taking the knife from me with shaking hands.
“Now what?” she asks.
“Now you lick it clean.”
Her eyes grow wide, but she’s a smart woman. She knows better than to say anything. To react beyond the quickening of her breath and the dilation of her pupils. Lifting the knife to her mouth, the tip of her tongue darts out between her lips, cautiously, as if she’s preparing herself for what comes next, hesitating. I restart the clock.
Three seconds.
One…
Two…
Her tongue runs up the length of the knife. She closes her eyes, a muffled moan catching in the back of her throat as she tastes me.
“That’s it. Good girl. Lick it clean.” My cock is growing harder by the second. I’m gonna be palming myself soon, stroking the length of my dick, and I’m going to enjoy Genevieve watching me, but for now I’m too wrapped up in her obedience. It’s fucking amazing to see her comply without protest like this. The crimson blood on the pale pink of her tongue is driving me insane. When she’s finished, she hands me back the knife.
“Open your mouth,” I tell her. “Stick out your tongue. Show me.” She shows me her tongue. With her head tipped back, her lips pouty and flecked with blood, I want to rip that fucking dress from her body and slam myself inside of her already. I’m a pleasure delayer, though. I like to torture myself a little bit. Make myself wait. “Go back to the bed. Sit on your hands.”
Once she’s done as I’ve asked her, I walk over to the door and open it. Jerome stands there, back ramrod straight, hands clasped behind his back, waiting patiently just as I knew he would be. His facial features are impassive as he bows his head slightly, taking a step forward. “He’s arrived, sir, as have your brothers. You would like me to escort them to the reception room?”
Excitement shuttles up and down my body, catching me off guard. I’m looking forward to this. I’ve known all my life that I would have to do this at some point, and the very idea of it was nothing short of inconvenient. I suppose I never really considered the woman I’d be claiming before, though. Now that the moment has arrived and it’s Genevieve sitting on the edge of my bed, waiting anxiously like a trapped exotic bird, the situation is far from inconvenient. It’s anything but.
“No. Bring them up here. No sense in wasting time.”
Jerome bows his head even further, averting his eyes. “Of course.” He moves off down the hallway quickly, hands still clasped behind his back. Back inside my room, Genevieve’s eyelids flutter when I turn to her. She does her best to sit still but I can tell she’s getting antsy. “What now?” she asks.
“Now, you wait patiently. Can you do that?”
“If that’s what you want, then yes.”
Holy fuck. The fire in her eyes rages; I can see how hard she has to fight to keep her temper under control. It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing. Genevieve is a rare kind of woman. She doesn’t lean on anyone for help. She never holds her hand out to be steadied. It would kill her to be beholden to anyone. I think that’s part of why this whole thing is so fucking perfect. It’s her sacrifice, everything she’s giving up to hand herself over to me. It must be the hardest thing she’s ever had to do, and she’s performing wonderfully.
“It is what I want,” I say. Men don’t play poker with me. I perfected the ability to hide my emotions years ago. The gamblers of New Orleans can never tell if I’m bluffing. No tics. No tells. I give nothing away. Right now, though, I’m finding it hard to keep the pleasure from my face. I wonder if my fiery little Genevieve can see how excited she’s making me. I catch a glimpse of myself in the vast mirror mounted on the wall beside the bed, and I note the slight curve to my mouth. The faint glimmer of amusement in my eyes. It’s subtle. To someone who doesn’t know me very well, I’m sure I still look sinister. Perhaps a little…evil? I’ve never been a fan of that word. I don’t believe in inherent good, or inherent bad. I believe in people trying to hide their vices and putting on a good show, so others will think them perfect. I believe that some of us choose to embrace the darkness a little too tightly, but at the end of the day there are always snatches of light to be found if a person were to look hard enough. Even within me, believe it or not.
“Lie back now,” I command. Genevieve shivers visibly, but she nods, scooting back until her legs are fully resting on the mattress. She lies down flat on her back, her hands laid palm down on the crisp sheets, fingers spread wide like she’s trying to steady herself. I take hold of her by the left ankle, raising her leg until it’s almost level with my eyes, and then I slowly, carefully unfasten the slender golden strap around her ankle that’s holding her stiletto heel on. I slide the shoe from her foot, and then I remove the heel on her right foot, too.
I’ve never had a thing for feet before. I’ve never even thought about them as a sexual part of a female body, but Genevieve ’s feet are delectable. What would it feel like to suck her toes into my mouth? To run the tip of my tongue along the delicate arch of her sole? Her dress has hitched up to her thighs. In my mind, I’m running my hands roughly up the inside of her legs, and she’s gasping, writhing in ecstasy as I trace my fingers higher, higher, higher…
A gentle knock at the door cuts me off there. Genevieve jumps at the sound, sucking in a deep breath. “Would you like something to calm your nerves?” I ask. “Weed? Whiskey? Cocaine?”
She shakes her head.
“Okay, then. Stay there.” I loosen my tie as I make my way across the room and open the door. I slip the length of silk from my shirt completely and hand it to West as he enters the room. He takes it without question, as if he was expecting it. Vaughn shoots me a reckless, excited grin as he moves past me and into the room behind our brother. The familial resemblance is extremely apparent between Vaughn and West; they’re identical, twins born eight minutes apart. They’re tall and dark like me but where my eyes are brown, theirs are pale blue, pale as ice, pale as the morning sky in winter after days and days of rain.
“Good to see you.” West’s voice is tense and low. Under his breath, he says, “He broke Javier’s nose. We had to knock him the fuck out just to stop him from smashing the wall down with his fists.” He’s talking about David Kendrick. David’s three years older than Genevieve, and sorely upset about my plans for his sister. Shame I don’t give a fuck.
“We’ll wake him up as soon as this is over. Is he still going to be able to drive?”
“Yeah. Just about.”
Over West’s shoulder, I see Vaughn already inspecting Genevieve, pacing around the bed, drinking her in with a fierce, wolf-like hunger. “She’s like a midnight rose. All that dark hair. Those ruby red lips. That pale, beautiful skin.” Crouching down to one side of the bed, he cocks his head to one side, frowning slightly as he studies Genevieve. “What’s your name, pretty one?”
Her eyes dart to me, looking for guidance. What do I want her to do? I give her a sharp nod of my head. “Genevieve,” she responds. Her voice waivers, hinting at fear, but she does me proud. She stays exactly where she is on the bed.
“Genevieve.” West considers this. “She’s different. I can see why you decided to keep her.”
“You know why I’m keeping her. She’s a means to an end.”
“Still.” He shrugs, still staring at her. “Doesn’t hurt that she looks like that.”
I’m not surprised that he’s taken a shine to her. Genevieve is striking, breathtaking in the truest sense of the word, but it’s not just her beauty that separates her from other women. It’s the way you feel when your gaze meets hers, like you’ve been shoved from the roof of a very tall building and you’re freefalling toward infinity. It feels as though she holds your soul in the palm of her hand when her focus is on you, and it’s a strange, unsettling sensation that leaves you raw and energized at the same time. She has no idea that she holds such power within that gaze of hers. If she did, this situation might easily be reversed. I might be the one laid out on the bed, obedient and ready to serve.
Both West and Vaughn are dressed in black: black jeans, black shirt, black leather jackets. Their black and white Chuck Taylors are equally scuffed and dirty. Hardly suitable attire for this event, but then again this is all very last minute. West moves to the other side of the bed and crouches in the same way that Vaughn did, so that both of them are admiring Genevieve from either side. “She’s magnificent,” he whispers. Genevieve glances between the two men, only a flicker of surprise registering on her face as she realizes that they’re almost impossible to tell apart.
“Alexander?”
Father Gustavo is hovering in the doorway. He is appropriately dressed, which is reassuring. He’s here, ready and willing to do his duty—very convenient since breaking into the rectory behind the Santa Maria Church and forcing him over here at gun point would have taken time I don’t have. He looks wired, wide awake, his salt and pepper hair combed neatly back from his face. His cassock is spotless, brushing the floor, and the huge pectoral cross hanging like a yoke around his neck looks like it’s been polished especially for the occasion.
“I wasn’t expecting to have to do this for you, Alex,” he says gravely. “At least, not quite so unexpectedly.”
“Yes, well. When you know, you know, right?” My voice is dripping with sarcasm, and the priest hears it. He blinks, like he has something in his eye, and then he turns his attention to Genevieve.
“The Kendrick girl,” he observes. “Do her brothers know about this?”
“One of them. The other will soon enough.”
He shoots me a scathing sideways glance. “You’re inviting trouble to your doorstep, you realize.”
“I’m not inviting it. I’m demanding it,” I correct him. “You know how I feel about debts, Gustavo. A debt must always be paid. Tommy Kendrick has owed me his pound of flesh for far too fucking long.”
Gustavo rolls his eyes. “Must you really…?”
It’s laughable that he objects to my language, given what he’s about to do for me. I give him a tight-lipped smile. “Let’s just get this over with.”
“As you wish.”
Genevieve shivers as I move and stand at the end of the bed. I hold out my hand to her, and her cheeks seem to grow redder. She takes my hand and allows me to help her up from the bed. West and Vaughn both move to stand on either side of her, looking to me, waiting for me to give an order to restrain her, but I shake my head.
“We don’t need to use force, do we, Genevieve? You’re going to behave. You’re going to do as you’re told, aren’t you?”
Her lips part, her eyes flickering with defiance, but after a second she nods. “You keep your promises. I keep mine. I’ll do as you ask.”
Poor, poor girl. She doesn’t see it yet. This will not be an arrangement of convenience. Yes, she’s agreed to my terms in order to save her brother David’s life, but I won’t be satisfied with that. They say the sins of the father are visited upon the heads of his children. Well, Tommy Kendrick’s sins are about to be visited upon his siblings, his sins are about to obliterate their lives, and I intend to enjoy every last second of it. I want payback, and there is no sweeter way of achieving my revenge than actually making Genevieve fall in love with me.
“You’re here willingly, yes?” Gustavo asks quietly. He shifts nervously from one foot to another, his gaze flitting from West to Vaughn, avoiding me altogether. Genevieve looks at the priest like he’s gone mad.
“Willingly?” She sounds like she’s about to burst into laughter or tears, one of the two.
“I need to hear you say it,” Gustavo says.
A blanket of silence fills the room. We all know what happens if Genevieve suddenly decides she wants to back out of this: West pulls a gun on the priest, and I make her wish she’d never been born. She stands very, very still, looking at me as if she’s trying to pick me apart, searching for the thread she needs to tease at to unravel me. To understand me. She sounds frustrated when she finally answers him. “Yes. I am here willingly.”
Gustavo breathes a sigh of relief. “Good, good. This is good. Then we’ll begin. In the presence of these two witnesses…” He rambles on, talking of God and of commitment. I meet Genevieve’s gaze, and I begin to make plans. I don’t have time to move slowly. I will figure out how to crack that hard veneer of hers, and I will work out what makes her tick. She’s complicated. Perhaps more complicated than any other woman I’ve met, but still… I’m Alexander Bastien. I will win her heart without a fucking doubt, and when I do…
“Do you, Alexander Frederic Bastien, take this woman, Genevieve Louisa Eleanor Kendrick, to be your wife? Do you promise to be true to her, in good times and in bad? In sickness and in health? Do you promise to love and honor her all the days of her life?”
Ah, the irony. Gustavo knows I’m incapable of love. He told my father he thought I was a sociopath when I was just five years old. Asking if I promise to love Genevieve is like asking the sun not to rise. It goes against the laws of physics, of logic, common sense, and any other law you might care to come up with. I know a thing or two about honor, though. “I do,” I say. My voice has a hard, stone-worn edge to it. My agreement to Gustavo’s question is more than that; it’s a threat. Genevieve will be mine forever. There’s no way out for her once this is over. She will belong to me no matter what. She must hear this in my voice. She goes paler and paler by the second as Father Gustavo asks her the same questions he just asked of me.
“…sickness and in health. Do you promise to love and honor him all the days of his life?”
She swallows. Her pupils look blown, so wide and black that for a brief moment her irises look entirely black. “I do,” she whispers.
“Then I now pronounce you man and wife.” Gustavo hesitates for a second, and then adds, “May God have mercy on your soul, young lady.”
The whole ceremony lasts only a few minutes, but the seconds seem to drag out for eternity. I step forward and hold out my hand to West. He places the handle of my knife into my palm, and Genevieve fastens her bottom lip between her teeth, panic finally blossoming on her features. I take hold of her dress by the strap over her left shoulder and I quickly cut the material, slashing through it with ease. I do the same to the other side, and the white silk tumbles from her body, gathering in a pool at her feet. As I demanded of her, she’s not wearing any underwear. She stands with her hands at her sides, fingers twitching reflexively, as if she wants to cover herself. I give her a look that lets her know just how displeased I will be with her if she does this, and something happens: a flash of anger lights up her face. Instead of hiding her embarrassment, Genevieve rolls her shoulders back and lifts her chin, staring me down. Fucking adorable. She thinks she can stand up to me? She thinks she’s brave enough for what’s to come? She has no idea how absolutely messed up and confusing her world is about to get. I’m going to have the time of my fucking life showing her. There will come a time, soon, when she will have to choose between me and her brothers, and she will not be able to turn her back on me. She will beg for their deaths just so long as I continue to allow her into my bed. She’ll turn her back on her blood in order to remain in my good graces. She won’t just give me her heart. She’ll give me her soul and everything else she holds dear, and I will take it all from her with a savage fucking smile on my face.
I begin to unbutton my shirt. “I hope you’re ready. You understand what I require of you?”
She breathes out heavily, then nods. “You tell me what you want, and I obey.”
West bites down on his bottom lip, groaning under his breath. Vaughn remains silent, but I can see the anticipation glittering in his eyes. Genevieve shifts, clearly uncomfortable that my brothers appear to be growing excited. “Are they…are they going to…?”
“They’re witnesses. They have to witness everything. That a problem?” This is how it used to be done back when kings and queens used to get married. A room full of people would stay and watch the newlyweds fuck, just to make sure the marriage was consummated. The Bastien family have also adhered to this tradition for as long as anyone can remember. My mother and father, my grandparents, my great grandparents, on and on, forever. Genevieve’s obviously repelled by the idea of so many people hanging around to watch us in bed. She frowns, deep lines marking her brow.
“It’s not a problem,” she whispers. “Let’s just get it over with.”
She assumes I’m going to screw her until I come and that will be that. She’s sorely mistaken. Tonight won’t be over until I’ve made her come. She needs to surrender to me in every way, and that includes her pleasure.
I strip down until I’m naked. Father Gustavo clears his throat, scratching at the back of his hand and his forearm like a junky craving his next fix. “I think, then, if that’s all, I should be going—”
“You’re not going anywhere,” I snap. “If he tries to leave, cut his fucking balls off.”
“Gladly,” West says.
Gustavo opens his mouth, shocked, but then clearly thinks better of objecting and closes it again. Vaughn laughs very quietly under his breath, and Genevieve jumps at the unexpected sound of amusement.
“On the bed,” I demand. She walks backwards until she reaches the bed, and then climbs up as I’ve instructed. She makes herself small, hugging her knees to her chest, watching me as I approach her like a frightened deer.
“From here on out, there are no safe words,” I tell her. “There’s no backing out. You’re here for me to use. You’re here for me to do whatever the hell we want to you. You’re here for me to own you. Nothing is off-limits. Your body is my playground…and I like to play hard.” I don’t finish up this statement by asking her if this is okay. If it’s not okay, then it’s simply tough luck. She said the words. She relinquished control of her body and her life just now when she said
“I do.” She sold her soul to the devil, and now he’s come to collect.
I climb up onto the bed and I push her roughly back onto the mattress. She stretches out long, but her arms and legs are rigid; I’m sure every part of her is screaming right now, begging her to fight me off, to get up and run, but she must know how futile that would be. If I wasn’t already painfully fucking hard, the sight of her laid out like this would have my dick throbbing in less than a cool second. She’s incredible. Her breasts aren’t huge, maybe a little more than a handful, but they’re fucking amazing. Her nipples—small, a fragile shade of pink—are peaked and so ready for me to take into my mouth. The curve of her hips; the long, lean muscles in her legs; the slope of her collarbone, and the pool of her ink black hair around her head, arranged like a dark halo…every small piece of her on its own is flawless, but combined together she looks like a painting, a work of art that could never be replicated.
She sucks in a deep breath as I lean down, lowering my face toward hers. “I’m going to unlock your secrets,” I growl, deep and low. “I’m going to discover every last one of them. Your body will betray you, and you’ll hate me for it. You’re going to want me, and you’re going to be ashamed of the fact. There’s no point trying to hide from the inevitable, though. There’s no point trying to deny me. You’re no longer Genevieve Kendrick. You’re Genevieve Bastien. Get used to the name. The whole of New Orleans will know it soon…”