in your pussy, and you can get whatever you want.”
I didn’t appreciate the crass way he spoke to me, but I liked his candor. He didn’t seem like the kind of man who could speak any other way. Brutal honesty was the only way of life he knew about. “I’m an experienced woman, but if Cato is obsessed with threeways, I don’t think there’s anything special I can offer him.” Even in lingerie with a kinky trick up my sleeve, there was nothing that could surprise him.
Bones took a long drink from his glass then wiped his mouth with the back of his forearm. With the same irritation in his eyes, he looked at me. “I remember the moment I fell in love with my wife, even though I didn’t realize what was happening at the time. She was just some woman I wanted to murder for revenge. But the second I fucked her, it was game over. She took all the power—and I surrendered.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Wait, you wanted to murder your wife?”
“Yeah, long story.” He brushed it off with a wave of his hand. “But my point is, I was thinking clearly before I got between her legs. The second I was there, all my ambitions were destroyed. She became my biggest obsession. Like she was a drug, I couldn’t stop until I got the next hit…and then the next.”
“How romantic…”
His hard expression didn’t change. “That’s what you need to do with Cato.”
“You’re simplifying it. Were you screwing lots of women before her?”
He took another drink. “Yes. And I was into kinky shit too.”
“Well, I can’t control Cato’s reaction to me. The idea of him becoming obsessed with me seems unlikely. This guy gets more ass than he knows what to do with. I’m a talented lady, but there’s nothing I can do to impress him.”
“My wife just lay there—and that was more than enough.” An evil grin stretched across his face.
“Well, maybe she’s your soul mate.”
His smile dropped, but the intensity in his eyes deepened. “I don’t believe in that bullshit.”
“Then what other explanation is there?” I didn’t believe in true love or soul mates either. My own father wouldn’t protect my mother, and now I was being threatened with rape and death by his enemies. If he’d spent more time loving us instead of trying to gain more power, I would be living a normal life right now.
He shrugged. “Till this day, I still don’t know.”
“Well, that definitely won’t happen with Cato. He’s not my type. I’m not his either.”
“All women are his type,” he said. “Has he tried getting you into bed since?”
Cato didn’t say much when we were together, but I could definitely feel the tension in the room. His eyes always scanned my body, and he blinked so little, sometimes I wondered if he needed to blink at all. “No.”
“Cato is the kind of man who always gets what he wants. Maybe defying him is your ticket.”
“I just said he hasn’t tried to hit on me.”
“That doesn’t mean anything. He wanted you before, and you took off. It’s unfinished business for him.”
“Maybe.”
“The best way to stand out is to be different. Denying him definitely makes you different.”
I tried to follow his logic, but I came to a dead end. “You said I needed to fuck him, but now you’re telling me not to?”
“I’m telling you to play hard to get. When I met my wife, she wasn’t afraid to tell me off. She wasn’t afraid to shoot me. She stood her ground when other women would have melted. It was that spark that captured my obsession to begin with—because she didn’t need me.”
What kind of relationship was this? “Your wife shot you?”
His grin returned to his face, full of sincerity. “Yeah.” He rubbed his left shoulder, like he was remembering the pain from the wound. There was no denying the pride in his eyes, like that memory was holy to him.
“Alright…” I didn’t understand how a relationship based on such violence turned into a marriage, but asking more questions wouldn’t make me understand it better. “Well, I’m not gonna shoot Cato.”
“Then keep him on your line—and slowly reel him in.”
“And then fuck him and hope it goes well?” I asked incredulously, despising myself for sinking so low. No one would judge me for sleeping with a man to save my father’s life, but I wished there was a better way to do this.