The Scotch Series: The Complete Series (Scotch #1-3) - Penelope Sky Page 0,327

address you by your name, you would have mentioned it a long time ago. Besides, I prefer Button.” I didn’t want to call her by a name everyone else used. She was my possession. She was mine in every sense of the word. So she needed a new name, something only I called her.

She couldn’t hide the shock on her face. She stupidly assumed her secrets were safe.

“Mechanical engineer. That’s very impressive.”

This time, she didn’t seem surprised. She kept her face stoic, hiding her thoughts. “I like it. Every project is new and challenging.”

“Very few women choose a career involving science and math.”

“Supposedly.”

“What made you choose that profession?”

She shrugged. “I like building things. I like working from the ground up. I like making something that will outlive me. No two projects are ever the same. It’s something new every day.”

My hand stopped moving my fork, and my eyes concentrated on her face. I felt my attraction to her grow, my respect elevate. She was so different from every other woman I met that I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. When they were in my presence, they folded like a bad hand at poker. They immediately obeyed me, intimidated or smitten by me. This woman was different. She worked by her own inner clock. She didn’t let anyone control her or manipulate her.

Which was why I wanted to control her and manipulate her. She was the wildest stallion, the last free horse of the land. It couldn’t be broken or trained. It was too stubborn, too fierce.

I loved the challenge.

“Perhaps I have something for you to work on—if you’re interested.”

“Depends on what you have in mind.”

“At the winery, we’re always looking for ways to make our fermentation process more efficient.”

“That’s how you make a living?” She’d never asked me anything personal before. She didn’t seem to care. I was just her captor, the person she wanted to flee from.

“Yes.” In part.

“Is that what you do with Cane?”

“No. The winery is exclusively mine.”

She was an intelligent woman, and the cogs in her mind were constantly churning. Thoughts were circling her mind now, and she deliberated on asking her following question. Finally, she went for it. “What do you do with Cane?”

“Arms dealer. We make weapons and sell them to the highest bidder.”

Her eyes narrowed, her mind working at full speed. “Bones does the same thing.”

“Yeah.” He was my biggest competitor, my biggest adversary. Our rivalry went back to a different generation, when my father and his father were at war with one another. We inherited that fight, and we would continue until one of us was dead.

“That’s your beef with him.” She said it out loud, but she seemed to be saying it more to herself than to me.

“In a nutshell.”

“And stealing me is a way of manipulating him.”

Now she was off the trail. “No.”

“No?” she asked. “What else do you want me for?”

“Revenge.” I had to avenge Vanessa, my little sister. She wasn’t just my family but my friend. When our parents passed away, I became the leading man of the family. I’d become her father.

“Revenge for what?” she asked. “What did he do to you?”

I held her gaze but felt my lips compress. I didn’t want to talk about Vanessa. Whenever she entered my mind, I immediately shook the thoughts away. It was too painful, even for me. If I ignored it long enough, maybe the pain would disappear altogether. “That’s enough questions for the evening.”

Her eyes burned with irritation. “So you can know everything about me, but I can’t know anything about you?”

“You know a lot about me.” More than most.

“But you won’t answer my questions.”

“Would you answer mine?” I watched her expression and saw it slacken in resolution. If I pried into her personal life, she wouldn’t tell me anything. I knew that for certain. But fortunately, I already knew everything that mattered.

Lacking a response, she looked down at her plate and finished eating. She was irritated I’d bested her. Her shoulders were tight, and her lips held a slight scowl. In the short amount of time I’d known her, I learned her habits. I learned how to read her thoughts. I learned her likes and dislikes without asking a single question.

And she hated that.

After I enjoyed my solitude in my study, I went to her bedroom. I already knew what she would be doing before I arrived. She spent all her free time reading. Her room came with hundreds of bound books, most of them in