I shake my head. She’s baiting me. She must be. “She won’t touch you without some meddling on your part.” Shiloh’s too good, too focused. How could she be drawn to someone like Monroe, with venom in her very blood?

How could I be drawn to Monroe?

I shove the thought away. “It won’t happen.”

“Would you like to bet on it?”

Sheer rage has me saying, “Of course.”

“If I’m correct, and Shiloh comes to me without any manipulations on my part, then you’re mine for a week.”

I stop short. “What?”

Monroe stops, too. “A week, husband, where you stop pretending you’re a good man and do what you really want.” She steps closer. Though she doesn’t touch me, the phantom memory of her nails skating up my chest has me fighting back a shiver. “Where you take what you really want.”

I’d be a fool a thousand times over to make a bet with this woman. No matter what she promises, she will cheat, lie, and steal to win. That’s just the kind of person Monroe is; she fights dirty. I open my mouth to tell her to fuck off, but that’s not what comes out. “You have yourself a deal.”

Chapter 7

Shiloh

I’m so furious, I can barely see straight. The walk back to the compound takes half the time it should. The entire time, all I can focus on is how unbelievably over-bearing Broderick has become. He’s always been over-protective, but never once in the last seven years has he tried to steamroll me. Not about my ability to do my job. Not about my dating life.

Sure, there hasn’t been much of a dating life to speak of, but ultimately that changes nothing. The man was making decrees about me as if I’m a child to be controlled.

I am not a child.

I’m a fucking adult, and he can choke on his decrees for all I care.

I shove through the front doors of the main house so hard, they bounce off the wall. A small voice inside me warns that I need to give myself time to cool off before doing anything else, but for once in my life I’m too angry to listen. There’s no room for caution here, no space to be rational.

Gabriel Paine, the youngest of the Paine brothers, jumps in surprise at my entrance. “Shiloh?” He narrows his eyes. “Is everything okay?”