Broken Read online

  And that turned me on, so freaking much.

  I shifted a little—which was a mistake. It brushed my body across Theo, painting a fuller picture of that pressure against me. I knew it was hard before, and now I knew it was big. I bit my bottom lip, trying to wrangle my brain from the dangerous territory this man was taking me to.

  Theo’s gaze had gone dark with pleasure. “Keep rubbing on me like that, princess, and I’ll have to change the terms of your bargain.”

  “No can do,” I breathed, feeling strangely light-headed. “One kiss, that’s my best offer.”

  “Where?”

  I straightened in anticipation. “Right now’s fine.”

  Theo smiled pityingly. “I meant, where on your body.”

  “Oh.” My cheeks burned. “My lips, I guess.”

  He ran a finger along my collarbone leisurely, then dipped his face to my neck.

  “Which ones?” he murmured, a hot whisper against my skin.

  Oh god, I totally walked into that one. “L-let’s not make this overly sexual. Let’s keep it clean.”

  Theo’s mouth twisted at my answer. Now he looked downright evil.

  His finger trailed below my collarbone, going dangerously close to my cleavage. My skin prickled wherever he touched, my nipples hardening under my bra cups.

  “There’s nothing clean about what I want to do to you, princess.”

  I let out a shaky breath when his fingers ran along the seam of my scooped tank top, brushing the tops of my breasts, inches away from where my body ached for him to touch.

  “Like I said, that’s my best offer.”

  “Spoilsport.”

  Still keeping his gaze on me, Theo took my hand and brought my knuckles up to his lips, brushing them lightly over my skin. “How’s this?”

  I sucked in a breath, my eyes transfixed on the point where his hot mouth met my skin. “That’s okay.”

  Theo turned my hand over to expose my bare wrist. He kissed the sensitive part where my pulse was, suckling lightly, running the tip of his tongue over my skin in a heated stroke. All the while his eyes never left my face. “And this?”

  My cheeks burned. I could feel his hot, wet mouth all the way between my legs. Theo teased me in fleeting strokes, his lips soft against my skin. A promise of what he would do to me down there if I’d only say yes.

  A whimper slipped past my lips when Theo sucked my skin between his teeth, scraping me with light pressure.

  Holy heck, but I wanted to beg for more. Anything for him to put his mouth on my pussy where he was making my aching and wet… for him to take that hard erection pressing against my stomach and use it all over my body. I almost moaned aloud at the thought of Theo using me for pleasure.

  Before I could do anything stupid, I wrenched my hand from his and cradled it against my chest. It felt like it had been burned by his touch.

  “A warning next time?” I croaked. My thin skin was turning splotchy with embarrassment and arousal. “I’ll take that flash drive now and get going.”

  Theo’s cheekbones were slightly colored, his breaths coming a little fast. The kiss had affected him too, though he was trying not to show it.

  “I never agreed to your deal.”

  My mouth fell open. “You cheated!”

  Theo lifted a shoulder in an unrepentant shrug. “Can’t blame the dog for biting the bone, love.”

  I glared. “You know what I think? I think you’re scared. You’re afraid of being alone, that’s why you can’t give Estelle over.”

  Theo’s expression grew hard. I had hit the nail on the head.

  “You shouldn’t have come,” he said, his voice dangerously soft. “You should have turned tail and run for your life the moment you heard that I was back. But you didn’t, because you can’t stay away from danger.” He smiled cruelly. “You’re still as naïve as before, still playing childish games you cannot win.”

  That word struck a nerve within me. Theo had always known how to cut deepest. “I’m not childish.”

  “Then stop acting like one.”

  “I’m not!” I snapped before I realized I was walking right into his trap. “I’m trying to do the right thing. One of us has to.”

  “That’s exactly right. You keep doing the right thing, princess, and I’ll keep doing as I have.”

  “And what is that?”

  “Not something you’d understand.”

  The tone in his voice sounded like bitterness, something I had never heard from him before. It felt wrong, because the Theo I once knew had been a force of a nature, a hurricane that tore down everything in his path.

  I swallowed. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

  “Oh, but it does.”

  Theo took a lock of my hair, his gentle action at odds with his threats. He wound the strands between his fingers like it was the only way he would allow himself to touch me.

  I held my breath, not daring to ruin the moment, until finally, Theo forced himself to let go.

  “Go home, Karin.” He stepped back and released me, giving me a profile that was as hard as marble. “Let’s not meet again.”

  As much as I wanted to stay, I couldn’t help being afraid of the way Theo was making me feel.

  It wasn’t supposed to be like this. We were supposed to be calm and unaffected.

  But we weren’t unaffected. Theo looked like he was a hairs-breadth away from pinning me to the wall and taking me right there. I knew the warnings he was giving me weren’t made lightly.

  What scared me more was that I wanted it.

  Bad.

  And so I backed away from Theo Valentine, never turning my back on him like I was escaping a wild animal.

  Once I reached the threshold of his study, I turned and ran for my life.

  The day Theo Valentine arrived at Beckett Mansion had been a rainy one.

  I’d been standing with my father at the base of the steps leading to the main driveway along with the thirteen servants in our employ, waiting for the arrival of Estelle, Dad’s latest girlfriend, and her seventeen-year-old son. It had been raining for five days in a row, and we were all huddled under black umbrellas like it was a funeral, waiting for the convoy Dad had sent to the airport to arrive.

  “Stand up straight,” Dad had ordered. “Stop fidgeting.”

  As far as welcomes went, it hadn’t been the most cheerful, or the most creative. Estelle hadn’t been the first girlfriend to move in, and we all knew the drill for the grand welcome by now.

  My sister Allie had been certain that she wouldn’t be the last either, and so she’d refused to leave her room for the welcome party.

  “Why should I bother playing nice with someone who’s going to leave in a few months?” She flipped a page of her novel angrily, huddled deep in her covers. “It’s not like we don’t know what she’s really after anyway. No socialite would move to a coastal town where nothing ever happens if not for the money.”

  “You haven’t met her,” I protested. “Maybe she really cares for Dad.”

  “Then I pity her. You were too young to remember, but Mum was miserable with him.” Allie looked away. “Sometimes I’m glad she’s dead.”

  “Allie!”

  “You wanted to say hi, didn’t you? Better get going.”

  “I’ll make up an excuse for you,” I offered, but Allie was pointedly ignoring me and had gone back to her book.

  I stood in the driveway that day, decked in a shapeless powder blue dress that reached my knees. I usually roamed around our town in cute print tops and skinny jeans, but today I had to wear the only thing in my closet that Dad had deemed appropriate for a fourteen-year-old girl. I wore a jacket over it to protect against the biting coastal wind, and also to hide the hideous dress. Mrs Smith, our housekeeper, had tied my wild hair back into a thick braid that hung down my back. It was so tight that the corners of my eyes were pulled back.

  Dad himself had been dressed in his best, a navy-blue suit set that stretched taut over his ge
nerous stomach when buttoned. The pinstripe pattern on the jacket made him look taller than he really was.

  At least, that was what his tailors had assured him.

  “I’ll have a word with your sister after this.” He took a comb from his back pocket and swiped it through what was left of his hair. “Ungrateful brat. I feed her and give her a roof over her damned head and she repays by embarrassing me.”

  “Allie is sick. She has a fever.”

  Dad looked unconvinced.

  “It’s really bad, she’s coughing super hard.” I was taken by sudden inspiration. “And she’s on her period!”

  That did the trick. Dad gave a disgusted look and glanced away, suddenly eager to drop the subject. “Tell her I expect her to greet Estelle properly once her… sickness is over.”

  “Oh I will, sir. I’ll drag her to Miss Estelle myself.” A bit overdone, but Dad only made an annoyed sound and looked down the driveway again.

  The funeral-like silence of the thirteen of us standing under the rain had been weirdly solemn, made worse by the rain pattering on the cobblestones and the carpet of dead leaves on the ground all around us. I recalled looking over at the small forest across our mansion, counting the number of bare branches I could see to occupy myself.

  We heard the rumble of engines in the distance sometime later.

  “Get ready,” my father had barked.

  Three sleek black Mercedes rolled up the road that led from the main part of town. They passed the towering wrought iron gates that wrapped the Beckett property, pulling up to the driveway where we were assembled.

  That particular spot had been intended to display the Beckett Mansion in all its mausoleum glory, with the household servants in their monochrome uniforms completing the look. I had always thought Dad’s girlfriends were horrified at the bleakness, but if they were, they all hid it well. Dad never noticed that the mansion was more creepy than impressive.

  Once the convoy pulled to a stop, Dad jogged over to the center car to get the door. He also took the umbrella with him, which left me under the rain until I sought shelter with Mrs Smith’s.

  “That man.” Mrs Smith yanked me closer to her side. “His brain grows between his legs instead of his head.”

  The servants around us had sniggered until Joe, our butler, turned to glare. “Quiet.”

  Dad opened the car door with a theatrical flourish, the extra effort meaning that he especially liked Estelle Valentine. All of us standing at the base of the stairs had craned our necks to see.

  A long, tanned leg in a towering silver heel emerged from the car, joined to a pair of full hips and a tiny waist, finally coming up to surprisingly modestly-sized boobs. The woman’s trim figure had been wrapped in a white silky mini dress even though it was the middle of March. Her platinum blond hair had been perfectly coiffed in a half-updo.

  I couldn’t help gaping at the head attached to that perfect body.

  Holy heck. This woman was easily the most beautiful person I had ever seen in my life. I felt like a bystander at a red-carpet event instead of in the middle of a rainy, howling gale.

  But before I had a chance to recover, another figure emerged from behind Estelle, tall and with shoulders that were broad like a natural athlete’s. Sharp, piercing amber eyes stared out of a face that was perfectly formed.

  My breath had caught.

  Estelle was stunning, but the boy was something else.

  His facial features were eerily perfect, like it belonged on a marble statue instead of a person. Something in the graceful way he moved made it impossible to look away from him. At first glance, he looked bored, but a closer inspection revealed that he was surveying his surroundings closely, not missing a thing.

  Theo Valentine wore a rumpled navy blazer and matching pants, with a school crest embroidered at the left lapel. A loosened tie hung down the middle of his white dress shirt, which had been left untucked.

  His school uniform, I’d realized. Mrs Smith had mentioned before that Estelle’s son studied abroad in a boarding school.

  That reminder made me self-conscious. The boy and I were only three years apart, but in that shapeless dress I had looked and felt like a little kid.

  I hadn’t realized I was staring until I found myself looking right into Theo’s eyes from across the short distance. The look in them hadn’t been friendly. I felt targeted, for some reason.

  I quickly averted my gaze.

  “Welcome,” Dad had bellowed as he held the umbrella over him and Estelle, who was smiling so beautifully I expected the skies to clear any moment. “Welcome, welcome.” He gestured for one of the chauffeurs to shelter Theo, who gave him such a disdainful glare that the man backed off immediately.

  “The servants have prepared the house for you,” my father boomed, “and everything is at your disposal. Use them for anything you want. They are here to serve.”

  Mrs Smith cleared her throat irritably, and Joe didn’t stop her this time.

  As Dad approached us, his gaze fell onto me as if he’d forgotten I was there. “Ah, this is my younger girl, Karin.”

  Estelle glided over, moving with the grace of a swan even in her stilettos. “Hello, dear.”

  Her red lips had smiled down at me, her green eyes holding the same sharpness as her son’s. I imagined this was what a skewered kebab felt like.

  Dad bristled at my hesitance. “Karin, say hi.”

  I locked my knees before I could do something stupid, like curtsy. “Hi.”

  “The elder one is sick, but she’ll greet you tonight.”

  “When she’s feeling better,” I corrected.

  “I said—”

  “It’s okay love, she can take her time. We’re all new to this, aren’t we?” Estelle graced me with another smile as she took Dad’s arm and led him down the line of servants to be introduced. Mrs Smith handed her umbrella to me and went with them to do the formal introductions.

  I’d breathed my relief until a shadow came over me.

  Looking up, I saw that the boy was staring down at me, towering taller than Estelle did in her heels. Tiny droplets of rain glittered on the dark locks of his hair.

  Theo was even more handsome up close, and I felt my face heat up under his scrutiny. “Uh, hi. I'm Karin. Nice to meet you.”

  Theo Valentine had ignored my outstretched hand, dragging out the moment longer than was comfortable.

  I dropped my hand, feeling twitchy with the prolonged silence. I needed to fill it—it was a curse I had been born with.

  “Our housekeeper said you’re from England,” I offered shyly. “San Juan’s probably not what you’re used to since you’ve been to so many places—”

  “Karin Beckett.” A tiny skitter of pleasure had danced over my skin at the way he pronounced my name in his crisp accent. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Um. Making friends?”

  Theo watched me like a tiger that just had its meal and was deciding if it wanted more. “I’m not here to make friends.”

  I hadn’t known what to say to that. Aside from my dad, no one had ever been unfriendly with me before. People naturally liked me, and it bothered me that this boy obviously didn’t.

  I tried smiling again, wider this time. “Did your mum make you leave England when you didn’t want to? That sucks, but I promise it’ll get much better soon. I’ll even help you settle in. Deal?”

  “I agreed to come of my own volition, and it isn’t friendship that I want.” Theo slipped his hands into his pockets and looked around contemplatively, taking in the estate. “It’s everything else. Your home. Your money. Your status.” He cocked his head. “That’s what I want.”

  My stomach had sunk like it was the Titanic and Theo Valentine the iceberg. Allie had been right after all—they were here for Dad’s money.

  Worse of all, Theo was openly admitting it to me, which meant he didn’t think I was a threat to him at all.

  “I'm gonna tell Dad.”

  Theo wasn’t worr
ied. He’d actually smiled. “Go ahead, if you think he'll listen.”

  Dad wouldn’t have. He had been too in love with Estelle to believe a word I said.

  “My suggestion is to go about your life silently and invisibly from now on,” Theo had said in a volume soft enough for only the both of us to hear. His voice had been smooth as velvet wrapped around a knife. “Keep your pretty eyes closed and stay obediently in your little castle sheltered from the world and all its bullshit. A naive princess in a perfect fairy tale.”

  “I’m not a princess,” was all I could manage.

  Theo’s dark gold eyes flashed mockingly at my poor attempt to claw back ground. “Aren’t you, though?”

  I’d been speechless as he brushed past me to enter my home. I hadn’t known what to say to such open hostility.

  And to my shame, I kept out of his way in the year that followed, just as he’d commanded.

  Theo Valentine had been right about one thing—I was sheltered and naive. I couldn’t understand how people like him and Estelle could lie and take from others without batting an eye.

  Theo did his part too, achieving everything he had set his sights on. Within the first year, he had allied himself with three of the most infamous boys in town, terrorizing our high school alongside them.

  San Juan High had been governed by those three boys whose personal expenses probably fuelled the entire town’s economy. For some reason, they readily accepted Theo into their ranks as one of them.

  “A monster recognizes another when he sees one,” Allie had said. “Stay away from them, K.”

  They may be monsters, but they sure didn’t look like it. All four of them were so gorgeous that it was almost too easy to forget who they were.

  Ryland Wyatt was the Ice King of San Juan High, the sole heir to a booming real estate empire in New York. He was cold and calculated and arrogant, the kind of guy who thought carefully before he spoke and always gave the perfect answer. His dark hair was neat and immaculate, and not a single strand dared to go where he didn't want it to be. His icy blue eyes matched his personality to a T.