Empire of Desire (Empire, #1)

by Rina Kent

Happiness isn’t my scene. Neither are birthdays. Not when mine was supposed to be a funeral.

As for children, no thanks. I practically raised my nephew and he’s enough children for a lifetime.”

Nate has always had immaculate control over his body language and facial expressions, and it shows in each of his movements.

The older I’ve gotten, the more aware I’ve become of his imposing, silent character that speaks through actions more than words. I’ve also begun to see why he’s the perfect partner for Dad.

Why would the king of the jungle look in the direction of a stray cub when he has countless lionesses by his side?

Maybe I’m at my limit, too. Despite all Dad’s love, I’ve always felt that a piece of me was missing, lost somewhere I can never reach.

completely and utterly empty on the inside. Someone with a dysfunctional brain. Someone who needs lists and coping mechanisms to stay afloat.

Fuck the way she looks at me. As if I'm a god with all the answers and solutions. As if I’m the only one who can make everything right.

I’ve always hated the way Gwyneth looks at me. Correction, I’ve loathed it since her eighteenth birthday party when she demolished the brick wall that separated us. Because the god she sees in me? That one is most definitely

“Please…I have no one but you.”

Fuck. It’s true. With Kingsley gone, she has no one but me.

So Gwyneth interprets my silence as approval and does what Gwyneth does best. Takes liberties.

This girl has zero understanding of the word boundaries.

For someone so smart, you did something so fucking stupid, King. You should’ve never entrusted her to me.

Because now, even a mere touch brings back memories of her body pressed up against my chest.

Maybe this event will change the life she knew up to this point. It sure as fuck is making dents into my own.

“Are you hearing yourself, Aspen? You’re telling me to gain full ownership of Weaver & Shaw at the expense of taking advantage of my friend’s only fucking daughter.”

“No, but I’m not betraying King’s trust either.” “He’s in a coma, Nate.”

I don’t want to entertain the idea forming loud and clear in my head, but even I know that it’s the most logical thing to do. Despite the fact that it doesn’t make sense on so many levels.

Oooh what is it??

Someone might be wondering why this crazy person would choose to pursue law when she’s dangerously empathetic.

I’ll be all alone without my father. The man who painted the world in bright colors and then laid it at my feet. The man who scowled at the world but only smiled at me.

And no, I’m not a stalker. I just like collecting. And by collecting, I mean the things that belong to him.

Suddenly, I’m hyperaware of what I am to him. A hurdle that’s pulling him down. An obligation left behind by his best friend.

“That might be so if you were talking to her lawyer, but you’re now addressing a member of her family. Her future husband, to be more specific.”

What I’m doing is out of necessity. The urgency to keep Kingsley’s legacy alive. The burden to protect what he left behind.

However, as I wrap my arm around Gwyneth’s shoulder, burden is the last thing I feel.

Necessity might have started this, but I’m the one who will pursue it until the end.

She can save her girlhood dreams about marriage for her next one.

But I will fix it. I will find her. I’ll make Gwyneth visible.

I’m not supposed to latch onto him like a pest. I don’t want to be a burden, Dad. I don’t want Nate to baby me or treat me like a delicate flower just because I’m your daughter.”

I’m torn between a sense of duty and common sense—that includes not being a pain in the ass.

So the fact that you feel like a burden is needless and unnecessary. We’re using each other. Do you understand?”

“After today? My husband.” The husband I’m not allowed to touch.

This is what I look like when I’m holding back. When I’m not acting on what I’m thinking and dragging you to a corner where no one will see you flinch or hear you release those small noises you do when you’re out of your element. So you should be the one who’s scared, not me.”

“If you don’t stop flaunting yourself around, if you keep provoking me and don’t stay in your lane, I’ll be inclined to take action. I’ll swallow you down so fast, there’ll be nothing left of you, let alone your sarcasm and naïveté. You’ll stare in the mirror and not recognize yourself anymore. This is my last warning and the only courtesy I will give you. Stop, Gwyneth. You don’t know what the fuck you’re dealing with. So go back to college, to your safe boys and vanilla milkshakes and boring little life.”

“But I don’t want safe and boring.” I want you. I almost say that. Almost, but I don’t get to, because his next words knock the living breath out of my lungs. “You’re well and truly fucked, baby girl.”

“You…can’t. You’re not my dad.” “No, but I am your husband.”

It’s him as he picks me up and throws me over his shoulder. “You’ll show me all those sexual urges. Now.”

Actually, Nate is the furthest thing from gentle. He’s coarse and harsh and strict. So damn strict that my thighs clench in remembrance of his authoritarian, lusty questions from when he trapped me against the wall.

and it feels so different, new, and wrong. Yet it’s right at the same time. It’s the rightest thing I’ve felt in a while.

But it’s not my finger that enters me. This one is thicker, harder, and makes me gasp.

It’s inside me now, his middle finger, and it’s stroking mine that’s also in there. The friction is strange and unbearable and so damn new that I nearly black out.

“Are you sure you want to talk back to me when I can leave you unsatisfied?”

The sureness in his movements, the pure dominance of it, drags me under in one swift movement.

“From now on, if you have any sexual urges, I’ll be the only one who satisfies them.”

“You do taste like a very bad girl.” Well, fuck. I think something just left me and jumped to him. I don’t know what that something is, but it feels important. Vital. And now, I can’t get it back.

Your 💜

I’m taking away your little angel, King, and she won’t be pure and innocent anymore, because I’m taking that away, too. I should say I’m sorry, but I’m not. I won’t apologize for what I’m about to do. I don’t know what exactly she is to me or where we’ll go from here. But I know one thing for sure. Gwyneth is now mine.

“I’ve always wanted to do this.” She licks her lips. “I’ve practiced.”

“You practiced?” I ask with a calm I don’t feel.

“Yeah, why do you think bananas are my favorite fruit?