Page 84 of Shai

yours, not mine.”

His arms tightened around my middle, his body heat against my back

warming me from the outside in. “You accepted my offer. That means they’re ours. Our buildings. Our people. Our city.” His lips curved against my neck. “They just don’t know it yet.”

A flutter of something started in my gut and I had to force myself to think rationally rather than being overwhelmed by emotion. “You’ve worked hard for it. Why would you share that with me of all people?”

He turned me in his arms so that we faced each other, his gaze boring into mine. “Why wouldn’t I share it with you? Isn’t that what people do when they form a partnership? What’s mine is yours and vice versa?”

My chest was suddenly constricted. Except this time, it had absolutely nothing to do with the effects of the venom. “That only works if I have something to offer you in return. As it stands, it would be decidedly one-sided.”

Shai’s heated gaze trailed down my body. “You give me more than you think. Your body. Your fear. Your fight. Your surrender. Your tears. Your cum. Your loyalty.” A devilish smile lit up his features. “And if I asked more of you, you would give it. Correct?”

I answered without breaking his gaze. “You know I would. I’ve already said I would give you anything.” There was a strange finality to the words. I’d come here as a prisoner, and as a plaything. I’d been pulled into Shai’s world at a dizzying speed, shaped into something completely different by a master manipulator. Yet, none of that mattered. I didn’t give a damn how I’d gotten to this point, only that I had, and that I was a part of Shai’s world. He shone brighter than any star in the sky, the rest of us simply orbiting around him. And it was an orbit I had no desire to break away from. “What happens next? I mean… what are our plans?”

A bright smile lit up Shai’s face. “We can discuss our expansion plans later. You can tell me which cities you think we should start with. Together, we can own the world, Elijah. What do you think?”

Elijah Page, the petty crook and drug dealer would have thought it sounded like a megalomaniac with ideas well above his station, but this Elijah, the man who’d grown used to being surrounded by opulence, well, it made his heart beat faster and his cock swell. Power was quite the aphrodisiac.

Shai turned me back to face the window, yanking my jeans down in one swift move. I braced myself against the window seat as he entered me in one deep thrust. I might never get the word love from him, but actions spoke louder than words. He wouldn’t give me a ring, but he would give me a city and all the people that lived in it. And he would give me more cities. I smiled, spreading my thighs wider and arching my back, the wet slap of our bodies filling the room.

The past was dead, but the future would be quite some ride.

Three months later

Elijah

I LOUNGED in the back seat of the car as the lights of the city flashed by, Taylor driving at a breakneck speed that there was no need for unless he was angling for an accident. I reached across to fasten my seatbelt. Flying through the windshield wasn’t on my list of things to do today. “Slow down. There’s no rush.”

His shoulders went rigid at the sound of my voice, his fingers tightening around the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. Seconds ticked by before he finally eased off the accelerator. It was an understatement to say that Shai’s men were still struggling with my new status. I turned my attention to Wyatt in the seat next to Taylor’s, but he’d turned his head away, his gaze fastened on something outside the window.

I made a decision. I was done pussyfooting around. I’d given them time to adjust, but it clearly wasn’t the right approach, and I doubted it was one Shai would have adopted. I leaned forward between the seats, my lips as close as I could get them to Taylor’s ear without touching. “You seem awfully distracted today, Taylor. Have you got something on your mind? All this frozen silence from you has made the journey decidedly unpleasant. Not to mention the fact that you seem to be hoping we’ll crash into something.” That last statement got Wyatt’s attention, his head turning my way. “You too, Wyatt. You got anything you want to get off your chest?”

Wyatt shifted in his seat, shaking his head mutely. I met Taylor’s gaze in

the rearview mirror. “This is your one and only chance to spit it out.”

His jaw tightened. “I just want to know how you did it, that’s all.”

“Did what?”

“Wrapped him around your little finger.”

My snort of laughter was so loud that it reverberated through the entire

car. “Are you serious?” He didn’t need to answer, his mutinous expression said it all. “You have no fucking idea, do you? You actually think that I’m the one, who…” I shook my head. I was wasting my time with this conversation.

Taylor took a corner at a speed that would have been far better suited to

a race car driver. “You killed his mother.”

I glared daggers into the back of his head. “And he thanked me for it.

Profusely.”

“I don’t believe you. You’re lying.”

I sat back. And therein lay the problem. In public, Shai had done