Takeover: A Step-Brother Romance (The Legacy Series Book 1) (27 page)

“I think you should be more respectful,” he said.

“Hard to respect a man wielding a weapon.”

“I’ll use my hand if you prefer.”

“You’re a monster.”

Max circled me. He bent at the waist, tipping my chin with the flogger. The soft leather surprised me. It burned like fire against my back, but teased like a caress when he wished it. I tried to hide my breasts.

“I asked if you were hurt.” His voice edged hard. Not the conquering cadence of Nicholas. A touch of violence and threat shadowed his words.

Max wasn’t wearing a shirt, though the sleeves of tattoos and tribal thorns obscured most of his skin. The ink practically pulsed in the sheer strength of his form. Muscle upon muscle. Whatever he did wasn’t a workout, it was obsession, a compulsion to become bigger, stronger. I wasn’t ashamed that my gaze drifted over his body, away from the dark severity of his features and onto the remorseless strength pooling in the twitching of his pecs, the steady breathing rocking his abs, and lower.

A thick V defined his hips, and his hardness held his trousers upon his waist.

He favored one leg. Had my hands not been tied, I might have struck at his injury. But I behaved. Even with a bad leg, I wasn’t fast enough to escape from a man so fiercely sculpted.

“Sarah,” he said. “Tell me if you’re okay.”

Like he deserved to know. “I’m still breathing.”

“I’ll take it.”

The flogger jerked away. I flinched with it.

I wished he’d release the belt around my neck. Instead he made me crawl to him as he sat in one of the leather chairs.

He tugged the leash, forcing me between his legs. He admired my nudity and all the shivers that rolled over me. The belt pinched before I considered popping him where it counted. I forced myself still, hoping he wouldn’t strangle me in some perverted kink I didn’t understand.

“You haven’t thank me,” he said.

“Why would I
thank
you?”

“I just saved your life, baby.”

I shivered. “You beat me.”

“And had it been my father, you’d be raped with a broken pool cue, beaten, and left to bleed out in the garage.” He jiggled the belt and smirked. It didn’t soften his expression. I didn’t think anything would. “You’d be dead,
sis
. So you better thank me for saving your beautiful ass.”

Christ, he was telling the truth.

Darius would have murdered me.

But what did Max expect in exchange for his kindness?

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“Good girl.”

“Can you let me go now?”

“Not a chance.”

I kicked. The leash tugged, and I fell deeper into his lap. My bare breasts pushed against his legs.

“I didn’t say to move,” he warned.

“Max, please.”

“Please, what?” He laughed. “You don’t get it, do you?”

“Get what?”

“That
this
?” He caressed the belt wrapped over my neck. “
This
is your life now.”

“It doesn’t have to be,” I whispered. “You don’t have to do this. You could let me go.”

“Did Nick let you go last night?”

I didn’t look away in time. He saw my blush. Worse, he felt me tense. Max sensed every bit of betrayal and anger, confusion and blame I pitted on his brother.

“I didn’t think so,” he said. “Nick does what’s
expected
of him. Always did. Always will.”

“It doesn’t matter what he did. Forget him.”

“Can you?”

“Max, I’m asking you. Please. You don’t have to…to…”

“Fuck you?” He studied my body. The flick of his eyes over my bare form was every bit as humiliating and degrading as he could make it. “Yes. I do.”

“Why?”

“Because my father
expects
it.” He jerked the belt. I resisted, but he tugged and toppled me on his chest. My palms rested against his muscle. His whisper added yet another tension around my neck. “And because I want to fuck you.”

“You want to hurt me?”

“You’ve been calling the Bennetts monsters ever since we met. Consider this your validation.”

“You could be different.”

“I’ll only say this once, baby.” Max drew me closer. “I’m not Nicholas.”

“I never said you were.”

“But that’s the problem, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Of course you don’t.”

The heat from his body passed into me. I shouldn’t have gotten that close. I didn’t understand what was happening. His muscles flexed. The panic fogged my mind.

He’d break me in two.

“Do you get off on this?” I whispered. “Beating women?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“What’s not to like?” Max shifted me to the floor. He kicked at my knee and adjusted the belt, forcing me to sit with my legs open.

He saw everything. I raced the twisting of my stomach to cover myself before the shame colored me pink.

“You’re a beautiful woman,” Max said. “And you’re helpless. I enjoy that.”

“Monster.”

“You like it too, baby.”

His words resonated deep within my belly. I didn’t cower as he loomed over me, not when he would have liked it, gotten off on it, and used it against me. I braved his dark gaze.

I wish I hadn’t looked.

“I don’t like this,” I said.

“You’ve already submitted to me.”

“You’re delusional.”

“I’ll show you.”

The flogger danced across his hand. I whimpered as it crossed over my chest, catching my nipple within the sting of the leather.

“You like the fight,” he said. “You like resisting. Challenging us. Thinking you have a choice.”

“I do have a choice.”

“You
don’t
.” He silenced me with another slice of the flogger against my belly. “And the sooner you realize it, the safer you’ll be.”

“I’d rather be in danger than become a toy for a Bennett.”

“Then you’ll be both, and you’ll still lose.”

The damn leather again. I yelped as he struck only to watch my body welt. I hid a lot of things, but the sting was as impossible to conceal as the streaks of pink spread in its wake. It wasn’t fair.

“Are you afraid of me, baby?” He asked.

Why lie?

“Yes.”

“Good.”

I tensed as he stood, preparing for the inevitable strike of the flogger. It didn’t come. Instead, he grunted and rubbed his thigh.

Even he couldn’t hide everything. I took a chance.

“What happened to your leg?” The weapon didn’t crash down. He permitted my question, though his harsh sneer faded within a tense moment.

“What do you think?”

He kept his hair cropped short. Worked out. Inked most of his body. Held his head high.

“Military accident.” I said. “You got hurt in the army.”

“Reserves. And no. I never saw any action.” He tapped his leg. “Titanium rods. Shattered my femur, knee, tibia, and fibula, shredded everything, in a car crash. They should have taken the damn leg.”

An anger shadowed his admission. I braced myself as the flogger rose again to punish me for my curiosity. The leather didn’t strike. He rolled it over my arms, my side. A shiver caught me.

How did something painful still feel so soft?

“You have no idea what’s happened, do you, baby? Not in this house. Not in our lives.”

I swallowed. “So explain it to me.”

He didn’t. The flogger rushed down, striking my back once more. I bent forward, unintentionally offering him just another bit of sensitive skin to claim, another moment to watch me groan.

He didn’t hit as hard, and the sting washed away too quickly. I feared the warmth it left behind more than the bite.

Another hit.

I bit my lip, but the gasp still mewed too much. Max twisted the ends of the flogger and pushed. I flushed as my chest presented to him.

The leather kissed my breasts. The sharp prickle morphed into something…different.

My core clenched.

What was happening to me?

“I need your help,” Max said. The flogger snapped again, but the confusion shielded me from the pain. “And I’ll make you a deal to get it.”

“…What?”

The flogger cracked harder.

“Don’t move. Don’t open your fucking mouth. You’re going to listen now, and you’re going to think long and hard about what’s best for you.”

Another hit, this one grazing my belly. The fine trail of the leather dipped a little too low. A sharp peck struck between my legs. I collapsed onto the floor. Max didn’t care.

The heat didn’t either.

A rush of dizzying adrenaline protected my sensitive slit. I shuddered as it rolled over me. It hurt. It warmed.

It tingled.

“What can I offer you?” I swallowed. “You’re the one with the whip—”

He hit. Harder. I cried out against the stinging crash of the leather. He hadn’t broken skin. Hadn’t bruised me. Hadn’t seriously harmed me. But the stings dug deep, like Max understood the raw ache his instrument caused. I shuddered against the next smack.

“It’s a
flogger
, baby. Get used to it. You’ll be experiencing it a lot. Does that scare you?”

Depended on who held the weapon. I didn’t answer.

He tickled the leather through his fingers. “Listen, Sarah. Be smart about this. You are going to do everything I say.”

“Why?”

“Because if you submit to me, if you swear you won’t resist me…” The flogger pressed against my lips. He waited for me to kiss it. I obeyed only to keep him talking. “Then I can make it so that I am the only one who hurts you every again.”

“I don’t….” My words faded. “Is that supposed to
comfort
me?”

He bent down, his bad leg awkwardly supporting him. No matter how unsteady his step, the darkness of his expression, thickness of his jaw, and intensity of his presence revealed a man far stronger than just the physical strength bulking his muscles. I might have cowered in his stare, but I saw no cruelty. None of Darius’s blind hatred. Sadism, but no brutality.

“If I hurt you, I can protect you.” Max whispered.

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“I’ll tell my father I’ll take complete control over your discipline, and he’ll agree.”

He was lying. Had to be. “Yeah, and Nicholas said he would be the only man to fuck me. What makes you think you can convince Darius?”

“Nicholas pushed his luck, and my father hates when people question him.” Max brushed my cheek. “But he would let me be the one to break you.”

“Why?”

“Because hurting people is all my father trusts me to do. I’m the second born. I scavenge for whatever piece of the company I’m allowed to claim. Nick has an image to maintain. I get what he doesn’t want dirtying his hands.”

None of this made any sense. I picked my words with caution.

“What if I say no?”

“Then the next time you act out, my father will take pleasure in satisfying every last vendetta he has against your family.”

“And how would you help me?”

The flogger tickled my breasts. My nipples hardened against the gentle tail.

“I don’t want to kill you. I want to break you. Watch you submit. Keep you quiet and tame while everything comes undone.”

“As appealing as that sounds…” I steadied myself. “I’m not choosing which Bennett I prefer to beat me.”

“Do you want my father to hurt you?”

“Do
you
?” I didn’t bother fighting the leash. “No? Then don’t offer to hurt me
for
him, just stop Darius from doing this!”

“We can’t.”

“No. You
won’t
. There’s a difference, and I’m the one who gets hurt because of it.”

“We’ve all earned our beatings, baby. Believe me.” Max’s grip might have broken the flogger in half. He swore, twisting the leather. His eyes darkened. “Will you help me?”

“I can’t do anything for you.”

“Yes, you can. He needs you to behave.”

“Who?”

The flogger cracked hard. I gasped as Max growled over my pain.

“Nicholas.”

The heat ground within me. His name shivered over my every welt and ache.

Max didn’t give me time to recover. “You have to be compliant. You have to obey us and do as we say even if it means getting fucked like a little whore. Make my father think you’ve given up. Let him believe he’s won.”

“
Why
?”

“Because Nick is plotting a takeover of the Bennett Corporation.”

The shock pounded my chest like an instant asthma attack. My first breath was ravaged by sheer, perverted excitement. It bound my pain and melted it into beautiful relief.

I stared at Max. “Are you serious?”

“My father is running our company into the ground. We’re losing money. Losing investors. Nick isn’t a man to inherit a problem. He’s taking control now.”

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked.

“You aren’t a threat to us, baby.”

“I must be, or I wouldn’t be your prisoner. You wouldn’t be asking for my submission. I wouldn’t be…” I quieted over the words. “I wouldn’t be bred by you.”

“Mark sealed your fate. Don’t blame us for taking what is offered.”

“It’s
not
offered.”

“Isn’t it?” Max brushed his hand through my hair. “What would you give to see Darius Bennett humiliated by his own sons? Dethroned and cast aside. Left with nothing?”

I practically salivated at the fantasy.

“What is that worth to you?” Max asked.

“Everything.”

“Is it worth your submission?” His words curled over my neck, tighter than the belt. He tested just how badly the stirring rage built within me. “Would you spread your legs and let us fuck you, fill you?”

“I thought I didn’t have a choice.”

“You don’t. Not in this. But you have an opportunity.”

“What opportunity?”

Max pushed me down, twisting me until I rested on my hands and knees. I squirmed, but his hold on the belt held me steady, exposed and vulnerable.

“You can enjoy this.”

He could see my every curve. Every shudder. Every single part of me I had kept secret until the Bennetts captured me, stripped me, and tasted me.

He didn’t caress me. His hand struck my ass, hard.

It should have hurt.

It should have mortified me.