And to celebrate I'm posting a sneak peek at the next Entwined Fates saga.
Enjoy...:)
Christian
Marcone sat back and only half listened to the bickering around the table. So
much for bi-partisanship. The hope of getting anything through this laughing
stock of a senate anymore was practically non-existent.
He looked to the head of the table where his
best friend and now brother-in-law, Chancellor Alexander Dorn sat with his head
in his hand, his finger and thumb squeezing his temples. Christian knew that
position. Alex was close to his breaking point and shit was about to hit the
fan.
Just
as Christian thought it, Alex growled and lifted his head while at the same
time slapping his palm against the table so hard the glasses rattled against
the wood.
“Damn
it, enough!” he bellowed.
And
there it was—Alex’s breaking point.
Every
senator around the table froze and stared at the formidable chancellor as he
came to his feet and leaned his palms on the table. With eyes narrowed into
hard slits, he slanted an angry look around the table that had several men
swallowing their tongues.
Despite
himself, Christian bit back a grin. When he wanted, Alexander Dorn could be
quite intimidating. No wonder everyone compared the man to Christian’s father,
Lord Sidious Marcone. He’d seen his father stare down a room full of men with
that same exact look.
“If
all you can do is bicker, get the hell out. I’ve heard enough,” Alex snarled.
When no one moved, he added loud enough to shake the crystal light fixture
above their heads. “Now!”
Everyone
around the table quickly stood and gathered their tablets. Christian did as
well, anxious to be out of this joke of a meeting. His heart wasn’t in it
anyway, or his mind. All he could think about this morning was Sharna and the
fact she hadn’t shown up for work this morning. Sharna was never late.
“Except
you, Marcone,” Alex barked.
Christian
sighed and set his tablet back on the table. Two men walked past, sending him
looks of sympathy. Christian gave them a half smile before turning back to Alex
and waiting impatiently for whatever his friend wanted to say.
Alex
waited for the door to shut before dropping back into the leather chair with a
sigh. “Tell me again why the hell we’re doing this?”
Christian
snorted. “I’m the last person to ask. I’m not even sure anymore.” He picked up
the tablet and touched the edge of it to the table. “I will say this though…”
Alex raised a wary eyebrow. “When pissed you’re a dead ringer for dad.”
“Speaking
of,” Alex began dryly. “Have you heard the latest talk working its way through
the senate gallery?”
Christian
winced. “I don’t listen to the talk, Alex. You should know that by now.”
Despite
his arguments to the contrary, Christian knew exactly what Alex was talking
about. He knew what the other senators said—what they accused his father of
wanting to do.
“You
should, Chris. Do you have any idea what they’re accusing him of?”
Christian
pursed his lips and nodded. “Is this your way of trying to tell me my father
paid you to marry my sister so our home world of Tillarus would be
strategically aligned with yours?”
Alex
harrumphed. “You and I both know your father would’ve paid me not to marry your sister.”
“Hell,
Alex. I would’ve paid you not to marry her. I’ve seen you wield a flogger. I
know how you like to have sex.” Christian shuddered. “And now I’m envisioning
you flogging my sister. Thank you very much for that lovely image.”
Alex
grinned wickedly. “Your sister likes my flogger.”
“Alex,”
Christian growled, making his friend chuckle.
“This
isn’t about me and Miya. It’s about your cousin, Jacquelyn and her royal husband
Haydrian. Rhianna and her twin king husbands, Keenas and Jorel, your Uncle
Stefan’s friend, King Lucian Amanpour. These are major alliances and the
members of the senate are beginning to take notice and your father and Jonah’s
snooping into the private affairs of the current senate regent aren’t helping
matters.”
“The
man is corrupt.”
“You’re
preaching to the choir… Brother-in-law.”
Christian
curled his lip at the reminder. Granted, he’d never seen his sister happier, or
Alex for that matter. When his sister entered the room, Alex’s whole demeanor
changed. He trusted Alex with his life; he also trusted him with his sister. He
just hated the idea he had sex with her, especially knowing what he knew about
him and his fetishes.
“Shouldn’t
you be having this talk with dad?” Christian asked tiredly.
Alex
sighed and rubbed at his forehead again. “I tried.”
Christian’s
lips twitched in a barely contained grin. That couldn’t have gone well. “How’d
that work out for ya?”
Alex
lifted his head just long enough to glare at him.
“You
know dad’s not going to stop until he rids the senate of the corruption that
got us into the whole dictatorship mess to begin with. He lost ten years trying
to clean that shit up.”
Alex
dropped his hand and leveled his tired stare toward Christian. The lines around
his eyes looked deeper than usual. For the first time, he saw just how tired
his friend was. “We’ve had four regents since building back the senate and he’s
discredited every fucking one of them but the first.”
Christian
inclined his head, fighting a grin. “Of course he wouldn’t go after the first.
Dad picked him.”
“This
isn’t funny, Chris. I told Sidious either leave the damn regents alone or take
the fucking job himself.”
Raising
an eyebrow, Christian stared in surprise at Alex. “Trying to force dad’s hand
and get him into the one thing he detests more than corruption? And you left
with your head intact?”
Alex
dropped his head back against the chair and stared at the ceiling. “Barely. I
think the only reason I did was because he didn’t want to leave Miya a widow.”
Christian
snickered. “It was probably more he didn’t want to face Miya’s wrath. Sick her
on him.”
Alex
glared at him. Sighing, Christian dropped back into the chair. “Alex, Dad spent
ten years of his life taking that dictator down. He and Uncle Stefan rebuilt
this senate from the ground up. He believes he has to protect it.”
“By
tearing it apart? Every regent he exposes as corrupt expands the ever widening
gap between the senators. No one can agree anymore. No one trusts each other.
Everyone’s too busy watching everyone else, wondering who will be exposed next.”
“Then
perhaps they should behave themselves and do what they were voted into office
to do. If you’re looking for sympathy from me, Alex, I have none. If keeping
them in fear is what it takes to keep them in line, then so be it.”
“You
sound just like him,” Alex grumbled.
“I
take that as a compliment, but now I’m changing the subject.”
“I
thought you might,” Alex replied without looking in his direction.
After
a few seconds pause, Christian asked, “You haven’t by chance seen my assistant,
have you?”
Christian
didn’t miss the slight twitch of Alex’s lips, and he frowned. Did Alex know
something? “Alex?” Christian snarled.
He
then turned to face Christian, but his expression was unreadable as usual. “Why
do you ask?”
“I
had planned to…” Christian raked his hand through his hair. “I had a private
dinner planned.”
Alex
raised an amused eyebrow. “It’s about damn time. What happened?”
“When
I got back to the apartment, I found a note on the kitchen island. She already
had a date.”
Alex
grinned before his expression turned serious once again. “You took too long. I
said you would lose her if you didn’t get your act together.” Christian started
to say something, but Alex held up his hand, stopping him. “Don’t give me that
song and dance about how she’s your assistant; just tell me what you’re going
to do to fix it.”
“For
starters, spank her ass,” he drawled as images of doing just that ran through
his mind.
He
pictured the smooth fair skin of her ass pink from the strikes of his hand, his
flogger, his paddle. He’d done nothing but think about her for months. He was
tired of thinking about it. He wanted to finally make her his, but was Alex right?
Had he waited too long? Would she even have him now?
“Sharna’s
going to kill me for this, but I hate to see you so…” Alex waved his hand and
chuckled. “Downtrodden.”
“Fuck
you,” Christian growled. When Alex just continued to grin at him, Christian
rolled his eyes and leaned back in the leather chair. “Go ahead.”
“She
was at my house last night. Her and Miya went out for breakfast this morning.
She made you think she had a date and was late deliberately to try and get a
jealous rise out of you.”
Anger
and maybe a bit of relief worked its way through his chest. Damn woman. Trying
to make him jealous?
“Now,”
Alex drawled. “What are you going to do about it?”
With
a growl of aggravation, Christian stood, shoving the chair back across the tile
floor. “Like I said. Spank her ass.”
He
swung the door to the meeting room open so hard, it banged against the wall
behind him. He ignored Alex’s amused voice as he called out to him, “About damn
time.”
2 comments:
Hi! I was wondering if you were still working on this book, or has it been published?
I'm still working on it..:)
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