Bound to Passion (Bound Series #3)

by Kiru Taye

  “You only married me because my father wanted to make sure his precious business empire fell into the right hands. You were the son he never had, and I was just the sweetener to secure your loyalty to Godson Enterprises.”

  “Who told you that?”

  “I heard you talking to Dad some months ago.”

  “You know what your problem is? You’ve transferred your father’s faults to me.”

  “How can you say that? I know what I heard.”

  “As I said before, I won’t take the blame for your father’s mistakes.”

  “So it’s my father’s fault, eh? You know what? I’m not having this conversation anymore.”

  Christy tugged at her arm and he let her go. She stormed off into the house.

  Joshua stood back, and took a deep breath to calm his anger down. No point getting angry now. He had Christy were he wanted her, and in due time, she’d realize the truth. He wasn’t going anywhere without her.

  Finally, he moved, following her footsteps into the house until he reached the door to her bedroom. He found her pacing the floor, the sound of her bare feet muted on the stone tiles, her diamanté sandals discarded in the corner.

  Christy lifted her head to meet Joshua’s narrowed gaze. She couldn’t believe how unperturbed he appeared, leaning against the door post, his hands in his trouser pockets.

  He stared at her with open interest. In his black irises, fire flared—intense, inviting, and lacking innocence. His poise and energy were so masculine, so feral—a predator on the hunt, toying with his prey.

  What was this, anyway? How had they ended up on this collision course?

  They’d been lovers, more than lovers. He’d been the one she told her worries, her plans. The one she’d hoped to spend the rest of her life with.

  Did the same awareness run through him? Did he have this same streak of emotion that went deeper than any she’d ever harbored for anyone else?

  “Call off the divorce, and this stress, this constant conflict, will end.”

  His deep, silky voice oozed in enticement, its gentle tone coercing, pacifying, as if he had more ability than she knew—as if he could solve all their problems and make everything right.

  But he was the source of their problems.

  “Call off the divorce?” she asked, keeping her tone as gentle as his, though she had no intention of trying to convince him. Her anger hadn’t abated. “Read my lips. No.”

  “Aren’t you tired of fighting everyone? Your parents, now me?”

  “I love my parents. But you—you were supposed to be on my side.” The words nearly choked her as the pain of his betrayal resurfaced again.

  He laughed, but there was no humor in the sound, only cold hardness.

  “Christy, you have to stop blaming everybody else when things go wrong. So I haven’t been the perfect husband, this past year especially. I admit it. But you also have to admit that you do overreact sometimes.”

  Joshua’s words hit her with a sack full of stony guilt. She drew in a sharp breath and closed her eyes to hide the remorse he’d surely see in their depths. So perhaps she was blameworthy, too. She hadn’t been the perfect wife. The last few years, she’d been focusing most of her energy in building her business.

  But the freedom that came with being a married woman had meant she could live her life the way she’d wanted without having to worry about her father’s influence. Perhaps she’d neglected and taken Joshua for granted in the process. She hadn’t meant to.

  Still, her private admission of complicity in her marriage breakdown didn’t change what she knew about him. The memory of seeing her father congratulate Joshua on his successes and patting his back for going along with his plans resurrected, wrenching painfully at her stomach. Nothing had changed. Joshua was more interested in pleasing her father and building his business. He didn’t love her. She couldn’t live with him.

  The sound of Joshua’s resigned sigh made her open her eyes. For the first time since their arrival in Brass, he appeared strained—tired—lines appearing around his lips and eyes.

  “I’m only a man trying to do the best for the people I care about, be it the business or our family. So I get it wrong sometimes.” He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “I wasn’t trying to be a hero.”

  He straightened up and walked away.

  Christy couldn’t help the disappointment that washed over her, nor the thought that echoed in her mind.

  I wanted you to be my hero.

  Chapter Six

  “We’re heading out for the day,” Joshua declared the next morning.

  Unable to sleep well, Christy had woken early to watch the sun as it rose in the horizon over the sea, turning the waters a blue-orange color. He appeared on the patio in a pair of beige shorts and a mint-green towel wrapped around his shoulders. The remnants of his recent shower glistened on his hair, chest, and arms.

  The last time she saw Joshua without a shirt on was months ago. He looked too good, his skin a dark coffee contrast against the cream of his shorts. The sun rays emphasized the lean contours of his toned chest and undulating abdomen.

  In a moment of lapsed inhibition, she allowed her gaze to roam his body up to his face—the concentrated black eyes, the layers of lines furrowing around his lips and eyes, especially when he had a smile on, like now. His curved, sensuous lips made her want to reach out and touch them. Lick them. Kiss them. She’d always loved kissing Joshua’s lips. They were full, firm, and widened when he smiled.

  For a man obsessed with work and business, that he still had time for physical workouts astonished her. But to her continuing dismay, it seemed Joshua had not given up on that habit. She hungered to feel his rough, hard body against hers.

  When her gaze met his, she saw an amused glint in his dark eyes. Realizing she’d been gawping at him, she faced the sea again, heat flaring on her skin.

  “I thought we were only spending the time on the island,” she said airily, but still couldn’t dispatch the primitive mating instinct that seemed to have overtaken her senses.

  “We’re not going far. Just to the forest reserve.”

  She hadn’t been in the forest since she was a child. She pictured the sights and sounds of the hot jungle, she and Joshua in close contact and sweaty. Not the best place to be, especially when she couldn’t shake the urge to jump his bones without much provocation at the moment.

  “You mean we’re going to be together all day?”

  He leaned against the metal railing, lifting his lips in a daring smile. “You make it sound like a bad thing.”

  “Well, it is, if I’m stuck with you all day.”

  “You are stuck, caught, trapped,” he said the words are if taking delight in each one, “with me for the next few weeks. Afterward….” He lifted his shoulders in a nonchalant shrug.

  “Divorce.”

  “It’s up to you. It doesn’t have to be.”

  “And I wouldn’t lose all these”—she waved her hands to emphasis the property—“if we don’t divorce.”

  On reflex, she stiffened the muscles on her back. He was being ruthless. She had a lot to lose with the divorce, and he knew it.

  “There are worse things.”

  “I can’t think of any at the moment.”

  “You’ve led a very sheltered life, sweetheart.”

  She blasted him with a toxic glance. Sure, she had a privileged life. Her parents had provided more for her than the average Nigerian child had in a life time. So she had more opportunities than most people, but she wasn’t a fool.

  If she’d known he’d be this dangerous, she would’ve never agreed to come to Brass with him. He intended to strip her of all her certainties. All her convictions.

  An adept strategist, Joshua used Godson Villa as the ace up his sleeve. The one place full of ghosts of him, her, and their past together. Their first time making love had been in this house. She’d given herself freely and he’d loved her passionately. She’d lost her heart as well as
her body to him that night.

  This house also held other ghosts. Memories of her father being the warm, loving parent. Regardless of how autocratic he was the rest of the year, the times they’d spent in this house as a family made up for their mental dueling.

  The ghosts were huge. They owned her body and soul.

  Joshua leaned forward, lifted his hand to move the strands of unruly, curly hair that dangled on her forehead.

  “You need me.”

  “I don’t.”

  “You need someone to take care of you and to protect your interests. I’m that someone.”

  A lump jammed her throat and got bigger when she tilted her head up to see Joshua’s face.

  He appeared composed as he watched her with a fixed stare. A burst of energy surged through her body, as if light had just filled a dark tunnel and she could see clearly for the first time in a long while.

  She saw opportunities, all the positive things her life could become. Perhaps her anger had run its course. Perhaps Joshua had the right intentions all along and was just trying to do his best for her and her family. Perhaps she needed him in her life. Permanently.

  For a moment, Joshua’s warmth enfolded her. Sensation he evoked twirled deep in her core, where it really mattered. She could focus on all the positive things in her life which had meaning and gave fulfillment.

  No more fighting. No more anger. No more conflict.

  She could let go of all the lumber she’d been dragging around the past few months. Move on and be happy.

  Then she swiveled and caught a glimpse of the unfinished building at the back of the house. Joshua’s handiwork. Changes he had no right to make. She now knew the real Joshua, leaving her with a hard pill to swallow.

  She had to wake up to reality.

  Joshua found her attractive. He desired her body. But at the end of the day, she was just a trophy wife, a status symbol. Someone to boost his image, his business. Nothing more.

  “You’re so full of suspicion,” he said in a gentle voice.

  She turned round and realized he’d moved closer. She was going to argue with his choice of words but knew he would call her bluff.

  “Old habits die hard.”

  He said nothing for a moment, just watched her. The tension between them crackled like electricity. The intense warmth in his eyes said all the things his lips didn’t say.

  The desire between them was mutual.

  They’d always had something rare and animalistic linking them. A slow burn that rapidly blazed into an inferno. And their passion wasn’t all about the physical. They connected on an indefinable level based on mutual admiration and challenge.

  She reminded herself of the past. How could she forget and let him close again? Life was difficult. She had to work with it.

  “Why can’t you let go and live in the now?” he asked.

  Joshua stood so close, his body hard and strong, nothing less than sexual and gorgeous. He reached for her and pulled her against his bare chest, into the circle of his arms.

  She resisted the tug, but he was stronger, more determined. She shouldn’t want this, but, at the same time, she needed his arms, his warmth, and his strength.

  She craved someone who could hold her, keep her safe. Someone who understood and cared for her.

  But Joshua didn’t care. She was just a possession.

  She trembled when they pressed their bodies together. She was sensitive all over, aware of all of him, the plane of muscles on his bare chest and the hardness of his thighs.

  His acute touch penetrated through any protective mental barriers she’d put up. The sensations swarming her mind surpassed those she’d experienced when he’d pushed her against the wall in her bedroom. Now she couldn’t fight the hunger that took hold of her, making her want more of him. A lot more.

  “End this fight, sweetheart.”

  When he tipped his head and kissed the corner of her mouth in such a gentle caress, her spine prickled.

  “It’s a waste of time,” he added.

  She knew he meant on so many levels.

  He wanted her to stop fighting their physical attraction, and for her to cancel the divorce.

  And in truth, she would have an easier time cancelling the divorce than dropping her guard. She’d spent the last three months building up Joshua as the enemy, telling herself she didn’t love him. That she didn’t trust him.

  To drop all that now and forget how he’d betrayed her, used her? She had her pride and she refused to be a fool twice. Also, she couldn’t be sure that there hadn’t been others since their separation. If Joshua had been with other women in the past three months, she wasn’t sure how she’d cope.

  Even if she cancelled the divorce, she couldn’t give herself fully to him again. Not body, heart, and soul. And what was the point of being with someone she couldn’t afford to give her all, when he wouldn’t give her anything but his physical being?

  “Don’t do that,” she murmured even as she tried to quell the tremors running through her.

  Joshua didn’t stop. Instead, he brought their bodies even closer together in a more intimate embrace. He stroked her ubiquitously, supporting her with his hips, his arms around her waist, and his hands on her bottom.

  “Why?” he asked as he kissed his way down her neck, his lips only inches away from the swell of her breasts.

  Sensation scoured through her, pebbling her nipples. She smoldered at his touch, her nerve endings on alert, her skin flushing, her heart thumping in her chest. She wanted him. How she wanted him.

  But she couldn’t give in. She had to combat this desire. It would soon pass. She had to be brave, hold her nerve.

  “Because I haven’t said I’ll call off the divorce. And I don’t want to just sleep with you.”

  “You’re still my wife. I promise there’ll be no sleeping involved. And you’ll call off the divorce, eventually.”

  The emotions evident in his gravelly voice took the edge off his arrogant words. Her body tuned into his promise of “no sleeping,” warmth spreading, increasing her craving, weakening her resistance. “I won’t.”

  He moved his lips closer to her ears and spoke in a tender, husky whisper, “You’re mine. Always have been. Always will be. I can take you whenever I want.”

  He knew he was torturing her, fuelling her senses with stimulation and tension.

  Christy let her eyelashes flutter shut as her heart raced and everything within her seemed to crash and jumble up. Joshua had unleashed a double assault on her senses with his provocative words and enticing touch.

  This Joshua she couldn’t resist. The take-charge man who turned her to a quivering mass of jelly with sexy whispers and erotic caresses. She couldn’t allow this to continue. Yet, she couldn’t seem to stop the exciting sensations that flooded her body and her mind with pleasure. She wanted more of him. More of his touch, power, everything.

  “Aren’t you going to keep objecting?”

  His warm breath feathered against her sensitive cheek.

  She parted her lips to reply, but he splayed his hand tightly across her bottom, lifting her so that all of his hardness rubbed through the flimsy silk of her robe, all the way to her core. Her rapidly soaking centre pulsed in time with her racing heartbeat. He speared his other hand through her hair, tilting her head back so that she gazed into the dark, intense depths of his eyes.

  There’d be no more words. She accepted the inevitability of his kiss. Craved it, even.

  He lowered his head, brushing his lips against hers from one end to the other as if he was testing her, preparing her for what was to come. Then he probed with his tongue. She parted her lips, suddenly eager to taste him, not caring about the consequences. She just needed him now.

  As soon as he delved his tongue into her mouth, she was lost. Lost in sensation. Lost in Joshua. No more frenetic thoughts or words plagued her mind. She heard a keening whimper. Wondered who had made such a raw guttural sound, and realized she was the one.

/>   Joshua kissed her thoroughly, masterfully. Just as Joshua always did. This time, the firm way he held her and the power behind each thrust of his tongue into her meant more. Like he was putting his stamp on her, branding her, claiming her forever.

  Her body burned with fever. She craved more of his lips and hands. Everywhere. As if he read her thoughts, he moved his hand to her breast, palming it through her robe and caressing the tip with his thumb. Thrilling awareness spiked through her. She clung to his arms, arching her body in reckless invitation, wanting more contact. He responded, loosening her robe and slipping his hand into her negligee to free her breast. Cool air stiffened her nipple.

  The shock of the cold wind reminded her they were standing outside on the balcony. In a private corner surrounded by palm trees, they were not overlooked by other buildings, yet any of the servants could walk by and glance up.

  “Joshua.” She whispered a warning, but the sound came out more like a plea.

  He groaned, lifted his head, and leaned his forehead to hers.

  “If we didn’t have to be somewhere today, I would’ve taken this to its natural conclusion this morning,” he said in a husky voice as he straightened her robe and tied the belt around her waist. “But know two things. We will conclude this, and I’m never going to let you go.”

  Chapter Seven

  I’m never going to let you go.

  Joshua’s words echoed in Christy’s head as she packed a light backpack after breakfast. She was already dressed in a loose, cream cotton top tucked into her jade cargo trousers and a pair of walking boots. Luckily, she’d known what landscape to expect in Brass and had packed her clothes accordingly.

  Before she headed downstairs to meet Joshua, she drew in a ragged breath to calm the rowdy feelings rocking her body.

  All of Joshua’s pressure tactics, combined with her desire for him, had finally hit their mark. Muddled up, her now-complicated emotions swayed from one end to the other. The lines between the old love she had for him and the new hate she’d developed blurred.