Page 98 of Spark

The smile on her face when she finally gave into that puppy was worth it all. God, it was gorgeous when it was genuine. Even the look she got in her eyes as she roamed over the view of the mountains was the exact look I’d hoped to see. It was the look of captivation, the look of joy, even if it was only for a moment.

The dog would help; it had to. What girl didn’t melt from a fucking puppy?

I found myself wanting to create some excitement in her life, something for her to take enjoyment in besides beating the shit out of my punching bags, but I knew she was averse to this. Revenge was her purpose. I needed to give her a new one.

She was surprisingly responding well enough to all the gifts and the luxury I was surrounding her with for the holidays. She accepted everything that was given to her, regardless of how begrudgingly she did so. She wanted to appear grateful, but she wasn’t very good at it. She would be eventually.

Opening the door to my office, my phone rang in my hand, Dan calling on the other end.

“Dan,” I answered as I walked over to my desk.

“Merry Christmas, brother,” he said, his voice only barely hiding the excitement he held. “I’ve got news for you.”

“Do tell.”

“We learned the sex of the baby,” he announced.

“And?”

“It’s a girl,” he said proudly.

“Congratulations,” I replied, but it was really nothing to congratulate him about.

The only use a girl had in our family was as a bartering tool. Marrying them off was usually reserved for extending or strengthening alliances by combining the families. Marrying outside our realms was ill advised, as bringing in someone from the outside world didn’t mix well with ours. It was too risky. Those women weren’t built for the corruption or the brutality that we lived in like our own women were. They were just as dark and manipulative as the rest of us, which made them ideal companions. But there were some people, like myself, who loved to break the rules.

The problem with the woman of our world was that they were materialistic and selfish thanks to the lavish life they’d grown up in. Most of them were stuck-up, idiotic and needy, but always gorgeous, and most men in my world enjoyed that, especially when it came to the bedroom. Not me. The more time I spent with Jaden, the less I wanted those women. I wanted her intelligence, her strength, and her ferocity. Even if she was six inches shorter than most of the women in my world, she still had the best body I’d ever seen.

“We’re planning a baby shower in early January. Make sure you’re there.”

“Of course.”

“Maybe by then you can bring your little ruby around,” he said with a chuckle.

“We’ll see.” Jaden would likely hate it, and I’d probably find it hilarious. But I had to make sure her behavior was in check first.

“Is she enjoying Anchorage?”

“More than she’s letting on. I just gave her the dog a few minutes ago.”

“She like it?”

“She doesn’t want to, but she does.”

“She’ll adjust eventually. It took Katherine a while to adjust to me, but she eventually came around.”

Eventually but not as easily. Katherine was much more meek and agreeable than Jaden was thanks to what we did to her family so many years ago. Jaden would accept her life sooner or later, once she was done beating herself up for it.

“Katherine is not Jaden,” I replied, my tone stronger than I intended for it to be.

“I know, but they’re still human. And humans eventually break.”

“I’m aware, but… I don’t know if I want to break this one.”

“What do you mean?”

“I only want her to accept her life with me. I want her loyalty just as much as I want her sass. It’s honestly too adorable to destroy. Too much fun.”

“Ha! Now, who’d have thought that? You’ve been breaking slaves since you were sixteen, and now, you can’t seem to bypass this one. What gives?”