Shackled (The Lord Series) by Amy T

167. Olivia

| prepared more Betadine. Rueben isn’t aware of how hard I've latched onto his promise and force myself to be patient. 1 clean his

palm and put a bandaid over the cut.

The back doe: opens. Ansel and Jasper enter, and they go wash their hands,

“When can we start with the sex tapes?” 1 ask, eager to be reunited with Camila in the next life.

Ruchen stands. “When you no longer look like the cheap whore that you are.”

“Can we stop with the insults?” Jasper asks.

Ruchen ignores Jasper’s question and says, “You had no right to let the Diseased C u n t into our home. Not without asking me

first!”

“] don’t need your permission to have Olivia live with us,” Jasper keeps arguing.

“You know how this works. We are blood-brothers. We make decisions together. And where is she supposed to sleep?” Ruchen

inquiries.

Jasper winks at me. “In my bed.”

Ever since Mosemented that technically, | can have children, Jasper has reverted to his old bubbly self and is all overonce

more. | don’t trust it to last, not when his ‘affection foris transactional. He is loving towardonly because he wants what a

woman's body can offer him. What will happen the next the gets disappointed?

| go to put the first aid kit in its place and Ansel grabsby my waist and pullsin for a kiss. His tongue invades my mouth and

his hands grab my a s s. He kisseshard, his lips punishing mine, submitting them to his will.

No man has ever kissedlike this before. My skin tingles. | hate this, whatever this is.

When Ansel lets go of me, Rueben doesn’t waste texpressing what he thinks of Ansel trying to “It is clear Jasper is not the only

one suffering from brain damage.”

o get into

my pants.

“Never been better,” Ansel says and smacks my a s s hard before going to grab a beer. | swallow my yelp and put the first aid kit

where | found it. “No one was hurt during the explosion.” Rueben throws him an angry glance.

The explosion took not onlyby surprise but also Jasper and Mose. Until the fire was put out, | didn’t think | would have to live

under the sroof as him. | asked Jasper and Ansel to letstay in the guest house, but they dismissedimmediately, saying

it was not only not safe but that they would have to tear it down in the following days.

Ansel keeps talking. “Well, almost no one. We got our hands on a Duke. And if | am really lucky, tonight | will get my coc k wet. It's

been a while. Gotta keep the pipe clean and empty my balls.”

| haven't told him what Mose said about in vitro fertilization but he is aware ofbeing clean. Jasper informed him. After what was

done toin the medical facility, it doesn’te as a shock. The doctors told| would never get any STDs.

167 Olivia

“Besides, we only agreed to have Olivia stay in your room because it is bigger than mine, or else she would have slept in my bed,”

Ansel says to Jasper as he sits at the table. Ilis gaze goes to me. “You will sleep in the middle so we can

have better access to you.”

Rueben shakes his head in disbelief. “Don’t et to use condoms. Go d knows what you can catch from her.”

Rueben and Tyson are yet to get tired of claiming | have sterminal disease | can pass on to them.

Jasper grins. “Maddox sent Olivia's blood result. She is clean.”

Rueben’s eyebrows shoot up. “I don’t believe you.”

Of course he doesn’t. Because thinking the worst aboutis easier. In his shoes, | would probably think the same. |

was forced to take so much coc k I lost count.

Pulling out his phone, Jasper says, “Check the message I'm sending you,” his fingers move fast over the screen and Rueben fishes

out his phone from the back pocket of his pants, “right now.”

Rueben quickly scans the message before putting his phone back in his pocket. “We should repeat the test just to be sure. To me,

he says, “If you are going to live here, there are going to be rules for you. You are never invited to eat with us. In fact, the less | see

your face around here, the happier | will be. You are not to enter my room no matter what. Nor the living room. You can use the

kitchen when | am not around.” Glaring at me, he adds, “If you ever set foot in the Lair, | will kill you on the spot. Clear?”

Rueben’s words are dripping in venom.

The Lair.

Camila often talked about it. The place in the house where the Lords raise their family. Where they love and take care of their

bonded. When he was courting me, he used to tellabout how big our Lair would be and we would spend all the tthere,

loving each other. Lies. Everything he had ever toldhad been lies. He brokein so many ways, body and soul, and yet, being

so close to him maderealize | don’t hate him for the way he broke off things with

me.

Just like the Lords, the Dukes also have a Lair, only it is called a Sanctum. The entire second floor of my parents’ house was the

Sanctum. Jason was raised there, while | was given a room on the first floor. It tookyears to understand how unwanted | was.

Then Camila appeared in my life. Then he and his friends. For stime, | fooled myself into thinking that | could be happy.

Everything had been an illusion. But now | know the truth.

“Clear.” | say.

“Lookin the eyes when you are talking to me,” Rueben snarls.

Up until now | avoided looking at his face. My gaze finds his. Turquoise eyes stare at me. The sshade as Camila’s. The same

shade as those of that boy that | love so much. | feel like | am punched right in the gut. “Clear,” | repeat myself and jerk my gaze

away from him.

“] am going out. | don’t like that Diva is out there alone.” Rueben grabs his coat and leaves the house.

I let out a small breath of relief. | didn’t know how tense | was until now.

167. Olivia

Ansel drinks from his beer. Will he giveone if | ask him nicely? | better not risk angering Jasper. “Have you checked to see if

Speckles had any fillies?”

“1 did. You were right. How did you know?”

| shrug, not knowing how to explain.

“She did?” Jasper asks.

“Yeah. | will try to find out more but with the shit goi