Savage Grace

6 - Ryatt

Unfortunately, my father was still awake when we arrived at the house, his eyes dancing between Grace and I before she excused herself to go to bed.

"Fun night?" My father asked, before stalking toward his office. I bit back a curse as I followed after him, wishing I had forced her to leave the bonfire sooner.

He sank down behind his desk, eyeing me for a moment.

"I'd put a bullet between your eyes if I thought you actually had a brain," my father sneered. "How could you let her get drunk? What if something happened?" My father was an intimidating man. At six foot two, he was only an inch shorter than I was. But his hair was a thick inky black, a shade darker than mine. His eyebrows, the same color, were permanently stitched into a furrow. But I'd been dealing with him long enough that he no longer scared me. I wasn't the frightened little boy who hid behind his mother's skirt any longer. And it was only a matter of time before I proved that to him.

"Like what? Afraid I'll spoil her?" I asked. "I watched her. No one went anywhere near her."

"You better hope that's true, because Grace is special. I have big plans for her. If you fuck this up for me, your trust fund will be gone."

"Does she know about these plans?"

"You have a lot of balls coming into my office and questioning me."

I sighed, biting back an angry retort. "I won't let her out of my sight. You have my word." It sounded more like a threat than a promise.

He eyed me skeptically. "Don't disappoint me, son. I'd hate to have to send flowers to your mother."

I got the message loud and clear. If I fuck this up for him, I was as good as dead. I'd heard it hundreds of times.

"I didn't know you were so sentimental."

My father chuckled. "A woman's touch makes a man's heart soft and his cock hard."

"Inspirational. I take it we're talking about your whore now, and not my mother?"

He took a drink from his whiskey. "They're all the same in the end, aren't they? Compliant, obedient, docile," he scoffed. "It's a shame when they lose their fight... like your mother. Where is the fun in that?"

"I guess she didn't find you beating her into submission enjoyable foreplay." I exhaled, rolling my eyes. "Getting thrown away by you was the best thing that could have happened to her."

My father laughed, a deep hearty chuckle. "Your mother's departure was strategic. She coddled you, Ryatt. She was making you a pussy. I can't have you taking over my reign if you don't have the spine to do what needs to be done."

"You underestimate me."

He let that sink in before nodding. "Don't come for me, son, unless you have nothing to lose."

I thought of the men who lurked around my mother's home. They weren't there to protect her. They were there to keep me in line. To make sure I became the monster my father needed, without biting the hand that fed me. But she was merely a shell of a human now. My mother, the one I knew, was long gone.

"Heed your own advice," I hissed, storming out of my father's office. He followed me out into the hall, grabbing my shoulder and shoving me against the wall.

"I've tolerated your insubordinate behavior because you are my only son, but you threaten me again, I will cut out your heart and feed it to your precious catatonic mommy," he snapped.

"Always the romantic. Perhaps if you'd given her your heart, she would still love you."

"Woman don't want love. They want security."

"Like the eight men with weapons outside of her villa?"

"What the hell do you know about pleasing a woman?" he scoffed. "You've fucked anything that will split their legs in this town and look at you? Alone."

"Because I choose to be. Loving someone is leverage against me. I'm not fucking stupid. Any one of those girls would be happy to be on my arm."

"That's not how this works," he bit back.

"I won't take an offering. I'll walk away," I warned, watching my father's eyes go hard.

"So you say," he taunted.

"Well, I haven't fucked all of them yet, have I, Dad?"

His icy blue eyes narrowed, his finger wagging in my face as his voice dropped low. "This is your only warning, Ryatt. Keep your fucking hands to yourself."

"Is this you playing the overprotective father, or are you trying to upgrade to the newer model?"

He cocked back, his fist connecting with my jaw and causing me to slam back against the wooden wall. The decorative molding was digging into my spine as the taste of copper filled my mouth. I turned my head to the left, rubbing my jaw when my eyes locked on to a wide emerald gaze peeking out from behind a pillar. Fucking Grace. She shouldn't be here.

I straightened, pushing off the wall, and looking down at my father. "Are you done?"

His eyes narrowed and he took a step back. "Keep your fucking hands off Grace or I will break every single one of your fingers myself. Then I'll throw you away and lose the key."

He turned on his heels, disappearing into his office. I stalked away in the opposite direction of Grace because if I followed her right now, I didn't know what I was capable of.

Instead, I slipped into the theater room, turning on the projector and flipping through videos in my phone, stopping on three seniors getting gangbanged by half the football team last year.

I pulled out my cock, stroking it, but it wouldn't get hard. I was too pissed about what had transpired. Now the little girl who'd already overstayed her welcome had listened in on a very private conversation. She's seen my father hit me. I turned off the video and switched to the security cameras, flipping through the different areas of the grounds before switching to her wing.

I glanced to the door before clicking on her room. She was on her bed, flipping through the movies on her television before stopping on some old chick flick.

Everything about her was fucking boring, and for some reason that fascinated me. She wasn't trying to impress me, or anyone for that matter.

I held up the keyboard, about to click to another room when her hand slid under her blanket.

"What the fuck?" I leaned forward, rubbing my palm against my jaw. Goody two shoes boring ass Grace was fingering herself, to a fucking Ryan Reynolds movie?

I pushed from the recliner and stalked across the sprawling estate. I didn't know if I was going to fight with her or fuck her. Either one would probably end up signing my death warrant, but right now, I didn't give a fuck.