Desperate Domination (Bought by the Billionaire #3) by Lili Valente Page A

and drew her legs into her chest. “I don’t know why I’m so addicted to them. I usually prefer something with a happy ending and a lower body count.”
    He returned the novel before easing into the hammock across from her and holding the netted rope out to one side to make room for her legs. Closing the book she stretched out, curling her toes beneath his ribs. Despite the warmth of the day, he could feel her chilled skin through his tee shirt.
    But then, her toes were always cold. It was one of the many things he’d learned about Hannah since he’d become incapable of thinking about anything else for more than a few minutes at a time.
    “Maybe my dark side is rubbing off on you,” he said, capturing one of her feet and warming it between his hands.
    She smiled. “I don’t think so. It’s the puzzle aspect that’s appealing. I have a few puzzles I’d like to solve.” Her smile faded. Her toes wiggled against his palm before she added in a softer voice, “That’s why I’ve decided to tell you my last name.”
    His hands stilled, but before he could decide whether he wanted the information she was offering, she pushed on—
    “It’s Mason. My father is Stewart Mason. He won a senate seat in North Carolina a few years ago so you might have heard of him.”
    “The name’s familiar,” he said, his throat dry despite the coconut water he’d downed with breakfast. “Your family is wealthy.”
    “Very,” Hannah said bluntly. “My mother’s family had more money than God and my father’s side made hers look two steps from the poor house.” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “ Fortune 500 magazine covered their wedding. An aerial shot of the estate where I grew up made the cover.”
    Jackson grunted as he dug his thumb into the arch of her foot, massaging her instep. There went his theory that Harley had grown up on the wrong side of the tracks and been forced into what she’d done. An heiress wasn’t the kind of person who was easily pushed around; she was more the kind to do the pushing.
    “That’s all you’re going to say?” Hannah prodded his ribs with her free toes. “Ugh?”
    “So you’ve decided I’m not crazy?” he asked, lifting his gaze to hers. “Or at least not too crazy to trust with your secret?”
    “No, I don’t think you’re crazy.” Hannah cocked her head, shooting him a wry look. “You’ve been very well behaved the past week.”
    “Not the entire week,” he said, lifting her foot to his mouth and biting her big toe, making her squeal.
    “Stop it.” She tried to tug her leg away, but he held on tight. “I’m serious, Jackson, that’s disgusting. Feet don’t belong in your mouth.”
    “I put all your other parts in my mouth,” he said, biting her little toe right where the flesh peaked in the center. “Some much more exotic than your sweet little toes.”
    She flushed. “I don’t walk on the dirty ground with any of those parts.”
    “Is this a hard limit?” he asked, his mouth hovering above an as-yet-unbitten toe. “If it is, you should let me know now.”
    After a moment she shook her head, her breath rushing out with a sigh. “No, it’s not. What are you going to do?”
    “If it’s not a hard limit? I’m going to keep biting your toes.”
    “Not about that,” she said, refusing to let him off the hook. “About the other. What are you going to do now that you know Harley’s last name?”
    “I don’t know,” he said honestly. “Now that I know she’s really gone…”
    He brought Hannah’s foot back to rest on his chest and wrapped his hands around her toned calf, simply because it felt good to touch her. “Even if she were alive, I’m not sure I’d know what to do. I won’t lie, I would still want to hurt her. But I wouldn’t want to hurt you in the process.”
    Hannah sat up and leaned in to place her hands gently over his. “If she were still alive, I’d make sure she paid for what she did to you myself.”
    His lips