Concede
A Diamond Empire Novel
Copyright © 2021 by Kathy Coopmans
authorkathycoopmans.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the authors’ imaginations. Any resemblance to actual persons, things, living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.
Editor: Ellie McLove, My Brother’s Editor
Cover Design by Jill Sava, Love Affair With Fiction
Formatting by Jill Sava, Love Affair With Fiction
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page
Dedication
Family Tree
The Diamond Empire
Epigraph
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Epilogue
Callous
About the Author
Also by Kathy Coopmans
DEDICATION
To my BETA Beauties. Xavier Neal. Crystal Gray. Tammi Hart. Leaona Luxx. Lisa Way Stinson. Amy McGlone. Renee Dyer.
You ladies made this book possible. This is for you.
FAMILY TREE
THE DIAMOND EMPIRE
Victoria Hughes—CONCEDE. AVAILABLE NOW
Diesel Hughes—CALLOUS. Release date TBA
Aaron Diamond—CONTROL. Release date TBA
Jonathon Bexley—CONDEMN. Release date TBA
Dray Hughes—CONFESS. Release date TBA
Micah Levy—CAPTIVATE. Release date TBA
Cara Levy—CLINCH. Release date TBA
EPIGRAPH
“Legend has it there is always a reason why souls meet.
Maybe they found each other for reasons that aren’t so different after all.
They were two souls searching and found a home lost in each other.
When souls find comfort in one another, separation is not possible.
The reasons they come together are no accident.
Maybe she needed someone to show her how to live
and someone needed to show him how to love.”
N.R. Hart, Poetry and Pearls. Beauty and the Beast.
PROLOGUE
Seth
Have you ever fucked someone to the point you wanted to hurt, please, and make them scream your name at the same time?
That’s how I spent most of today. Except, I have no intention of hurting the woman in any way, shape, or form. Especially this one.
Victoria Hughes.
The need to hear her say my name, well, she’s not once said it. Not to my face anyway. Although, it’s always possessed me to listen to it come out of her pretty mouth. It has for as long as I’ve known her.
I remember the first time we met. Victoria stood on the steps of her family home with this frilly pink dress and bare feet.
She mesmerized me. My tongue grew thick, sticking to the roof of my mouth, and my heart made a loud thundering boom in my chest. It pounded like crazy, scaring the hell out of my young mind.
As she came toward me, I almost fell over on my ass because there was this blue-hued halo circling her head when she stepped into the sun.
The girl reminded me of an angel.
I shook the trance she had on me off, convinced myself that she had to be some kind of freak, and I didn’t want anything to do with her. So, I gave her the meanest look I could muster. One that said I bite, so stay away. I went on to ignore her until her siblings and mine started hanging out together. Then we pretended to get along.
But when I wasn’t around Victoria, I couldn’t help thinking about her. I couldn’t help watching her every chance I could when our families got together. The girl became this fascination I couldn’t forget.
Over time, and the more I’d sneak around listening as she shared secrets with her sister, and the more my obsession with her grew, I realized a few things about Victoria. Mainly, she wasn’t like the rest of her siblings and close friends. She didn’t believe in the ways of her family’s world. Yet, she loved her people.
That was when I came up with a plan to start teasing her. I figured if I did, I could persuade myself to hate her and eventually get her off my mind. I started calling her an angel with a black streak under her wings. One she didn’t want her daddy or anyone to see.
At first, she looked at me like I’d instantly grew horns and didn’t say a word. Eventually, she told me to go to hell, and we began going at each other’s throats like cats and dogs.
Claws out and teeth bared.
Our little arguments went on for years, and somewhere in that time, she started calling me the Devil. I hated it with a passion. I was evil, the Devil, I was not.
Then one night, after overhearing Victoria tell her sister she was hoping once she moved out, she’d never see me again, I snapped.
I waited to speak to her until we were alone, and I grabbed her by the arm before she could get away, spun her around, and pinned her to the wall. I became hard as stone when she glanced up at me with excitement in her eyes.
It rattled my brain, and damn, when I inhaled, she smelled like honey, sweet and pure. So goddamn tempting.
I wanted to hike up her pretty white dress, rip off her panties, and show her just what my cock could do. Hell, I was half-tempted to shove her to her knees and fuck her pretty mouth.
Instead, I let Victoria in on what I knew, told her she should watch her little angel self because the Devil was once one, and no one trusted him after he’d fallen.
Then the day came where we all went our separate ways. The woman’s face always a constant in my mind. Popping up at times when it shouldn’t. Such as when I’d have some woman underneath me.
I eventually tried convincing myself Victoria was off-limits. That she was too innocent for a whore like me. It didn’t do me a lick of good because after every time I’d see her, her gorgeous face stuck in my mind.
Victoria and I quit the name-calling and continued pretending to be friends when
