Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 57064 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 285(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57064 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 285(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
“Should I call security?” she calls after me as my stride increases.
“No need,” I call out.
Their voices are heard through the door as I enter my outer office, gritting my teeth.
My muscles are stiff and tight as I open the door harder than I should only to see Ivan standing too close to Kiersten, reaching for her, and I get in the way.
“Gabriel!” Kiersten says, her eyes wide with emotion. “Uhm, Mr. Ivan just arrived. He wasn’t expecting me to be here.”
It doesn’t escape me that she’s scared. It doesn’t escape me that she’s trying not to be.
My back straightens, every bit of me on edge. “That’s fine, Kiersten,” I reply, not taking my eyes off Ivan, my tone cold. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, fine,” she says, stepping behind me. Inside, I’m enraged, on edge of losing control.
Quickly, I dismiss Kiersten, telling her to wait in the reception area. When she’s gone, I lock eyes with Ivan again, my hand balling up and knuckles turning white. “What the fuck do you want?”
“I came to tell you about tomorrow’s auction,” Ivan says, chuckling. It catches me off guard. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he was here for business.
Not for her.
“What about the auction?” I lower my voice, hushing it for the secret that the club is, my eyes narrowing.
Ivan’s lips tip up in an asymmetric grin as he says, “She’s not going to be your woman any longer.”
I don’t say anything. I don’t have enough control to. Without thinking, I charge across the office to grab him by the lapels of his suit and jam him against the desk. It rattles as he slams against it, grunting from the force. With my teeth clenched, I tell him, “She’ll always be mine.”
Ivan laughs uncomfortably, with his lower back against the edge of my desk. I’m slow to release him as adrenaline courses through me. “He didn’t tell me you liked to fight back.”
“He?” My jaw ticks, irritation and a lack of patience getting the better of me.
“The one who sent me.”
“Who sent you?” I barely get out the words, my throat is so fucking tight.
“Someone you pissed off,” Ivan says. With a twist of his hips, he reverses me, grabbing me by the throat. “You’re going to lose the auction tomorrow, asshole. He doesn’t care if he has to take it to a hundred million dollars. He’ll pay it. And if you even try to pull the same shit you did with the first auction . . . someone with less kindness than I have to offer will pay you a visit.”
Heat dances along my skin, every possibility racing in the back of my mind, too quick to process.
“There’s not going to be another auction for my Kiersten,” I say, eerily calmly.
Ivan’s shoulders tense, and his gaze holds a darkness I’ve not yet seen from him. “That would be a fucking mistake on your part.”
“Fuck you,” I growl, shoving Ivan toward the door. “She’s mine.”
“Not after this next auction, she won’t be,” Ivan says as if it’s a statement, but we both know she doesn’t have to do a damn thing. As he strides to the door, he adds a comment under his breath. “And then she’ll be taught how to properly obey.”
Rage tears through me. How fucking dare he?
Launching myself from the desk, I tackle Ivan to the floor of my office. My teeth clench as my fist slams into his shoulder, trying to pound the man into the floor. The next punch snaps his head back, landing right on his fucking jaw.
That’s going to leave more than a little bruise for this prick. Gripping his lapels, I pull him in close enough to fucking hear what I have to say. “No one is going to lay a hand on her.”
When he smiles back, a fear like I’ve never felt chills me to the bone. Blood fills between his lower teeth. “He doesn’t care if you’re dead,” Ivan says, gripping my hands and pushing me away. “And if she doesn’t go to auction . . . he knows her address.”
It’s then that the door creeps open, slowly, cautiously, and completely at odds with the shriek that fills the room immediately after.
“Gabriel!”
There’s an attempt to reply to her. But Ivan’s hands around my fucking throat cut it off.
Just as I’m moving to shove him away, to get him the fuck out of here, a loud clunk catches me off guard. Suddenly, the pressure on my neck’s gone. Ivan sags, rolling off me with a thud on the floor. I slowly rise to see Kiersten standing there with my desk lamp in her hands. It’s an older lamp, with a solid brass neck and a weighted base . . . and she just clocked Ivan in the head with it.
My heart slows, everything slows as the reality of what just happens dawns on the two of us. She stares down at him, her eyes widening and her breathing turning heavier and heavier.