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Lucian
Leaning back in my chair, I rewind the footage of Isa swiping the doll out of the glass case. I couldn’t give a damn about the overpriced toy, it’s the betrayal that gnaws at me. The idea that this girl has the balls to steal from right under my nose.
At the ding of the elevator door, I pause the footage, and when Rand escorts her into the office, I want to throttle my dick for lurching against my zipper. Head bowed, she comes to a stop in the middle of the room, not bothering to look me in the eye, and when I give Rand a nod, he exits the room.
Once the elevator doors close, I push forward in my chair, resting my hands against the desk. “Anything you want to tell me?”
She gives a subtle shake of her head that only stokes my anger. “Nothing I’m guessing you haven’t already seen.” Hands clasped in front of her, she looks ridiculous in that dress. A walking lie. Yet, at the same time, I can picture the flowy fabric draped across the back of my neck, with my head between her thighs.
A thought that pisses me off even more.
“Where is it?”
“In my drawer.”
“Your drawer. The dresser belongs to you, now, as well?”
Flinching, she shakes her head. “No, of course not.”
“It takes an enormous amount of trust to put someone in charge of caring for my mother.”
She bows her head further, probably so weighed down by guilt, it feels like a bowling ball propped on her neck.
“Why did you betray my trust in you, Isa?”
Eyes hiding behind long, black lashes, she sighs. “I didn’t mean to.”
“I don’t give a fuck what you didn’t mean to do. I want to know why you did do it?”
“I’ll return the doll and leave. If it’s all the same to you.”
I push up from my chair, adjusting the lapels of my coat as I round the desk and lean against the front of it. “As I understand, it’s broken now. Practically worthless.”
Flinching, she turns away from me and shakes her head. “I’m …. I don’t know what to say, Mr. Blackthorne.”
“I’m sure you don’t. There’s nothing you can say. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are gone to waste.”
“I find that excessive for something so fragile,” she says under her breath.
Shooting up from the desk, my frustration gets the best of me, and in three quick strides, I’m standing in front of her. “It’s not your place to say what’s excessive, or not. The fact is, you’ve destroyed something worth far more than yourself.”
Her eyes snap to mine, the thin sheen of tears gathered there bringing her bright gray eyes to life. Lips quivering, it’s like something snarky and smartass waits to tear free from her mouth. That’s how this girl is--quick with the quips--but instead, her gaze falls from mine once more. “I didn’t mean to break it.”
“The least you can do is tell me what was so important that you felt compelled to steal from me.”
Slim shoulders roll back, her eyes brimming with enough challenge to trip my switch.
My temper is on the cusp of exploding as I stare down at her, practically blazing with the heat of irritation that simmers inside of me.
Seconds pass, and she doesn’t say a word, the insolence of her silence slowly chipping away at my patience.
“Answer me!”
She flinches and lifts her chin in defiance. “What does it matter now?”
As I lurch toward her, she backs herself up, stumbling into the chair behind her, and when I set my hands at either side of her and lean in, the bite of cold steel hits the bottom of my chin.
The unyielding expression on her face, along with the blade at my throat, strums a fine and precarious thread inside of me. It awakens a sensation I haven’t felt in a very long time. One that has my dick ready to tear through my trousers. Chills race beneath my skin, my muscles burning with the urge to keep from kissing her right now. What I feel is beyond anger. Beyond the rush of adrenaline. It’s lust. Pure, black, poisonous lust.
“My family is in trouble. Someone told me of a group that can help me. Said you’d know about it. A secret group.”
Fuck. “No idea what you’re talking about.”
“I think you do.” She looks away for only a second, perhaps a moment of uncertainty, before holding my stare again. “I think you’re a member of this group.”
My eye twitches at that, this bold and sassy little shit who thinks she knows what she’s doing right now. There’s no way in hell an i
“I’m desperate.”
“Not desperate enough for the consequences, I can assure you.”
“This man threatened to kill my mother. He beat the hell out of my aunt and broke two of her fingers over the weekend. If I don’t come up with fifty grand, he’s going to kill both of them. I doubt he’ll leave any loose ends, which means he’ll come for me next.”
“Who is this man?”
“Franco Scar-something.”
Franco Scarpinato. Fucking hell. How the hell did she get tangled up with scumbag like him?
“What does he want with you?”
Still holding the blade to my neck, she licks her lips that look dry as a bone. “My mother’s boyfriend skipped town with his drugs. We don’t know where he is, so he’s trying to get the money out of us.”
Must be the guy Franco was bitching about when we met up. Somehow, my gaze lands on her lips again, and I could kick my own ass for wondering how they’d feel between my teeth. “How did you hear about this secret group?”
Again, she lowers her gaze, as if she has no intentions of telling me. Stubborn. I don’t know what it is about this girl, the way she makes me want to spank her bare ass while kissing her at the same time.
“How?”
“Giulia.” She deadpa
“Do you even know what it is you’re asking me for?”
“No. But I’d be willing to work for you for free. To pay off what I owe. As long as you’ll have me.”
I want to laugh at that, the naiveté beneath her brassiness, like a bad joke. I lean further into her, pressing against the blade at my throat. “I fuck Giulia. That’s how she repays me. Whenever I want. Wherever I want. Is that what you had in mind, Isa? To let me use you, however I see fit?”
Throat bobbing with a swallow, she can’t possibly imagine the ways I’d ruin an i
The twitch of my eye fails to conceal the chaos exploding inside of me. This girl. This fucking beautiful, painfully fascinating girl. Snatching up her wrist, I grind my jaw as I twist the knife from her grasp, the glare on her face almost comical. The quick rise and fall of her chest betrays the defiance burning in her eyes, the courage she’s wearing like a shitty makeover.
Lifting her wrist between us, I run my thumb over her hammering pulse. “Do you feel that, Isa? The rapid pulse in your veins? The hard pounding in your chest? That’s your body’s natural defenses, warning you to stay the fuck away. Listen to it.” I push off her, all I can do to keep from acting on the sudden appetite I’ve developed for a sassy nineteen-year-old. The phantom sensation of the blade still lingers across my throat.
Get her out of here before you do something stupid.