Page 78 of It Must Be Fate

“Close the door behind you.”

My heart jolts into my throat, excitement burning like gasoline in my veins at the way he issues orders, and I swallow thickly.

The door shuts behind me with a soft click.

“Lock it.”

I’m shaking with exhilarated nerves at his tone of voice. It promises retribution.

He doesn’t immediately turn around, so I walk deeper into the room until I’m standing in front of his desk.

The silence stretches. Taut, suffocating, tension pulls thickly between us and grabs me by the throat.

Finally, he turns to face me.

His dark gaze rakes roughly down my body and slowly back up. I can’t stifle the shiver that courses down my spine in response to his intense scrutiny.

It doesn’t go unnoticed by him, his eyes flaring in arousal.

“Nix, I…”

He doesn’t interrupt me but my voice trails off nonetheless. I can’t think with his stare pinned on me this way. His eyes are all consuming. A mix of anger and something else, something much more primitive and dangerous, swirls in his black irises.

Possessiveness.

No,ownership.

“Go on.”

His voice is rough like gravel and it courses over my skin as menacingly as a hand wrapping around the back of my neck and squeezing.

“Have you calmed down yet?”

He lifts his chin slightly, his jaw twitching as he stares back at me. His unbroken stare makes my hands clammy. The intensity in his gaze is potent enough to start a wildfire with only his eyes as an accelerant.

“Does it look like I have?”

The sound of his words spat out through clenched teeth answers the question for me.

Earlier, we had a meeting with a prospective new client. Phoenix and I like to take those meetings together if we think there’s a chance for full scope representation, inclusive of both corporate and familial assets.

Edward Chambers is a married, devoted father of three young children, and the head of a large oil and gas company based in London. As a client, he stood to bring us millions in annual revenue if we landed him, so we’d been excited and well prepared for the meeting.

We held it in our largest conference room, with Phoenix and I sitting on one side of the table while he sat on the other.

The meeting had gone well, so well in fact that we’d discussed not wasting any time and moving directly to the contract stage.

Phoenix had walked out to get the necessary paperwork and I’d headed over to the smaller table along the far wall of the room where we’d laid out some refreshments and pastries, continuing to speak animatedly to Edward as I did so.

I was pouring him a cup of coffee he’d asked for when I felt a hand come down on my hip and move slowly around to my lower back. Shock rooted me to the spot when I looked up, startled, and found Edward leaning over me. I hadn’t heard or felt him move to follow me.

He grinned luridly down at me, and when our eyes met his lips touched my ear and he whispered, “Is extra sugar available?”

Disgust roiled in my stomach, followed quickly by fear crawling down my spine. Based on the boldness of his touch and the ease of his smile, I could tell he expected me to be included as a signing gift in our contract, regardless of whether I was personally inclined to it or not. The audacity of his actions shocked me.

When I turned around to tell him to take his hands off me and fuck off, my gaze slammed into my husband’s.

Phoenix stood frozen in the doorway, one hand fisting the handle of the door, knuckles turning white, the other clutching a manila folder at his side, his expression caught somewhere between confusion and disbelief.

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