Page 140 of The Contract

He’s enjoying this.

Every filthy second.

And it disgusts me.

Declarative statement. Exclamation fucking point.

The woman giggles, still blissfully unaware I’m standing three feet behind her. But considering she’s loudly chewing gum while on a sixty-second countdown to sucking him off, I don’t know what the hell I expect.

Smirking, he doesn’t break our stare.

In raw defiance, neither do I.

His lips stretch into a slow, lethal grin.

And then, finally, he speaks.

His smooth, gravelly voice rolls over my skin, and suddenly I’m imagining his rough stubble scraping mercilessly between my thighs.

“Are you here to watch?” He rubs his scruff, the gesture lazy, calculated, filthy. “Or to take her place?”

Okay, bucko. I’m officially done.

I shift to take a step back—but a sharp sting slices straight through my thoughts. The cold scrape of metal biting my skin.

Da’s knife.

If I want answers, now is the time. And I need him alone.

The words tumble from my lips before I can slam the brakes. “Take her place.”

The woman freezes mid-motion, gum-smacking abruptly cut short as she slowly lifts her head. “Huh?” Confusion fogs her glassy eyes. She notices me. “Who’s she?”

Dante doesn’t even spare her a glance. “Out,” he orders, voice harsh, gruff, and mercilessly direct.

“You heard him,” she snaps at me like an overzealous lap dog.

“Not her,” he growls, eyes fixed on mine. “You. Out.”

And like the feral beast he is, he snaps his fingers.

The woman blinks, pout deepening as she scrambles to her feet.

But she doesn’t argue. Doesn’t fight. Just tugs down her dress, smooths out the tattered remains of her dignity, and in a flurry of sky-high heels and billowing blonde hair, she’s gone.

The latch clicks shut.

The room shrinks around me.

He tosses a pillow onto the floor.

What the actual fuck?

I inch closer. Not close enough to kneel at his feet—because that’s not fucking happening.

I blink, defiant. “I notice you didn’t give her a pillow.”

His lips curve upward, dark and taunting. “Her knees are used to it. Yours are not.”

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