Page 56 of Beautifully Deranged

She wipes her hands on a rag. "I’m working."

"On what?"

"You already know."

She owes me nothing, and still, here she is. Sacrificing for me, in her own fucked up way. I can’t stand it. It eats me up inside. She stretches, rolling her shoulders.

“Thanks for the studio, by the way,” she says sweetly. “Though I’m guessing you only gave it to me so you could barge in whenever the mood strikes.”

"It’s the gift that keeps on giving."

She snorts and goes back to her work, dismissing me. I’m not having it.

I march over, grab her, and throw her over my shoulder, the one that isn't still healing. She shrieks, kicking her legs, "Mikhail, put me down!"

"No."

"I’ll scream bloody murder!"

I laugh. "Go ahead. They’re all so fucking scared of me, they’ll pretend you’re singing."

She screams. Loud enough to rattle the windows. Not one employee so much as looks. I smack her ass hard, and she jerks in my grip. I carry her through the hall like a king dragging his spoils.

Inside my office, I lock the door. Drop her to her feet.

She runs straight for the handle, shaking it, but it’s locked.“You bastard,” she hisses.

I drop into my chair, man-spreading with my eyes locked on hers.

“You’ve got five seconds,” she snarls, stalking toward me. “Open that door, or I swear to God, I’ll gut this place with fire.”

“Fiery today, aren’t we?”

“Always.”

“Then burn for me.”

She grabs a chair and kicks it across the room. It crashes into the wall.I yank her down into my lap. Her body bucks, butI trap her, fingers tangled in her hair, jerking her head back to bare her throat.

“Watch it, Lola,” I murmur into her skin. “You’re forgetting who fucking owns you.”

“I belong to no one.”

“You keep telling yourself that.”

I stand, dragging her up, and flipping her over the desk. Her palms slap down on the wood.

“You think you can kick my shit, threaten me?” I shove her down by the spine.

“Go to hell.”

I crack her ass with an open palm.

“Still think you’re in control?”

She tries to twist away. I slap her ass again, watching the red bloom across her skin. I trail my knuckles down her spine, feeling her muscles tense under my touch.

“Let me go,” she whispers.

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