Page 39 of His to Keep
He rolls his eyes. “What do you think? He wants to get his hands on your ass.” That smirk only grows as his eyes dip down to my chest. “And other parts of you, I assume.”
I’m torn between wanting to throw up and wanting to punch him. “Well I want to win the lottery. We don’t always get what we want.”
He grabs my arm again, tight enough this time that I know I won’t be able to shake him off. “Oh, he’ll get what he wants,” Aden snarls. “I need this deal. And that means you need to play ball.”
“You think I’m going to…what? Sleep with some stranger? So that you get a stupid deal? Are you insane?”
“You’ll sleep with him all right. And you’ll let him tie you up and turn your ass red and whatever the hell else he wants to do to you.”
“Go to hell, Aden.”
“How about I go to Chicago, instead?”
I freeze, heart pounding hard. “What?”
“You think I don’t know who your father is? Give me a break. I knew everything about you before I got my dick in you the first time.”
God, how did I ever think this man was worth even talking to? He’s a monster.
“I know who your father is, Rebecca. I’m sure he’d love to hear all about what his little girl gets into down here in Charlotte, so far from Daddy’s house. I’m sure the reporters would love it even more—a Senator’s daughter caught up in such a sordid world. Think of the scandal.”
“Youasshole.”
His grip tightens. “I’m thinking it would be national news. I bet even the good professors at Denby University would hear about that. I wonder how eager they’ll be to let you teach children once they know what you are.”
“Fuck you,” I growl, hoping I sound a lot stronger than I feel. Inside, I want to burst into tears. I might not be my father’s biggest fan, and his career has never been something that mattered to me—not since I got old enough to understand that it was all about power and money for him, and had nothing to do with serving the people. But I still can’t imagine being the cause of his ruin. We’re not close, but he is my father.
Whatever ambivalence I feel toward my father, my career is something I’ve not faltered on. I’ve wanted to be a teacher since I was ten years old. And Aden is right—no district is going to hire a woman with a sex scandal splashed in all the tabloids.
“So you’re blackmailing me?”
He tsks. “So dramatic.” Then he grabs my other arm, tightening his hold. “I don’t need to blackmail you, you little bitch. You do what I say—I’m your fucking dominant. Spending a weekend screwing Luke Davis doesn’t change that.”
“You’re right, it doesn’t. You know what does change it?Me. I’m telling you that I’m done. We’re done. I don’t care what threats you want to make. Go tell my father. Spread your lies to the press or whatever—”
“Oh, it won’t be lies.” I’ve never hated the sight of a smile so much in my life. “I’ll have proof.”
“What kind of—”
“Pictures, Rebecca. I have plenty of them. Videos too.”
I really might throw up. Of course he has pictures. And I can only imagine what they show.
My eyes dart out to the street outside. I’m not sure what I’m looking for—maybe that Luke’s car will still be here. That I can run out there and ask Mick to take me away, take me back to that penthouse apartment where everything seemed so perfect this morning. God, how was that only this morning? Less than an hour ago I was in his bed.
Aden’s eyes follow me. “He can’t protect you. You think I can’t do the same thing to him?”
“You have nothing on him,” I spit, rage rising up to meet the sick fear. “You think you can threaten him?You?He’s so far above you in every way. Stronger, more powerful, richer, more—”
He squeezes my arms so tight I cry out. “Shut the fuck up. You think you mean anything to him? You’re just a little whore to a man like that. A play thing. A play thing he used becauseIlent you out. He’s not going to help you, Rebecca.” He leans closer, the familiar smell of his too-strong cologne making my stomach twist. “And if he tries, I can absolutely bring him down. How do you think his partners would like to hear about all the shit he gets into at the Club? Or the places he visited in Asia—the rules over there can be quite a bit more lax, you know. I bet he got into plenty of trouble with the locals.”
“You have no proof.”
He shrugs. “Maybe not. But you know how it is with these high-profile men—once someone starts talking, someone else is bound to start looking more closely. I bet it wouldn’t take more than a call to the business reporter at the Observer to make some problems for Mr. Davis.”
Fuck. Aden is right—Idoknow how it is with high profile men. I grew up in the house of a United States Senator, for God’s sake. I know exactly what a well-placed rumor can do to a person.
But there’s no way I can do what Aden is ordering me to do. I refuse to let myself be offered up as a payment to get this asshole some second-rate business deal. Whatever insults he might throw at me, whatever assumptions he makes based on my sexual preferences, I know myself. I know who and what I am and I know my own worth. I may have lost sight of that for the last few months with Aden, but I’m not going to let that happen again.
