Page 5 of Doll

The girls got up and began to filter out, and after giving me a look like I’d lost my mind, Rufus did the same. But as she turned to go, my beauty, my goddess, I pointed at her and growled.

“No. Not you.”

Chapter Three

Gwen

No. Not you.

Had I heard that right? Who was this man and why was he pointing at me? Had I done something wrong? All I’d done was answered the ad and come down to the office when they told me to.

This was a mistake.

His eyes were piercing, like one of those FBI interrogators you see on a crime show. He was dressed semi-casual—jeans and a Henley, but the watch on his wrist and the loafers he was wearing screamed this man was wealthy. His chest was practically heaving as well, like he’d just finished running a mile. He was terrifying, but gorgeous at the same time, and he stared at me for so long that I started to think he was waiting for me to speak. But he waited until everyone had left the room and then he spoke.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

His voice was low, strong and angry. I had no idea why. What could I have done?

“I—they told me to come here!” I replied.

“They?” he spat. “Who’s they?”

“I don’t know,” I stammered. “Whoever answered the e-mail from the ad! I have it right here on my phone—”

“The ad? You actually responded to the ad to come be cast and made into one of our dolls?”

Now I really felt as though I was being questioned like I was a suspect of a crime or something.

“Yes…” I replied cautiously as he took a step forward. Suddenly, my heart was racing like I was staring into the eyes of a wolf. “It seemed like...easy money.”

“Easy money?” he scoffed. “What—to have some scumbag’s hands all over your body and turn you into—into a fuck toy for some other scumbag to use whenever he pleases?”

“I—it wouldn’t have my face on it, right?”

“That guy who just left?” he nodded towards the door. “He was going to be the one to cast you. You know that means his hands would be all over you, right?”

I didn’t know what to say as he stepped forward again. I could feel his body heat and smell the slightest hint of his musk beneath whatever designer cologne he was wearing. I opened my mouth, not even sure what I was going to say, but that’s when it happened.

The strange man lunged forward, snatched me with one arm around my waist and threw me over his shoulder like I weighed absolutely nothing.

“W—what are you doing?” I screamed as he put his foot against the door and almost knocked it off his hinges.

“You can’t be here,” he growled as he hauled me towards the front door like a sack of potatoes.

“Let go of me!” I yelped as we passed the front desk. Where was the secretary? Where was the other guy? The other girls? “Let go!”

“Quiet,” he growled as he carried me outside where a black car was waiting.

What is this? Am I being kidnapped?

I struggled but his strength was simply overpowering. I was nothing compared to him. His bicep muscle was like an iron vise around my midsection, practically squeezing the air out of me. I swung my fist into his stomach, hoping to knock the wind out of him and allow myself an escape, but the impact actually hurt me. It was like slamming my hand into a slab of concrete—that’s how hard his abs were.

“Don’t do that,” he snarled. “You’ll only hurt yourself.”

He reached into his pocket with his other hand and pressed something that caused the back door to the impressive sedan to open. I cried out one last time as he bent down and tossed me into the back seat. I fought as hard as I could to grab onto something, anything to keep me from being pushed inside, but I was simply outmatched. This man was too strong. There was nothing I could do.

He got in next to me, and I tugged the handle of the opposite door, but it didn’t budge. I tried to scream again, but before I could, he stuffed something in my mouth.

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