Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 95627 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 478(@200wpm)___ 383(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95627 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 478(@200wpm)___ 383(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
There was something in the way he spoke that set my teeth on edge. I didn't know if he was mocking me or Artem, but I was livid, and it was probably for the best that any witnesses left immediately.
I gave him a brief nod. It wasn't his fault his brother was an arrogant, domineering control freak. Then I marched back to the office, my footsteps like gunshots against the hall's marble floor, each one punctuating my rage.
"Your errand boy said he was taking me to my new home. What did you do?" I demanded as my body shook with fury.
Artem was standing in front of a massive window, his back to me.
I hated that even when I was so angry at him, I still couldn't help but admire his broad shoulders, the way his back tapered to his trim waist. That man's body was built to be wrapped in finely tailored suits.
Positioned as he was against the walls of this dark-red room, he looked like a portrait of masculine power and dominance. The scent of sandalwood and tobacco filled the space which made my inner thighs clench no matter how much I despised him in the moment.
My body's response only fueled my rage.
"I did what had to be done," Artem intoned.
"What had to be done? Why am I still all the way out here in the middle of nowhere?" I spat, my hands shaking, fingernails digging deeper into my palms.
"Because you're safe here." He didn't even turn around to face me.
I didn't know if it was indifference, cowardice, or some kind of sick power move, but it just pissed me off more.
"Safe from what? You? Are you here to tell me you have had enough and you are finally going to leave me alone?" Each word louder than the last, a rising crescendo of fury.
"Safe from threats that you do not need to know about to be harmed by."
"What does that even mean?" I screamed in frustration, the sound tearing from my throat like that of a wounded animal. "Let me go back to the apartment. I have classes to take. Assuming you didn't have your thugs kill my professor."
He finally turned to face me, a cold smile playing at the corner of his mouth. The casual arrogance in that simple expression made my blood boil and my skin flush hot with anger. His eyes—cold, calculating, yet burning with something possessive—raked over me like physical hands.
"Your professor won't be bothering you anymore," he said, his voice dangerously soft. "Or any other female student. Ever."
The blood drained from my face. "You had him killed?"
"I protect what's mine." He said it so matter-of-factly, as if discussing the weather rather than a man's execution. "When I looked into him, I found a pattern. Six complaints in the last two years from female students. All buried. All forgotten."
His eyes darkened. "No one gets to make you feel inferior. No one gets to threaten what belongs to me."
I felt dizzy, my mind swimming with the implications. I'd wanted him put in his place, maybe fired, but not...this.
"But—what about school?" I asked. "I can't just—"
"I have already withdrawn you for the semester." He cut me off. "Once this danger has passed, we can look into getting you re-enrolled. Somewhere better."
He had me dropped from my classes?
I couldn't believe it.
I stood there in stunned silence.
Waiting for my brain to decode the information that just washed over me.
Artem didn't even ask me, didn't tell me beforehand, just decided and then it was done.
He gave me the educational opportunity without a second thought and then just took it from me without even telling me first.
My lungs burned as it got harder and harder to breathe and it felt like the red walls were closing in on me. The room was getting smaller, and it started to spin as my stomach rolled. Bile rose in my throat, bitter and acidic.
He couldn't have.
He wouldn't.
Of course he would.
All he saw me as was a pawn.
Nothing more than an insignificant little doll he could position as he saw fit.
He was just like my father, like every other man who thought that they could do whatever they wanted and my role was to just say "yes, sir."
No. I wasn't going back to that. I wasn't going back to having no choices, no opinions, and just being the husk meant to cook, clean, and breed that my father intended when he saw fit to sell me off to one of his associates who needed a wife.
I didn't care if he killed me.
It would not happen.
I was no one's pet, no one's doll.
With a deep breath, I opened my eyes and looked at Artem, letting him see the pain, the frustration, the determination in my eyes. "You had no right." My voice came out ragged, flayed raw with emotion.