Page 37 of Once Upon A Sale

“Iknow what you’re thinking, Ophelia, but—”

“You don’t know shit!” It takes me a second to drag my brain out of this fog after being choked into unconsciousness.That motherfucker.

“—you were being unreasonable.” He doesn’t even miss a beat, talking right through me instead of listening to what I have to say.

Where surprise and betrayal were my main emotions earlier, now, I’m just fucking pissed off.

I freeze, my thrashing body completely unmoving. Unreasonable? That’s like one step down from hysterical and well…we all know what happens when men try to tell us that, right?

“You better fucking kill me, Jarrett, because there’s only one way this is going to end if you don’t.” My voice is so low and tight that I scare even myself with the bite from it.

With a quick glance my way, he graces me with a smirk that I want to slap off his face, but also lick like a lollipop. I’ve heard that there’s a fine line between love and hate but this is not that.

He’s hot, I’m a straight woman. That’s it. My reaction to his betrayal has nothing to do with catching feelings.

“I’m not going to do that, Kitten. Killing you isn’t even on the top one hundred things I’d like to do to you, right now.” Giving one last kick of my legs and pull of my wrists, I let out a frustrated growl when Rhett—Jarrett—stands at the foot of the bed, arms crossed and brows slanted in deep thought.

“So tell me, tough guy, how do you see this ending?” That gets his attention and, strangely enough, not the reaction I expected.

His grin is wide and his full lips are so fucking sexy I want to bite them until they bleed.

“I’m so glad you asked. See? A civil conversation is the only way for us to move forward, Ophelia.”

Narrowing my eyes, I grit my teeth and smile likeI’mthe fucking lunatic and not the gorgeous yet highly delusional man in front of me.

“Well then, let’s hear it. I’m all fucking ears.” Not like I have a choice and I’m not bruising myself up more than I already have with the fucking restraints.

“Such a good girl.” Goddamn him and his silky-voiced praises. Again, I blame my mother for the inconvenient zing of excitement that travels down my spine and straight to my clit every time he calls me that.

“Not like I have a choice, do I?” I pull on my restraints to stress my point, but he doesn’t show an ounce of remorse as he slides a finger down my thigh and over to my pussy, right there on full display for him.

“To be fair, Kitten, you didn’t exactly givemea choice either.” I could give him a hundred arguments against that but I’mcurious about how, exactly, he plans to talk himself out of this. More than that, I really want to know why he even wants to.

The reality of the situation is that he has the upper hand. Killing me would be so fucking easy right now, even with the contract from the auction. I mean, he could disappear and no one would ever find him. I know because, even with all of my resources, I only found him when he chose to be visible to me.

So why doesn’t he just get rid of me?

“Go on then. Talk.”

Taking in a deep breath, he lets it out slowly, like this is going to be his lifetime achievement. The speech of all speeches.

“I wasn’t expecting you to be at the auction. In fact, I was trying to find an escape from you.” Rolling my eyes, I don’t even hide my smirk. “Okay, that didn’t come out the way I wanted, but you have to admit, this isn’t ideal.”

“No shit, Sherlock.” Then I laugh because he’s British. Sherlock. Okay, fine, it’s not funny, but holy shit, this situation is making me bat shit crazy.

“Anyway, I was trying to come to grips with having to kill you. Others have tried finding you but I’m the only one who actually figured out you were the vigilante plucking away at our employees and even our clients. Good job, by the way. Very stealthy.” At first, I think he’s fucking with me, but the glint in his eyes is definitely pride. Well, shit.

“Oh, well, that makes all of this much better.” My deadpan is the deadliest of all the pans. Wouldn’t be surprised if he got a concussion from my sarcasm.

“Ophelia.” His dom voice is now out and I do my best to hide the way my body reacts to him in an instant.

That being said, I won’t tell him as much.

“Ja-Rrett.” Cutting his name into two distinct syllables, I raise a brow and wait for his reaction. Turns out, it’s a swift one and comes in the form of a slap to my pussy.

“Fuck!” I’m equal parts turned on and raging at his audacity. “What the fuck was that for?” I’m growling like he normally does, only because I’m trying to mask my need for him to touch me once more.

“Teaching you manners, Kitten.” With one palm rubbing against his five o’clock shadow turned full-on scruff, he scratches lightly at his jaw as if he’s trying to figure out quantum gravity and I’m the missing piece of the formula.

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