Page 7 of Devil Mine

All those years of missed experiences. Of never traveling, never seeing friends. Of being head down, book open.

Studying, reading, memorizing, revising, test taking. Putting the real world on hold to find success in this fucked up high society world that men had created only for themselves.

I’d embraced what I was good at, data, and put everything else aside. I’d never really had time for romance. I dated, but had never been in love. My experiences were lackluster because I was driven by more than was expected of me.

I’d helped grow our profits over the past two years by twenty percent, and still it wasn’t enough.

Because at the end of the day, all that mattered was that I was a woman and women got married, especially when they were getting a little too independent. The best way to break a mare’s spirit is to chain her to a fence.

“What about Franklin Marsh-Sackville? That’s a fantastic match.”

Now I was sure I was having an out of body experience. How could he so callously drop a world-ending announcement on me and easily pivot into rattling off names of men he could sell me off to like I was a piece of chattel.

Franklin is our Chief Operating Officer and a certified creep. He openly leers at me and routinely comments on my wardrobe. I always wear pink at the office, both because it’s my favorite color and because I believe in flaunting the fact that I am a woman in a position of power and I’ve had to fight for the right to be in this building. I refuse to blend in with the men or to make myself smaller in any way.

Plus, why can’t I be smartandpretty?

Franklin’s double barrel last name is an ostentatious show of his pedigree. He’s very,verydistantly related to the royal family, although closely enough that he’s mentioned it on five separate occasions in the two years we’ve worked together.

He’s also twenty years older than me.

A full body shiver racked through me at the thought of him touching me.

“Please reconsider this, Father,” I’d begged.

I knew I’d made the wrong move when fury had slackened his face. I’d made a quick exit out of his office before he lost control of his anger. He’d never hit me before but I wasn’t going to stick around and find out if that was going to be the day he started.

All I could hope for at this point is that he’d change his mind. That he’d see my value where he never had before and realize that I could be much more useful to him in the office than I could be chained to some random man.

???

Revisiting the conversation with my father makes me restless. My office is stifling, the four walls of my achievements oppressing. I can’t be in here a moment longer.

I know just where to go.

Carl, a colleague from sales, is walking by as I step out of my office. He accompanies me down the hall and across the reception area towards the other corridor where the freight elevator is.

As I’m walking and listening to the updates he’s giving me, something makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Awareness slams into me as does the heavy feeling of being watched.

When I throw a quick glance over my shoulder, there’s nothing out of the ordinary. People are milling about the reception area, going to and from meetings.

“You’re officially losing it now, Tess,” I mutter under my breath to myself.

My body must still be on high alert from reliving the news of my potential arranged marriage. I shake the feeling off and get in the elevator alone.

The doors open onto a darkened hallway on the second floor. This area is completely uninhabited except for one person and he prefers it that way.

“Hey, Wiz,” I say, walking into his office.

Antoni “Wiz” Wyszynski doesn’t startle or even bother to turn around at my entrance. Instead, he burrows his head deeper into his computer, his gaze flitting between the four monitors he has up.

“Hiding out again?” he asks.

I groan, kicking off my shoes and dropping onto the comfortable couch in the corner.

He didn’t used to have any furniture in here except the chair he’s sitting on, his desk, and the dozens upon dozens of servers and other computer equipment lining the walls. But it appeared one day, not long after I started coming here when I needed a break from the testosterone-fueled madness of upstairs.

I like to think he had it brought in specifically for me. It’s pink and in complete opposition to the entirely black space, so my guess is justified.

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