Page 137 of The Owner's Temptation

At this fucking war that won’t wait.

I should’ve had her this morning. In my bed.

With the morning sun streaking across her skin in a way I’ve never seen her before. I wanted her to wake up in my arms—blindfold off, body sore and satisfied, my cock sliding into her while she whimpered and begged for more.

From me. Not the Devil. It would bemyname rolling off her sweet mouth.

But that was taken from me, too.

Killian had shown up near dawn, dragging me out of bed with a warning in his eyes. One look at his face and I knew the news wasn’t good.

A high-profile politician. An escort.

A leak splashed all over the front page of every newspaper in the city.

And now media outlets are frothing at the mouth. Running whispers of an exposé on a “secret underground escort agency” that services the elite. They haven’t namedThe Black Ledgeryet, but it’s only a matter of time.

That politician was a client.

And that means the fucking wolves are at the door.

I can handle exposure. I’ve buried worse. But this? This isn’t about scandal.

It’s aboutsurvival.

If The Ledger burns, everything else goes with it. The clubs. The contracts. The women I swore to protect.Her.

Clients are pulling out. Inspectors tried to shut down The Masquerade last night—citing false code violations.

And the most infuriating part? Some of those same city officials were clients. Men I’ve fed, clothed, protected.

Now they’re turning on me. Pretending they didn’t crawl on their knees for what I gave them.

And Lorenzo… He thinks this is his opportunity. He thinks a little heat will make me sweat. That he can chip away at what I built. That he can break my empirefrom the outside in.

He’s wrong.

I don’t need bullets to wage war.

I need one thing.

Chaos.

And I am the fucking king of it.

The plan’s already in motion. Accounts are shifting. Names are being erased. Favors called in.

Judges, senators, heads of corporations—they’ll remember who the fuckownsthem when their dirty laundry starts leaking in a very curated, veryintentionalsequence.

But Sienna…

Fuck.

I didn’t want her to know. Not yet. Not like this.

She cornered me. Played me. Rubbed against my cock and whisperedDiablolike she already knew she belonged to me.

And I—stupidly, weakly—let her walk away.

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