Page 178 of Their Arrangement
His voice wasn’t cruel. Wasn’t warm either. Just steady. Tired in a way that sounded dangerous.
I sat in the chair across from him. Straight-backed. Hands in my lap. The chain under my blouse pressed into my skin like a burn I couldn’t reach. He didn’t speak. Didn’t move. Just watched me. For too long.
“You look tired,” he said finally.
I blinked.
“Didn’t sleep well,” I answered.
Honest.
Almost.
His eyes flicked to my blouse. Stayed there a second too long. The silk wasn’t quite smooth. The faint shape of the chain beneath it was… impossible not to see if you were looking for it. And he was.
“Was it him?”
The words landed like glass shattering in slow motion. Ididn’t respond. Couldn’t. He leaned forward. Hands clasped. Still calm. Still.
“Did he touch you?”
I didn’t flinch. But I didn’t lie either. And that was the problem. His eyes darkened. Not with rage. Not with jealousy. With something worse. Recognition. He stood. Slow. Deliberate.
Walked around the desk and leaned against it, arms crossed.
“You’re wearing something,” he said.
A statement. Not a question. I opened my mouth. Closed it. He nodded. Once. Sharp.
“You think I don’t see what’s happening. But I do.”
He stepped forward. Close enough to feel. Not touch. Not yet.
“I told myself I wouldn’t ask. I told myself I didn’t care.”
He exhaled. But it wasn’t relief. It was surrender.
“Then you walked in here smelling like him.”
I didn’t speak. What could I say? That Wolfe had made me thank him with a chain in my throat? That I wore the ring and came so hard my body forgot its own name?
Barron didn’t raise his voice.
Didn’t pace.
Didn’t threaten.
Just asked:
“Do you want him?”
And God help me?—
I didn’t know the answer. I didn’t cry when I left Barron’s office.
Not when he looked at me like he’d just tasted the edge of someone else’s knife. Not when he said nothing after asking if I wanted Wolfe. Not when I closed the door behind me and walked out like I wasn’t already bleeding from everything Icouldn’t say. But by the time I got to the bathroom? My hands were shaking.
I locked the stall. Sat down hard on the lid, heart pounding, skin flushed, the ring at my chest suddenly too tight. I pulled out my phone. I didn’t want to.
