Page 22 of The Innovator

“Boss changed his mind. He wants you back.”

“I’m not his property, and I’m not going anywhere.”

“You’re coming back with me tonight.”

Anger surged through me. “No, I’m not. You and your boss have no right to demand I do anything. My life is here now.”

His lips thinned. “I have a job to do, Natalie.”

“Even if it means kidnapping me? Because that’s the only way you’ll get me to leave. What’s wrong with Rafael? Is he bored with his harem of women? I’m not his property, and he has no claim over me.” I rose from the table. “You should leave before I call the police.”

Adonis stood up, towering over me. “We’re going home.” He gripped my arm hard.

“No!” I tried to yank my arm away, but failed.

“Let her go.” Grayson appeared out of nowhere and shoved Adonis’s hand off me, nudging me behind him. “She said no. Do you understand the meaning of that word?”

The calm in his voice reminded me of the killing calm before a storm. But it was the way his eyes were trained on Adonis that frightened me more. Grayson just transformed into an unrecognizable man—dangerous, unpredictable, and ready to kill. It was as though something dark and dormant had switched on in him.

Adonis glared at Grayson. “Who are you?”

“Someone who won’t have a problem breaking your bones if you touch her again.” Grayson gestured to the door. “Leave.”

Adonis surveyed Grayson. “She belongs to Rafael.”

“No, I don’t,” I interjected. “He needs to remember I’m no longer his fiancée.”

Grayson flicked me a curious look, but he didn’t say anything. He turned his attention back to Adonis. “You heard her.”

Adonis flared his nostrils as people stared at us, and the tension billowed in the store with every second. My friends had surrounded Grayson and me, eyeing Adonis like a pack of wolves.

“You’re making my job difficult, Natalie.” Adonis looked at me pointedly.

“Maybe you should stop working for Rafael, and life would get easier.” I forced a fake smile. “Tell Rafael I have a new life now. I don’t want to be with him. He should leave me alone unless he wants the media discussing negative things about him: ‘Rafael Caputo demands his bodyguard to force his ex-fiancée back to Paris when she refuses to marry him.’ The European media will eat that up, and I know how his family will react. You remind him I don’t want to be with him, and that ‘no’ is a complete sentence. He should learn that.”

Adonis straightened his posture, gave me a once over, sneered, and stalked out of the shop. When I’d been with Rafael, Adonis had respected me, but now, he viewed me as his boss’s property, and he wouldn’t have hesitated to hurt me if Grayson hadn’t intervened.

I didn’t realize my hand was trembling until Audri gripped it. “Are you okay? Who’s the asshole?”

“My ex-fiancé’s bodyguard.”

Grayson stared at me with eyes that held a hundred questions. At that moment, I wanted to hug him for not asking any of them.

Rafael had never behaved this recklessly before. Sending Adonis to another country to retrieve me like his lost luggage? What prompted him to cross the ocean for me? He didn’t love me. It didn’t make any sense, and I didn’t have the energy to analyze further, especially when concerned brown eyes intensified on me.

“Thank you for helping,” I told Grayson.

His gaze flicked to my arm. “Did he hurt you?”

I rubbed the spot with my hand. “No, I’m fine.”

“Grayson!” A pretty woman who looked more like a supermodel waved at him from the counter. That must be Gisele.

He nodded at me, then returned the gesture, walking toward her. Despite the slew of emotions stirring in me, I couldn’t help but acknowledge the seed of jealousy rooting in the pit of my stomach. Something was wrong with me. I wanted him, and I didn’t want him. How despicable was that?

Make up your damn mind, Natalie!

“The drama is over! Nothing more to see!” Kiera waved at the nosy crowd still staring at us.

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