Page 5 of The Boss's Temptation

Down the hall, the door creeks open. Dim light floods into the dark hallway before he closes it. I don’t know his name, but I know he’s a soldier for my uncle.

“Come,” the man growls. He beckons. “Your uncle needs you now. Wait by the door, here.”

The man steps back inside. I take a trembling breath. I walk over to wait where he’s pointed. Inside, I hear voices rising in volume. A deep, booming one sounds angry. I try and swallow again, but my mouth is still dry.

“Remember,devochka…”

The voice behind me makes me tremble. It makes my stomach knot and sour, too. Pavel, my uncle’s top advisor, steps around me. He smiles at me lecherously, his eyes undressing me as they always do.

“You play nice now, yes?” He hisses like a snake. “You make him a happy man. I know you will. Or there will be trouble.”

I nod softly. “I know,” I say quietly.

Pavel grins. “You know how to please a man,devochka?”

I blush and I look down at my feet. He chuckles deeply.

“No, I suppose you do not. Your uncle has had you locked away like a little doll. No boys to teach you about these things.” He sighs. “A pity. I would be a very good teacher…”

My stomach wrenches nauseously.

“But we are out of time. Now you belong to Don Genovese. And youwillmake him happy, the way a good girl is supposed to make a man happy,” Pavel growls. “Any way he asks, yes?”

I say nothing. Pavel’s face darkens. “Yes?”

“Yes,” I whisper. I’m terrified. I can barely think. But just then, the door opens. The same foot soldier steps out.

“You, now,” he grunts. I nod.

“Make him happy,devochka,” Pavel hisses behind me.

I take a deep breath. I try and stop my hands from shaking by gripping them tight together. I step into the low light of the room.

The room is dark, low lit. The men in suits sit around a gorgeous, round wood conference table. My uncle’s back is to me. But he turns and leers at me. He turns back to look at a man cloaked in shadow across the table. I know in my gut that this is him. This is the man I’m being given to. Fear clutches at me.

“This,” Anton nods at the shadowy man. “This is your gift.”

“No.” A deep, confidant, masculine voice growls back from the shadows.

Hope blooms in me. Perhaps he doesn’t want me? I know it could mean war if he doesn’t accept me as a peace offering. But it would mean not being given to a man I don’t know like a door prize.

Next to the man I can’t quite make out, an older man with a cigar between his lips leans close. He says something to the man in shadow. I see them lean closer. The man cloaked in shadow shakes his head angrily. But then the man with a cigar says one more thing. The shadow man goes silent. His shoulders tighten and he turns back to my uncle.

“It is settled.”

The hope inside of me snuffs out like a match. My uncle grins and rubs his hands together.

“Good. Good, Don Genovese. I know she will be good to you. She can cook, she cleans—”

“The deal is made,” the man snarls. He leans forward into the light with his hands clasped in front of him. “Stop selling me.”

My eyes stop cold. For a second, a shameful part of me hopes to God that this really is the man I’m being given to. He’s beyond handsome. He’s gorgeous, actually. Dark hair, silvering at the temples. A confident, chiseled, clean-shaven jaw. His eyes are hooded in shadow. He’s dressed head-to-toe in black—black suit, black dress shirt open at the chest. His jaw clenches tight. His broad shoulders do too. He’s much older than me. But he looks younger than a lot of the other men in power in the room.

He looks up. For the first time, I see his eyes—blue like icy jewels. They burn through the smoke and land right on me. I gasp sharply. My heart seems to skip a whole beat.

They’re the eyes of the man who owns me.

I feel lost. On one hand, I feel sick inside. But on the other, I feel excited. It’s an agonizing, twisted excitement. It might even be mostly fear. But there’s something in his gaze that sets my core ablaze.

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