Page 63 of Sinful Hearts

“Oh, believe me,” I snap. “That was no lie.”

“I’m not so sure. Why don’t we check?”

Pascha grabs me and shoves me back hard against the side of my desk. Terror and fear explode through me as his hand jams down between us and shoves under the hem of my skirt.

“Get thefuckoff of me!!”

I hit him, hard—once, twice…

And then I go still and cold as the naked edge of his knife presses to my throat. Panic and terror claw their way through me as I stand there, horrified, pinned to the desk with his hand resting on my thigh and his weapon against my jugular.

“You would do very well indeed to be nicer to me, bitch,” Pascha snarls into my ear.

I swallow with difficulty, the sound of my pulse roaring in my ears as I force myself to glare right into his face.

“You can’t touch me.”

“Watch me.”

“My father—”

“I am like asonto your father,” Pascha snaps. “You, on the other hand, are nothing more than a whore.”

His hand grabs my thigh, reaching higher as bile and vomit churn together in my stomach.

“I can do whatever thefuckI want—”

The door to my office swings open. Instantly, Pascha’s hand yanks back out from under my skirt as he jumps back from me. Still frozen, all I can do is swivel my eyes to the door, just in time to see Leo walk through, distracted by the phone to his ear.

I shudder as Pascha moves closer to me again, his sour breath on my neck.

“Not a fuckingword,” he hisses quietly. “Or you will regret it. And we both know he trusts me over you anyway.”

I hate how right Pascha is. He really is like Leo’s son, from everything I’ve seen. If I told Leo what Pascha just did to me, he’d probably tell him to go ahead and do it some more.

My pulse is still racing and my skin is still crawling from being touched by that fucking creep when the door opens again.

Doesn’tanybodyfucking knock anymore?

This time, it’s Nora who walks in. My face drains of color.

“What are you doing here?!” I blurt.

My sister’s brows fly up as she tears her eyes from her phone. “We…have a lunch date?”

I wince.

“Right, sorry. Of course.”

Suddenly, Leo’s done with his call and slipping his phone into his jacket pocket. He turns to smile icily at me.

“Aha. Just the lawyer I was looking for.”

My heart is racing, fear surging through my veins. Only now, it’s not because I’m scared of what Pascha or Leo might do to me.

It’s because Nora just unwittingly walked into the middle of all this.

I force a smile to my lips as I turn my attention to her.

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