Page 141 of The Secrets That Kill

“Exquisite.”

I move the dress back and turn her so she’s facing front, eyes down, hands behind her back. And I trail my hand down her spine and tangle with her fingers a moment. “She is. My favorite toy of all.”

“I hope you’re going to share when the time comes. She’s caught a lot of eyes. In fact, I hear Henderson is hoping you’ll let her go.”

“Not in the market for that.”

“You’ll be well compensated. If I see him, I’ll let him know you came tonight.”

I swear under my breath as he walks away, just as thespecial custom watch on my wrist pings. I look down at it. A wasp appears on the small LCD screen in the corner.

It’s a code, an old code of warning.

Motherfucker.

I cup Ivy’s chin. “I think I want to go home and play.”

“Now?”

“No, we have to stay a little longer, just to make sure the people who need to see us do.” I bite back a sigh. “But Henderson’s not here and he’s not coming. I’m going to have to rethink my attack.”

She nods, eyes rising to mine. “Is it my fault?”

I take her hand, and before I realize what I’m doing, I kiss it. “They all want you. No, there’s something else going on. I need to check something. Will you be all right?”

It’s a calculated risk, but nobody will dare take her from here. It’s more that I don’t want men touching her. But Ivy gives me that little steely look that says she’s not fragile.

“I’ll be here, unless I find a better master.”

“Do that and I’ll kill him.” I kiss her hand again and stalk toward the bathrooms.

I need to see what the fuck Orion just pinged me. What his warning is all about. It might just be that Henderson isn’t showing. Or it might be something else…something very fucking bad.

As it is, Jeremy’s words were a definite warning. I don’t know if he’s working an angle, or he’s involved with Henderson’s business. At this point, it doesn’t matter.

Because what he was saying couldn’t have been clearer.

To move forward, to get close enough to the head of the goddamn hydra to chop it off, I just might have to do the one thing I swore I’d never do…sell Ivy.

Or worse.

THIRTY-FOUR

ivy

“You’re very much coveted,”a voice from behind me murmurs, right against my ear.

It sends shivers of the wrong kind down my spine, and I want to shift away. But I stay where I am, not quite sure of the protocol of a man talking to me when Mercer isn’t here. Is he another Dom? Something else?

Why the fuck are there so many rules?

I keep my eyes down. Mercer has an eye on me. He knows this place is the threshold of a very sadistic and masochistic hell, so I know he wouldn’t just leave me flailing like a leaf clinging to a branch in the wind. “My master doesn’t like me talking to men he hasn’t introduced me to.”

That’s it. I’ll kill time until he gets back.

“Your master isn’t here.” The man’s hand comes down on my ass, then slides over it. He finds the edge where the plunging back of my dress meets skin and slips his hand in between. I jerk away, forcing him to move his hand.

I swallow hard, like I’ve done something wrong, but take some strength from the fact Mercer is here, somewhere, and I’m in a roomful of people. I don’t think the bad things happenin this area of the party. I think they happen in those other rooms we passed, behind closed doors.

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