AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Murmured words swirl around me. Condolences for Andreas. We miss your mother terribly. What a shame to leave you all alone. Noire House mourns the loss of your father.
God. I just want out from their insipid fawning.
“The selection for the auction looks wonderful tonight.” A man with a flushed nose and dense eyebrows stares at me over his champagne.
“Will you be taking the opportunity to choose someone who fits your tastes, Miss Noire?” There’s another man who I remember as being one of my father’s friends, leering at me from behind the soulless eye sockets of his mask.
“I don’t intend to place any bids tonight, no,” I reply. My eyes scan the room, but the crowd is thick and surging toward the main hall upstairs, where the auction must be held. Someone tries to press a glass of champagne into my hand, but I don’t want to accept a drink from anyone in this vile place. My nerves are on high alert and after the calm of the forest at the compound, this feels oppressive and menacing.
God, I really am fucked if I’m finding myself eager to get back to the house where I’m being held as a goddamn prisoner.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but there’s someone asking for you.” A warm palm wraps around my elbow, and with a flick of a hand, the unwanted drink is shooed away. My Viking steps in between me and the men who are busy staring at my breasts. He’s a vision in his suit, earpiece in place, towering over me as always with a twitch threatening the corner of his lips. His mask disguises one side of his features behind the hollow cheekbones and sunken eye socket of a skeleton.
“Of course. If you’ll excuse me, gentlemen.” I’ve never been more relieved to see him, and my fingers itch to take his hand.
Ky nods at them all before gesturing for me to head in the direction of the enormous staircase. He trails behind me, and I shiver under the weight of his heated gaze as I make my way up the stairs.
There’s no shame in the way I’m soaking up his attention on my ass right now.
“Holy shit. You could have warned me that was what you were going to wear this evening.” His long strides catch up to me, and he hisses in my ear as we reach the upper landing. “I’m going to be fighting off packs of assholes from getting near you all night.”
I bite back a small smile and glance at him coyly over one shoulder. “Well, I thought the idea was to assume the role of the Noire House heir?”
“If you look like that…” He stops mid-sentence, eyes ticking up to something that catches his attention, and I follow his line of sight.
What I see is Thorne, standing over by the far wall of the landing. There are half a dozen people milling around up here, but they’re all making their way into the auction.
But that’s not what steals my attention.
He’s with a girl.
Neither of them have a mask on.
Jealousy slithers down my spine. Is he trying to mess with me for my little performance outside?
I must be a fucking masochist because I can’t stop staring at his imposing shoulders fitted to perfection inside that tailored jacket. My eyes are glued to his every movement, as if I need to prove to myself that it really is Thorne.
The girl is all over him. Her hands roam across those muscles encased in expensive fabric that I so badly want to touch.
But he hasn’t invited me to.
And yet here this bitch is, drooling all over his suit and damn near humping his leg. Everything in her body language screams, ‘This man fucks my brains out seven days a week and three times on Sunday.’
A familiar curdling sensation rises inside me. Shame and a sense of feeling more pathetic than ever. Obviously, this girl’s bed is where Thorne Calliano disappears to during all those times when he’s not around.
He’s even told me that his sexual appetites are well taken care of, for Christ’s sake.
I’m almost snarling—hypnotized and with a band cinching tighter and tighter across my chest—as his big hands reach for her. His thumb glides up her bare arm until he reaches around to cup the back of her neck.
There are a thousand reasons why I should look away.
Right now, I can’t think of a single one.
Maybe I want to see it with my own eyes. See the way he takes her mouth, and that’ll be the beginning and the end of this stupid infatuation festering behind my rib cage.
“Spying, are we, baby girl?”
The voice right at my ear has me stumbling. One heel wobbles beneath me, and it takes everything not to tip over.
