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“I listened. We talked like you wanted. Now I have to leave.”

Exasperated, I flapped my arms. “Why be so determined to hold onto something that you intend to let go of at some point anyway?” I simply didn’t get it. “It’s not like I mean anything to you. I’m just a plaything in your metaphorical toybox. Easy to replace. Easy to forget about once I’m off the scene.”

An emotion flared in his eyes that was there and gone so fast I didn’t get the chance to process it. He ate up my space all over again. “You, Cat, are a lot of things. Forgettable isn’t one of them. Nor is interchangeable. Plaything you might be, but that doesn’t mean you have no value to me. And I will not let Jorge take your choices from you, just as I won’t allow him to take you from me. Make things clear to him, Cat. If you don’t, I will.”

I was about to argue again, but then he lowered his mouth to mine. The punchof sexual connection was immediate, and the chemistry that had hit us on day one quicklyclickedinto place. He took my mouth the way he always did—like it belonged to him. He licked and bit until the tension began to leach out of my spine.

Backing away, he gave me a pointed look. “Tomorrow. The lounge. Usual time.”

“For Christ’s sake, Danton!” But he was gone.

My shoulders sagging, I plopped my ass down on the leather office chair. Okay, I’d screwed up here. I should have followed my first instinct and lied about why I wanted us to part ways; claimed that I was bored or something. But, as attuned to me as he was, he could always tell when I was lying, so I’d gone with the truth.

I’d have chosen the ‘lying’ route on the off-chance that it would pay off if I’d thought he’d act like such an awkward asshole and point blank refuse to respect my decision to end the arrangement. And Ihadended it. If he wanted to blow off my declaration and live in a fantasy land, that was his prerogative, but it wouldn’t change anything.

And if he bombarded me with texts and calls … well, in all honesty, I wouldn’t find it simple to ignore him. Danton wasn’t a man who allowed himself to be ignored.

I pulled out my phone and blocked his number. There. Problem solved.

You tell him, or I’ll tell him.

Or maybe not quite ‘solved.’

Even if I hadn’t wanted to walk away from Danton due to becoming a little too attached to him, I wouldn’t have done as he’d asked and told Jorge about him.Nothing good could come of it.

Okay, the latter wasn’t entirely true. It would enable me to get out of following through with Jorge’s most recent favor. He would back down in an instant.

The problem was that Jorge wouldn’t do it purely out of a reluctance to cross Danton. No, his main motivation for backing off would be that he’d feel he could use me in a whole other way.

He’d try to turn me into a mole.

Yep, he’d stupidly believe that I could act as a spy and wrench information out of Danton during pillow talk—like theguy was that gullible. I’d be up for no such thing. But telling Jorge ‘no’ would mean bad things for my mother.

Recalling how very sure Danton had seemed that I’d meet him at the Vault tomorrow night as usual, I shook my head in wonder. It must be fantastic to always be so extremely certain that you were in control of your world and that things would always go your way. I could actually admire it.

When I didn’t show up for the meet, he would realize then that I was serious. He’d be annoyed that I hadn’t followed his dictates, but I doubted that he’d bother to act on it. Why spend time seeking me out and pushing me to do as ordered when he could instead focus his energy on finding a new and much more obedient toy from the basement’s buffet?

I might have ‘value’ to him, but that didn’t mean much. Lots of things surely had value to him. His car. His home. His wallet.

Possessions.

That was what I was to him. One of his many possessions. And the thing with possessions was that their owners didn’t always feel a meaningful attachment toward them. Just because a person valued something didn’t mean it automatically followed that they wouldn’t eventually upgrade, give away, or sell their items. Because people tended to get bored, grow out of things, or simply want something new.

As I’d told him, his search for a new toy would be a short one. He’d find a brand spanking new club-buddy in no time at all.

And that idea hurt way more than it should.

Fuck my life.

Chapter Two

Eating lunch at the breakfast nook of my L-shaped kitchen while on a group video call the next day, I wrinkled my nose at what was left of my pasta. I didn’t have much of an appetite. It was like I had a rock sitting in my gut. A rock that hadn’t been present until my conversation last night with Danton. Who I was trying not to think about. But yeah, I was failing at that.

Inwardly cursing myself, I snapped my gaze back to the phone propped up on a stand in front of me. My three best friends and I had pre-arranged the virtual lunch meeting. It was something we did at least once a week.

At that moment, Inaya rolled her eyes as she stabbed a small wooden fork into one of the grapes in her almost empty fruit pot. “Honestly, Briar, I don’t see what you’re so upset about.”

Her brows snapping together, Briar paused with her can of soda halfway to her mouth. “Seriously?”

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