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“What do you mean?”
“Nothing.” She shakes her head. “It’s nothing.”
I can’t help the wicked grin that spreads across my face. “Now for the good part.”
“Which is?” she asks.
“You seem to struggle finding words to answer simple questions,” I say. “As your new boss, I’m going to help you.”
Her gaze shifts, her hands tucking into her pockets. “How?”
She thinks she’s gotten away with her botched secret delivery. That I have no idea what she’s done and just gave her a job.
Time to close in for the kill.
I move toward her. “I’m going to interrogate you. Find out exactly what you really are doing here tonight. And what was in the package you hid behind the plant and why exactly the Head of State was waiting around our elevators right around the time you were there.”
Her skin pales. She didn’t know I knew about the package she brought onto my property. She takes a step back. “I don’t know. I’m just their cleaner.”
Closer. I’m only inches from her now. “That’s what you said. But we both know you’ve lied to me tonight. I want the truth. And I’m going to get it. My way.”
“But—”
I hold out the untouched side of the shiny red apple. “Open your mouth.”
Uncertainty washes over her face but she parts her lips. I press the untouched side of the fruit against them.
“Bite.”
Wide-eyed, she obeys, taking a bite of the apple, her teeth slicing through to the flesh, chewing delicately.
I won’t let her play the part of the innocent, unknowing victim when she’s not. She made her choices. And now I want to find out why.
“Your eyes will be open, your innocence lost.” I take the apple, holding it to my lips, tracing the tip of my tongue over the place she’s bitten. I reach for the owl carving on the shelf mounted on the wall, giving it a tug. “Welcome to the Garden of Eden.”
5
Kylie
The wall is moving.I try not to choke on the bite of apple in my mouth. The wall is…moving?Why is the wall moving? The shelf, the one with the owl on it, stays in place but everything to the right of that slides like it’s on tracks, a stretch of it tucking into itself one panel at a time.
The room revealed is dark, sensual black leather and mahogany wood. The back wall is covered in black leather squares, padded like cushions, tufted with large buttons covered in matching leather in the center of each square.
Potted plants line the right and left walls, filled with lush, green leafy bushes and long thin branches with narrow leaves and bright red flowers. An indoor garden. The garden walls are deep rosewood panels, a redder shade than the glossy brown floors.
On the wall on the left hang all shapes and sizes of brass handles. A few rows of industrial-looking rectangular ones run vertically down the center of the wall, then some more artful pieces, devils’ tails and angels’ wings. A chandelier hangs from the ceiling, the metal painted a glossy black, its bulbs filling the room with a soft, warm glow.
Above the chandelier there are smoky glass panels. I stand in the center of the room, staring up and watch as the glass comes to life, sliding apart with the quiet whir of a motor, revealing the starry sky above us. The cool night air rushes over me, chill bumps rising on my flesh.
Where am I and how did I go from working at the pharmacy counter only a day ago to being here, in this room, the Garden of Eden… a sex dungeon? Only “dungeon” doesn’t give the respect this magical place deserves. What is this room? Why has he brought me here?
A nagging voice plucks at the back of my mind. He brought you here to interrogate you, to punish you. He’s a powerful man and he brought you here to teach you a lesson for coming into his club, for doing what Antonio asked.
And I didn’t even follow all of Antonio’s instructions. I couldn’t wear that dress. I brought the package but then I couldn’t deliver it, not without knowing what was inside. All this led to my moment of insanity, rushing to who I assumed was a bartender, begging for a job.
Only this man isn’t mixing drinks. Feeling his commanding presence beside me, I sense the tall, broad-shouldered man standing so close is very powerful.
His voice is calm but deep, and it awakens something in me as it fills the room. “Take a moment to take it in. What you see. What you feel.”
