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Places that come to life under his touch. In his sheer dominating presence.
He circles his hips, and I whimper again, my eyelids flickering closed, only for him to shatter me with his next words.
“I have no doubt you’d be such a good little whore.” He steps away, leaving me spread-eagled and gasping for air.
I rise onto my elbows as he holds open the door of the office. “It’s an A for effort, little bird. Unfortunately for you…you just don’t quite do it for me.”
Pain lances through me as he coolly glances back from his place by the door. I grit my teeth, willing myself to hold it together as I hold my head high, refusing to break.
“Being a dick won’t make yours any bigger.”
Tears sting the backs of my eyes as I close my legs and slide from the desk to rush past him in a flurry of purple satin and red-hot embarrassment. I fall from his office and in the door of my studio as the first onslaught of tears slips down my flushed cheeks.
Before I can turn inward, I grab a sketch pad along with a stick of charcoal, intent on expressing everything that’s in my yearning heart and racing mind. I sketch until my hand is sore and my tears have dried, stepping back to survey my handiwork with a hint of a smile.
A small bird sits in a gilded cage that’s cracked open on one side by a plume of dark smoke. To an onlooker, it might seem that the smoke is trying to hurt the bird, but I know that’s not the case.
He’s here to set her free. To allow her to fly. To become who she’s meant to be outside of the restrictions society has placed her in.
She’s me.
His little bird.
Feeling lighter, I note the time and realize it’s almost curfew. Jules arrives as I’m packing to go upstairs. “I’ll escort you before heading home for the weekend, Miss Caputo.”
I shoot him a grateful smile, extra thankful that he doesn’t even glance below my face at my paint-spattered Dolce and Gabbana.
As I search my bag for the key to lock up, I spot a scantily clad, exceptionally pretty woman walking up the stairs in my peripheral vision. She smiles in my direction as she lifts her hand to knock on Vaughn’s door.
Jules stiffens slightly beside me when the door is yanked open. A hand snakes out to grip her by the wrist and pull her inside.
My stomach dips as I slide the key into the lock, twisting more harshly than required.
Jules leads me past the office, his fidgeting putting me even more on edge until an unmistakable cry peels from within the office, and I’m left innodoubt as to the reason for her presence right now.
Vaughn’s deep growl follows, and my chest tightens as my feet pick up the pace until I’m running across the busy open space. I don’t stop until I reach the elevator, slamming my palm onto the scanner as my gut roils, threatening to expel the small lunch I’d eaten hours ago.
Jules catches up as the doors begin to close, and he steps between them, a sorrowful look on his darkly handsome face.
“He’s a good man, I swear to you.”
I huff, crossing my arms over my chest, feeling more than a little inferior, thanks to the prick upstairs.
His stare deepens in fervency. “Vaughn Burton is one of the best men I’ve ever met. His words and his actions are two vastly different things. He just…he’s complicated, that’s all.”
I shake my head with a sigh, but Jules edges closer. “I can show you if you don’t think you can take my word for it. Meet me back here at 9 p.m.”
My eyes blow wide. “That’s past curfew. He’d have a shit fit if he caught me. And you’d lose your job…”
He grins easily, tossing me a wink as he steps back, allowing the elevator doors to close. “Best not get caught, then, kid.”
CHAPTER19
VAUGHN
I slam the door behind Wren, driving the point home entirely too well. My throat feels dry, like I can’t swallow past the sudden lump lodged in there, and I make short work of draining the half-full tumbler on the side table.
Once I’ve refilled for a third time, I fall into my seat and throw myself into a pile of paperwork that I absolutelydon’tneed to do, but I’d rather do anything other than address what just happened.
