“Theo’s a brilliant man. I’m lucky to call him a friend.”
“You’re taking me back to my parents’ home?”
I studied her face to gauge her mood. “Yes, I believe that’s best.”
“Salvatore Galante can’t be persuaded?”
“You heard everything?”
“You can’t make my father’s scandal go away, can you?”
“What was our agreement, Ms. Bardot?”
“I’m not to bring it up.”
“If you ever eavesdrop on me again, I will…”
“You will what, Damien?” She looked fierce. “You’re breaking it off with me because of my father’s scandal?”
“We can remain a convincing couple to the public.”
“This relationship is still a fake one to you?” She threw the blindfold at me.
It hit my chest and dropped to the floor.
She wore the same pleading expression that had persuaded me to bring her here an hour ago. Only this time she was asking to be loved. That same look had inspired me to honor the mark of the clavis; the wearing of that pendant she had yet to earn.
“Pour me a brandy.” I pointed at the bar. “And while you’re at it, think of all the ways you’re going to apologize for your behavior.”
She headed over to the other side of the room, and then paused to look back at me. “I’ll never love you, Damien. If that’s what you’re afraid of.”
My jaw flexed, and I suddenly felt a dull ache where my heart used to be before emptiness filled up that void. “Well, good,” I said. “We agree on something.”
Her lips quivered as she glared at me.
“Hennessy Timeless Cognac,” I said. “No ice.”
Pandora rounded the bar and set about pouring me a drink.
Seething at how badly this had gone, I watched her throw ice cubes into the tumbler. She uncorked the Cognac and filled the glass.
She headed back across the room with the drink, moving with the kind of elegance I’d become addicted to, with her petite frame gliding as she approached me.
I eyed her suspiciously when she stopped a few feet away, refusing to hand the drink over.
“I will continue to act like I’m happy to be around you at social gatherings.” She sipped the Cognac—my drink—and then added, “And you will continue to keep your end of the bargain.”
“Continue to fuck you?” I pointed to the velvet chair. “Like the pet you are.”
Her cheeks flushed bright red as she took another sip of Cognac.
My cock hardened at the memory of her on my lap, her pussy being devoured by Theo at the same time…the way she’d responded to us both—and how hard she had come.
She sipped some more of the drink. “The sex was fantastic. Only it’s a shame it’s you on the other end of that dick.” Pandora finished off the Hennessey in one gulp, delivering a burning punishment to her throat—the same throat I should be fucking.
I forced a smile. “Let’s take you back to Mummy.”
“That’s generous of you, considering you don’t actually like me!” She bit out the words that Theo had spoken in the hallway.
“All power returns to me.”
“You gave me the illusion of power. But you never gave it up.”
“That’s the first insightful comment you’ve ever made. Get your purse. We’re leaving.”
“Why are you like this?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t understand. I thought you and I…”
“Tonight, you were awarded a gift while leaning over that bar, and then again in that very chair. You should be thanking me.”
Her lips trembled and she looked like she was biting back tears.
“It’s true, your father’s ambitions probably won’t be realized.”
“Some part of me believed you might…”
Love her? Was that what she’d been about to say?
My look of astonishment caused her confidence to shrink. She wilted like a flower scorched by the sun—once thriving below dazzling rays only to be utterly destroyed, savagely burned by my words.
“These are precarious weeks. I need you to be obedient.”
“I was coming around to the idea of you,” she admitted.
Push her away.
It will be easier on her in the end.
“You were never anything more than my plaything.”
She looked unsteady on the heels I’d bought her. The same ones I’d taken my time to pick out for her. Placing them on her feet had felt like a sacred ritual.
Destroying Pandora Bardot should be something I savored, a gift to myself and to my family. In order for that to work, I was going to have to get my head back in the right space. Back to the same position I’d held before Pandora had walked through that red door last night and given herself to me—her innocence enduring even after all I’d