Page 57 of Broken

My heart was thudding all the way into my throat. It remained that way until the moment I knocked on the office door. Laughter could be heard inside and Valentin pulled the door open. He smiled down on me and pulled me into a friendly hug.

"You look gorgeous," he said and stepped back.

"You smell gorgeous." I laughed as his cologne filtered through my nostrils.

"Have fun tonight," he murmured and stepped to the side to let me pass.

"I'll call you later, cousin," Val spoke and closed the door behind me.

Liam gave him a nod, and then we were alone. The room seemed to be soundproof. No one to hear you scream if, say a mob boss, tried to kill you. I inwardly winced at the thought, but Liam remained where he was.

Watching me like I was a prey on an African savannah full of wild game.

Like he was ready to break me, devour me.

"As Val said, you look amazing..."

He starred at me and I could already see that he was getting an erection. I wasn't just someone who would cave and give in to him easily.

No.

In fact, the last time he fucked me he’d then went on to dismissed me in the blink of an eye.

"It's been months." I shrugged, my hands tightening their grip on the black crushed velvet clutch that contained a tube of red lipstick, my cellphone and a few hundred-dollar bills. I tried to repeat the items in my head.

Lipstick.

Money.

Phone.

It helped to keep me from asking why he'd been such a cold-hearted prick. I didn't want to know, did I? It kept me from telling him that I'd missed our weird encounters. That I'd wondered when he would slip into my room in the middle of the night again.

"You could have went, on with your life and I never would have known you were here…that you owned this place."

He sat his glass down and came over smiling. "I could have, but I didn't want to."

His lips hovered above mine. I could tell he was about to kiss me. Going to sidestep him, he caught my arm and stilled me back into place. Our gazes clashed.No,I thought. He wouldn't break me again.

"Nova, you didn't have to come up here." He licked his lips and I swear electricity shifted through his green eyes.

Predator.

His hand was digging into my skin and it almost seemed as if the leather of the jacket didn't exist. Liam's hand almost seemed to be on my flesh, hot and burning.

His grip loosened, and I shook him off. Casually, I walked over to the window, searching for Astrid who was in VIP, and dancing on some man.

"I didn't have to come," I said over my shoulder.

"But?"

"I wanted to let you know." I turned on him. "That you will never fuck me again. I paid your price."

He laughed at me then. I think it was because we both knew it was a lie, which caused me to roll my eyes.

"No," Liam said and became serious. "You came up here because at the stroke of midnight, which is in exactly ten minutes...you want me to be stroking the hell out of you. And I aim to please, Nova."

Scoffing, I said, "Nope. In your dreams."