Page 31 of His Asset

His jaw flexed.“You’re not a virgin anymore, are you?”he asked flatly.“Did you give yourself to him?”

His voice wasn’t loud in my headset.But it was sharp-edged, unraveling.He wasn’t just jealous.He was obsessed.And he wouldn’t accept anything but the words from my mouth.

So I gave him a lie instead.A cruel one.

I lifted my chin, forcing a slow smile.“Reuben gave me the best birthday present I could’ve asked for,” I said, my voice calm and deliberate.“He showed me what it means to be a real woman.And I enjoyed every second of it.”

The silence that followed was instant and lethal.

Adam stared at me.I stared back.

I wanted him to burn, to slowly incinerate with pain.Just like he’d let all those innocents behind their cell doors, slowly rot and die.

Chapter Twelve

At some point, I turnedaway and looked out the window at the vista below.The green trees and rocky mountains were quickly disappearing, replaced by houses set close together, then buildings that pushed high into the sky.

I closed my eyes, my heart shuddering.We weren’t returning to Adam’s house in the mountains.The place I’d escaped.For a second I wondered if he was taking me back to the facility, then realized he’d never do that, not even as punishment.

I was his now.

There was no escaping him a second time.

I rubbed my brow.A part of mewantedto yield to him.Not that I was surprised.My body had betrayed me from the moment I’d seen him stepping out of his aircraft—alive, powerful, unchanged.

Only my mind had revolted against him.Against everything he stood for.

Everything he’d done to me.

To us.

Were any of my people still alive?Or had they all died behind sealed lab doors, their bodies broken and catalogued?

Had Angel died?

My throat tightened and I swallowed hard.There had never been anyone gentler than Angel.None more innocent.She’d deserved love, deserved a future.