Chapter 4

Camille Laurent

Adrian stares at me for what feels like an eternity. I feel the heat of shame on my cheeks for what I finally agreed to in front of him, but this is not the time to doubt myself, nor to lower my head.

His scrutiny is almost torture, however, it could be a test I need to pass.

"You don't know what you're asking for," he says with that infuriating calm that grates on me, what seems like an eternity later. "You don't have what it takes to be one of the women I like."

I raise an eyebrow, the heat in my body rises immediately, now for a less embarrassing and more furious and incredulous reason.

"Oh, really?" I reply, my tongue faster than my brain. "How lucky I didn't come here to please your tastes."

He smiles with that damned smile that's like a knife's edge, cutting through everything in its path. As cold as his damned heart.

But suddenly he grabs my hand and everything inside me goes up and down like I'm on a roller coaster.

The same hand that was under my robe a few minutes ago.

"What the hell is wrong with you...?"

Hades ignores my plea and prevents me from withdrawing my hand, bringing it closer to his face and inhaling, without taking his demonic eyes off mine.

His gaze sharpens, in a way that does nothing to help what's happening to my body.

"You smell better than I expected," he murmurs, his voice husky.

The words crowd my mouth and my throat tightens as I listen to him. My face feels like it's burning, much more than before.

"This son of a bitch always gets his way."

I try to break free, desperate for a moment, and feeling painfully exposed, but Adrian squeezes my wrist with enough force to remind me who's in charge here.

"But that's not enough," he adds, looking me straight in the eyes. "Not enough to take you to my bed. And certainly not enough to make you my new toy."

Rage rises in my chest, mixed with a desire I'm ashamed to admit.

What the hell does he think he is? Why does he assume I was pleasuring him? And why does his hand feel so damn hot against mine?

"I'm not about to let that stand."

"Are you sure?" I growl, in the most venomous tone I could muster. "Because the woman you had tied up a little while ago wasn't enough to stop you from coming all the way here. Who was left wanting more? Who dared to come all the way here?"

He tenses up. A reaction that is barely a flash in his perfect expression, but one that I manage to see.

And let's just say, it makes me feel satisfied.

"If she had truly been enough for you, you wouldn't be here with me," I finish, looking at him brazenly. "If I weren't what you were looking for to take to your bed, what were you doing here, Mr. Vale?"

My formality comes with irony. With mockery.

His jawline immediately tightens, his eyes scan me from head to toe as if he were undressing me at that very moment, and I feel that what I have just caused is irreversible.

"Shit".

He approaches slowly, so close I think he's going to kiss me. My breath catches in my throat, my lips tremble with anticipation, but nothing happens. His hand moves and barely grazes my jaw, a cold, calculated touch that chills me more than an outright rejection.

"Be content with stealing my wine and pleasuring yourself," she whispers, her breath brushing against my mouth without quite touching it. "You're not what I'm looking for."

I clench my fists and swallow my rage. He smiles only slightly, cruelly, as if he enjoys disarming me.

"And the worst part, Camille, is that you don't even know what you really want."

I feel a brutal heat burning in my chest, one part of me wants to scream at him, another wants to kiss him, and another… another wants to prove him wrong.

Although that last part is only so I can get my way. I have a mission, one I must complete whether I like it or not, and this is what I need to reach him. The real Adrian, whom I must seduce, make fall head over heels in love with, and then break in every way I can.

But Adrian takes a step back without taking his eyes off me. I barely manage to hold back the breath that wants to escape my chest. The air between us turns icy, though my skin still burns from his closeness.

For a second I think he's going to say something else, something that will break the line he's just drawn between us, but no. He simply straightens up, adjusts his jacket with that immaculate gesture he always has, and, with the same nonchalance with which he just smelled my hand, looks at me as if I were some insignificant bug.

"I want the contract report with Northgate Industries in my private office first thing tomorrow morning. I expect you took notes last night, and if you didn't, I trust you have a brilliant mind that remembers everything."

I blink, dazed.

"Did he really just change the subject? Is he really telling me to get to work?"

"What...?" My voice comes out higher than I'd like.

"Oh, and check the confidentiality clause," he continues in a dry, executive tone, as if I hadn't been implying that I took pleasure in thinking about him, as if I hadn't told him that I want to be part of his world that now intrigues me.

He takes one last look at my half-open robe, then at my face.

"Don't overdo it with the wine, I need you to be in any condition to work."

He says that so coldly that I feel like he's leaving me in the middle of an ice storm wearing only underwear.

As if I had just treated my body like a momentary office distraction, and nothing more.

He turns around and heads toward the door.

"Tomorrow is Sunday," I manage to say, not caring about the consequences.

But he ignores me and reaches the door. Just before leaving, he stops in the doorway.

"Oh, and I'll deduct the bottles you've"borrowed"from your salary," he says without even looking at me.

The door closes.

I am left with my breath stuck in my chest, my fists clenched, and my skin burning as if lava were running through my body.

I'm torn between anger, shame… and something else. Something I don't want to name.

"You wretch," I whisper, my voice breaking with rage and my heart pounding like a drum.

I walk to the bed and collapse, my anger growing like a slow fire.

Not only did he humiliate me as he pleased, he ignored me as if I were a whim not worth his time. But that's precisely what ignites me more than any touch of his, because he just underestimated me. And if there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that I'm not going to back down.

"... you're not what I'm looking for. You don't really know what you want..."

I cover my face with my hands and stifle a scream.

I hate him as much as I want him right now, damn the day I had to see his exotic sexual tastes.

The worst part is that now I need him. I need Adrian Vale, even if it's just as a means to my end.

Because I have to do my part, I have to deliver what I promised years ago.

I close my eyes and count to three. Then to ten, and finally to fifty. I'm excited, frustrated, and fucking furious.

Once again, Hades got his way.

I take a deep breath, returning to the past. Memory pulls me away from this room, to a darker, colder one. To one that changed my destiny.