Chapter 2

(Adrian POV)

She paces back and forth as if she were in a cage, her heels clicking against the marble like a warning shot. Her hair is disheveled. Her eyes are burning.

I don't say a word. I let her exhaust herself.

"You can't keep me here," she spat, finally turning to face me. "You drugged me. This is kidnapping."

"You got into my car," I replied calmly, leaning back on the sofa. "You sat in my club. You danced for men you didn't know. Your father sold you on your seventeenth birthday. I'm just taking back what's already mine."

His face changes. It's not fear, but fury. "Liar."

I get up.

"I bought out your debt, Lana. The heroin he owed the cartel... the men he had killed. They wanted blood. I gave them names and money, and they gave me you. Papers. Stamped. Signed. Your name is the only one I circled."

She slaps me.

I accept it.

Her hand trembled in the air, as if she couldn't believe she had just done it.

I grab her wrist before she lets it fall. "You really want to test what I'll do if you touch me again?"

She suddenly steps back.

Well done.

"Let go of me," she said, stepping back. Her voice broke. Anger ripped through her. "I'm going to disappear. You'll never see me again."

"No," I said. "You will stay. You will be mine. You will learn your place."

"You are sick."

"Maybe." I head to the bar, pour two glasses of whiskey, and hand her one. She doesn't take it. I don't care.

I sip mine while looking at her. "I won't kill you. I won't break your legs. I won't throw you out on the street like your father planned. But I will fuck you until you forget your name, and I will continue until it's the only thing you beg for."

She holds her breath.

I put down the glass, open a drawer in the table and take out a sheet of black paper. A contract.

I unfold it slowly. Lana doesn't move.

Up :

SEXUAL OWNERSHIP AGREEMENT

All capital letters. Clean serif font.

I hand him the pen.

" What is this ?

"The conditions. You will live here. No club. No calls. You will eat what I give you. You will sleep in my bed. You will be mine in every way."

Her hands trembled as she read. Then, in a louder voice: "You're crazy."

"Sign, or I'll hand you over to the men waiting downstairs. I've already told them you were a gift from your father. They'll cut you up and sell you into pieces."

She parts her lips slightly. She scrutinizes my face, searching for a lie. There isn't one.

"I don't want your tears, Lana. I want you to surrender."

She is frozen. One leg bent, her arms around herself. That impertinent mouth is finally silent.

Then, slowly, almost as if she hated herself, she reached for the pen.

"Say it," I told him.

" What ?

I want you to say that you belong to me before you sign.

She raises her chin. Her voice is low, broken. "I'm yours."

I take the pen from between his fingers and add my name. Adrian Kade.

As soon as the ink is dry, I tear off the bottom half of the contract and slip it into my jacket. I burn the other half. I leave it to watch the paper burn in the ashtray.

"You don't need a copy," I said. "You'll be too busy living it."

She said nothing.

I approach her. She doesn't back away. Not this time.

I brush a strand of hair away from her face, then I lift her chin.

"I won't take you tonight," I murmured. "Not until you beg me. But you will sleep here. With me. Naked."

That's when her control finally gave way. Her hand moved, as if she were going to scratch me, slap me, or run away. I grabbed her wrist mid: movement.

My voice deepens. "Go ahead and try it."

She doesn't. I don't smile, but deep down, I want to.

"Follow me," I said.

I lead her through the penthouse, past the glass staircase and velvet curtains. In my bedroom: black silk sheets, a bed, a wall covered in mirrors.

She hesitates at the door. I don't wait.

I start unbuttoning my shirt. I don't stop until it falls to the floor.

She looks at me.

"Do you want me to undress?" she whispers. Her voice trembles again.

I approach her, take her chin in my hand. My thumb brushes against her lower lip.

"No. I want you to choose. Undress for me and sleep beside me. Or run. I'll open the elevator right away."

Her eyes are shining.

"Will you let me go?"

"No," I said calmly. "But I'm going to make things interesting."

She gives me a dark look.

I walk past her and head towards the wall. I press the button.

The elevator doors open. A man wearing a leather jacket steps out. He's holding a pistol under his arm. There's still blood on his collar.

He nods once.

Lana looks at him as if she's seen a ghost.

"I told you so," I whispered in her ear. "You're marked, kitten. The cartel doesn't forget. The only safe place is here. With me."

Then I lean towards her. My mouth just above her skin.

"Now, take off your clothes... or get in that elevator."

She turns around.

Her hands rested on her dress.

And she begins to undress.

There's a loud knocking at the door.

We both froze.

A voice echoes in the corridor, high and low.

"Boss, there's someone here. He says he wants the girl. He says her father promised her to the cartel."

The words remain suspended in the air like a noose.

Lana froze. Her hand was still resting on the zipper of her dress.

I turn towards the door, slowly. Calmly.

Her eyes met mine, wide, moist, terrified.

"Is that true?" she murmured. "He promised me to them?"

I did not reply.

I didn't need to do that.

I took my weapon from the dresser.

"You said I was yours," she said in a trembling voice.

I checked the magazine. I armed it.

"You are."

Then, as I passed her in the doorway, I whispered a promise as hard as steel:

"Now you'll see what happens when someone tries to take what belongs to me."

And I left, slamming the door behind me.

Pistol in hand.

The war in their eyes.