เข้าสู่ระบบCLAIRE~I dropped my shoulder and lunged.My knees hit the floor hard as my torn dress dragged under me. I didn’t care. All I could see was the Taser lying against the far wall like it was the only honest thing left in the room.Tyler’s hand closed around my ankle.I kicked backward without looking. My heel connected with something solid on his body and a swear left his lips. I kept crawling.Morana’s voice cut across the room, sharp and furious.“Stop her.”Too late. My fingers closed around the Taser. The casing was cracked, but the weight of it still felt real in my hand. I rolled onto my side, pointed it at the first body that came into range, and squeezed.Nothing happened.Dead. Of course it was dead. He’d smashed it on purpose. Motherfucker.Tyler was already on me. He grabbed my wrist, twisted, and the useless piece of plastic went flying again to the floor. I used the momentum anyway. I slammed my other elbow up into his ribs and heard the air leave him.“Jesus, Claire—”“Do
Claire Morana stepped right in front of me like the room belonged to her and the rest of us were just borrowing the oxygen. One finger slid under my chin and tilted my face up until I had no choice but to meet her eyes. Her expression stayed calm in that particular way that always felt colder than yelling. The kind of calm that made my stomach tighten. “I wouldn’t like you to touch her just yet,” she said to Tyler, still holding my face. “At least not now. For some personal reasons.” She let go of my chin and looked down at the torn front of my dress. The fabric hung open, my bra on full display like some cheap afterthought. A small sound left her throat that almost sounded like pity. “You’re really impatient,” she told Tyler. “How could you ruin her dress this badly?” The mock concern in her voice made my skin crawl. I could feel the air on my chest, the sting on my cheek from earlier, the way the room suddenly felt too small. “You brought me here to humiliate me, didn’t you?” I
CONNOR~I was already halfway to the door when Mason stepped directly into my path.“You’re not going.”I stopped short and stared at him. The residual burn of whiskey still sat in my throat. My pulse was too high. The intel about Anastasia was still ringing in my ears.“What?”“You heard me,” Mason said. His voice stayed level, but there was no give in it. “You’re not going. Hudson and I will handle it.”I almost laughed. The sound came out short and completely without humor. “You’re joking.”“I’m not.”“Why the hell not?”Mason didn’t move. He planted himself like he’d already decided this conversation was going to take as long as it needed to. “Because you have a temper, Connor. And right now that temper is sitting right under your skin, waiting for an excuse. You walk into that place like this and you might actually lose it. We don’t know what we’re walking into yet. It could be a trap. And if Father shows up—or if one of his people sees you there—he’s going to put the pieces tog
CONNOR I slammed the tenth glass down on the table hard enough that the ice rattled. The burn in my throat didn’t do a damn thing for the noise in my head. Claire’s voice was still looping, clear as if she were standing right in front of me.*You stood there and reduced every shitty choice I had to make into a character flaw.**That’s not protection. That’s ownership with better branding.**Who knows if that’s why you haven’t found a mate. Because you’re too complicated for one.*I reached for the fifth cigarette sitting in the pack. My fingers closed around it just as Mason plucked it out of my hand and crushed it into the ashtray like it had personally offended him.“At this rate,” he said, leaning back in the chair across from me, “you’ll burn your lungs faster than your heartbeat.”I stood up. The penthouse living room felt too clean, too quiet, too much like the kind of place a man sat when he had nothing left to do but replay every word he shouldn’t have said. Floor-to-ceiling
CLAIRE~He didn’t waste time.Tyler slammed his mouth onto mine, hard and hungry, like he had been waiting for the chance. His lips crushed against mine, tongue pushing in without any warning. I beat at his chest with both fists and twisted my head, trying to break the contact.“Fucking let go of me, you idiot!”My free hand shot down to the waistband of my trousers. The Taser Pulse was still there. I yanked it free and tried to press it against his side.He was faster.His hand closed around my wrist like a vice. He twisted hard enough that pain shot up my arm, then ripped the device out of my grip. Without even looking he threw it across the room. It hit the far wall and clattered to the floor in pieces.He smirked, breathing a little heavier now.“I knew you had that with you,” he said. “I saw when the woman you came with gave it to you earlier. Cameras. This whole place is full of them.”It hit me all at once.This wasn’t random. This had been planned from the second I stepped out
CLAIRE~ I slowly turned back as the full horror of what she had just said sank in. My stomach felt hollow. My hands were ice-cold. For a second the whole room seemed to tilt. “Are you threatening me?” I asked. My voice came out quieter than I wanted. Morana smiled. It was small and calm and completely empty. “If you do not want it to be a threat,” she said, “you’ll stay and you’ll listen.” I swallowed hard. Every muscle in my body was locked tight. I was holding myself back from rushing forward and punching that calm look straight off her face. My knuckles still ached from earlier. I forced my arms to stay at my sides. She stood up and walked toward me slowly. When she stopped in front of me she leaned in so close I could smell the wine on her breath. Her voice dropped to a whisper only I could hear. “Give him a listening ear,” she said, “or I will believe you are more than just friends with Connor and his brothers. Trust me, it would be very ugly for both of us.” She
Claire~I didn’t wait. I turned around and ran down the hallway. Tyler yelled my name behind me, but I didn’t stop or look back.Tears ran down my face as I pushed open the front doors and stepped outside into the cool night air. I had never felt so humiliated. My chest hurt from everything that ju
I yelled, “YOU MONSTER!”The words came out raw and loud. My throat hurt. For a second, I thought my heart might stop from how much this hurt.I clenched my fists hard. My nails dug into my palms, but the pain kept me grounded while everything else fell apart.Tyler stood there looking shocked. Beh
Claire's POV There was only one person I knew that bear that name.I should have turned around right then. Instead, I stepped closer and looked through the narrow opening like I wanted to destroy myself.And the image I saw burned into me instantly.Tyler bent over the edge of our bed, sheets tang
Claire's POV"I have a problem” Connor said “I have not been able to reach climax for five years," he dropped to me.I almost stabbed myself in the hand with my pen in shock. "I am sorry, what did you just say," I asked him.Connor sat across from my desk in the leather chair and he put one ankle o







