You didn't read it, did you?

His words didn't sit well with me. “Did you ask George to do this?” I narrowed my eyes, thinking of that. It was the first time I had had such thoughts, and it didn't sound like it was a lie.

He drew back like a struck cobra, his eyes blazing in anger. “Do you think I would stoop that low?” His voice had an underlying hint of hurt in it, but I knew it was just there to fool me.

“For a shameless man like you, that sounds exactly like something you would do.”

“I didn't.” He shook his head, rubbed his temple, and exhaled. “George is one hell of a motherfucker. We aren't even that close. That bastard's always getting on my damned nerves. Of course, I won't fucking do business with him. If there's one thing I want, it's to get him out of business."

“Really?”

“Trust me on this, Lylah. I have never lied to you.”

Those words shouldn't get to me, shouldn't make me feel something, but they did. Kaelin was getting to me, just like he did back then, when I trusted him, only for him to snatch everything from me.

I broke away from his stare, avoiding the innocent look he had on his face. I looked down at the contract, frowned, and flipped through the pages. Some words were written in a tiny font, which was almost suspicious. However, the ones I could read weren't that bad.

“You want me to partner with you for 6 months?” I grimaced, turning the pages until the last.

He nodded. “Exactly.”

“Why the unnecessary pages, then?” I took hold of the pen. “You should have just written it all on a page. These large pages aren't necessary.”

“They are.” He leaned on his desk and watched me, the gleam in his eyes returning when I lowered the pen to sign my name. “Did you read it all?”

His tone was suspicious, but I dwelt little on that.

“Of course, I did.”

“And you agree to the terms?” He pressed again, his eyes saying a different thing. It was urging me to sign the document.

“What do you take me for? A kid?” I glared at him. “Of course, I read it.”

When I lowered the pen to sign it, he didn't stop me. I stabbed the pen on the paper, scribbling hard on it. I didn't want to sign this, didn't want to get humiliated by the man who had consistently taken pleasure in my pain.

Kaelin had always taken everything from me, and now I was willingly signing over six months to him, to work for him.

I just didn't have any damned choice. It was either this or losing it all...

“Good girl,” he murmured, reaching for the contract. His grin widened when he saw my signature sitting neatly on the paper, despite how I had tried to make it appear rough.

I made to rise from my feet. “Now that I had signed it —”

“I haven't asked you to rise yet, sister,” he said, his gaze pinning me down.

“And who the fuck are you to tell me that?” Now that I had gotten what I wanted, I didn't think humouring him was necessary anymore. “I can do whatever the hell I want. You have no right to —”

“I do.” That damned smirk returned to his face as he flipped the pages of the contract. “You don't even know what you signed, sister, do you?” He waved the page in front of my face before he started reading. “Party B will always abide by the rules set by Party A, and not limited to obeying orders and keeping her head down.”

My eyes widened. “What? Why the hell would you have something like that in the contract?!!” I rose to my feet and made to reach for it, but he raised it so high that I ended up falling on his chest, with my hands splayed on the hard muscles beneath his shirt.

Gulping, I pushed away from him, feeling as though the touch had burned my hands.

“Give it to me!” I gritted out, narrowing my eyes at him. I should have known he would play tricks on me.

“You had all the time to read through it, darling.” He smirked, reaching down to grab my chin.

I slapped his hand off and glared, but it earned me a dark scowl. I yelped when his hand returned, gripping me tight.

“You are mine now for six months, Lylah. You can't fight me, even though you want to.” He waved the damned contract. “You endorsed this yourself.” He leaned down, whispering, “You signed yourself off as my pet stepsister. No one forced you. You did it all by yourself.”

My breath hitched in my throat and cold sweat broke out on my forehead. I gulped, my eyes wide as I looked at him.

“You didn't read it at all, did you?” He looked down, trying to look like he cared, but I knew he didn't.

“I…” I shook my head, and his hand fell off. “What do you mean by your pet?” I figured talking about the contract wouldn't do me any good. He had gotten me cornered with that already.

His lips stretched more, and I would have been worried if I actually cared about him.

“You don't know what that means, do you?” Grinning, he walked around me until he was standing behind me. I refused to turn to look at him, to show him how uncomfortable I felt about having him behind me. He leaned in, his breath fanning my naked neck as he whispered, “It means you will be my sex slave for six months.”

My heart stilled. My stomach tightened.

“You… You're what?” I tried to sound strong, to not let my voice waver, but I couldn't.

“You heard me right, stepsister.”

“We can't!” I whirled around to face him, my heart hammering loudly in my chest. “We are related!”

“Not by blood,” he whispered, his voice dropping dangerously low. “Our parents got together after they gave birth to us, so technically we are only related by law, not blood.”

“But —”

"You can't talk your way out of this, Lylah. The contract is already signed."