DEVIL IN A SUIT

CHAPTER THREE | THE DEVIL IN A SUIT

DAHLIA HAYES

I knew who Alec King was. Everybody in town knew him.

He was the CEO of King Enterprises. After his father’s death, he took over the family business and multiplied the company’s net worth tenfold in a single year. Alec was the richest man in the city, and one of the wealthiest on the continent.

But his wealth wasn’t the only reason people talked about him. His looks did the rest. Alec King could easily be described as God’s favorite creation. Coffee-brown hair always styled to perfection, a chiseled jaw, and sharp green eyes…green as a spring forest. His body was the kind that could make any woman drop to her knees and worship. One look at him, and you could tell God was showing off.

“Alec King?” I mumbled, unsure.

“Yes, darling?” he answered.

Panic slid through me. Alec King wasn’t a stranger; he was my number-one enemy. He was the man I’d been trying to bring down before the scandal ruined my career.

Someone of influence had filed a case against him months ago, and I was the lawyer in charge. I’d been entrusted with the case because everyone believed I wouldn’t fail. I’d never lost one before.

When I took the case, a coworker pulled me aside and whispered a secret I was supposed to keep to myself.

“Why would you accept a case against Alec King?” she asked, fear in her eyes.

I frowned. “What sort of question is that?”

“Haven’t you heard?” she said, leaning closer. “Rumor has it anyone who tries to take him down disappears without a trace. Alec can ruin your life with a snap of his fingers, and he won’t hesitate. People who’ve dealt with him call him the devil.”

I’d dismissed her fear and dug into the case, hunting for dirt on him and his company.

And I found things. So many things that I became both intrigued and baffled, even though I didn’t want to admit it.

Now, staring into those dark eyes, I felt something worse than fear. Maybe anticipation. Were the rumors true? Had he come for revenge? To claim my soul?

In my haze, the first thing I thought to do was the most unhinged. I bit his hand as hard as I could. I needed to escape before he killed me. Who knew where he’d taken me or what he planned to do? If he was the devil, I’d rather bite him than beg him to let me go.

He yelped but somehow managed to set me down without hurting me. I staggered to my feet, ready to bolt, until I realized we were no longer at the bar, and the door was locked.

“Oh my God. What are you going to do to me? Do you plan to make me disappear?” I tugged at the handle, desperate for freedom.

I heard his footsteps approaching but didn’t turn. My panic rose with every step he took.

His presence was behind me, dark, towering, and suffocating. Slowly, I turned and looked up.

He sighed. “I’m not going to hurt you. I would have done that already, if I wanted to.” He said it as he lifted me like I weighed nothing.

I didn’t fight him. The musky scent of his cologne was too distracting. He smelled like seduction.

He set me on a table, and I looked around, realizing we were in an office. His office.

Then it clicked. He owned the bar.

“Someone will bring you a glass of water,” he said. “It’ll help sober you up.”

Like a child, I pouted and folded my arms. “I’m not drunk.”

His gaze slid from my eyes to my chest, and my hands dropped. He stepped closer, slow and deliberate. My pulse raced, anticipating his next move. He looked like he might kiss me any second, and I didn’t know if I should be terrified or flattered.

Instead, he wiped a spot on my shirt. “You got some puke on you.”

Disappointment flooded me. Maybe a large part of me wanted to know what a kiss from Alec King would feel like.

He crouched, and my drunk brain thought about fifty shades of sexual things he could do from that position. The alcohol was bringing out the reckless, horny part of me.

He grabbed my foot, his rough hands a stark contrast to my skin.

“You’re not drunk?” he asked. “Then how come you didn’t notice your leg is cut and bleeding?”

Pain shot through me when he poked the wound. I screamed, horrified at the sight of glass pieces buried in my foot.

I’d been in so much emotional pain that I hadn’t felt the physical one.

“Lean back and relax,” he instructed. “Let me take care of you.”

I leaned back as he worked, removing the shards, sanitizing, and bandaging. My eyes traced the way his hands moved, the focused expression on his face, and how he treated my leg like it was the most delicate thing in the world.

I could have asked a hundred questions. Why help me, the lawyer who’d had sleepless nights working to destroy him? But the only question that came out of my mouth was something sober-me would never dare say.

When he finished, he let go of my leg. I stumbled off the table, unsteady.

He sat on the couch, watching me with a small, amused smile.

For reasons I couldn’t explain, I asked the stupidest question. “Do you think I’ll die a virgin?” I slurred, swaying until I landed in his lap.

“No,” he murmured, voice dark and low. “I won’t let that happen. I’ll make you taste heaven while you’re still alive.” His hands slipped beneath my shirt, stopping only when they found my breasts.

“And I’ll make sure that fool knows exactly what he threw away. I’ll make him watch me fuck you until you forget he ever existed.”

My breath caught, my eyes widening. “How do you know about my ex-boyfriend?”

I squinted, suspicion twisting in my chest. I might have fallen into the hands of someone extraordinarily dangerous.

I tried to get off his lap, but his grip tightened, pulling me impossibly closer.

“I started keeping tabs on you three months ago,” he said with a mocking chuckle. “Right after you picked up the case against me. I like to be ten steps ahead of my enemies, you know.”

That should have terrified me. But somehow, it didn’t. Instead, I became even more intrigued.

“Do you find me attractive?” I asked suddenly, startling him.

His gaze moved from my eyes to my lips, then back again. He licked his lips slowly. “Only a fool wouldn’t.”

“Then what are you waiting for?” I whispered, placing my hands on his chest, feeling the steady race of his heartbeat. “Jason said I wasn’t attractive enough. I want you to make me feel attractive.”

The air thickened and I couldn’t tell if it was the alcohol or him. Every nerve in my body was tense, waiting for something I didn’t understand.

He was silent for a moment, and then his next words knocked the breath out of me.

“I will,” he said softly, leaning close enough for his breath to tickle my ear. “But first, I need to make you my wife.”