Library
Search
Home / Mafia / Switched at the Mafia Auction / Chapter 28: Burlesque

Share

Chapter 28: Burlesque

Author: Black sweet
last update Last Updated: 2025-09-30 20:05:47

~ Avelyn ~

The maid led me out into the garden, dew still clinging to the roses, their petals heavy in the faint evening light. It should’ve been beautiful like manicured hedges carved into perfection, the scent of lavender drifting like a lullaby but all I could think of was how this place wasn’t paradise. It was a cage dressed in silk.

And in the center of it, he sat.

Xander was lounging at a wrought-iron table, sleeves rolled carelessly to his forearms, collar open, a glass of wine in one hand and files spread before him. He didn’t look like a man burdened by empire. He looked like a man born to command one. His presence burned through the fresh air, made it heavy, made me want to shrink into the shadows.

But I didn’t. I stood there, stiff, bracing myself.

His gaze lifted lazily from the page to me. Slowly and deliberately, his eyes traced down my messy bun, sweat-soaked training clothes clinging to my skin, down to my sneakers dusted with dirt. His lip curved the way it always did
Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App
Locked Chapter
Previous Chapter Next Chapter

Latest chapter

  • Switched at the Mafia Auction   Chapter 170: Death warrant

    ~ Avelyn ~The door creaked when I pulled it open. I expected empty air, a hallway or some goddamn privacy.Instead, I nearly collided with a wall of black suit and controlled violence.Xander stood right there.Too close and solid like he’d been carved into the doorway itself.I froze.For a split second, neither of us spoke. His expression was unreadable with no teasing, no dark amusement, no lazy dominance. Just hard focus. Calculation layered over concern.Then he said something I didn’t see coming.“When last did you get your period?”The words hit me harder than the vomiting had.“What?” I snapped, heat flaring instantly. “Are you serious right now?”He didn’t blink. “Answer me.”My disbelief curdled into anger. “What kind of ridiculous—”“When,” he repeated, jaw tightening. “Last. Month.” I spat.Something in me broke.“I’m not pregnant!” I burst out. “Did you think I let you touch me without protecting myself?”His jaw flexed sharply and the air shifted.Good.I wanted him angr

  • Switched at the Mafia Auction   Chapter 169: Never gratitude

    ~ Avelyn ~The room went quiet the moment we stepped in. Not polite quiet or respectful quiet.But the kind that listens.A long, obsidian table dominated the space, surrounded by seven men and one woman, each occupying a seat that looked less like furniture and more like a throne. Power sat on their shoulders differently. Some wore it loudly, with rings and arrogance. Others carried it lean and sharp, like concealed blades. There was a plaque on the table, with a name boldly written.The Seal of Seven.I felt it then, why Xander had warned me. Why my skin prickled like I’d walked into a storm mid-breath.Xander guided me to the chair at his right. Not behind him or a space apart. It was beside him. I felt the air shift.A man with iron-gray hair cleared his throat. “Shall we begin?”Xander didn’t sit immediately. He rested his palms flat on the table, leaning forward just enough to remind them all who stood above whom.“We will,” he said calmly. “And we will end it today.”No greetin

  • Switched at the Mafia Auction   Chapter 168: The easy part

    ~ Avelyn ~The moment the car doors opened, the air changed into something cooler, sharper like it was laced with money and polished ambition.Xander stepped out first, effortless, composed, already the axis the world tilted toward. Suits turned. Conversations slowed. Heads inclined, some respectfully, others calculating. He didn’t acknowledge any of it. He simply extended a hand back toward me.I hesitated for half a second.Then I took it.His fingers closed around mine with quiet finality, not possessive enough to spark gossip, not distant enough to invite doubt. Just enough to say she’s with me.Cameras clicked somewhere. I didn’t look.“Eyes up,” he murmured without moving his lips as we walked. “Shoulders back.”I obeyed, lifting my chin as the glass doors slid open and swallowed us whole. But I couldn’t shake the feeling of being a decorative pawn in his hands. He always seemed like he had all the cards and I wasn’t even fit to be a player. Inside, everything gleamed, from the

  • Switched at the Mafia Auction   Chapter 167: Corporate meeting

    ~ Avelyn ~Getting ready felt like preparing for a battlefield disguised as a boardroom.I stood in front of the mirror longer than necessary, staring at my reflection as if it might blink first. The room was quiet, sunlight spilling in through sheer curtains, touching everything softly, my vanity, the carpet, the red silk laid out on the bed like a warning.Red.Of all colors.I slipped into the gown carefully, the silk gliding over my skin like it already knew it didn’t belong to me—it belonged to him. The fabric cinched at my waist before flaring gently, elegant without trying too hard. The halter neckline left my arms bare, my shoulders exposed, my collarbones visible. Nothing about it screamed vulgar.And yet… I knew exactly what it would do.I twisted slightly, watching the way the dress moved with me. How it caught the light. How it made me feel seen even alone.Get it together, I told my reflection.This wasn’t a date. It was a corporate meeting. Powerful men in tailored suits

  • Switched at the Mafia Auction   Chapter 166: Ever be free of him

    ~ Avelyn ~Why did it suddenly seem like I walked straight into the lion’s den. I knew what he wanted, it was written all over his face. The primal urge and sex appeal was oozing off him like a cologne. I steadied my breathing. “I’m still recovering,” I said, he didn’t seem convinced. “You’ve had a week, and more,” My lips twitched, as if a week was truly enough to recover from him. “I can see your efforts to not repay me,” he said in amusement while staring at my nightgown. My cheeks flushed. “But,” He added, roaming his long fingers through the collar of the gown. “Sitting here, backing the light. Your dress is see-through.”Realization struck me instantly and I looked down before I could stop myself. He was right! The moonlight from the window and the lamps behind me made the stupid nightgown translucent. He enjoyed watching me spiral. Instinctively, my hands flew to my chest, in my desperate attempt to savor some pride. But he suddenly grabbed my both my wrist and anchored

  • Switched at the Mafia Auction   Chapter 165: Here you are

    ~ Avelyn ~A week passed without Xander.At first, I counted the hours of solitude and peace and quiet. Then the days blurred together into something quieter, heavier. The house returned to its old rhythm of being too large, too clean, too aware of me. No raised voices. No slammed doors. No tension snapping through the air like a live wire.Just absence.I told myself it was business. That men like Xander Sterling didn’t disappear for anything less than blood or contracts or wars that never made the news. Still, there was a part of me that waited, listening for his footsteps, the low murmur of his voice, the presence that always seemed to bend the air around him. I hadn’t seen him since he saved my life and that made me uneasy. I filled my days carefully.I ate when the maids reminded me to. I read the same page of a book over and over without absorbing a single word. I avoided the news entirely, afraid of what name they’d attach to me now.Veronica had left.Not dramatically or pub

More Chapters

You may also like

Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status