All Chapters of you are mine only mine: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Chapter 11: One HourCatherine's sitting room smelled like expensive perfume and cold calculation.She sat with the tablet in her lap. Gala footage. Rose in the wine dress descending that staircase. Catherine had watched it four times already and each time the number rearranged itself behind her eyes.Five hundred million in trust alone.Scrubbing their floors.Veriana was on the couch. Desmond by the window wearing that smirk like a second skin. Keal stood near the door with his hands in his pockets and the particular stillness of a man who already knows he's not going to like where this conversation lands.Catherine set the tablet down."She loved you." Flat. Surgical. "Genuinely. The kind that doesn't evaporate because of a signature."Keal said nothing."Albert Corp's assets alone would move us to third richest company in the country." She let that sit for exactly one second. "All it requires is her trust."Veriana looked up. "And once she's back—""A merger proposal." Catherine's

Chapter 12: GravityI gave up on the book at eleven.I dropped it on the nightstand, reached over and clicked the lamp off. Lay back. Closed my eyes.The house settled into that thick quiet around me.I exhaled. Let my body sink.The bed dipped.My eyes snapped open.I grabbed the lamp and clicked it on so fast I nearly knocked it off the nightstand.Damien was sitting on the edge of my bed.Not standing in the doorway. Not across the room. On my bed. One knee bent, arm resting on it, watching me with those green eyes like he'd been there for a while and had been perfectly comfortable waiting.My heart was going so hard I could feel it in my throat."How." I sat up, pulled the blanket up to my chest like it was armor. "How did you get in here."He looked at me.That slow, unhurried look that took in my face, my hair down, the death grip I had on the blanket, all of it.The corner of his mouth moved."I have my ways, kitten.""Don't call me that." I was already looking past him at the

She didn't know when the room changed.One moment there was light — the next, darkness swallowed everything whole. The kind of dark that had texture. Weight. The kind that pressed against your skin and made you aware of every breath you took.Her heart was slamming against her ribs.Not from fear.She wished it were fear.He stood across from her, and his eyes — his eyes — were glowing. Red. Deep and burning like embers that refused to die, cutting through the dark like she was something he'd been hunting for a very long time.Her voice came out smaller than she intended."What are you?"He moved.She stepped back.Her shoulders hit the wall before she realized she'd been retreating, and then he was there — hands braced on either side of her head, caging her in, his body a wall of heat she could feel without touching."You don't want to know, kitten."His head dipped. His nose dragged slowly up the column of her throat — inhaling — and the sound he made was low and dangerous and sent

Chapter 16: TermsBreakfast was almost done.The question sat between us on the table.I shoved it down and pushed my plate forward."I'm going home."I moved to stand—The chair jerked forward.Damien pulled it with one hand on the armrest — dragged the whole thing between his knees until I was caged in front of him, his face level with mine, his breath warm on my skin.My eyes went wide."How many times." Quiet. Final. "This is home, kitten."My mouth opened. Nothing came out.I tried again. "I need clothes. Just my clothes. From next door. I'll come—"His eyes dropped to my mouth.I was biting my lip. I felt the moment he noticed it — the way his gaze locked there and the air between us changed into something heavier.He looked back up slowly."Keep biting those lips." His voice came out rough at the edges. "I swear I'll kiss them until they swell."I released my lip.The anger that hit me next was clean and fast and I held onto it with both hands."You want to keep me hostage." No

Chapter 18: Two Turns LeftThe drive home was silent.Not the comfortable kind.I sat against the door with my arms crossed and my jaw tight and my eyes fixed on the city moving past the window. The leather seat was cold. The partition between us and the driver was up. The space inside the car felt smaller than it was.I was furious.Not at anything specific. At everything. At the goodbye that had just happened. At my father's wet eyes. At Ryan's face when I walked out. At the fact that I had found a family and was now sitting in a car driving away from them because of a contract signed before I existed.At the man sitting next to me who was the reason for all of it."Kitten."I said nothing."Put a smile on that face."I turned to look at him with every single thing I was feeling sitting right on the surface of my expression.He looked back at me completely unbothered."You were always going to be mine," he said. "Sooner or later." The corner of his mouth moved. "And you do look cute