When Forbidden Feels This Good
"This is how the syndicate operates. We do not need to win by force. We need to win by making the cost of retaliation higher than the cost of acceptance."
I stared at the photograph of Blake Morrison on the desk, at his handsome, careless, entitled face, and I thought about all the men who had looked at me and seen a resource rather than a person. Silvio, with his champagne and his magic room and his careful, methodical violation. Blake, with his hands and his complete disinterest in the word no. James, sitting behind his mahogany desk, was assigning me a role in a plan I had not chosen.
Even Cade, sometimes, with that possessive gravity of his that pulled me in before I'd decided to move.