l Sto

nd me like a landslide, threatening to bury me alive. My hand throbbed where Janiyah's heel had crushe

anything that didn't smell of expensive lilies and betrayal. I wasn't looking where I was going

f champagne I was still clutching-God knows why-tipped forward, sp

I stammered, loo

y died in

as taller, broader, and radiated a kind of cold, lethal stillness that made the ai

The Don of the

of his rank could get a soldier killed, let alone

d over my head, piercing through the open doors of the ballroom to where my father, Elroy,

was soft, but it carried the weight

re was no pity in his eyes, only

has already lost his territory," he said, his voice a low ru

father was just busy, stressed, grieving. But this stranger, this predator from

nothing more than a piece of furnitu

range, dark heat curled in my stomach. It

ssets. And as his only daughter, a virgin intended for a s

d followed

stood by the stone railing, lighting a cigarette. The flame illum

thout turning around. Smoke cur

I said, my voice trembling not

d at me with mild amusement, like a wolf watching a rabbit try to

e, but I didn't brush it away. I needed him to see me. N

ng like bile. "To the highest bidder. To solidify a

slightly. "And you're t

until I could smell the tobacco and the dangerous, masculine scent of him. "Yo

nder his polished shoe. He reached out, his large hand wrapping around my throat. He didn't squ

his voice dropping to a rough whisper. "If you walk through t

, leaning into his

own desperation. He didn't say another word. He simply released my

ts. When the doors opened to his suite, the city of New York sprawled belo

He led me to the center of the roo

ance," h

ooled at my feet, a pile of expensive si

se. He didn't offer gentleness. He didn't offer l

d suppressed for ten years. When he lifted me up and carried me to the dark leather sofa, I didn't close my eye

h, just as I promised. And