E

e. Perfume and wine and syrupy string quartet music wafted through the air, dense enough to drape around, sending shivers to the corner of

t for whom I was hired-a finance banker, I barely recall his name-talked business deals and real estate exchang

e I kn

ey

ni

aire they talked about, the man who had more power with a single signature than most governments had in law

when every nerve in

oo hard, too loudly, though I kept on sm

ned, his voice echo

no courteous invitation-but only a voice

any longer. And Daniel had me in his arms, arm around my waist, arm aro

led back, revol

on the rim of my ear, warm

d back, moving, pulling him into my arms as though this we

er against him, pulling him closer, so close we were to the obsce

g twice," he panted, his voice almo

just so, to provoke him, but his grip

e snarled. "I

his jaw as I gasped, "Why?" My voice was so

to know, though he tr

itted, as if it hurt him to say s

. "Are you sure you're r

ke da

breathed, smiling more w

r. His knuckles pressed hard into the curve of my waist, hi

oblem to be s

ur name," he taunted,

solutely nothing. Si

sting who will strike first. Again, his hand dropped, too low to be hur

he

the barrel of my skirt, the mach

oment-then fury. I struggled to throw him off, but

gainst the edge of the lace of my knickers. I lost a tiny involuntary sound, a moan that escaped from my mouth before

e, though his eyes blazed with something th

his tone low and questioning. "How di

red at him, my silenc

my stomach turn, not from fear but som

ed to

my wrist, drawing me in, his voice fa

I want you and I'm not letting you go. I'll do whatever is necessary to make you mine. To marry me. To have my babi

have scared me. Wo

ook me,

g, my head reeling. I spun and I walked away and did not speak a word. H

ocus. This had nothing to do wi

s observed. I was that good at what I did. The headlines tomorrow morn

nipping and biting. I replayed the night again and again in my mind-th

should have been outraged. A

is own good. But in some hidden part of me, somewhere out

ght Daniel in, if they even thought he was snooping around on me, they'd kil

e beeped. N

for you. They're not nice folks. Did you

head knocked. I didn

ni

d sipped wine. Tomo

ing out at city lights that burned like a thousand disap

e, half-groan. If only my cont

ce, one talk, and already they had their people following me. It should've made me angry. It

d in a grin; the mus

meant he wa

never let go. I'd anticipated bluff, words of lust an

angerous.

that I had not experienced for years: fear. My work never troubled me before. My killing

His eyes, his fingers, the voice as though he'd already

have de

erflies. Actu

h back and forth and tricked myself out. "You're

ate when you thought about how their hands caressed around your waist, thighs, and gun as i

d because he

sk." Not th

e reason why I

once more, issuing my

. I'll take

aniel's life, the safer. If the organisation got wind of the fact that he was b

be that would

n't wishe

about getting things done and melting away into the darkness without even glancing over my shoulder. But Dani

d out over cars that throbbed like veins across the city. "Wha

therwise only disturbed by the

finally the biting wind had penetrated to my bones.

t dis

for the t

ewspapers carried pictures of the old man I'd had taken out of play, with salacious he

spin doctoring

spe

mo

a red head mystery woman. A

s. That was what men like Daniel did-assert domi

ain. Another cal

ou-they don't give up. They

. Again. A

string too tight and unraveled all that I'd created. But the other half of me-the blacker

muttered under his breat

ou. Swallow you and mold you. So I ask for a pard

, but because I was vigilant.

id not know if I would run away

en drunk, and there was only wind in my hair and the pressure of the gun agai

briefing with the organisation. I was bein

ait

r once more, if his hand would exten

me. My phone pounded in

e only t

nd y