Page 77 of Boardroom Sins

“That,” he says, “was a charity auction.”

I jab a finger at his chest. “Don’t you dare play dumb with me. You just paid five million dollars to humiliate me in front of everyone!”

“I donated five million dollars to a youth mentorship program,” he intones. “You should be thanking me.”

I laugh hysterically, right in his face. “What part of ‘auctioning me off like livestock’ deserves gratitude?! You dressed me up in this, this…thing,and paraded me around, and let a horde of people flap money at me for shits and giggles! What is that if not a humiliation ritual?”

“I outbid them.”

“That’s not the damn point!”

He takes a step closer. I hold my ground. “Then whatisthe point, Ms. Everett?”

I know what he’s getting at, and I know that he wants me to say it. So, with a shuddering inhale, I say, “Kir…”

I feel tears spring to my eyes and I’m not quite sure why. Sorrow for Kir, maybe.

Something he said earlier tonight stuck with me.

“Must’ve been hard.”

“It was what it was.”

“Then why do it?”

“Because he expects it.”

I turn my gaze up to meet Lukas’s. “Why did you do that to him?”

A muscle in his jaw jumps. “That’s what this is about? My son?”

“He looked destroyed, Lukas. You embarrassed him in front of everyone he knows.”

“He’ll survive.”

“That’s not—” I shake my head. “Why? What did he do that was so terrible? He was being nice to me. He danced with me. That’s it.”

Lukas’s eyes narrow. “He was putting his hands on something that doesn’t belong to him.”

I recoil at once. “I don’t belong to anyone.”

“As of tonight, you do.” He reaches out. His fingers brush a strand of hair from my face. The touch is surprisingly gentle, but there’s nothing soft about the look in his eyes. “I paid for you. That makes you mine.”

I slap his hand away. “This isn’t the 1800s. You can’t justbuypeople.”

“Watch me.”

We stand there in the cavernous hallway. My chest is heaving. His is perfectly still.

“Your son cares about what you think,” I say helplessly. “God knows why, but he does. And you just crushed him in front of everyone. For what? To prove a point? To show everyone who’s in charge? You’re the Big, Bad Wolf, huh?”

Lukas doesn’t answer right away. He just looks at me with those unreadable gray eyes.

Then he says, “My son needed to remember his place.”

“Hisplace?”

“Yes.” He ventures closer and I retreat, until my back hits the wall and there’s nowhere else to go. “And so did you.”