Page 31 of Arranged Marriage to the Brutal Bratva King
“That sets a precedent.”
“I don’t care about precedent. I care about moving this project forward. Handle it.”
Oleg exchanges a glance with Felix but doesn’t argue. The meeting concludes, and I’m left alone with Felix’s too-knowing gaze.
“You’re distracted,” he observes.
“I’m fine.”
“You haven’t been fine since that boardroom meeting. You’ve been obsessing.”
“I’m pursuing a lead on the exposé investigation. It’s all due diligence.”
“Is it?” Felix leans against my desk. “Or is this about something else entirely?”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning I’ve known you for twenty years, and I’ve never seen you lose focus like this. Not over business. Not over threats. The only time you’ve ever been this—” He pauses, choosing his word carefully. “—consumed was four years ago. With her.”
I don’t answer. Can’t answer without admitting truths I’m not ready to examine.
“She’s a liability,” Felix continues quietly. “Whether or not she wrote the exposé, her presence in your orbit creates risk. Damien will see it. Others will see it. You need to decide what you’re actually after here—revenge or something else.”
“I know what I’m after.”
“Do you?”
He leaves before I can respond, and I’m alone with the question I don’t want to answer.
What do I want from Janice Woods?
Justice for what she did? Revenge that makes her understand the cost of crossing me? Proof that lets me finally close this chapter and move on?
Or do I want her on her knees for entirely different reasons?
I imagine it too clearly: Janice in my penthouse, stripped of the professional armor, naked and vulnerable and finally admitting what we both know. Admitting that she never stopped thinking about me. That four years didn’t erase the memory of my hands on her skin any more than it erased my memories of her.
I imagine breaking down whatever walls she’s built, making her understand that we’re so deeply intertwined, we’ll always find each other again. That some things can’t be undone with distance and time and anonymous exposés.
I imagine her curves yielding under my hands, her breath catching when I touch her the way I remember, her body betraying every defense her mind constructs.
The fantasy is vivid enough that I have to force myself to breathe normally.
This is dangerous. Desire compromises judgment, and compromised judgment gets people killed in my world.
I should hand this off to Felix. He can manage the surveillance, build the case, deliver the proof when it’s ready. I can keep myself at a safe distance where Janice Woods can’t distract me from what matters.
I should.
I won’t.
Somewhere underneath the rage and the need for revenge, there’s something else. Something that flared to life the moment I saw her in that boardroom and hasn’t dimmed since.
Want.
Raw, irrational, completely inappropriate want.
Chapter Nine - Janice
