The sun was beginning to bleed through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the study, turning the marble floors into a sea of gold. I was still pinned to his lap, my legs aching, my skin burning where his hands had been touching me for hours.
I thought the "punishment" was the proximity. I was wrong.
Kyle suddenly stood up, dumping me unceremoniously back onto the desk. He adjusted his shirt, his face returning to that terrifyingly calm, arrogant mask.
"I'm bored of this," he said, not even looking at me. "You're too loud, Val. Even when you're silent, your pulse is a nuisance. I need something a bit more... compliant."
He walked to the intercom. "Send her in."
"Kyle, what are you doing?" I asked, my voice raspy. I tried to stand, but my knees felt like water.
"I'm reminding you that you are a choice, not a necessity," he said, turning to face the door.
The door opened, and a woman walked in. She was a different model of the same "Vanguard" brand—platinum blonde, eyes that didn't ask questions, and a dress that was more of a suggestion. She walked straight to Kyle and draped her arms around his neck.
"I've been waiting, Kyle," she whispered, her voice like honey and glass.
"I know you have, Sofia," Kyle said. He didn't pull her away. Instead, he sat back in his large leather chair and pulled her onto his lap—the exact same spot I had been occupying minutes ago.
My heart didn't just break; it turned to ice. "You're a pig," I spat, my "loud mouth" returning with a vengeance. "You're so afraid of what happens when you touch me that you have to bring in a professional to keep your ego in check?"
Kyle ignored me. He looked at Sofia, his hand sliding up her thigh, his thumb tracing the lace of her stockings. But he wasn't looking at her with passion. He was looking at me over her shoulder. His eyes were dark, challenging, and utterly heartless.
"Watch, Valentina," he commanded, his voice loud enough to make me shake "Stay right there on the desk and watch. This is what an asset looks like when it knows its place. This is what you aren't."
He leaned in and began to kiss Sofia—a deep, performative display of physical dominance. It was a mockery of the tension we'd shared just now. His hands weren't gentle; they were possessive, moving all over Sofia just to show me that he could have anyone.
I felt like running. But I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of being affected Kyle's guards were at the door, and the look in his eyes told me that if I moved, he'd find a way to make it even worse.
"Is this supposed to hurt me?" I shouted over the sound of Sofia's soft moans. "Because it just makes you look desperate! You're using her like a human shield because you're a coward, Kyle Vanguard!"
Kyle broke the kiss, his breathing slightly heavy, but his expression remained a wall of arrogance. He didn't move Sofia. He kept his hand firmly on her waist, pulling her closer as if to emphasize my insignificance.
"You talk too much," he said, his voice cold. "Sofia, darling, show her how a woman silences a man."
Sofia giggled and leaned back down, her hair falling over Kyle's face. The physical intimacy was a few feet away from me, a brutal, intentional humilation. Kyle was making sure that every time I looked at his hands, I'd remember him using them on someone else.
I sat on the edge of the desk, my hands gripping the wood so hard my knuckles were white. The diamond collar felt like it was glowing red-hot. I didn't cry. I didn't look away. If he wanted me to watch, I'd watch until I memorized every reason why I should never have come back for him at the docks.
"Finished?" I asked ten minutes later, my voice a dead, flat line.
Kyle pushed Sofia off his lap with the same cold indifference he'd shown me. He stood up and walked toward me, the blonde trailing behind him like a confused puppy. He stopped inches from me, his scent—now mixed with Sofia's perfume—making me want to gag.
"Not even close," Kyle whispered, leaning down so only I could hear. "This was just the warm-up. By the time I'm done with you today, Val, you'll be begging me to bring her back just so you can have a moment of peace."
He turned to the door. "Take Sofia to the guest suite. And someone get Valentina a dress. We're going to the board meeting, and I want her to look exactly like the toy I've treated her as."
As he walked out, he didn't look back. He had used a woman to "tame" his own hunger, but as he reached the doorway, I saw his hand clench into a fist so tight his veins were bulging.
He wasn't tamed. He was just better at hiding the war.