I’m too busy for small boys. That’s what this outfit, equipped with a high ponytail, put across.
I liked to think.
“Basilia,” he said.
I didn’t look up from Monocle. “Kyros. Good afternoon.”
His rage swelled in response to my amusement, but the control of his reaction was disappointing. He’d opened the door almost normally and maintained personal distance.
“You gave the jewellery I sent you to another woman,” he said, stalking into the room.
That’s more like it.
Heat smouldered deep within me as he drew closer, and I clenched my thighs together, trying to force the reactions of my body into a box as I did with vampire-induced fear. “Her name is Leila. She works for you. Doesn’t the set look great on her?”
My amusement.
His rage.
“I take it you either didn’t care for my gift or you’re too angry to accept it.” He reached the desk and didn’t stop, continuing around with the same predatory grace to where I sat.
I tensed as he moved behind my chair. This must be what it was like to play dead while a grizzly sniffed at your neck.
Typing the next address on my list into Monocle, I said, “I take it you’re either surprised I didn’t accept your gift after you used me to get at my money or you’re unhappy with the replacement woman I selected so you’d leave me the fuck alone.”
His hands rested on the back of my chair. “I’m not interested in Leila. Nor any other. They don’t have what I want.”
Burn. Leila could probably hear him.
I jotted another few notes and snapped the file shut, shoving it in my oversized Didi purse.
Standing, I turned to Kyros and slowly removed my glasses. “What do you want in a woman again? A puppet, wasn’t it?”
His green eyes blazed and he shoved aside the chair between us, clamping an arm around my waist to pull me flush against his hard body.
“You, Basilia,” he said, drawing his nose from my jaw to temple. “I want you like none other.”
My inhale hitched.
Allowing the thought of him to fill me, I lifted on tiptoes, ensuring my breasts brushed his chest. “How can you be certain of that? We don’t know each other.”
I trailed my lips up his neck in whisper-soft kisses, pausing at the corner of his mouth.
“You are my true mate.”
Hmm. “I’m not so sure.”
“You will be.”
The white-hot flash under his words jolted through me, nearly eliciting a gasp. I tempered it, peeking up at him through my lashes. “You must have been with a lot of women in your time.”
The question was out before I could stop it.
Not part of the plan.
Kyros’s lips curved. “I was a teenager for thirty years. Does that answer your question?”
I refused to feel anything over his admission. There was nothing between us.
His green eyes glinted. “Female Vissimo don’t find monogamy desirable, and I demand it. Most need a harem to have any chance at conceiving.”
I stepped back, tucking my purse under my arm. “Pretty sure dating the crown prince would appeal plenty to those interested in furthering their social status.”
He lifted a shoulder. “Perhaps. It is simple for me, Basilia. My true mate exists, and so no one else does.”
Ugh, I hated that term. True mate.
I brought the conversation back to my initial script. “Did you really think I’d be swayed by meaningless jewellery?”
“You want me, I can feel it,” he snarled as I walked to the office door.
I cast a look back, smiling inwardly as he tracked the swing of my ponytail. “You have nothing I want, Kyros, and I’m not something you can win. Let’s keep it friendly and go our separate ways. After that thrall bullshit, I’m sure you have some pent-up frustration. Fuck knows I do. Turn your attention to one of your fellow Vissimo to scratch the itch, and I’ll turn my attention elsewhere too. That’s simple for both of us.”
Black fury churned through our bond. He didn’t move, but I could feel that simple restraint took every sliver of his control.
“You will enter another man’s bed over my dead fucking body,” he said in a voice of ice.
I shrugged. “Doesn’t have to be in a bed. I’ve always wanted to have sex on a car bonnet. A wall. A swimming pool. I’m only twenty-one. Sounds like a good time to explore to me. Oh! But I did have something else to tell you.”
His jaw clenched and he didn’t answer.
I couldn’t feel anything from him but intense focus.
Yep, he was one second from losing it.
“The Vissimo on my property. They’re scaring my staff, dressed in black leather and lurking in freakin’ corners. They either need to act normal or get the fuck off my property.”
The churning possessiveness in him receded.
I’d play this to-and-fro seduction until he lost all control. Fourth exchange, here we come.
Kyros’s eyes flashed. “The Indebted stay until the threat against you is cleared.”
We both knew that was a lie. Unless I was in his tower, the Indebted would stay. His jerk ass couldn’t handle anything less.
But that worked in with my plans.
I shook my head. “They’ll have to act more like my friends and less like guards. People talk, I’m sure you can see how that’s a bad thing.”
The back of the chair cracked in his grip.
I continued. “Glad we could come to an agreement. I’ll come by after my shift ends to pick up my stuff from Level 61.”
Desperation curled around my heart, none of it mine. What was it that Laurel said? The desperate weren’t known for their 20/20 vision?
Yeah, I was counting on that.
“I have no issue with you moving off Level 61,” Kyros stated, slipping a hand into his trouser pocket as he approached me. “Reconsider taking your possessions from the tower.”
My back pressed into the door frame as he leaned over me.
Lust. Anger. Hurt.
“Why’s that?”
Kyros pressed a kiss to my forehead, so unexpectedly gentle that I felt it to my very core.
“You’re angry because you’re hurting,” he spoke low, our eyes locked. “You wouldn’t be hurt if you didn’t care.”
My chest heaved as we remained caught in the net of his making.
I turned my head away to break the contact. “What does that have to do with my things?”
“I’ll fix what I broke, my beauty. Believe that. If you take your possessions away, you’ll just have to bring them back. Save yourself the work.”
His arrogance was fucking incredible, and my body loved every bit of it.
Shit. Was I seducing him or the other way around?
Finding my voice, I slipped out of the cage of his arms. “Do us both a favour, Kyros. Quit acting like the exchanges mean or meant anything.”
Just come out, girl <3
I sent the message to Tommy and had barely blinked when her reply chimed.
There are too many of them.
Fifty Indebted hung around my pool and outside entertainment area in various states of undress.
I conceded the point with a text of heart emojis. Pretty sure I almost peed myself when I met a room filled with Vissimo for the first time.