3
ADRIK
I smell Emery before I see her.
I nearly forgot she was still in my office. It feels like days have passed, though it’s been only minutes.
She’s right where I left her, perched nervously on the edge of the sofa. She has one long leg extended out through the high slit in her dress. Her skin is smooth, her muscles lean. I can practically feel the way she’d flex and move under my hands. The way she’d tremble like she is being electrocuted when I thrust into her.
Half an hour ago, I would have licked my way up her body from her toes. I would have devoured her piece by piece just because I could.
And when I'd had my fill and finished on her bare chest, I would have sent her back to the party, used up and disheveled for Senator Waters to find. A perfect fucking treat.
But now…
"You're still here," I say coldly.
I could reignite the fire if I chose. It might even help burn up some of the rage coursing through me.
But I'm not in the mood anymore. Even with the vanilla notes of her perfume wafting around the room.
"Is everything okay?" she asks, toying with the hem of her dress.
"Fucking peachy. I have work to do. You can find your way back to the party.” I point to the door. “It’s where all the people are. Can’t miss it.”
Her eyes widen. I'm not sure if it's with surprise, disappointment, or panic. Given who she came with, it could be all of the above.
"But we—I was going to ask for a favor." She stands up and moves towards me, then stops halfway, uncertain. "We were going to talk."
I eye her dress and reconsider.
Slipping the straps down her shoulders would be so easy. Two flicks of my fingers and she'd be nearly naked in front of me. My pants grow tighter as the thought takes hold.
Tonight has been shit. Maybe a quick fuck wouldn't be such a bad idea.
"We were going to do a lot more than talk, Emery."
"Oh." She's flushed. Her cheeks are pink, and she chews on her full bottom lip. "I didn't—I wasn’t—well, I asked to talk to you because… I need something."
She's playing innocent, but I can see the understanding in her eyes: she knows what I want. The same thing every hot-blooded man she has ever met has wanted from her.
“I'm sure you do. All the women who ask for a private audience with me need something," I say derisively.
I wasn’t sure she could blush anymore, but the color creeps down her neck and across her collarbone. I’d like to have a peek beneath the neckline of her dress and see exactly how far down the flush goes.
She inhales a ragged breath. “I wasn’t—I didn’t ask you here to—I’m not here to sleep with you, goddammit.”
I admire her boldness. But I've already used up my reserve of patience for the evening. If she wants to balk, fine. Just do it somewhere out of my sight.
“Then you want money,” I suggest. “Or do you need me to kill someone for you? A certain Congressman, perhaps?”
Emery goes perfectly still. I nailed it, it seems.
I bite down a smirk. “So that’s it. You want me to kill him.”
“No!” she cries out. “No, God no. I didn’t say that. I don’t want that.”
I roll my eyes. “Then what do you want, Emery? I’ve had a long night. I don’t have time for coy. Tell me what you want or—”
“I want Malcolm out of my life,” she says suddenly. “Not dead, but just… gone.”
“Then book a one-way flight and be done with it.”
“I can’t.”
She’s shaking now. How can a woman in a dress like this still be some shrinking violet? She’s frightened of her own desires.
“Of course you can,” I retort. “If you don’t want to run out in the middle of the night, then do it to his face. Take him out to dinner, tell him he needs to scour the college campus for another dumb young pussy to fuck, and leave him with the bill. If he gives you trouble, make a scene. Nothing scares a politician more than a public scene.”
It’s the reason Malcolm let me waltz his date all across my ballroom—he’s bound by public opinion. People have to like him. If they don’t, he doesn’t get their votes or their money, and then he’s out of a job.
But I’m no public servant. I don’t need a single soul on this planet to like me. I can operate however I damn well please.
And if people don’t like it? Well, I fucking dare them to tell me as much.
“I can’t,” she repeats, gritting the words out between her teeth. “If I could handle Malcolm myself, then I wouldn’t have walked off the dance floor with a stranger. But he’s scared of you.”
I tip my head to the side. “Are you scared of me, kiska?”
Her expression shifts. Uncertainty flickers across her features before she steels herself, jaw clenched.
“Or do you not know enough to be scared of me?” I want to laugh, though I don’t. I’m more in awe of her naivete than offended by it. “Do you even know who I am?”
“You’re Adrik Tasarov,” she mumbles.
I shake my head. “I didn’t ask if you knew my name. I asked if you know who I am. What I do.”
She shifts away from me, closer to the door. “I don’t—it doesn’t matter. Malcolm is afraid of you, and I need help. I don’t care where it comes from.”
Desperation. That’s what I see. Pure, raw, all-consuming.
Perhaps Emery isn’t afraid of all of her own desires. In this regard, she knows exactly what she wants. But she isn’t sure how to get it. Which is how she unknowingly stumbled into the lion’s den.
Unfortunately for her, I’m in the mood to play with my food.
“What exactly do you think I can do for you?”
She folds her hands in front of her, tugging nervously at her rings. “My daughter is disabled. She was born with a… condition. It gets worse every day, but there’s an experimental drug trial. Malcolm got her into the program, and it’s helping, but… if I end our engagement, he’ll get her kicked out of the trial.”
I blink in disgust. The man is a fucking cockroach. “He’s blackmailing you.”
“Yes.” She nearly sobs. “Yes. He wants a pretty, submissive wife to follow him on the campaign trail and make him more appealing. If I end things, he won’t help me anymore. My daughter will die. So no, I can’t just run. That’s why.”
“Heartbreaking story,” I say.
I let those words linger with just enough sincerity that she starts to wonder if maybe she’s getting through to me. If there’s hope.
Then I add, “… But I’ve heard worse.”
She sags forward in shock. “What?”