Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 58412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
It occurs to me on the way to the Embassy that Marcus hasn’t actually asked me a single question about myself. There are two possible reasons for that. One, he is entirely self-obsessed, and I am quite literally nothing more than a possession to him, or two, he already knows all he needs to know. I don’t know which one of those options is worse.
I don’t have long to worry about it, because before I know it, we are at the Embassy, and I am once more in the swirl of rich, glamorous people, being introduced here and there to a crowd who weren’t present the previous evening.
There are a lot of very good-looking men and women here, but through the crowd, I notice one particular woman who has the look of a late 90’s supermodel. She is tall, graceful, and her features look like they’ve been carved from marble. How can they be so delicate and yet so strong at the same time?
“Wow,” I breathe. “Who is that?”
Marcus follows my eyeline.
“Oh,” he says. “That is Adeline.”
“That’s your ex? Holy… wow.”
“She is superficially attractive in her own way,” he admits.
I look from him to her, and back to him again. They must have been an absolutely gorgeous couple together. I don’t have low self-esteem or anything like that, but I know when a woman who looks like she came out of a laboratory dedicated to refining pure hotness is more attractive than I am.
Marcus has downgraded, because he doesn’t trust hot chicks anymore. I’m a twisted kinky billionaire’s rebound.
She approaches us, gliding rather than walking. Modelesque girls must practice that gait. I don’t believe it comes naturally to anybody. She smiles as she approaches, big, white teeth, shark-like. The smile diminishes the closer she gets, though. It becomes demure. She lowers long dark lashes over bright eyes.
“Hello, Adeline.”
“Mast… Marcus,” she says, pretending to correct herself. She follows with a coquettish little laugh. “Sorry. Old habits die hard. I do miss you.”
This is the woman who betrayed his trust, and she is acting not only as though she never did anything wrong, but as though I am not there at all. I might be a captive held here against my will, but being ignored is just rude.
“Wow. I can’t believe my quest is over.”
She gives me a quick, flickering, up and down look. “What quest is that?” An unspoken nerd hangs at the end of her sentence.
“The noble quest to find the source of all audacity.”
“She’s funny,” Adeline says. “The plain ones always are, aren’t they?”
“She’s rude. The bitchy ones aways are, aren’t they?” I snap back.
“Alright, ladies, I think the introductions are concluded,” Marcus says, clamping his fingers on the back of my neck and directing me away.
I glance up at him, trying to tell if he is angry at me. There’s a slight smirk on his lips that makes me think he’s not even a little mad. Maybe he’s pleased with me.
It is a matter of seconds before we are accosted again, by the same guy we met the first time. I can’t remember his name. I’m not entirely sure that I ever knew his name.
“Marcus! I didn’t think we would see you here tonight,” he says. “Not after the day you’ve had, becoming famous.”
He’s referring to the video, of course. I hide a smirk. Marcus does not.
This is a pit full of vipers, and I cannot help but notice that Marcus is not entirely immune to their poison. He moves through them with a certain amount of nobility that few of the others possess.
Is he really any better than them, though? Or am I projecting some need onto him, even as I start to identify with my captor, Stockholm style.
My brain tells me that Marcus is as big a predator as any of them. Probably the apex, truth be told. The others might be less like snakes, and more like hyenas nipping at the heels of a lion. Whatever the Animal Farm is going on here, I know that I am ultimately prey.
Our interlocutor keeps talking. “I wondered when you brought her here the first time if she’d survive your attentions, Marcus. You’ve always been so rough on the newbies. But I’d say this one has been rougher on you.”
We are surrounded by rich, smug smirks. Everybody is listening to this little conversation. Poor Marcus has become, if not an actual laughingstock, an amusing figure in a world in which I am sure he was previously considered untouchable.
Or maybe not? There was that little note of scandal on the first night I was taken to the Embassy, and the woman at the center of it just tried to cause a little more.
“My pet and I are going to enjoy one of the private suites,” he says. “If you’ll all excuse me.”