His fangs pressed against my very breakable skin. The hot wetness of his mouth made me break out in goosebumps, unable to override my body’s reflexes.
“Eh, Whisper?” I breathed. “I kind of need that hand. Please, please don’t bite it off.”
He hmphed and dragged me toward the doors.
The girls erupted in chatter behind me.
“She—”
“It’s bringing her in.”
“What the hell is going on?”
“Why is it dragging her into the house?!”
“You can’t go in there! Everyone’s forbidden from entering Mr. Ashfall’s home!”
Whisper let me go and let loose another loud, ferocious snarl.
Turning to face the women, I asked, “Aren’t you all here to harm him anyway? Why stop at the front door?”
Evelyn strode forward, braver than the other two. Her black slinky dress would be better suited in a nightclub. “We’re not trying to hurt him. We’re trying to give him everything he’s ever wanted.”
“You mean sex.”
She scowled. “He’s been alone for twenty years. He’s lonely.”
“Do you know who he is?” I asked, genuinely, desperately wanting to know. “What makes him so important to you and those men outside? What makes him such a threat that people are trying to kill him?”
Lydia rolled her eyes and came to join Evelyn. “She doesn’t even know who he is, yet his cat is giving her a private invitation.” She flung her hand in my direction, pouting like a drama queen. “How is that fair?”
Evelyn never looked away from me, respect slowly building in her gaze. I waited for her to give me the answers I needed, but disappointment settled as she giggled and flicked her hair.
Fine, keep your secrets—
“He’s so important because his blood is the key to running Brimstone Industries. Every lock, vault, and code only operates with the Ashfall bloodline. He’s the last one, which means his board are running out of time to figure out a way to run the company without him. That’s where we come in.” She grinned and cocked her hip. “The more of us who manage to have his child, the more heirs there are with his blood.”
My ears rang and Whisper grabbed my loose shirt, trying to tug me into the palace. Fighting the panther, I asked, “And the ones trying to kill him? If he’s so important, why did those men allow assassins in as well as bed-warmers?”
“Oh, they didn’t.” Lydia smirked. “They snuck in under the guise of being trained courtesans like us. Some are from his own company who would rather destroy everything than have him in charge, but some are from his biggest rival.”
Whisper growled and tried to pull me again.
Holding onto the doorframe, I fought to stay. “His biggest rival?”
Evelyn shared a look with the dark-skinned beauty. “Care to tell her, Miram?”
Miram grinned. “Snowflake Corp has a lot invested in stopping the Ashfall lineage. Even if it means some of us die while trying.”
“Snowflake Corp?” My heart splattered against the marble. “A-Are you sure?”
The girls laughed as Whisper moved around me and headbutted me over the threshold. “Looks like you’re on the menu.” Evelyn wriggled her fingers. “Don’t worry. We won’t mourn you when your body is carried out in the morning.”
Whisper jerked me backward.
The door slammed closed.
And Lucien Ashfall’s palace swallowed me whole.
Chapter Nineteen
“YOU’RE LATE.”
I blinked and did my best not to look around in awe. Just like that first day I’d sneaked inside to join the others in the ballroom, the sheer size and splendour stole my breath. Dropping my eyes to Lucien’s where he stood in the shadows, I embraced my goal of getting this over with. “I knew you’d say that.”
He didn’t smile.
He stood with his hands behind his back. Dressed in billowing black trousers, black shirt, and black long coat, he looked like a nightmare—a soulless silhouette carved from the same black stone of his palace.
My heart fluttered and my head threatened to turn bad again, but I forced myself to march toward him. “If you want a maid, I’m not the one for you.”
“Oh?” He arched an eyebrow.
“I’m not...capable.” I tapped my temple as if that would explain everything. “I’m unemployed for a reason and as grateful as I am that you’re refraining from killing me, I truly can’t do whatever it is that you want me to do.”
“Come with me.” Spinning on his bare foot, he marched through the huge foyer toward the arched corridor beyond.
“Hey!” I trotted to keep up. “Were you not listening? I can’t work for you. I can’t work for anyone.” Pointing back the way I’d come, I added, “There’s three eager girls waiting on your doorstep. Let them help you.”
He didn’t reply or slow down.
Whisper prowled beside me, shooting me a toothy smile.
Fine.
I’d try again when I could look him in the eyes, and we weren’t marching through his home as if he’d set it on fire.
As we moved deeper and deeper into the palace, my mind ran away with me.
What had that girl, Miram, meant when she said Snowflake Corp was his biggest competitor and out to kill him? If that was true, shouldn’t I have heard about Brimstone Industries in every ROI meeting? We held numerous water rights and had successfully created clean, not-for-profit cold fusion. We’d become one of the top energy suppliers worldwide. I didn’t know of any company that rivalled us.
With a name like Brimstone, did his company deal with fire? Or something equally as destructive?
My pulse tapped a fast beat as we passed cavernous rooms with aristocratic furniture, ancient artwork, and overstuffed brocade couches, only to be assaulted by a different era as we cut through parlours with paper lanterns, potted bamboo growing as high as the chandeliers, and the soft wisps of incense.
Two worlds—blended and yet defiantly defined.
Despite the differences in decoration, a theme connected every room, thanks to the rows upon rows of security cameras. In every corner, above every painting, angled off every light fixture. A thousand pairs of eyes that had all been blinded and carved out, leaving the lenses shattered, cables severed, and most of them dangling as if they’d been yanked out by force.
“Did you do that?” I asked.
Lucien looked at me over his shoulder, his gaze following mine to the broken surveillance. His lips tipped into a thin smile. “I did.”
“Because they were spying on you?”
He nodded and continued walking.
“Are the drones theirs too?”
He didn’t respond for a while, leading me through another octagonal-shaped foyer that had eight paths leading off it. He took the northeast corridor, slowing slightly to say, “It pisses them off that they can’t see what I do on a daily basis. They’re nervous that I’m working on how to escape.”
“Are you?”
He grinned, savage and a little unhinged. “Of course.”
Our eyes held. A shiver ran down my spine. Once again, his beauty struck me speechless, all while a thousand questions weighed on my tongue. “If you’re the leader of your company and the last of your family, why—”
“So you do know who I am.”
“I...” I walked right into that one. Curving my shoulders, I said sheepishly, “I might’ve asked those girls outside about you.”