Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 149641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 599(@250wpm)___ 499(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 599(@250wpm)___ 499(@300wpm)
Wasn’t this her nightmare? That Ben would turn on her because Huisman told him to, and the truth was Huisman was always more important than she was. She’d always known if she went into a relationship with Ben, Huisman would be there, too. But she’d been sure her love could overcome his hate. That’s what love did. It conquered. It won.
Except he didn’t want her love. He didn’t even believe in it, and he couldn’t possibly feel the same way if he was saying the things he was saying.
She wasn’t doing this with him. It was time to retreat and build up her defenses. Hell, maybe it was time to request another assignment. If she convinced her team to pull out and allow Ben to work with another Agency team, would Huisman leave them alone? “Write up whatever story Huisman told you and present it to my team. They can decide if I’m a whore they want to throw away or not, but I’m not doing this with you.”
She tried to turn but he reached out and gripped her arm again.
She was covered in his marks, every one of them a gift she’d accepted with glee because she was proud to have the whole world know she belonged to this man, that she’d finally found her one. Not this time. He gripped her tight enough that it would bruise, and she would look at it and feel how much he hated her.
She might not be able to play that way again.
“I’m not some asshole you get to order around, princess,” he growled.
There it was again. The derision. She was a princess. She was entitled. It was time to call it. Time of death eleven forty-eight. She twisted her arm, ignoring the pain even as she reached up with her free hand and popped him right on the nose. Ben cursed and let go.
“What the fuck, Kenzie?” He put a hand on his nose.
“Oh, I would like to know the answer to that question,” a familiar voice said.
Awesome. Her twin was here. She turned and saw that Kala wasn’t alone. Cooper was with her, and TJ, too.
Kenzie let the sleeve of her robe fall down to cover the red marks on her wrist. She didn’t want some big scene that everyone would call dramatic. “Nothing. Benjamin and I have decided to part ways.”
“Why?” The question came out of Kala’s mouth directed at Kenzie, though her eyes were on Ben.
“It doesn’t matter.” Work. She could change Kala’s focus with work. “He’s had a call from Huisman. We need to meet in the conference room so he can fill us in.”
“Or I can leave since I’m obviously not needed here unless I’m playing your idiot stud.” Ben massaged his nose, but it didn’t look like she’d broken it. She’d pulled her punch.
Oh, Huisman had done spectacular work this time. “You don’t have to worry about that anymore, Ben. I get it. I was fun for a while, but the great Emmanuel Huisman has spoken and now I’m a whore who’s using you. Or is it worse? Am I after more than your hot bod? Am I distracting you for him? He’s trying to kill my father, but I’m probably working with him because that’s what women do, right?”
The words seemed to hit Ben as he briefly lost his angry expression. But it was okay because he’d obviously rationalized it all. “Or your father’s in on it, too. Wouldn’t that be perfect?”
“Dude, you think way too much of yourself,” Kala said, looking from Kenzie to Ben as if she wasn’t sure if she should comfort her sister or pull Ben’s balls off his body.
Cooper looked her way. “Can I trust you not to kill him?”
“I think Lucifer is right and he’s going to do more damage than I ever could,” Kala replied with absolutely no humor.
So that was where Lucy had gone. Well, it had to be awful for Lucy to call in Kala, but it looked like a day for everything to break down, including the fabric of the universe since Lucy stood way closer to her twin than she normally would.
“Oh, I disagree. I think we could do a lot of damage,” Lucy countered.
The last thing she needed was those two deciding they could actually work together. “It’s fine. Kala, you were right all along. He doesn’t love me. He doesn’t even like me. I was a means to an end, but we have to work together. I’m going to change and I’ll meet you up in the conference room. Leave Tim out of it.”
“I’m not leaving the only person I can trust out of it,” Ben shot back.
“I’ll go get the parents. Lucy, can you inform Ollie our play time is getting cut short?” Cooper was calm and collected. Like he’d always known it would end like this since it was how Kenzie’s relationships seemed to go. “Also, inform him that Ben has injured a submissive in anger and he shouldn’t be allowed on the dungeon floor again.”