Page 120 of Burning for You
“Yeah. But why would they care? Not even he cared, did he? He’s the most pissed off guy in America right now. You don’t want to know what Zac Moss sent him. The contents went way back to San Francisco.”
My heart stops. I did bump into Anton at a supermarket when I was there. In a photo, sure, they could make it look like a rendezvous.
“He gave up on you a long time ago, Caro.”
“What do you want, Josh?”
“I don’t want much from you. Organize a buy-back of Brilliance on my behalf, reinstate my status as the majority shareholder—using your funds, of course. I don’t think it’ll be too much for you, now that the share price is dismal. Publish an apology, say that your greedy boy-toy coerced you into doing what you did. That it was all an elaborate scheme to get rid of me.”
“Go to hell!”
As if on cue, Rupert rejoins us. I’m sure he’s been listening. “And give up Sass. Sell it to me, five cents to a dollar.” Being the co-founder of the company, his demand doesn’t surprise me.
“Fuck you, Rupert!”
“You’re so arrogant, do you know that? Hmm, Caro?” Rupert says. “You still don’t think I’m capable of hurting you.” He walks to a shelf and grabs a metal vase. “Do you remember how much it hurt? Having a crushed pelvis? This time you won’t ever fuck again. I guess I can say the Meyer dynasty will stop with you.”
I writhe hard. I don’t care about the pain, I just don’t want my baby to get hurt. “Please, Rupert, don’t,” I pant, almost sobbing.
Seeing me beg, Josh takes a deep breath. His eyes lust over me, and then he narrows his gaze at his partner. “Rupert, would you give us a moment?”
The Avatar duly leaves. He looks adamant that he doesn’t want to see what Josh is about to do.
“You might need a bit of persuasion,” Josh says, slipping a set of brass knuckles over his fingers. The coldness of the metal clenches my stomach. “I can kill your baby right now.”
“Josh, really? This isn’t you.”
I’ve never been so wrong in judging a man. He loved control, everybody knew, but not this way. I also knew that my ex-fiancé liked to maintain a tough-guy persona, but I’d always regarded it as typical male ego. Nothing more.
“What do they say? Power is sexy?” Josh mocks. “Oh, yeah. You were sexy that way. But you’re not my girlfriend anymore, it’s not my baby—and most of all, you’re a thorn in my side.”
He ends the sentence with a swing of his fist.
I respond to the hit with a groan. As the shock sinks in, I brace myself to assess which part of my body he’s marred. It was my shoulder.
“Please, don’t hurt my baby.”
“Then you have to agree to what I ask. Once you say yes, you’ll do it, then I’ll torture and kill that Holt boy myself. And then perhaps I’ll let your baby grow up. Hopefully a boy, so I can have the pleasure of killing him like I did his father.”
Josh is about to swing another punch.
“Alright! Alright. I’ll do as you say.”
“I never realized how hot you look when you’re scared. I guess you were never scared when you were with me, huh? Thinking I was just some kind of fool?”
“Josh, don’t!” I say when he runs his hand down my left leg. ‘Wide,’ he’d said to the men. He’s brought me here with the intention to rape me.
“Remember those days when you wanted me so bad, you couldn’t wait a day to have me?” Josh says, clutching at my thigh. “You may be pregnant, but geez, I miss your pussy. Especially today. It’ll be tight with fear, regret and hopelessness.”
Obviously excited by the thought, he strokes his cock. It gets longer, but it stalls.
I keep staring at him.
Josh increases the tempo, but he’s simply trying to extract water from a rock. Soon he abandons his cock. “Maybe I won’t fuck you after all. You’re so disgusting.” He then zips up his pants.
“It’s just the way you’re saying you could never keep up with me.”
“No man can ever keep up with you!” He puts a stronghold on my neck.