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)
“You’re curious, aren’t you?” He drawls the question. “You want to know what it’s like to be taken by a man like me. A lot of women feel that way. But not a lot of women can handle being used the way I use them. It takes strength to be with a man like me, Charlie.”
I’m holding my breath, almost as if I’m drowning. He makes me lightheaded with his intensity. It’s something in his eyes, an expression I’ve never seen in anybody else before. I could call it predatory, but it’s more than that. True predators have hunger. They are hunting to survive. But Marcus isn’t hungry. He can eat whenever he wants. This is all about amusement of a dark and carnal kind. I am being toyed with.
“I don’t think that’s entirely true,” I stammer. “I don’t need to know what it’s like to… I mean. I’m not…”
He smiles and hands me another drink. This one is in a cocktail glass and tastes like coffee and chocolate. I sip at it before taking a longer draught. I don’t usually drink when I’m trying to do journalism, but he makes me feel like I need to relax.
“I think you were enchanted by the painting, and I think that’s the reason you can’t get it out of your mind. I think that’s why you have been testing my patience since you met, why your every question is impertinent, and why you’ve come here, to the roof of a building, in a bar that has no name, in a building that doesn’t technically exist.”
I let out a nervous little laugh. “How can a building not exist? It’s very large. It’s a skyscraper. It has your name on the side, or at least the first letter of it.”
“In our world, things only exist where there are digital records of them. Without the record to refer to, nothing exists officially. You can remove the existence of a great many things if you know the right thing to remove. You can erase places, and…” His lips quirk in a dangerous smirk. “People.”
I feel my pulse quicken, as the threat becomes immediately apparent. He is telling me he is capable of making me disappear forever. Is that because he wants to scare me? Or is it because he simply cannot help but brag about his power? I do not imagine a man like him gets much in the way of opportunities to really expose himself this way.
Monsters like to show themselves from time to time. Everybody likes to be seen for who they are, after all. There is a lot to see in Marcus Waterstone’s eyes. I have no evidence for it, but right now I have the distinct sense that all the rumors about him are not only true—but they also barely scratch the surface. This is a man who wants to be known and wants to be feared, and can’t be either of those things because he also needs to be socially acceptable.
He may like to hold others in bondage, but Marcus Waterstone is so wrapped up in whatever color tape represents social obligation and a proper appearance that he can barely move most of the time.
I make the choice not to be afraid of him. Not now. Not yet.
“That is an interesting thing to say to a journalist, Mr. W.”
Marcus gives me a slightly annoyed look. “Mr. W makes me sound like a math teacher.”
Oh, he really does not like his gravitas being undermined, especially not when he’s in the middle of playing up how big and bad he is.
Marcus
Her eyes dance at me as she sips her drink, or what is left of it after she more or less downed it in a single nervous gulp. I get a sense of disobedient mischief about her yet again. What I said to her is true, and I think she knows as much. But she is resisting giving me the response that I want. Charlie is a tough little nut—one I would love to crack.
I want to make this woman tremble before me. At first I thought she was forward, bold, and cute. But the longer I spend in her presence, the more I realize she has an intellect and a spark that I don’t often encounter. I am surrounded by smart women, of course, but the ones I usually tolerate working for me have a proper sort of glaze over them.
They are wives, mothers. They are women who want to work hard and achieve great things. I provide them with ample opportunities for both. The younger women employed in my organization are kept at an appropriately professional distance. I do not screw the crew, as the saying goes.
But this young lady is not one of the crew. I’ve selected her because she is different. There is a pointedness to her curiosity, and something sharp about her wit. She tried to hide it at first, but there is an acerbic tang to so much of what she says. Even when her tone is neutral, I can practically taste the acid.