Chapter 12

At the soft knock on the doorframe, Aiden looked up from his computer. While stifling a yawn, he let a grin slip onto his face. A rose-colored dress tight to her slender figure, Miss Graham slipped inside to lean against the wall beside the doorway. With his brows knitted, his chest tightened. The dress’s high collar covered the lingering marks along her throat.

“Good morning, sir.” With her head tilted, her dark eyes glimmered in the midmorning sun.

Despite memories of the night with Anna swirling in his mind, his grin widened. When another yawn slipped free, he started to cover his mouth. But, with a sigh, he lowered the hand. There was no point in hiding.

“I’d ask how you slept, but—” she began, but at the lift of his palm, fell silent.

While clasping the doorframe, a tremor rippled through her. When he caught the quiver, Aiden swallowed while lowering his arm.

“Sorry, Miss Graham.” He glanced at his palm, again on the table, before returning to her. “You know ... We haven’t ... I mean, I’m glad you’ve dumped—”

“He dumped me, sir.” Her nostrils flared. “All I said was I’d found somebody else. Before I could explain, he grabbed his shi—stuff and left.”

“Well. I’m glad, but...” His voice trailed off into a lengthy sigh.

“It’s alright, sir. I understand. Remember? I saw the ... Vision? Image? Echo? Whatever that was? She’s beautiful. And I can ... I don’t understand how, but I sense she’s good for you. And you’re what she needs.”

“Tonight, I’m taking Anna, that’s her name, to Dumont’s shindig.” At the swift drop of Eva’s eyes, he sighed. “But next week, you’re mine.”

At her abrupt tremble, he stood and strode to her. After a quick glance to ensure the hall was empty behind her, he gripped her waist in both hands. As music roared into life and flames sputtered around them in the suddenly blurring and spinning room, he yanked her from the wall.

“Mine. We begin. You and I, alone.” When she moaned, shoving towards him, he held her steady, keeping her squirming body from driving into him. Such need. Her eyes were alight. “We’ll start with the basics. I will teach. And you ... You, Miss Graham, are to learn.”

“Y-yes, sir,” hissed from her trembling lips as wispy tendrils whirled around her.

“Good. I made you a promise. You’ll be mine. And that, I haven’t forgotten.” He leaned closer, his gaze boring into the quivering woman. “Also, Anna knows. You’re just as much a part of my life. Or soon will be. Clear?”

“Clear, um, sir.”

After he’d released her, Eva staggered backward. With a quiet gasp, she latched a shaky hand on the doorframe. Under the furious bombardment of multi-colored, flame-wrapped swirls and strident ancient melodies, he also swayed.

“Good. Now, we’ve got a company to run. I’ll see you in the conference room.”

Right as she nodded and started to turn away, he gripped her wrist. She froze, her eyes flicking to his.

“I will take care of you—Eva. I promise.”

At her slow nod, he smiled. No more words were needed. And after releasing her, she headed for her distant cubicle. But the needy glances she sent his way before disappearing left his heartbeat racing. And the ring’s singing became more ardent.

An hour later, despite the usual tightening in his chest as he marched closer, Aiden was whistling under his breath. After one step inside the crowded conference room, the jaunty tune died on his lips.

Seated beside Madame Dumont’s still empty chair was Dennis Hawthorne. Again in a charcoal suit bursting at its seams, the corpulent man flashed him an anxious grin. Beneath thinning gray swept-over hair, his forehead glistened. Aiden sighed; at least the jealousy was gone from behind his eyes.

The second punch struck him when he glanced beyond Dennis. Sitting in a chair against the wall, Eva dropped her gaze. And that pulled a longer exhale from Aiden as he eased past to find his seat at the far end of the table.

The third blow landed when Madame Dumont glided into the room wrapped in a black leather dress. Unkind, cold, and cruel, a grin was tight on her drawn face. As she caught and held Aiden’s stare, the slivered smile widened. Amused, her eyes twinkled.

Though his torso tightened into a steel ball, and fists clamped ever tighter, Aiden remained fixed, his face neutral, on her smiling visage. But at a sudden low melody, drifting from the ring, his core rippled. As the room matched the rippling, everyone’s murmuring voices disappeared into a muffled rumble. Clad in ice, his heart drummed. After glancing at Eva, her face still lowered, he scanned Dennis, smiling while fawning over the boss.

When Aiden returned to her, Madame Dumont’s chilly smile remained, but her brows had knitted. Even as her head tilted ever so slightly, Aiden forced a taut grin. She wouldn’t best him. The ring’s tune intensified; she couldn’t best him. But she didn’t recognize that yet. In the ring’s dark cage, a sudden flash of orange erupted. Flickering tongues of flame spouted to rise along the circle of metal.

“What do you know?” he murmured while lifting his tablet and facing the first presenter.

Later that day, it was well after lunch when he tore his gaze from a flight of birds diving in the sunlight to stare at his phone. Every second of the morning meeting, and even more so whenever she’d glanced at him, his curiosity about Madame Dumont heightened.

Ever since he’d been called to her office, she’d floated around in the back of his mind. The ring had been so adamant he could have her.

“Why?” he whispered as sunshine sent a glinting beam across his window. “There must be a clue. Hmm, somewhere in her background?”

At the ring’s sudden flaring and a loud burst of music from its dark hide, Aiden sighed. When he returned to the window, the birds had flown away. As the familiar tingling strengthened within him, he stared at his hands. Re-energized. His jaw shifted from side to side. Because of Anna? The promise to Eva? Knowing Gina Davis was soon to visit?

When Kim’s faint visage appeared, his heartbeat stumbled. Her smile was the widest he’d seen.

“Okay. Okay. I get it.” He sighed, then flashed her a grin. How could he resist? He never could. “You’re happy that I’m happy. But the ring? What does it desire?” His eyes narrowed as he stared into the distance, focusing on the faint murky darkness of its cage. “What do you want? What benefit would you gain from me and Madame Dumont?”

Though it said nothing, a single image formed from cloudy orange vapors. The ring. In bright sunlight.

“That’s it?” While standing, he ran his fingers through his hair. “Somehow. Me with her gets you what? Freedom?” He chuckled. “Why don’t I simply toss—” At the brain-melting shriek from the ring, Aiden’s chest clenched. His hands flew upwards to clamp his skull. “Alright! Alright, I won’t do that. But you owe me answers, ring.”

After snatching the phone from his desk, he dialed while striding to the sheet of glass. Another trio of birds played in a scattering of sunbeams. After a single tone, the call was answered.

“Hello, Kitten.”

“Hi, Aiden.” The low voice of Kendra Owens’ sexy husband, Tim, sent a smile careening across Aiden’s face.

“I need your help. And your wife’s.”

“Of course, sir.”

Even as Tim spoke, Aiden’s heart twisted. Memories flooded. All the fun they’d had, both with the slender, effeminate man and his beautiful wife. Again, his soul torqued. And he could hear the longing in Kitten’s shaky voice. Yet, despite knowing the sacrifice, they’d been supportive of him leaving for the city after Kim’s death.

“I, um, miss you, Kitten.” With the edges of his vision blurring, Aiden swept a tear away with the back of his hand. “And her.”

“We ... Well, she’s, uh, not been the same.” Other than quiet sniffling, silence stretched for a while before Tim’s shaky whisper returned. “Nor have I, sir.”

“I know,” Aiden murmured. When the ring blazed, Aiden crushed it. It grumbled. If he’d only permit it, the ring would remind him of them. All. The. Time. “Soon. I, uh, promise. It’s just that right now—”

“Our help? Of course, sir,” Kitten’s reply was followed by a curt sniffle. “What’s going on?”

“There’s a woman. My boss.” Aiden inhaled. It wasn’t the first time he’d asked for their assistance. They’d gotten him into graduate school. But Kendra and Tim also ran Owens Diversified Global Investments. Worth billions, its fingers were in almost every business deal around the globe. At that level, everyone knew everybody else. “Dumont. Sophia Dumont. What can you find out about her?”

As a chilly breeze tumbled paper along the sidewalk, Aiden shifted from foot to foot. Before his apartment building, he was leaning against the wall in the pitch blackness just outside a lamppost’s circle of light. At a low beep, he tugged the phone from his black tuxedo and grinned.

A text from Kendra.

Master, I uncovered some very interesting information about your Sophia Dumont. She was an exchange student from Paris. Ended up becoming very popular. Lol. Special permit to remain in the US. Signed off by a couple of Congressmen. See attached for the justification. The real one, not the one on the official forms.

At the first image, his eyebrows shot skyward. Was that really her? But as he scanned more of the grainy stills, they raised ever further. When he lifted to stare into the distance, the same strange music wafted from the ring. His eyes flicked upwards towards the inky darkness and his apartment, seeking the shadowy wall safe.

“You knew? How?”

With a long exhale, he returned to shuffle through the photos. Wrapped in black leather, with openings for easy access, a younger Sophia Dumont was in various poses. The easy access? In each shot, various men filled her. While in many images, they appeared to be her age, in others, she was being used by older men.

In all of them, on yachts, in high-rise penthouses, on jets, in mansion after mansion, the same intense smile graced her youthful face. Even if she was exhausted, it was profound. Pure bliss. Even with shiny thick shafts stretching her slobbering lips, her dark brown pools sparkled.

“And you think she desires...” He glanced back up at the apartment. “She craves being treated like that again?”

At rhythmic click clacks echoing in the night, he shifted his gaze to the building exit. Every image of Madame Dumont vaporized from his mind as Anna approached. With the ring’s music swapping to its upbeat melody, his heartbeat raced.

Tight to her voluptuous curves, a shiny black dress was supported by a pair of straps. While one ran beneath an armpit, the other swooped over her opposing shoulder. The effect was to bare one side and most of her back. Its dramatic asymmetrical hemline exposed a thigh while draping the opposing ankle. Long strands of diamonds glittered as they swung from her ears while a diamond-studded black choker wrapped her neck. On both wrists, matching diamond bracelets glimmered.