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Chapter 14 : Assets
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Empire of Dominance Chapter 15 : King of the Castle
Raven was shocked at herself. She didn’t want to admit to herself that she knew what she’d just said, and she knew it was true. She imagined herself at graduation, getting her diploma, suddenly being able to see all those months down the line when she’d be sitting in this limo, with her shirt torn open, with the kind of bargain she was agreeing to fresh on her lips. An “asset.” College Raven would know what that meant, just as well as the Raven of the present moment. Coldly defined, laid out in the open. She was confused. With the situation, with herself, with this enigma of a man in front of her.The man who was still talking to her, saying these vastly important things she’d forgotten to listen to.She tuned back in with an effort, dragging her mind back into gear.“As long as you retain your value for me, in both categories—as an analyst and as a lover—you will have whatever you want. As long as, per your conditions, those two categories don’t impact each other.”“W
Empire of Dominance Chapter 16 : Only a Little While
Kade’s POV Kade Sinclair sat at his desk as the day was winding to an end and the sunset majestically shone outside his massive office window. He watched each small light flick on along the city’s long avenues, in the office buildings and the apartments and the townhouses. All of it was part of the vast mechanism of the machine, and he knew every beating inch of it, especially the pieces in the light and the darkness, too.His city. His power. Rivals had come and gone, challenged and fallen. They would keep coming and keep falling. And he would still be here.In part, he knew this, thanks to the papers on his desk now in front of him. They were Raven’s findings from the previous Monday, just before the debacle in the limo. The night everything had nearly gone to pieces.Kade ran his eyes over the data again and again. He knew she knew what she’d uncovered, that she didn’t have to spell it out. But he also couldn’t admit that she was running circles around him, numbers-wise
Empire of Dominance Chapter 17 : Not On Your Life
Raven’s POV Raven couldn’t wait until bright and early to look inside the folder. She ordered a car to drive her home, conscious of mitigating any risks of walking openly or riding the subway. Risk? What was she thinking? She was slipping into Kade’s paranoia. She shook her head.Getting into the file would be good for another reason. She’d barely managed to say no tonight. Even though she knew it was the right choice, her body was still buzzing in the aftermath. She held her key steady with an effort as she opened the door to her apartment.She stood shivering out the last of the tremulous, dangerous energy in the dark quiet of her apartment. She gathered herself with an effort, letting the air conditioning chill her skin.But right now, she could still be in that office, getting wrecked on the carpet of Kade’s office, testing the limits of pleasure all over again…She shook her head, hard.“Get it together, girl,” she whispered.Kade was not a good man. He wasn’t ki
Empire of Dominance Chapter 18 : What If?
Raven had been in the office a full two hours before Andre and Sharon arrived the next day.She waved at her coworkers as they stepped out of the elevator.“Morning!”“Morning,” Sharon said, a bit more slowly. “…How long have you been here?”“Not long,” Raven lied, smiling.“Weren’t you here early yesterday too…?”“Not that early.”Andre put her coffee on her desk in front of her, and Raven leaned forward as if to take it—but also to cover the content of the folder in front of her with her arm.“Hey, don’t take this the wrong way, honey,” said Andre gently. “But you look like a candle burning at both ends. The bags under your eyes would put a raccoon to shame.”Raven forced a laugh. “Yikes. Is there a right way to take that?”“We’re worried.” Sharon was blunt and warm at once, and Raven wondered what she’d done to deserve such a generous and open woman as her friend. “You’re working yourself too hard, Raven.”Privately, Raven agreed. Getting into the office so ear
Empire of Dominance Chapter 19 : Power Struggle
Raven was exactly where she was supposed to be at 10 pm: standing at Kade’s door. She hadn’t delivered her findings at the end of the work day, but not for the same reason she hadn’t been delivering them for the past few days. She wanted to do this in Kade’s space—in his home. She’d denied him Monday. She knew she couldn’t do so again. That was outside her power. But she could demonstrate her knowledge, her capability—as if that were somehow a counterbalance to her powerlessness in… other regards.Kade buzzed her in as usual, wordlessly. When she walked into the penthouse, there was a single, absurdly red long-stemmed rose lying alone on the countertop.Something settled in her stomach. She’d been entertaining the possibility—the terrible possibility—that she’d been wrong, and the roses hadn’t been sent by Kade at all but rather by the subject of her investigation as some kind of emotional sabotage. Nothing felt impossible just now. But the sight of the single rose settled an
Empire of Dominance Chapter 20 : Don't Disappoint Me
She went as ordered at 6pm, the diamonds burning a hole in her briefcase the way that the folder had. The bill on rideshares was getting absurd, but there was no way she was walking down the sidewalk, however short a distance, with this small fortune in her bag. Besides anything else, she’d probably just combust from anxiety. Or disbelief. Or anger.What was Kade doing? So much for “nothing romantic.” Where the hell did she stand with him now?She punched the call button on his private apartment entrance, feeling as if someone were shining an absurd, cartoonish spotlight on her: behold, a very confused quasi-fuck-buddy! Maybe!The door buzzed open, and she took yet another one of the longest elevator rides of her life.“Good. You’re on time.”Kade’s voice was obsidian-sharp as ever, but he sounded—different. In an instant, she saw why.He stood in front of her, adjusting the sleeves of an extremely stylish and extremely expensive tuxedo shirt.Raven stared at him in pure,
Empire of Dominance Chapter 21 : Burt Johnson
To Raven, it felt incredibly funny—and incredibly appropriate—that her first date with Kade was a farce.The limo pulled up in front of the massive colonnades of the city’s major fine arts museum. Raven focused in, trying not to think about Brandon and their promised date from whole days and lifetimes ago. This was too important to be distracted. Or bitter.Kade was stiffly upright on the bench beside her, elbow resting against the headrest beside him. His eyes were overbright and miles away in thought.“We’re here,” she said, gently trying to nudge him back to the present. “Any tips?”Kade leveled that cold gaze at her. Back in the moment. “Don’t flinch. These people can smell fear.”“So can I,” smiled Raven. “How’s my lipstick?”“Bloody.”“Perfect.”His hand slid along her leg, almost absently, as his fingers flexed against her thigh. Better than any pep talk.The limo door was opened from the outside, and Kade slid out ahead of her. He buttoned his tuxedo jacket wi
Empire of Dominance Chapter 22 : Signature Style
Raven must have blacked out for a second in a moment of flat, absolute shock.When she came back to herself, everyone was screaming. The world was a blast of noise and motion all at once. She was pinned and laid limp under the massive, dead weight of Burt Johnson’s corpse.He’d been about to tell her the truth. She’d been so close, and someone had killed him. Just like that. Brutal. Efficient.Someone was listening to every word.Which meant they’d heard her questioning him.So… why wasn’t she dead too?She couldn’t move. Someone was shouting orders over all the screaming. Shadows whirled overhead past the vacant pits of Burt Johnson’s empty eyes.Suddenly, his weight was yanked off of her in one gargantuan tug of force. Raven gasped in a breath—had she stopped breathing? Johnson’s blood was going rapidly cold on her skin. For a long second, that was the most real, tangible thing in the whole world.Then she was looking into Kade Sinclair’s dark, dark eyes. For a strang
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