But it didn’t break me.
That is not the thing that broke me, and he knows it.
Jude Kuzmin broke me long before he locked me away from the light.
The darkness in his stormy blue eyes threatens that thing again, and that’s the only reason he has my undivided attention.
“What is it?” I ask, cutting into the silence.I hate when he just sits there looking at me.I never know what to expect. “What do you want to talk to me about?”
“Your attitude. It needs to be fixed.” He holds up the contract.“This is a reminder that I own you.”
Own.God, I hate that word.
He’s right, though.
Owned is exactly what I will be if I don’t find Eric.
Owned because of the great mistake Grandfather made when he gave this devil the title of C.E.O of the company and opened the door for him to invest.
Jude took over after Eric’s supposed death and claimed we owed him billions.That’s where I come in. In the event of Eric’s death, I’m next in line to inherit the company.
My grandfather’s stipulation the clause become active on my twenty-sixth birthday is supposed to be a safety measure.
Neither my father nor grandfather wanted me to become trapped in this exact situation where I’d be a pawn in a game of wealth via an arranged marriage.
Their safety measures, however, counted for nothing.
My grandfather couldn’t have foreseen this devil who he trusted would want both me and the company.And if I fight back, it means death to me and my mother.
That is the situation.
“If you don’t fuck with me, I won’t fuck with you,” Jude smiles.“Of course, that doesn’t mean I won’t continue to fuck you.”
Lust clouds his eyes, and bile churns my stomach when I think of the countless times this man has had me.
“I didn’t think so,” I rasp out.
He laughs. It’s a sound as cruel and wicked as he is.
I’ve heard it said before, a woman can always tell when a man is interested by the way he looks at her.Well, I’ve known about Jude’s interest in me since I was ten.
He’s twenty-two years my senior. In the past, he’d take every chance he got to look at me exactly the way he is now whenever Grandfather or anybody else who could protect me wasn’t around.
Every time I caught him looking it was like he was waiting for his chance to have me.The first time he raped me happened only a week after he told us Eric and his best friend, Robert, died in a car crash.
That week was the worst in my life, especially since I’d lost my father only months before, and Mom became paralyzed in a crash following that.
His assault on me took what little I had left to hold on to.
Since then, I’m always on edge when I’m around him.
So, when he stands and comes closer, I stand too.That way I have a better chance at protecting myself if he hurts me.Last time I wasn’t prepared and ended up with a black eye.
With a shit-eating grin, he walks me back to the wall so I’m against it with nowhere to go.
Placing a large hand beside me, he looms closer and glares into my eyes.
“You will do as you’re told, and you will not talk back to me.”