Chase's large hand clamped down hard on Adriane's waist.
Her skin was burning hot through the thin fabric of her clothes. She trembled violently against his chest, her hips instinctively pressing into him.
Before Chase could speak, Brandi stepped out from the shadows of the hallway.
Brandi walked up to Chase with a sickeningly sweet, apologetic smile. She held out the iPad.
"I am so sorry, Mr. Barnett," Brandi said, playing the role of a high-end madam perfectly. "Ms. Owens is a bit eager tonight. But she has already been booked by another client."
Chase looked at the screen. It displayed a completed crypto transaction. Two hundred thousand dollars. The recipient name was Adriane Owens.
The numbers burned into Chase's retinas. The last thread of his sanity snapped.
He remembered her begging for exactly two hundred thousand dollars in his study. She wasn't lying about needing the money. She was just willing to sell her body to get it.
A wave of violent, possessive rage exploded in his chest.
Chase snatched the iPad from Brandi's hands and smashed it against the wall. The screen shattered into a hundred pieces.
Brandi gasped and jumped back.
Chase turned his eyes on her. They were pitch black and lethal. "Get out of my sight before I kill you."
Brandi didn't wait. She turned and ran for the stairs.
Chase looked down at Adriane. She was writhing against him, whimpering in pain from the drug.
He bent down and scooped her up into his arms. He carried her down the hall and kicked open the door to his private presidential suite.
He slammed the door shut with his foot. The heavy lock clicked into place.
Chase walked over to the massive leather sofa and threw her down.
Adriane let out a soft moan as she hit the cushions. Her unseeing eyes were wide and filled with a hazy, terrifying mix of fear and need.
Chase ripped his tie completely off and threw it on the floor. He stood over her, his chest heaving.
"Is this what you are?" Chase snarled, his voice dripping with venom. "A two-hundred-thousand-dollar whore?"
Adriane couldn't understand the words. The drug was boiling her blood. She only knew that the cold air radiating from him was the only thing that could stop the burning.
She reached up. Her trembling, hot hands grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him down.
That single, desperate action set Chase on fire.
He crashed down onto her. He captured her lips in a brutal, punishing kiss. There was no tenderness. It was pure, violent possession. He bit down on her bottom lip until he tasted blood.
Adriane gasped, her lungs burning for air. A single tear escaped her eye and rolled into her hair, but her body betrayed her, arching up to meet his anger.
The sound of tearing fabric filled the silent room.
The pain of his rough hands mixed with the agonizing pleasure of the drug. Adriane thrashed wildly beneath him, her hands grasping for anything to push him away. Her fingers caught the edge of his tailored sleeve, pulling hard against the fabric. A sharp snap echoed in the dark as the chain of his custom black onyx cufflink broke under her desperate grip, sending the heavy metal piece tumbling silently onto the nightstand. Adriane's fingernails dug deeply into the broad muscles of Chase's back, dragging down and leaving long, bloody scratches across his skin.
Chase felt the sting of her nails. It only fueled the dark, twisted satisfaction in his gut. She belonged to him. Only him.
The heavy, suffocating darkness of the suite swallowed them whole.
The punishment lasted for hours. Every touch was a battle, every breath a war of misunderstandings.
Hours later, the drug finally burned itself out. Adriane's body went completely limp. She passed out from sheer exhaustion and pain.
Chase sat up against the headboard. He lit a cigar. The cherry glowed red in the dark. He stared at the bruised, broken woman sleeping beside him, his chest tight with a heavy, unnamable darkness.
