Them.
There were three of them, and they were absolutely gorgeous. They were all three dressed impeccably in tailored suits, and they sat on a couch, drinking slowly from rocks glasses as a beautiful girl in a short white dress with long black hair danced in front of them.
The club was full of good-looking, powerful men. But as soon as I saw the three of them sitting across the room, I knew the rest of the place paled in comparison to these men.
Everyone else there worked to show how powerful and rich they were.
These three just exuded it, naturally.
They were stunningly good looking — all smoky eyes, chiseled jaws, impeccable hair, and clearly built frames straining at those suits. But beyond that, they just seemed to pulse with the type of power that dominates a room.
The type of power that demands obedience.
My breath caught as my eyes were just drawn to them, held fast by the way they seemed to pull the energy of the room around them like some sort of vortex.
They scared me. But there was something so visceral about the way they just pulled my attention. And there was something about how in a room full of the powerful, they seem to command the place in a way that sent a thrill of something…I don’t know, something heated through me.
And again, they were gorgeous.
One was blonde, with blue eyes so sharp I could see them clear across the room, and his strong, squared jaw and perfect cheekbones gave him a sort of Nordic Viking look. The man next to him, smiling thinly at the dancing girl as he sipped a glass of something had similarly piercing blue eyes, only with dark black hair and long, almost enviable lashes.
It was the last man though, that really sent a shiver of something frightening through me. Dark hair, dark eyes, and a faint stubble across his perfect jawline — his face held a sort of brooding darkness that had my breath catching in my throat and my fingers tightening on the stem of my champagne flute.
“Let’s get one thing fucking straight.”
I gasped as Ryan spun me around. “You’re here with me, got it?” he hissed. Any semblance of the man who’d smiled charmingly at me in the restaurant was gone as his eyes narrowed at me. “You’re mine tonight.”
I swallowed, wanting so badly to just run away from this whole thing, but not sure how to tell my feet to do that. I couldn’t believe I was there, and I couldn’t believe I’d let Andrea talk me into this!
“Let’s go.”
Ryan yanked me after him, my feet half tripping as he marched me to a booth of our own.
“Dance for me.”
I shook my head, stammering. “W-what?”
“I said dance for me, slut.”
My jaw dropped. “Who the fuck do you think—”
“Jesus Christ,” he growled, suddenly grabbing me and yanking me onto his lap. He started to push me down, and I stumbled as I fell to my knees in front of where he sat. Suddenly, Ryan started to reach for his zipper.
“Okay, no.” I yelled. This was my breaking point, and I was done with this bullshit. No money was worth this.
I shook my head as I started to get up. “Absolutely not! Keep your fucking money! I’m—”
I gasped as he grabbed me by the hair, yanking me back down as he started to get out of his seat.
“You’re embarrassing me, you little bit—”
“It appears we have a problem here.”
I froze at the sound of that voice — dark, powerful, supremely confident, and with almost a hint of benign humor in it.
Ryan suddenly let go of me at the sound of the silken baritone behind me.
“Keep out of this, Blackwood.”
“I’d love to — we’d love to, actually, except you’re making a scene.”
I swallowed the heat from my face as I slowly turned…
And my heart flip-flopped.
It was them — the three men I’d seen earlier exuding raw power from across the room. My eyes went wide as I looked up at them, all three men turning to let their eyes sizzle over me in a way that had my skin tingling.
If they’d looked powerful from across the room, they were demigods this close.
The one who’d spoke was the one with the dark hair and the piercing blue eyes — eyes that lanced right into me as he calmly reached down and offered a hand.
Ryan slapped it away.
“Leave it, you prick. This one’s mine.”
“That’s not how it works,” the tall, Viking-looking blonde man spoke this time, his voice steely and edged. “You know that’s not how things are done, Cunningham.”
“And you know who my father is.”
“We do,” the third man growled, those dark eyes glinting wickedly. “We just actually don’t give a shit.”
“Rules are rules, Cunningham,” the first man spoke. “You don’t bring them here unless she’s been formally purchased at the auction.”
My heart slipped again as my brows shot up. Formally purchased?! The auction?
Where the fuck was I?
The man Ryan had addressed as Blackwood reached down again. I swallowed as I took his hand, and when the contact was made, I felt a shiver of raw…something lance right though me. He pulled me effortlessly to my feet, and suddenly, I was face to face with all three of them.
It was like looking at consuming darkness.
“I believe I’d have remembered if I’d seen you here before,” the blonde man spoke, his eyes searing into mine, making my whole body warm.
“I— I’ve never, I mean—”
“We’re aware of that,” the dark haired, dark-eyed man said grimly, also eyeing me in a way that had me chewing at my lip and curling my toes.
“Which means you don’t belong to anyone,” he added.
My brow shot up? “What? Oh, no, I—”
“Yet.”
My mouth snapped shut, and my eyes went wide at the fierce look on his face.
“She’s mine, you fucking pricks,” Ryan hissed from behind me.
“Not yet she isn’t,” Blackwood growled.
“There’s an auction—”
“Tonight, we know,” the blonde man said icily. “But I know I haven’t seen her on the roster.”
They were speaking about me like I was some sort of commodity, and like I wasn’t standing right in front of them.
Quickly, I shook my head, taking a step away from all four of them. “You know what? I’m done here.”
“Done here?” The dark-eyed man said with a small smile across his chiseled, perfect jaw.
“I— yes,” I managed to get out. “I think I’m here by mistake, actually.” I glanced at Ryan quickly, seeing him glaring daggers at me. “And I think I should be going.”
I whirled, and before they could say or do anything, I bolted.
I ran, feeling my face burn at the shocked looks from the other people there, but I didn’t care. I half-tripped up the stairs and yanked open the double doors to the deep red foyer room. For a second, the front doors didn’t budge an inch, which had the panic rising inside me. But then the interior ones did, and then they opened.
I went tumbling out, past the two men out front and ignoring whatever they were saying as I ran off into the New York night.
Tears stung my face as I finally stopped running a few blocks away, and I shook my head angrily as I wiped them away. I felt utterly humiliated, and used, and lied to.