Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 129687 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 519(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129687 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 648(@200wpm)___ 519(@250wpm)___ 432(@300wpm)
The knife was torn from his grasp as countless hands flipped him to his back. He tried to struggle. He tried to scream. But reality was as he had long feared, and there were just too damn many of them. In mere moments, the room reeked of the most depraved desires. It was all there - in the way they looked at him, the way they laughed as they tore the clothes off his body.
Tears burned against his eyelids, and he knew that the moment to choose had come.
Submit or fight.
Live or die.
He opened his eyes as he felt callous fingers part the cheeks of his ass.
THEO, SAVE ME!
And that was when she came.
One
"THESE PAPERS NEED TO be with Mr. Simonides A.S.A.P."
"I'll get someone from the mailroom—-"
Pippi's boss glanced up with a frown. "No, you won't." Mr. Collins' voice held an unusual note of reproach. "These papers are for our CEO, Ms. Jones. Do you truly think it's a good idea to entrust such important paperwork to one of our messengers?"
No, she did not, Pippi thought. But what was not a good idea either was having her come into proximity with any rich man, which she considered herself allergic to. And it did not help at all, she pondered gloomily to herself, that Acheron Simonides was a lot richer than probably ninety-nine percent of the global population.
But an order was an order, and after apologizing for her (deliberate) lapse of judgment, she took the thick folder from her boss' desk and excused herself from the room.
Pippi kept her head down as she made her way to the elevators, a gesture that was frequently misconstrued by her colleagues at work. Half of them thought it was a sign of aloofness. The other half believed it was only because Pippi was a workaholic.
All of them were wrong, though.
Dismay flared inside her when a discreet glance showed that the elevator was close to full when she stepped in and joined the others. No one looking at Pippi, however, would have guessed at her unease. The faintly distracted expression on her face, combined with the speed in which her fingers moved as she typed on her smartphone, lent an impression of not-to-be-disturbed efficiency.
If only they knew, Pippi thought wryly. Appearing busy and avoiding eye contact discouraged other people from making small talk with her, and it was one of the many little tricks she had learned over the years to mask her shyness.
When Pippi reached the lobby, reception had already been given instructions by Mr. Collins, and a security officer was tasked to walk her to the penthouse-exclusive elevator. As far as the rumor mills were concerned, only the company's highest-ranking executives had the chance of visiting the CEO in his personal domain. The privilege was wasted on her, though, and when the elevator finally made it to the 38th floor, she stepped out with ill-disguised reluctance, thick folder clutched to her chest like a shield.
The brightly-lit entrance hall, albeit impressively designed with a mixture of gleaming white marble and antique bricks, was vast and empty.
So this was the place, she thought. A few months ago, a scandal had rocked the office, with executives chancing upon a female manager giving Mr. Simonides a blowjob in this very place. The woman had recently been given a promotion, but Pippi couldn't help wondering if the pay raise was worth the notoriety that came with it. While she wasn't exactly a social pariah - the woman was too beautiful and worldly to let herself be treated as such - she wasn't exactly welcomed in the company's most conservative circles either.
Others would probably think the woman had it coming, Pippi ruminated, but where she was concerned, it was always the rich men that were to blame. Her father, a Chicago-based millionaire, was a prime example of that, and so had been all the failed past loves of her great-aunts.
Thinking about the Jones curse had Pippi gnashing her teeth as always, and she found herself stomping down the rest of the hallway. In her vexed mood, the beautiful artworks that lined the marbled walls lost its power to entrance her, and she might as well as be deaf to the musical magnificence of Franz Schubert's Quartettsatz in C Minor, which played softly in the background.
Upon reaching the double French doors at the end of the hallway, Pippi made sure to school her expression into one of impersonal efficiency. She could already feel a sea of shyness welling up inside of her, threatening to wash away her ability to be rational and coherent, but she managed to hold on to her control.
Just play it cool like you always do, Pippi reminded herself. Don't give him the smallest opportunity to strike a conversation, and you'll be on your way out before you know it.