The dress he held up was little more than a slip of glittery red fabric with the sides cut out. He threw both it and the shoes on the bed. “Put that on. Your buyer’s going to be here any minute.”
My buyer? My stomach sank like a stone, and I glanced at the dress. But I didn’t make a move toward it.
K Diamond slammed a fist into his hand.
“You going to fight me on this?” he asked. “I can’t touch your face, but believe me, I can make this painful for you if you don’t do what I say. Then you’ll still end up having to give me a strip show.”
The thought of doing anything this slimy snake told me to do grated over my tired nerves. And the idea of stripping for him made me want to throw up.
But I had to ask myself the hard question. Fight now with K Diamond or fight later with the buyer, who wouldn't be strapped if I was lucky.
Fight later, I decided after a calculated moment.
Swallowing down my nausea, I took off my shorts and t-shirt and snatched the dress off the bed. At least I was wearing a bikini underneath my clothes. Still, I found it hard to bear the slimy feel of his eyes on my body as I put on the cheap dress over it.
I didn’t give him any kind of show, but that didn’t keep K Diamond from grinning lecherously at me as I put on the heels.
“It’s too bad the buyer said I wasn’t allowed to fuck you.” K Diamond looked me up and down and licked his lips. Like a hyena. “I deserve to hit that after everything Han put me through.”
“Yet it’s not up to you,” a stern voice said behind K Diamond.
K Diamond whipped around, revealing who had just walked into the storage room.
And my heart soared when I saw the man in the lightweight suit with tattoos peeking out from his open shirt collar—only to plummet when I looked closer.
The guy exuded power and had a similar way of speaking as Han. But he wasn’t Han. He sported neck tats and the same underlying sharply planed facial structure, but none of Han’s Fae king beauty.
His real identity dawned on me in a sick instant…
And he confirmed my terrible guess when he stepped forward and introduced himself. “Hello. I am Delun Han. Zhiwei’s brother. And you now belong to me.”
38
JAZZ
Delun.
Han’s brother was here. Not the chosen one he’d returned to the East Coast to help. But the half-brother he hated.
And who apparently, hated him back enough to buy me.
Delun came to stand in front of K Diamond, and his eyes gleamed with smug triumph as he beheld me in the skimpy outfit.
“You were right,” he said to K Diamond. “She’s even prettier than the pictures you sent.”
He examined me the same way I looked over every inch of a used board before buying one for my class. It made my skin crawl.
“Such fresh, innocent beauty. I can see why Zhiwei likes you. We don’t encounter many girls like you in our world.”
“He doesn’t like me. He loves me, you asshole,” I let him know.
“Feisty, too. I will have fun teaching you how to speak to me.” He looked over his shoulder to share a laugh with K Diamond. At my expense.
Then he viciously grabbed me just like K Diamond did the first time we met, but worse. His fingers dug into my cheeks so hard I was afraid my jawbone would break under the pressure before he shoved me backward towards the mattress.
I stumbled. The heels I’d been made to put on were not my friends when it came to balancing. But no, no, I couldn’t let myself get into a vulnerable position. I stayed on my feet and somehow managed not to fall back on the mattress.
And when I regained my balance, I looked Delun in the eye—right before spitting in his face.
Rage twisted Delun’s face—but then he smoothed over his expression and wiped my spittle from his face.
“On second thought, K Diamond. I am going to let you have her. Fuck her now in front of me.”
K Diamond looked from side to side, suddenly not so sure of himself. “She hasn’t eaten any of the drugged food. So she’s going to put up a fight.”
Delun nodded approvingly. “Even better. You fuck her, then let that Filipino fuck her too. You two can take turns with her until she learns not to fight back. Like you said, for your trouble.”
Unfortunately, this was a reframing K Diamond liked. The wariness in his eyes faded and was replaced with anticipation as he took a step toward me.
Okay, I suddenly understood the full meaning of “over my dead body.” A fierce calm rose inside of me, the knowledge that these bitches would have to carry me out of her in a body bag before I let K Diamond touch me.
