The Forbidden Line

7. Collateral Damage

The demanding kiss was finally broken when Valera ran out of air. Her breath gasped, rushing within the narrow space separating her body from Garrick Valentino’s broad chest. Both of Valera’s trembling hands were still held flat against the dark navy shirt covering the man’s chest, clutching the expensive fabric as her only support to keep her knees from buckling and dropping her to the marble floor.

Garrick did not distance his physical frame immediately. He kept confining Valera, letting his large thumb wipe away the residual salvation at the corner of Valera’s slightly swollen lips with a softness that felt like a threat. The thirty-eight-year-old man’s gray eyes glinted with satisfaction, staring down at his prey who was now completely lost for words.

"You always respond incredibly well, Valera. Your body is far more honest than that stubborn little mouth of yours," Garrick whispered, his voice husky and low, vibrating directly in front of Valera’s face.

Valera turned her face to the side, refusing to look into those eyes full of absolute dominance. A warmth spread across her cheeks, a mixture of the desire that had not yet fully extinguished and a sense of humiliation that scorched her pride.

"Let me go, Mr. Valentino. Lunch hour will end shortly, and your staff will return to this floor."

Garrick chuckled low, a masculine sound that sounded incredibly relaxed yet absolute. Instead of releasing her, Garrick’s hand grip on Valera’s waist tightened even further, pulling the girl’s body until it pressed perfectly against his firm physique.

"I told you, no one dares to knock on this door without my permission, sweetheart. Even if they knew exactly what we were doing inside here."

"But I care!" Valera finally looked up, her eyes welling with tears as she held back an absolute surge of emotion and frustration that bubbled over. "I have a reputation to maintain. I have a career I want to build cleanly without having to become the kept woman of my own best friend's Daddy! If you truly admire my work, let me work professionally. Do not confine me like this."

Upon hearing the phrase 'kept woman', Garrick’s sharp jawline instantly hardened. The playful glint in his gray eyes vanished in a split second, replaced by a gaze as cold as ice capable of intimidating the wealthiest boardroom in Manhattan. His grip on the back of Valera’s neck tightened slightly, forcing Valera to keep staring at him.

"Don't you ever diminish your position to something as cheap as that, Valera Dawson," Garrick said in a tone of voice that turned completely flat and full of emphasis. "You are not a kept woman. I do not pay for your apartment, I do not buy you jewelry to hide you away from the world, and I do not use my money to buy you. You are here because I want you. Absolute. And what a Garrick Valentino wants, is never let go."

Valera felt a cold dread crawl down her spine. The man in front of her was no longer the mature, charming man who had accompanied her in the Vermont villa. This was the ruler of Valen Group, a ruthless man capable of destroying a person’s life with just one official memo.

Garrick slowly loosened his grip, granting Valera room to breathe, yet his gaze did not shift for even a single second. He walked backward, returning behind his massive black glass work desk, and then reached for a sheet of an official document that had already been signed.

"Starting tomorrow, your internship duties will no longer be in the anteroom cubicle," Garrick said, donning his cold and untouchable CEO mask once more as though their intimate proximity a few seconds ago had never occurred. "You are being transferred to the special team handling the internal audit files for the Brooklyn project acquisition. You will work directly under my supervision inside this room. Your desk will be set up in the corner near that window."

Valera’s eyes widened.

"Inside this room? Along with you all day? Mr. Valentino, that will invite suspicion from Sophia and the entire staff on this floor! How am I supposed to explain this to Clarissa if she comes to visit?"

"That is your duty to find a logical reason, Ms. Dawson. You are the top law student in your class, are you not? Use your intelligence to construct a neat lie," Garrick replied coldly, placing the document on the edge of the desk. "Now, take this file and ask Sophia to process your new access card for this highest executive floor. You may step out."

Valera clenched her hands until her nails turned white. She stepped forward stiffly, reaching for the document with a hand that was still trembling slightly. She stared at Garrick with a gaze full of restrained anger, but the man had already focused back on his computer screen, ignoring Valera’s presence as though the girl were nothing but empty air.

With hurried steps, Valera turned the lock of the double oak doors and stepped out, closing the door behind her with a slight jerk.

Fortunately, the atmosphere outside the anteroom was still deserted. Valera immediately walked toward the female staff restroom located at the end of the corridor. As soon as she entered, she immediately locked the restroom stall door, leaning against the cold marble wall, and let her tears fall. The guilt toward Clarissa felt so suffocating. Clarissa was the only person who had sincerely embraced her when she felt isolated on campus, yet now she was instead engaging in a forbidden relationship with her own best friend’s Daddy.

Valera washed her face with cold water at the sink, staring at her reflection in the large silver mirror. Her lips were still slightly flushed, and her eyes looked dull. She knew she could not continuously be a submissive prey inside Garrick’s golden cage. The man thought he could control her entire life and freedom of movement just because he possessed immense power and wealth.

“No,” Valera whispered to herself inside her heart, her eyes which were initially full of fear now slowly transforming to become sharp and filled with determination. “If he wants to use my intelligence to lie, then I will use my position inside that room to find out his weakness. I will not let myself be destroyed by his obsession.”

As a law student studying corporate structure, Valera knew very well that every massive business empire bound to have secret cracks hidden away tightly. And with her being transferred into Garrick’s private workspace as part of the internal audit team, the man had subconsciously opened the door for Valera to access Valen Group's most confidential documents.

Valera straightened her blazer, dried her face with a paper towel, and then walked out of the restroom with her chin held high. The real game had only just begun. If Garrick Valentino thought he could easily dominate and possess Valera Dawson entirely without resistance, then the man had grossly misjudged his prey. Valera was ready to play with fire, even though she knew the risks of this game could burn her entire life and shatter her friendship with Clarissa forever.