UNFORTUNATELY........... I FEEL

CHAPTER NINE

## Disgusting my foot ##

We had finally found our seat. The one with our names on a small gold plate.

More like _his_ seat.

I’d heard he’d never brought a female escort before. No one had ever sat beside him. Which meant mine... mine was added last minute. An afterthought.

Our seat was on the very top floor of the auditorium. Isolated.

The chairs there were massive, nothing like the red velvet ones down below. These were black. Deep, matte black that seemed to swallow the light around them. Just looking at them gave me this cold, heavy feeling in my chest, like the room itself was warning me.

The view from up here was perfect. We could see everything. Everyone.

I sat down slowly and looked around.

Every single person on this floor was different. They didn’t talk. They didn’t fidget. They just... existed, with this thick, dark aura around them that made the air feel heavier. It was mystifying.

The men sat with their legs apart, backs straight, chins lifted. Like a nation was standing right behind them and it was their job to protect it. One wrong move and they’d burn the whole place down.

The women sat beside them with elegance carved into every movement. Spines straight. Hands folded. Smiles that didn’t reach their eyes. Style, poise, and ice.

Then it hit me.

I was sitting like a whimpering dog.

Shoulders hunched. Knees together. Eyes darting everywhere.

Heat rushed to my face.

I immediately tried to correct myself. To match them. To not look weak.

I shifted left. Then right. On the big black chair. The leather creaked under me, loud in the silence, and I knew I’d drawn attention.

The man beside me went still.

I felt him before I heard him. His heat. His cologne. His anger.

“You’re disgracing me,” he whispered, low enough that only I could hear.

But the disgust in his eyes was loud. Sharp enough to cut.

To everyone else we probably looked fine. Maybe even lovey-dovey. A couple sitting close.

But I knew better.

Anger bubbled up in me. Hot and sudden.

So I did it again. Shifted. Squirmed. And then I turned my head away from him completely.

Disgusting? My foot.

He was the disgusting one.

For dragging me here.

For locking me up.

For looking at me like I belonged to him.

Like I was _his_.

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