A dangerous claim
1314 Words
Adrian’s POV
The study door clicked shut behind Cole, and the silence he left behind tasted of smoke and iron. I stood frozen for a beat, my hand still curled into a fist at my side, the tendons aching from restraint.
Every instinct screamed to go after him, drag him back into this room, and end him right there. But Cole wasn’t a man who walked into a lion’s den without laying his own traps. If I lunged too soon, it would be his smile Sophie remembered, not my victory.
And Sophie—
She was still here. Her presence pressed against me like gravity, stronger than the rage twisting in my gut. I turned toward her, finding her standing by the desk, her chin lifted high, but her hands were clenched in fists at her sides. Defiant. Beautiful. Terrifying.
She met my eyes without a flicker. “You look rattled, Adrian. Not used to someone walking into your kingdom uninvited?”
Her words were a blade meant to cut, but all they did was stoke the fire already burning in my chest.
“Cole doesn’t walk anywhere uninvited,” I said, my voice lower than I intended. “He slithers. And the poison he carries is worse than anything you’ve seen.”
A bitter laugh left her lips. “Poison? You speak as though you’re not the deadliest man in this room.”
I closed the distance between us in two strides, planting my hands on either side of her against the desk. Her perfume—dark roses, smoke—seeped into my lungs, pulling me closer when I should’ve stepped away.
“You don’t understand, Sophia,” I said, my voice harsher now. “Cole doesn’t build. He consumes. He’ll offer you the world, but by the time you realize the cost, there won’t be anything left of you to save.”
Her jaw tightened, eyes flashing. “And you? What do you do, Adrian? You destroyed my family’s company. You destroyed me. Don’t stand there pretending you’re my salvation.”
The words hit harder than she knew.
She thought I had dismantled Hart Couture out of greed, out of cruelty. She had no idea how deep the truth ran—or how much of that destruction was written in her father’s blood, not mine.
For a moment, I almost told her. Almost let the truth escape the prison I’d built around it. But then she looked at me with that blazing hatred, and I swallowed it down.
Better she hated me than pitied me.
Better she hated me than saw the weakness I could never afford.
“You want to hate me? Fine,” I said, forcing the words through clenched teeth. “But don’t you dare hand yourself over to Cole. He doesn’t want your revenge, Sophie. He wants your ruin. And I—”
I broke off, jaw flexing, because what I wanted was worse.
I wanted her tethered to me. Bound, willingly or not. I wanted her to scream and curse and claw, as long as she never left my side.
I wanted her, wholly, completely.
And if Cole so much as breathed in her direction again, I would carve his smile off his face.
Her lips curved into a sharp smile, as if she could read the violence flickering behind my eyes. “You sound jealous, Adrian.”
“Jealousy is for men who doubt their claim,” I said, leaning closer until our mouths were inches apart. “And you’re already mine.”
She didn’t flinch. Didn’t look away. Her voice was steady, but her pulse beat wildly at her throat. “You don’t own me.”
Every muscle in my body went taut.
No, I thought savagely. Not yet.
Before I could respond, there was a knock at the study door—sharp, deliberate. My head snapped toward it, rage boiling again. Who the hell thought they had the right to keep interrupting me tonight?
A servant’s muffled voice called, “Mr. Blackwood, the board is waiting in the east wing for your address.”
I exhaled slowly, reining in the storm. Timing. It was always timing with men like me.
I turned back to Sophie. Her eyes were still locked on mine, daring me, testing me.
“You’re coming with me,” I said, my tone leaving no room for debate.
Her brows shot up. “To a board meeting? How romantic.”
“This isn’t a request.” I straightened, sliding my hand to her wrist, gentler than I meant, but still binding. “Cole won’t get another second alone with you. Not tonight. Not ever.”
She yanked her arm free, fire blazing in her eyes. “You can’t keep me on a leash, Adrian.”
My lips curved into a humorless smile. “Watch me.”
---
The boardroom reeked of power and fear, just as it always did. But tonight, every pair of eyes flicked toward Sophie the moment we entered. Her presence at my side wasn’t just unexpected—it was a statement.
The murmurs started immediately. Questions, judgments, whispers of scandal. And Sophie, damn her, didn’t shrink from any of it. She walked into that room like she owned it, her chin high, her dress whispering against the polished floor like a weapon unsheathed.
I should have been furious. I should have been worried. Instead, pride twisted in my chest like a knife.
She was fire, and I’d dragged her into a room filled with men who lived to stamp out sparks. But she didn’t dim. She burned brighter.
As I spoke to the board, I could feel her watching me, dissecting every word, every calculated pause. And I could feel the others watching her—measuring, speculating, hungering.
Especially one man.
Daniel Voss.
His eyes lingered too long on Sophie, his smirk too practiced. And when she met his gaze without flinching, something inside me snapped.
I didn’t show it, of course. I finished my address with precision, gave the board what they needed, then dismissed them with a wave. But the moment the door shut behind the last of them, I turned to Sophie.
“You think you’re clever,” I said, voice low.
She arched a brow. “And you think you’re in control.”
I stepped closer, pinning her against the long table, my hands braced on either side of her. “Do you know what Voss was thinking when he looked at you?”
Her breath hitched, but she kept her chin high. “Enlighten me.”
“He was thinking of how to dismantle you. Piece by piece. Just like your father. Just like Hart Couture.”
Her lips parted, a flicker of doubt crossing her eyes. And that was when I realized the truth: she didn’t know how dangerous men like Voss—or Cole—really were.
And if I let her go now, if I let her wander into their traps, I would lose her forever.
Not just to them. To myself.
I leaned closer, my voice a promise and a threat. “If you step one foot toward them, Sophie, I will end it. I will end them. And if I have to chain you to me to keep you safe…”
I stopped, my forehead nearly touching hers, my breath mingling with hers.
“…then I will.”
Her eyes widened, fury and something else flickering there. Fear? Longing? I couldn’t tell. Maybe she couldn’t either.
The silence stretched, electric, unbearable.
Then the door opened.
Cole stepped inside.
Uninvited. Again.
His smile was slow, deliberate, his gaze flicking between Sophie pinned against the table and me towering over her.
“Well,” he drawled. “Looks like I arrived just in time.”
And I knew, in that moment, the war I’d tried to avoid had just begun.
- Writer
