Corporate Plaything (3 page)

Chatharnak,
warrior nymphs, like them could sense their mate by her scent. Justin had been in a meeting with Marian Bancroft when suddenly he’d caught the scent of their mate passing by. It took him by surprise and he jumped from his chair to hunt where the source of the scent was coming from, leaving Bancroft perplexed in mid-sentence. Then, he saw her, their predestined mate, sitting in Bancroft’s secretary’s waiting room, studiously filling out forms. She was a pretty, young thing even dressed in dull clothes and rather thick glasses, poring over a sheaf of papers as if her life depended on them.

He remembered standing by the door, restraining the urge to grab her and rip off her clothes to see if her alluring scent wasn’t just a figment of his imagination. But Justin was sure about it. There was no mistake. She was their mate, the sole reason he and his brothers had come to the surface world seven years ago. Whoever she was, she belonged to him and his brothers.

Later on, Justin found out her name was Anna Vincent and she’d come to Bancroft’s agency looking for work. Matt came up with the idea of hiring her as their double duty personal assistant in order to get her acquainted with the idea she was Azura’s future queen.

Raphael had disagreed. He wanted to claim her on the spot and bring her home to Azura. Justin favoured Ralph’s idea. But after a long consideration, he realised claiming her on the spot might scare her out of her wits. Anna was a human after all.

Just like their mother.

Justin had heard stories that it had taken several long, arduous months for their father to convince their mother that she was his
cevborn
, bonded mate. Like them, their father had gone to the surface world for his mate and had kidnapped their mother as soon as he found her. It wasn’t a secret that their mother had a hard time accepting her fate. Having to live among the humans for the past several years, Justin understood the human’s mind-set. Especially that most of them didn’t believe nymphs were real. Let alone understood the fact that sometimes, those otherworldly beings needed human mates in order to survive and further their line.

Justin nodded. “I thought the Sabian Seer had advised us out of pity. I didn’t think we would find her here. To be honest, I’d started losing faith.”

After years of fruitless searching for their mate in the Netherworld, their father arranged a meeting with a seer to foretell their future. The seer told them that they had been looking in the wrong place. Their predestined bonded wasn’t a nymph, or even an otherworldly being. Their mate was a human.

After hearing the revelation, he and his brothers came to the surface world. They had been overwhelmed with the fact that their bonded was one among millions of marriageable human females on Earth. How were they supposed to find her?

Their father had been lucky. He caught his mate’s scent as soon as he swam to the beach and saw her frolicking by the water. Spiriting her away on the spot wasn’t a problem. But convincing her to accept her fate was a tricky one. Justin recalled their father had told them that he’d had to deal with a lot of kicking, screaming, and black eyes when their mother demanded to be freed and sent home.

For years after they had arrived on the surface world, he and his brothers had moved from town to town, country to country in search of their
cevborn
. Justin had been a gym teacher, police officer, bartender, bank teller, working different odd jobs to fit in with the humans’ society to see if their mate was among them. Ralph and Matt did the same and still their
cevborn
was nowhere to be seen. Then, eighteen months before, Justin had come to conclusion that what they had been doing was ineffective. Instead of looking for their mate, why not try to lure her to them?

He observed that human females were drawn to clothes and beautiful things and could be quite obsessive about it. Justin thought launching a career in the fashion and cosmetic industry where they’d be dealing with women all the time would be a perfect cover. The design house they started became an instant hit and women from all shapes and races flocked to him and his brothers. Unfortunately, none of those doting admirers were their mate.

Matt had grumbled about it, saying that Justin’s idea was a complete waste of time. But his brother soon had to eat his own words when Anna Vincent showed up in Bancroft’s office.

Marian Bancroft had warned Justin that Anna was up to no good, but Justin couldn’t care less. She was their long-awaited
cevborn
, the woman they would soon claim and bring back to their underwater palace in Azura.

Nothing else mattered.

Justin read the contract Anna Vincent had just signed one more time and smiled. With it, they were one step closer to making her theirs.

Matt glanced over the contract and frowned. “One year. Do we have to wait that long before we can bring her home?”

“Sooner, I hope. If we don’t scare her off first.” Justin folded the contract and stowed it in his drawer.

“Like Mother, you mean?” Ralph added.

Matt snorted a laugh. Justin grimaced. Their mother was a fiery woman, but she and their father were the most loving couple he had ever known. If being claimed by one nymph king scared a human woman out of her wits, Justin felt wary about how Anna would react when she was claimed by three.

Female nymphs never gave birth to multiple babies. However, he and his brothers were an exception, thanks to their mother’s genetic traits as a human. Since his kin believed that only one predestined mate was bound to one birth, sharing a womb with his brothers meant he was also bound to the same woman.

Anna Vincent.

“So.” Justin tapped his fingers. “Who will initiate her first?”

“Me,” Matt announced quickly.

“Why you?” Raphael threw him a dirty look.

“Because she hates me the most.”

“You were too harsh on her,” Justin added. Anna had looked offended when Matt called her frumpy.

“Well, somebody has to play the bad guy if we want to make this convincing. You think whoever sent her won’t get suspicious if we hand everything over a little too easily?”

Justin couldn’t argue with the logic. After he discovered Anna Vincent was their
cevborn
, he’d hired a private detective to dig out everything about her. Anna was the only child in the family. Her mother was rumoured to have left her father for a younger man when she was only three years old. Anna went to MIT for a year, then dropped out for financial reasons.

The detective didn’t find anything out of the ordinary about her until he saw she was being forced into a car by a group of unscrupulous-looking men. A little more digging revealed that Anna’s father had ties with Ivan Koleniskov, a member of a Russian mob family who ran dirty jobs for Beautycor, the cosmetic company that had been itching to drive the Martels’ design house out of business.

Anna and her father, Joseph Vincent, hadn’t struck him as people who liked conning for their living. Joseph Vincent went into an early retirement because of his health problems, and Anna worked in a boutique law firm as an IT support tech to support both of them. The father and daughter had lived a normal life until a couple of weeks ago when she suddenly quit her job and showed up in Marian Bancroft’s office. It was easy to figure out what she was up to. With her father’s affiliation to Koleniskov, more than likely the mobster had forced father and daughter to work for them.

Since he knew what Beautycor was after, Justin guessed Anna was sent to spy on them.

A corporate spy to unearth their trade secret.

Justin found the turn of events highly amusing because Anna wasn’t cut out for a spy job. She was a smart woman, but from his observations, he found her too gullible and too trusting. There wasn’t a shred of cunning in her personality that was needed to make it in this cut-throat business.

“Whatever you do, just don’t scare her,” Justin warned Matt. “We need to make her trust us.”

Matt scowled. “Do I look scary to you?”

“This is New York. Not an Azura training field. Sometimes you forgot where you are.”

Matt wanted to retort, but the door opened and Anna’s nervous face poked between the cracks. She had cleaned herself and dressed properly.

Justin motioned for her to come closer. “I have something for you, Miss Vincent.”

Anna came in. Her big brown eyes transfixed on what Justin had in his hand. “Necklace?”

“Slave collar. You’re now officially our plaything and I want you to wear this during the course of your contract.”

“Why, of course,” she muttered darkly.

“Why the gloom?” Justin pulled her into his lap and fitted the collar on her neck. The black lambskin collar contrasted with her creamy skin. Justin felt pleased. “I think this collar suits you well. In fact, you were born to wear it.”

* * * *

Anna fingered the collar around her neck as Matt’s Porsche slowed to a halt, parking in the garage of his mansion. Her heart drummed like a tribal dance. Anxiety started to creep over her again.
Here we go. His home.

She stole a glance at Matt as he turned off the car. He plucked his key from the ignition and unbuckled his seat belt. A shiver of curiosity curled at the base of her skull, wondering what Matt would do to her tonight. Fuck her?
Duh
. What else? Demand a blow? Most likely.

She was sure the brothers wanted their own plaything for that very reason. Someone to fulfil their instant gratifications. The contract didn’t specify what her job description was; it only stated that she must do whatever they demanded, no matter how frivolous it was.

She realised she wasn’t bothered with the fact that she should feel, at least, dread about her new status. Part of her was actually looking forward to it.
This isn’t normal. What’s wrong with me? Just because Ralph talked dirty to me and I got my first skull-searing orgasm, I’m instantly addicted to their perverse games?

“What’s wrong?” Matt must have noticed her frown.

Anna startled. “Nothing, sir.”

One of his eyebrows shot up. “Change your mind? Remember, Justin gave you a twenty-four-hour cooling period if you don’t want to go through with this.”

“N-no, sir. I need this job.”

Matt’s expression turned solemn. “How much do you owe, Miss Vincent?”

“It’s nothing, sir.”

“I’m serious.”

“No, sir. I’m sorry, but it’s really none of your business.”

“What if I lend you that money?”

“Then I’ll owe you money. Where’s it going to end, sir?”

A smile hovered at the corner of his lips. “What if I just give you the money, and we call it even?”

Her eyes widened. “Y-you mean like charity?” Her internal alarm blared loudly. If Matt gave her freebies, she wouldn’t have any reason to stay with the Martels, which meant she wouldn’t be able to obtain the secret formula.
Crap
. Anna thought hard. “Nobody gives away free money, sir. There must be a catch.”

“Sometimes we do help people in need, Miss Vincent. Any kind of help.” He paused. “No strings attached. And all you need to do is just ask.”

“I…”

“Well?”

Nervousness seized her gut-deep. She couldn’t think of any other reason to lie to him. People didn’t just refuse free money nowadays.
Think, Anna, think.
She opened her mouth and blabbed the first thing that crossed her mind. “I’m actually curious if you’re as big as your brother, sir.”

Matt burst out laughing.

Anna clapped her hand over her mouth, mortified.
What the hell did just I say?
“I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean…”

“Save it, Miss Vincent. I get it.” He was still laughing as he climbed out of the car.

Anna slumped in her seat. That was close.

“Miss Vincent.”

“Yes, sir.” She got out of the car.

Matt gestured her to follow. His eyes twinkled naughtily. “I guess you will find out soon, won’t you?”

* * * *

She had spunk; Matt had to credit her with that. When he noted her hesitation in the car, he saw an opportunity to bait her about her involvement with Beautycor and he jumped on it. Like he’d predicted, she tried shying away from the money offer.

She might be a bad liar, but her naïveté was certainly amusing. He decided to give her a break for now. When Anna was able to trust him and his brothers, she would come around for help. She couldn’t possibly carry her burden forever. The syndicate that was blackmailing her and her father wouldn’t ever let them free even if she were able to obtain the Martels’ trade secret.

Matt knew too well the way most mobsters operated. He’d worked as a bouncer in a club run by a mafia family in his early days on the surface world. He’d seen everything. Once you were in, you could never get out. He bet Anna didn’t know that.

They entered the house from the kitchen. Matt threw his keys on the counter and grabbed a bottle of mineral water from the fridge. He took a long swig from it while watching Anna admire his house.

“It’s so big. How many bedrooms do you have here?” she asked.

“Nine.”

“And you live here alone?”

“As you can see. Just put your bag on the counter, and I’ll show you my bedroom.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Are you hungry? Do you want coffee or something?”

“N-no, sir. I’m still full from dinner.”

Matt had taken her out for dinner earlier; then they’d gone to an optometrist to pick up her contact lenses. She’d been quiet all evening. He wished she would open up a bit. “You barely ate anything.”

“To be honest, I wasn’t that hungry, sir.”

She was nervous, he could tell. Was it the prospect of spending the night with him that scared her? He hoped not. Matt looked forward to getting to know her intimately. Her heady scent had made his blood boil ever since he first saw her. Especially when Justin had sampled her liquid lust. He wanted to taste her as well.

“Do you know why we wanted our own plaything?”

The look on her face accused him and his brothers of being nothing but perverts. Matt restrained an urge to grin.

“No, sir,” Anna managed diplomatically.