He sucks in a breath. “You’re a goddamn temptress.” Stepping back, he takes me by the shoulders, ensuring an arm-length distance. “We’re done here.”

Hurt ricochets through me. “You’re leaving?”

“I got what I came for.” He leaves me kneeling on the bench in my slinky lingerie while he zips up his pants.

Tears threaten, and I blink to hold them back, determined not to cry over him. He’s not worth it. For all of Liam’s flaws—his controlling possessive jealousy—he’d never discard me like this.

With casually cruel detachment.

“Who broke you?” I ask, despising the tremor in my voice.

He freezes, shirt in hand. “The same fucked up institution that’ll break you.”

“I will never break.” I get to my feet. “Not for you. Not for anyone.”

“You say that now.” He pulls the T-shirt over his tousled dark blond hair. “But after a few years, the insidious nature of this place will wear you down.”

“What are you talking about?”

“No one’s told you yet, have they?”

My heart’s pounding too hard, like fists to a punching bag. “Tell me what?”

“You think you’re free after the year’s up? Think again, princess. This is only the beginning.”

9

I greet Landon with a curt, “We need to talk,” before he fully enters the House of Gemini. Elise falters at my tone, just two steps in front of her husband-to-be.

“Is everything okay?” she asks.

“It will be as soon as Landon clarifies something.”

A sheen of alarm lights her blue eyes. “I’ll head down to my quarters and begin packing.” Her attention swings back and forth between Landon and me. “He asked me to move into one of the spare bedrooms until the wedding.”

“You don’t have to pack,” he tells her. “We have servants to do it for you.”

“I don’t mind, and it’ll give the two of you time to talk.”

With a resigned nod, Landon brushes his lips across her cheek. “I’ll come find you soon.”

After Elise leaves us alone, Landon gestures for me to follow him into the main sitting area, where he lowers into a chair. “What’s going on?”

Too worked up to sit, I pace to the curved wall of windows, a scowl on my face as raindrops squiggle down the glass. The weather is as bipolar here as the personalities of the men in this tower.

“Sebastian told me it doesn’t end for me after the auction.” I turn around and face my brother, arms crossed. “Is that true?”

Taking a deep breath, he runs a hand down his weary face. “It’s true. What did he tell you?”

“He told me next to nothing! Just that this is only the beginning…whatever that means.”