Empire of Desire(Empire #1)(34)

“Huh?”

“He said it’s a bad idea.”

“Yeah…I know.”

Knox stands and smiles down at me, his features becoming hard with the motion. “What you don’t know is that I love bad ideas.”

“Does that mean you’re taking me in?”

I’m waiting for a nod or a yes to do my happy dance, but Knox goes quiet and the atmosphere changes from light and playful to completely suffocating.

I recognize it so well since this is what my life’s been like for the past couple of weeks. Breathing is a chore and everything in between is too charged and asphyxiating.

My heart thunders as I slowly turn around and catch a glimpse of the man who’s been torturing my days and nights.

The man I wasn’t supposed to see now.

He has a hand in his pocket as he strides to us in the midst of onlookers. That’s what Nate does—he steals attention.

He’s a thief.

Because every time he’s in sight, I’m robbed of breath and other things I don’t want to put a name to.

And now, I feel like he’ll rob me of something else. Something I really don’t want to give away.

So I won’t.

Because I’m taking things into my own hands now.





13





Nathaniel





My workplace is sacred.

After all, it’s where my ambition thrives. Where my plans are made and my strategies are conducted.

This is where I come to focus and forget about the girl I leave behind and go back late so that I don’t see her. Only, she’s not a girl, is she?

I want to call her that to stop my dick from having ideas, but she was never that—a girl. At least, not for some time.

She’s a woman now. A grown-up fucking woman with legs that go for miles and a tiny waist that can almost fit in only one of my palms.

And she’s currently in the place where I’m supposed to be focused, not sidetracked.

Gwyneth is right here, at W&S, and while it’s not her first time, she doesn’t usually dress like she’s at a business meeting.

And definitely not with these three fuckers—my nephew included. Kingsley made it his mission to keep her away from them and their whoring ways. So I’m just taking care of it on his behalf. Like I promised him.

It’s definitely not because of how I want to jam their faces into the table. I shouldn’t be thinking about hurting three of my best attorneys. I shouldn’t, and yet that’s the only fucking urge that’s rushing through my veins instead of blood.

“Who’s taking whom in?” I ask all of them, not bothering to cool down my tone.

I don’t have the frame of mind to, because she’s here. In my focus zone. And she needs to be fucking gone.

“Me.” Knox places an arm around her shoulder. “Gwen will be interning with me.”

She smiles up at him with those bright, bright eyes, all green and with barely any gray or even blue. She’s happy, ecstatic, and the thought of murder becomes more and more appealing.

And that’s an anomaly for a lawyer. A fucking error in the matrix that shouldn’t exist.

But it does, and the more she smiles at him, the more he has his hands on her, the redder and hotter that thought becomes.

“Remove your hand if you don’t want a harassment suit, Van Doren,” I say with enough nonchalance that doesn’t betray my disturbing inner thoughts.

Sebastian grins and I glare at him, so he pretends to be sipping from his coffee and going through his phone. Daniel stands, hugs a box of pastries to his chest, then grabs my nephew by the shoulder and drags him out. “We’re out of here, but we’re rooting for you, Gwen. Welcome to the dark side.” He winks at her and Sebastian gives me a knowing, taunting look before they’re both out of the break area.

It’s only the three of us. Me, Gwyneth, and Knox, who still has his fucking arm around her shoulder.

“Nah, you wouldn’t do that. Right, Gwen?” Knox shows her his dreamy smile, the one I’ve seen him use to charm women. “We get along, don’t we?”

“Yeah,” she says readily, cheerfully, with that energy that I don’t like others to see. I don’t like others to see anything about her. Period.

“No.”

At my closed off tone, her smile falls and her lips purse before she steps away from Knox and marches to me with hard, determined steps.

But they’re for me. Her entire attention and those ever-changing eyes are only focused on me and me alone.

“I have the right to apply for an internship.”

“And I have the right to refuse your nonexistent application.”

“But why? I have the grades to be accepted here. This is discrimination.”

“And you can sue for it,” Knox tells her. “With the right arguments.”

“You shut up before I call a board meeting about your malpractices.”

“Hear that, Gwen?” He steps beside her. “I can sue him for that threat, too. You’ll be my witness, won’t you?”

“If he doesn’t let me intern, I will be.” She’s talking to Knox, but her entire attention is on me, her eyes digging holes into my face.

I’ve had countless opponents and most of them didn’t dare to even look at me, but Gwyneth doesn’t only stare, she also glares and talks back, among a lot of other fucking things.