Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 251

Chapter 251

SERAPHINE

The dress I chose was blood red, a slip of silk that barely qualified as clothing, cut so low at the front that the curve of my breasts looked like an invitation and split so high at the thigh that walking became a promise.

I stood in front of the mirror and tumed slowly, watching the fabric catch the light, watching the way it clung to every dip and swell of my body like it had been painted on.

My hair fell in dark waves past my shoulders, loose and deliberate, and I had lined my eyes with enough kohl to make my gaze look dangerous. Red lips. Gold heels that strapped around my ankles.

A thin chain around my waist that jingled softly when I moved. I looked expensive. I looked like a woman who had just been given five billion dollars and wanted the world to know she was worth every penny.

The driver arrived exactly on time, the black car with tinted windows pulled up to my gate and waited without honking. I grabbed a small clutch, checked my reflection one last time, and walked out the door with my head high.

The driver opened the back door for me and I slid in. He said nothing as he pulled away from the curb, and I said nothing either, because my heart was too busy hammering against my ribs to form coherent words.

Everything still felt like a dream. But the money in my account reminded me it was reality.

I pulled out my phone for the tenth time since leaving the house and opened my banking app. I stared at the numbers, the nine zeros lined up in neat rows, and a smile spread across my face so wide my cheeks ached. Five billion dollars. Sitting in my account. Mine.

I kept my expression neutral as I walked, but inside I was cataloging everything, calculating the cost of every piece of furniture, every art fixture, every crystal drop on the chandeliers. This was old money. Political money. The kind of wealth that did not need to announce itself because everyone already knew it was there.

I was escorted to a study at the end of a long hallway. The doors were heavy wood, carved with patterns I did not recognize, and when they swung open, I stepped into a room that smelled of leather and aged whiskey and something else, something sharp and masculine that made the hairs on my arm stand up.

The study was vast. Bookshelves lined every wall, their spines a rainbow of rich colors, and a massive oak desk sat at the center of the room like a throne. A fireplace crackled in the corner, casting dancing shadows across the Persian rug that covered most of the floor. Crystal decanters sat on a silver tray, their contents amber and gold, and the lighting was low, intimate, designed to make you feel like you had stepped into someone’s private sanctuary.

+15 Bonus