Making a threat without using a single negative word was quite a feat, but he’d just achieved it, and without even bothering to look at her.

‘No,’ Trystan said. ‘No, Dax, I don’t need you to do fucking anything. I’ll do it myself.’

Launching up, he grabbed hold of her before she could flee and threw her onto the couch. Flailing around, she tried to free herself, but Trystan was on top of her so she was trapped. He forced his mouth onto hers to kiss her, but she wailed and turned her head to avoid him, except this gave him access to give her a hickey.

His friend, at the end of the couch, must have moved because someone pinned her ankles, then sat on her feet, rendering her legs immobile.

‘You’re going to like me,’ Trystan said. ‘Oh, yes, you are. No one says no to me and gets away with it.’ Snatching the tequila bottle he poured alcohol on her mouth, soaking her in the potent liquid that burned when it ran up her nose. ‘You want a drink, don’t you?’

He held her nose, forcing her to open her mouth, and he poured the searing alcohol down her gullet until she choked, spraying it over both of them.

All other parties in the room, according to what she could hear, thought that this was hilarious, and goaded him on.

‘Now you’re in the party mood,’ Trystan said.

Blinking the alcohol diluted mascara mix from her eyes, she missed his action of switching both her wrists into one of his after it was too late. Her shirt was ripped open and at the same time she screamed he grabbed a bag of white powder from the table and scattered it across her breasts. Burying his face in them he snorted up the dispersed powder and laughed, looking to his friends on the opposite couch for approval.

Her screaming was ignored, she still couldn’t move her legs and everyone else laughed.

‘You want some?’ Trystan asked, rubbing a moist finger over her breasts then forcing up a lip to smear the grit over her gums. ‘Yeah, see, you like that. We’re going to be up all night you and me. Yeah, you’re in for a real treat. Tonight is your lucky night. It’s time for some real fun. You want me to fuck you now?’

‘No!’ she spat out.

‘Yeah?’ he said. ‘You asking me to fuck you? All you guys heard that, right?’ His troupe chorused in agreement.

‘No!’ Ivy tried again.

‘Open those legs for me, Lucky,’ he said, lifting his hips to undo his belt.

Against her will, her legs parted to accommodate his pelvis and he ground down onto her. His buddy, Dax, who’d been sitting on her feet until now held her ankles apart for Trystan to settle between her thighs. Her struggling seemed to make no difference to the strength that forced her to do its bidding.

‘Got some roofies, want ‘em?’ someone called.

‘No,’ Trystan said, licking her face then digging his teeth into the back corner of her jaw until a stabbing pain fired through her. ‘I don’t need ‘em, she wants it. Oh, she’s going to want me bad.’

‘No,’ Ivy said, trying to shove him off, but bucking up to move him away made him whoop.

‘Oh, yeah!’ Trystan shouted. ‘She’s riding.’

More shouting ensued, but everyone wanted him to push on. Ivy wouldn’t give up fighting, she wouldn’t let him take what she didn’t want to give. Except he managed to get her skirt up, his friend still held her legs, and she feared her fight would be futile.

When Trystan turned to laugh with his friends she jolted her head up and dug her teeth into his cheekbone, biting until she tasted blood. Skin came loose on her tongue, and he roared out and released her.

Not hesitating for a heartbeat, Ivy scrambled away and ran at full speed for the door.

‘You bitch! I’ll fucking kill you!’

But she’d rather be dead than violated by him. With no thought for her loose shirt, she ran out of the suite, got to the employee elevator, and headed straight for her manager’s office.

Her manager listened to her story and then left her alone, without calling the cops, to talk to the people in the suite. When he came back down he was frowning, and she knew that couldn’t be a good sign. Still alone in his office, Ivy watched him come to sit at her side on the couch, without meeting her eye at all.

‘Are the cops on their way?’ she asked.

‘Ivy,’ he said. ‘I saw what you did to him.’

‘In defence of myself. I don’t care about him, I was assaulted!’

‘They say nothing happened that you didn’t want to, and that it was you who got rough with him.’

‘That’s crazy! That’s a lie!’

‘That may be, or not, but he says he’s going to the police.’

‘He’s not going to the police, did you see all the drugs up there? Guys like him don’t go to the police for retribution.’

‘All the more reason you shouldn’t visit that upon yourself,’ her manager said, examining her and the way she held a concealing towel over her chest. ‘You partook of those drugs yourself, and you’re stinking of alcohol. Who would you believe, Ivy? He’s a good customer, who comes back a couple of times a year and spends a fortune here. We all answer to someone, and my supervisor wouldn’t—‘

‘What? Who cares about money? I wasn’t partying, he did this to me! I demand that you call the cops!’

‘He insists that he’ll press charges against you, and sue the hotel, unless…’

‘Unless what?’

‘I’m sorry, Ivy. But you’re fired.’

‘What?’

She couldn’t believe he was taking that pervert’s side instead of hers. ‘It’s his word against yours, and I’m sorry but a man with that kind of influence and charisma… You’ve only been here for a month. Take my advice, don’t pursue this, go home and forget about it.’

‘Forget?’

‘No one will believe—‘

‘Not after my boss fires me and takes the perpetrators side,’ Ivy said, standing up and tossing the towel at him. ‘You’re as bad as him!’

Marching away, she went to clear out her small locker of her jacket and purse. She had the night from hell and now she’d struggle to make rent, unless she got another job pronto. She couldn’t imagine how things could get much worse.

All she wanted to do was get out of here as quickly as possible. Shoving out of the staff exit, which led into a dark alleyway, Ivy was already making a mental list of locations she could visit on tomorrow’s job hunt.

‘You should learn to be more careful.’

The disembodied voice came from the other side of the alley and it brought her up short. Pausing to peer through the darkness, a figure emerged from the shadows and she identified the black-haired man from the suite upstairs, whom Trystan had referred to as Dax.

‘You should take your own advice, stranger. Loitering in dark alleys to rough up single women could get you into trouble.’

‘If I was here to rough you up, you wouldn’t have seen me coming, and I wouldn’t have announced myself.’

‘Said the voice of experience,’ she said. ‘Are you proud of what happened tonight?’

‘Heard you got yourself fired.’

‘No, your buddy did that. He’s a bully with an overinflated sense of entitlement. One day he’ll get what’s coming to him.’

‘Not while I’m around to stand in the way,’ he said. ‘You better watch yourself. You pissed off a very influential guy tonight.’

‘So I’ve already been told,’ she muttered. Getting away from this place and this person was appealing, but in truth she had nowhere better to be.

‘Mr Stark does not like to be disrespected and he’s been known to hold a grudge.’

‘Doesn’t he have anything better to do?’

‘You better hope that he finds something, because if he gets tonight’s events stuck in his teeth you’re gonna be a very sorry little girl.’

‘I’m twenty-nine, and I can take care of myself.’

She moved to leave, but he blocked her path. ‘Not against the likes of me. You’d have no defence if I had you in my sights.’

‘I see that gratuitous ego syndrome is contagious, or at least common in your circle of friends. Just how close are you and your buddy? Does someone have a little crush?’ she pouted.