My Billionaire Boss Dared Me to Say No, So I Locked the Door novel · Chapter 11 of 24
Chapter 11: The Collar
Ingmar had been awake for ten minutes when the phone buzzed against the cushion, and he had not opened his eyes.
He knew what it said.
He knew roughly what it would say each time, and the hour it would arrive.
He lay with his head in Bartek's lap and let a warm hand rest against his cheek.
The hand was trembling.
He did not move, and he did not speak, and he thought: not yet.
That Thursday, at nine, he stood in the playroom on Astor Street with a flat black box in his hands.
He had carried it up the stairs himself.
He had not told the housekeeper what it was.
He had stood in the shop on Oak Street for twenty minutes holding it while the clerk pretended to find something interesting in the case.
Inside lay a collar.
It was plain black leather, half an inch wide, soft and heavy.
It had one small steel ring at the front and a buckle at the nape.
No name was cut into it.
He had considered that for some time.
The bolt shot behind him, and he did not turn around.
"Sir," said Bartek's voice.
"You are on time," Ingmar said.
"I'm early. You said never to be late. What's in the box?"
"Come and see," Ingmar said.
He listened to the footsteps cross the floorboards.
When he turned, Bartek stood in the lamplight with his tie already loose, flushed from the cold, his dark-blond hair on end.
He looked at the box, and then the open lid, and then at the collar.
"That's a gift," he said.
"Yes."
"Term three. No gifts."
"I know the terms. I wrote them." Ingmar held the box out flat on his palm. "You may throw it back at me. You may take it and wear it once and never again. You may leave it here, in this room, where it will never leave this room. I will not ask what you do."
Bartek did not touch it.
"What does it mean?" he asked.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of My Billionaire Boss Dared Me to Say No, So I Locked the Door are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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