Chapter 158

[ 962 words ]

Julian’s POV

The name hit me like a physical punch. My blood, which had been starting to cool, turned to fire again.

“What did you call me?” I asked, stepping back into her space. I gripped the edge of the desk on either side of her, pinning her there.

“Daddy,” she said again. Her voice was firmer now, but she didn’t look away.

I let out a low groan of approval. The anger was gone, replaced by a dark, possessive satisfaction. I reached out and tilted her chin up, my thumb dragging across her bottom lip.

“Call me that from now on,” I said.

I turned and left the office without looking back. I walked past the assistants and out of the building, feeling the weight of that word in my head. I had marked her. I had reclaimed her. And from the way she looked at me when she said that word, I knew she wouldn’t be forgetting who she belonged to anytime soon.

I got into my car and sat there for a moment, my hands still steadying. The “daddy” thing—it changed the dynamic. It wasn’t just about the mission or the anger anymore. It was about the fact that she had finally admitted, in the most submissive way possible, that I was the one in control.

I pulled out my phone and called Zane.

“It’s done,” I said.

“Tell me you didn’t fuck your wife’s sister, Julian?” Zane asked.

“She’s fine. She knows exactly where she stands.” I shifted gears, looking at the Kensington building in my rearview mirror. “Now, tell me everything we have on the Meridian algorithm. If Hale thinks he has leverage, I’m going to take it from him before he can even blink p>

I drove away, the adrenaline finally starting to fade into a cold, calculated focus. Victor Hale had had his dinner. He had had his moment. But Katia Kensington was mine, and I was going to make sure the whole world knew it before the week was out.

I spent the next hour driving through the city, thinking about the look in her eyes. “Yes, Daddy.” The way she said it had been a surrender, but also a challenge. She knew what that word did to me. She knew she had handed me a weapon and a leash at the same time.

When I reached my office, I didn’t go to my desk. I went to the window and looked out at the skyline. The “eye fucking” and the games were over. We were in a new phase now. A phase where she belonged to me, and I was going to protect what was mine with everything I had.

I sat down at my desk and opened the file on Victor Hale. I started reading, looking for the one thing that would destroy him. I wasn’t just going to beat him in business. I was going to erase him for ever thinking he could touch my woman.

“Mr Windsor?” my assistant said over the intercom.

“Not now,” I snapped.

I had work to do. And every time my mind drifted, I thought of her on that desk, biting her finger, calling me by that new name. It was going to be a long day. But for the first time in a week, I wasn’t angry. I was focused.

I was the hunter again. And I had already caught the prize.

Katia’s POV

The proposal arrived on a Wednesday morning via a courier.

Not email. Not through a legal team. A physical document in a sealed envelope delivered to IG Technologies reception, addressed to me personally and marked ’private’. Which told me two things immediately — Victor wanted me to know he knew my office address, and he wanted this to feel personal rather than corporate.

Sam brought it in without opening it. She put it on my desk and looked at it like it might bite.

“Open it,” I said.

She opened it.

We read it together in silence.

It was twelve pages. Clean, professionally formatted, the kind of document that took weeks to prepare. Not an acquisition offer this time. Not the forty per cent stake that I had dismissed in Dubai in under two minutes. This was something else entirely.

Victor Hale was proposing an alliance.

Equal partnership. IG Technologies and Halo Systems operating as co-vendors on major government infrastructure contracts. Joint bidding on the renewal — the Ministry of Defence contract that had started everything five years ago, the one Meridian had won and that was coming back up for tender in twelve months. Both companies on the vendor list. Resources pooled. Technology shared. Victor’s government relationships combined with IG’s architecture.

On paper it was extraordinary. The financial projections were the most aggressive I had seen in three years of reading acquisition proposals. The market penetration numbers for the combined entity were almost impossible to argue with.

I closed the document.

“He’s good,” I said.

“He’s terrifying,” Sam said. “That proposal took months to build. He had this ready before Dubai. Before the dinner. Before the article.” She sat down across from my desk. “This was always the endgame, Kat. The article, the bounty, the acquisition offer — those were pressure tactics. This is what he actually wanted p>

“A seat next to me,” I said.

“He can’t beat you,” Sam said. “So he wants to buy a seat next to you. ’Equal partners means he has access to everything — our architecture, our client relationships, our government contacts, and everything Julian has helped build through the WEG partnership.” She paused. “And the WEG contract renegotiation clause. If this goes through, he gets a seat on the Windsor Empire Group vendor list. He gets Julian’s infrastructure relationships through the back door p>

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