Page 11 of Bought

More silver sparks glittered in her eyes, then in another second they were gone, her expression calm. After a moment, she walked over to the small table where the glasses of champagne were sitting, condensation beading the sides of the flutes.

She picked one up, the edges of her cloak parting to reveal glimpses of pale, bare skin. The curve of a hip. A rounded thigh. Soft, silvery curls…

Heat shifted inside me, tightening its grip.

No. Impossible. She was a lovely woman, no denying it. But she was also just a woman and I’d seen many women naked before. There was nothing special about her, nothing at all.

“Then I suppose I’ll have to leave it.” She lifted the glass of champagne and took a small sip, before putting back her head and draining the whole thing. Then she put the glass back down on the table with a click and looked at me. “Liquid courage. I have an unrestricted contract so who knows what someone will demand?”

She’s Isabel’s age. Are you really going to let someone else buy her?

The thought lodged in my head and stuck like a thorn.

I didn’t care about this girl. What did it matter if she wanted to run the auction again? Or that she had an unrestricted contract? It was her choice and if she hadn’t known what she was getting herself into then she shouldn’t have chosen it. It had nothing whatsoever to do with me.

“Perhaps you should have thought about that when you chose that option,” I said. “And if Arcadia didn’t explain it adequately to you then you should take it up with the management.”

“You know, you’re very uptight for a man who buys virgins.” She reached for the other glass of champagne. “Is that why you let them go? Because you can’t get it up?”

I shouldn’t have moved. I didn’t care if she wanted to sell herself again while falling down drunk, nor did it matter to me what she thought of my sexual prowess. Yet I was across the room and taking the second glass of champagne from her hand before she could get it to her mouth.

“Hey!” she protested.

“They won’t give you the option of a second auction if you’re drunk.” I put the champagne back down on the table. “Do you even know what an unrestricted contract involves?”

“Of course I do. I’m not stupid. Basically, no hard limits.” She gave an overly theatrical sigh. “So I guess if someone is into golden showers, then I’ll have to suck it up so to speak.”

The flippant way she said it annoyed me.

Everything about her annoyed me.

Her phony innocent act, her attempts at manipulation, her lies, the calculation in those cool gray eyes, and the challenge it presented. That instinctive flicker of fear and the flush across her cheekbones. The way she kept catching my interest, making me curious. Making me want to keep picking at her, undo all her knots, unravel all her secrets.

You’re bored, admit it. You need a challenge.

And that was the thing that annoyed me most of all. Because it was true. I was bored. I was tired of meek submissives who knew exactly what to do. Who went to their knees before I’d even given the order. Partners who never surprised me, never defied me, who knew all the lessons I had to teach. They satisfied me physically, but they were never a puzzle to unlock or a complex equation to solve. They wanted my dominance, but that was all.

I hadn’t even realized I was tired of that until now.

I should have walked out then because if I wanted more of a challenge, I was going to have to find it somewhere else.

Except I didn’t walk out.

I stared at her instead. “Why do you want to go home with me so badly? And I want the truth this time.”

Her mouth turned up at the corners in a secretive little smile. “Why do you think? I wasn’t there for anyone else in the audience tonight, Mr. Fox. I was there for you.”

Then she put her hand to the catch on her cloak and flicked it open.

5

Zara

The strange panic that had gripped me when he’d taken my chin in his hand was still churning in my gut and I was furious about it.

I hated how I’d frozen like prey in his grip, helpless and vulnerable. Weak. In his power. That had been my reaction when I was a kid and Dad was in one of his moods, ready to start dealing out blows, and I’d thought I’d left it behind years ago. Clearly not.

Anyway, I’d managed to handle it, but I was getting tired of standing around talking. I had to move things along somehow and getting naked seemed to be the obvious choice.