Page 12 of Bought
He was so adamant that he wouldn’t take me home and when he’d intimated that it was because I wanted sex, the thought ‘why not?’ had sprung fully formed into my head. Because, sure, why not let him think that I wanted to go home with him for sex? At the very least, I could use sex to seduce him into thinking it was a good idea.
Not that I’d ever used sex to seduce anyone before, nor wanted to. I’d never met a man I’d wanted period. Never met a man who didn’t think he was entitled to me in some way, shape, or form either, no matter my feelings on the subject.
Then again, this was for the money, this was for the freedom I’d have once that money was mine, and for that, I’d do anything.
Except as the cloak dropped to the ground, Fox didn’t look at my naked body, not once. He simply stood there, towering over me, staring at me as if I was an insignificant insect he was about to crush under his shoe.
I had no idea why the fact that he wasn’t looking at my body incensed me, or why the way he stared at me set something inside me shivering. A kind of fear, but not the fear of being hurt, because I knew that fear very, very well. No, this was more subtle, more complicated, and it made my skin prickle and my heart beat fast. Made me conscious of a pressure between my thighs.
You’re attracted to him, you idiot.
No, that was crazy. I couldn’t be attracted to a man like him, I couldn’t. I didn’t like tall, physically powerful men, because those kinds of guys, in my experience, liked to use their physicality to intimidate. To prove they were badasses or some such bullshit. I hated it. It reminded me too much of Dad’s little power plays, looming over me to frighten me, cow me into submission. Donny had done that kind of crap too.
Now here was Tennyson Fox, doing that same thing, which made him just the same as all the rest of the assholes I’d dealt with in my life.
That shit he’d pulled beside the fire, when he’d taken my chin in his hand so firmly that I hadn’t been able to pull away and then looked at me, the force of his will as relentless and inescapable as gravity, pushing me down. That had been enraging. Enraging too that I’d basically bowed before him. I hadn’t wanted to, and yet there had been an almost physical pressure in the look he’d given me. I hadn’t been able to hold it.
Looking away from him had been an admission of weakness, but sometimes the only option for survival was to kneel and bare your throat and hope like hell the wolf wouldn’t tear it out.
Tennyson Fox was a wolf. And maybe if I’d had any brains, I wouldn’t have argued with him. I’d have let him pay me then left Arcadia five hundred thousand richer, and never gone near him again.
But I had a job to do, and I wouldn’t get a cent of that fucking money unless I did it, and since he’d seen through all my lies, that left seduction as my only option.
I’d put up with Donny for five years. I could manage a night with this asshole.
“Very pretty,” he said at last in that deep, cold voice of his. “But your nakedness doesn’t interest me. Besides, I’ve already seen it.”
The note of casual dismissal rubbed against my nerves like sandpaper over a wound. Which was crazy, because what did I care if he didn’t want to look at my body? I didn’t give a shit about his opinions. In fact, I should be glad, shouldn’t I?
Then again, if I wanted to seduce him, I had to get his interest somehow, so I slowly sauntered over to him, getting close enough that we were inches apart.
He was so tall, so broad in his beautifully tailored dark suit, the shade of his silk tie perfectly matching the blue of his eyes. He didn’t move as I came closer, not a single inch. His hands were still behind his back making him seem like a wall, unbending, unyielding. And that cold, cold gaze. So sharp, laser blue.
A man to break yourself against…
The thought came out of nowhere, sliding through my mind like a snake. I ignored it. Like I’d break myself against man… Yeah, that wasn’t happening.
Yet… I found myself suddenly conscious of his physical warmth, so at odds with the ice in his gaze. His scent too was confusingly warm, cedar and musk with a delicious sharp, peppery bite. Against my will, I liked it.
Another strange little shiver coursed down my spine. I was very aware of my own nakedness. Of how close he was. How all I’d need to do was take another step and my nipples would brush against his suit jacket.
All my muscles went tight as an unwelcome heat rushed through me.
This is a mistake.
Yes, it was. A very bad mistake.
Instinctively, I went to step back, but a large, warm hand closed around one of my elbows, holding me where I was, sending all the air rushing out of my lungs and taking all my confidence with it.
I froze as a strange mixture of shock, fear, and an impossible, inexplicable heat burst through me.
“You came here for me, did you?” His voice held a dark edge that made me tremble deep inside, his gaze a fierce, unrelenting pressure. “And you thought…what? That all you’d have to do is drop your cloak and I’d be panting after you like a dog? Ready to do whatever you asked?”
His grip wasn’t tight and yet I couldn’t move. I could barely breathe. I wanted to lift my chin and tell him that yes, that’s exactly what I’d thought, so he could get on his knees right now, please and thank you. Except I couldn’t find the breath to say it. What came out instead was, “N-No.”
“No?” He lifted one brow, his fingers pressing against my skin, hot as fallen embers. “Because if you did, little one, you’re going to be disappointed. It doesn’t work that way. My attention is something you must earn.”
For a second, I just stared at him in shock. Earn his attention? Seriously? Why the hell would I want to earn anyone’s attention, let alone his? All the attention I’d ever experienced from men had been unwelcome and forced on me. I hadn’t wanted any of it.