Page 17 of Bought

Now I was so close to my goal — the money — I couldn’t let my own weakness get in the way. Seriously. All I had to do was hold out my hands because it was obvious, he was going to tie them. It wasn’t a big deal.

Yet the air in the car had vanished somewhere and I could barely breathe.

I really thought I’d screwed up that big seduction scene back at Arcadia, but apparently, I hadn’t. In fact, somehow it had gotten me exactly what I’d wanted.

I’d been so surprised that he’d changed his mind and decided to take me home after all, that I hadn’t said a word as we’d signed the papers Andre had given us. Or as Fox had ushered me into the long, black limo that waited at the curb. I sat in the car, gathering myself. Hardly able to believe that I’d managed to pull it off.

I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.

Naturally, he wouldn’t welcome me into his home just like that. He wanted information from me — they always wanted something from me — and I had no doubt he’d try to get it out of me if I refused to tell him.

To be fair to him, he’d warned me of what he’d do if I refused to give him that information, but the real problem was that I couldn’t. I didn’t even want to give him my name in case he’d heard of me from Isabel. As he’d already told me, he was a suspicious man, and he might decide to question how a friend of Isabel’s would end up at Arcadia, selling off her virginity to him. And why that friend would be so insistent on going home with him. He likely wouldn’t guess what I was after, but he’d know I was after something. Also, it might rebound on Isabel in some way, and I didn’t want that.

He might not draw any links between me and the Hamiltons, but he wouldn’t like any link between Isabel and me, that was for sure.

So no, I couldn’t give him my name, yet I also couldn’t allow him to put me on the street.

Shit.

He showed no sign of impatience as he waited for me to obey him, but I could feel the force of his will. It filled the entire car with an intense, crackling pressure that made my skin tighten and prickle.

I ignored the cold feeling that sat in my gut, forcing my brain into gear, because what to tell him? How could I convince him that I was harmless? That he could trust me without giving away any part of myself or my actual mission?

“I won’t ask again,” he murmured.

Do it. You’ve no other choice.

Steeling myself, I held out my hands, and as expected, he wrapped the blue silk deftly around my wrists and pulled it tight.

I swallowed, fighting the fear that dug its claws into me, that made me want to jerk my wrists away, smash the car windows, get out, get out any way I could, and run and run and run.

You’re helpless. He could hurt you very badly and you wouldn’t be able to protect yourself.

I’d promised myself after Dad that I wouldn’t let a man make me afraid again and now in the space of a month, two men had me running scared and I was furious about it.

I wasn’t going to let it win tonight.

Fox’s gaze was on me, watching me with those cold eyes.

Isabel had complained about the security detail he’d put on her, constantly following her around, and how he wouldn’t let her go out or do anything without them. While I appreciated the safety aspect, I wasn’t exactly full of confidence about him, because that read controlling asshole to me. Then again, all his buying of virgins without taking what he paid for was a point in his favor. I also knew, in the research they’d given me about him, that Fox Tech was involved in a number of charitable organizations and donated large sums to various causes.

Then again, Donny had started off telling me his operation was like Robin Hood and all he wanted to do was help people, and like the stupid idiot I was, I’d believed him.

I wasn’t going to do that again.

Grabbing onto my anger, I stared right back at Fox. “Um, is that it? Do you think that tying my wrists together is going to make me spill my guts somehow? Not sure how that works, friend, but it sure as hell isn’t going to work on me.”

He didn’t move and though the car was large, somehow it felt as if his broad, powerful body was taking up all the space, the warm cedar and musk of his scent taking up all the air.

One of his straight black brows lifted. “Will it not?”

Heat crept into my cheeks. It was as if he could see my fear plain as day.

I hated that. Hated that I was so transparent to him. Hated how he’d seen through me right from the first moment I’d walked through the door to meet him back in Arcadia. Hated how he’d seen my fear.

I didn’t look away. “Call me Red Riding Hood. In fact, call me Red.”

His gaze flickered, something that wasn’t that icy calm for a change shifting in it, but it was gone so fast, I couldn’t tell what it was. “That isn’t your name.”