Page 22 of Bought

“Then why? Do you feel sorry for me? Is that it? I mean, if you really didn’t want me coming home with you, you’d have stopped the car and left me on the sidewalk by now. Yet you haven’t.” She tilted her head. “Unless you’re a man who makes empty threats and I don’t think you are.”

I met her cool stare, feeling the Dom in me shift restlessly as she held it. I wanted to take her chin in my hand, feel her warm skin beneath my thumb, and get her attention with my authority. Then use my will to make her stop pushing me, because she would not like it if I took control, not one bit.

But I crushed the urge. I couldn’t give in to it. Later, after this night was over, I’d find another playmate, not one of the club subs, but someone different. Someone who wasn’t totally new to the scene, but who was new to me. Someone I could get rid of this restlessness with.

Now, though, it was time to end this.

She needed to learn that none of my threats were empty ones.

“My reasons are none of your concern,” I said. “But given your continual refusal to answer my questions, I’ve decided that you can go to a hotel instead.”

Surprise flickered through her gaze and then the silver sparks of her temper leapt. She was not pleased with that. Too bad. I’d made my decision. I wasn’t going to take her home and I shouldn’t even have been contemplating it.

She was a beautiful creature, but her youth and inexperience were too much of a barrier to the kind of sex I preferred, regardless of how much she engaged my curiosity. And I didn’t want her in my house if she wasn’t going to answer my questions.

I was too suspicious and paranoid, no matter how harmless she was.

“But you said—”

“I asked you some questions and you didn’t answer them. I told you what would happen if you didn’t.” I gripped her hips and slid her unceremoniously from my lap.

“You’re kidding?” She stared at me, outraged. “You’re really going to turn down a night of sex with me just because of some stupid questions?”

“I never said I was going to have a night of sex with you.” I unwrapped the tie from around her wrists. “What I said was that I’d take you home. Now, I’ve decided otherwise.”

“But,” she began hotly.

“End of the discussion,” I said.

9

Zara

He had to be kidding. He had to be.

I stared at him, my wrists still stinging from the silk that had bound them, the warmth of his powerful body lingering against my skin. He coiled the tie and put it into his pocket, then leaned forward, pressing the button on the intercom, and speaking to his driver, giving an address I didn’t recognize.

I was free yet I barely even noticed. Fury burned inside me.

What the fuck was this about? Why had he changed his mind? It had been the bite, hadn’t it? That had been his line and I’d pushed him over it. For the second time tonight, I’d let my fear get the better of me, sending my anger out of control, and so he’d changed his mind. And I was going to pay for it.

You fucking idiot.

I couldn’t believe my stupidity. I could tell him the truth, give him the answers he wanted, right now even. But he’d never let me get anywhere near him if he knew I was working for the Hamiltons. He’d probably pull the car over, push me out and not even bother with the hotel.

And I wouldn’t get a cent of all that money.

I’d be back at square one, like when I’d finally run away from home after Dad had kicked me one too many times. Sleeping on the streets and then in shelters where I could, working for a pittance stacking shelves in the supermarket since I couldn’t get any other kind of job. Living in constant fear that Dad would discover where I was and come find me. He’d told me the last time I saw him that if I left, he’d hunt me down and kill me, and I’d seen the certainty in his eyes. My mother had had the gall to leave, he’d said, and he wouldn’t stand for me doing the same.

I’d had to learn how to save myself back then and those skills had stood me in good stead. Now I was going to have to save myself again, because sure as shit, no one else would. The only way to fix the situation was to finish this job for the Hamiltons, and then I’d finally be free.

Then I could have Santorini.

My brain tumbled over and over, trying to find a way out of this mess and into his house.

That bite… I’d done it to show him I wasn’t powerless or weak, and when he’d jerked my head back, I’d expected his anger. Intellectually, I knew he wouldn’t hurt me, yet my body had gone cold with fear all the same. A terror of male rage that I’d learned from my father and had been reinforced by my years on the streets.

Except Fox hadn’t been angry. What had been in his eyes was a heat of a different kind.