Page 71 of Bought

She wanted to stay, I sensed. She wanted it very much.

The tight feeling in my chest got even tighter. She needed me, the little sub, and it had been a long time since I’d been needed. Isabel was an adult, our relationship was strained, and as for my friends… Well, I only had two of them and it wasn’t as if they needed me in particular. Atlas and Caleb didn’t need anyone.

I put a finger under her chin and tilted her back, so she was looking up at me again. “I don’t know,” I said honestly. “Perhaps until we both decide we’re done. But there are some things I can’t give you, Zara. Things I can’t give anyone.”

“What things?”

“Long term commitment.” I paused. “Love.”

She flushed. “We barely know each other, and I never said—”

“I know you didn’t. But I have to be honest with you. Juliana was my wife and I loved her very much. It was a once-in-a-lifetime love, and she took my heart with her when she died. I don’t have anything left to give anyone else.”

Her chin jutted. “Okay. But just so you know, it’s not like I’m ready to settle down or anything.”

I stroked her silky jaw with my thumb, aware of the note of defiance in her voice, aware of what it meant. But if I thought about that too hard, my better self would get in the way, and I’d end up letting her go for her own good. I didn’t want to do that.

“Give me an answer then, little sub,” I said. “And quickly.”

She pulled away from my hand and leaned back in my arms, her warm weight shifting and making all the blood in my veins race below my belt. “Will the rules apply?”

It had been a long time since I’d smiled — I’d never had much to smile about — but I couldn’t help the way my mouth curved, satisfaction stretching out inside me. “Yes,” I said. “The rules will apply.”

The silver sparks were back in her eyes now, all excitement and heat. “In that case, I think I would like to be kept.”

My grip on her tightened. I wanted to put her on her knees immediately, but there were some other things we needed to discuss first. “The issue of the Hamiltons will need to be dealt with,” I said.

Instantly, she sat up. “I would never tell them—”

I put a finger over her soft mouth, silencing her. “I know you wouldn’t. But they’re waiting for you to complete their task. And am I right in assuming they’re not going to pay you until you do?”

She nodded.

I lowered my finger. “I won’t let you go back to them, Zara. Understand that right now. But I don’t want you to miss out on the money you should have had from them either. So, I’m going to give you the five hundred thousand you earned from your auction.”

Her eyes widened. “Sir, you can’t—”

“I can. I have a lot of money and you have nothing. It would affect me not at all to give you what you were owed.”

She frowned. “It’s too much money. You can’t just give it to me.”

“You didn’t seem to have a problem with it at the auction on Friday.”

“That was different. And I had a job to do.” A pink flush stained her cheekbones. “I’m not a charity.”

I understood. She had her pride. In which case I needed to know what had led to her taking the job from the Hamiltons in the first place. “You mentioned taking the job because you needed the money. Because someone stole it.”

“Yeah.” A breath escaped her, and she glanced away again. “Don’t worry about him. He doesn’t—”

“I gave you an order, sub,” I warned gently. “And you know I don’t like repeating myself.”

Her nose wrinkled and I suspected she only just stopped herself from rolling her eyes. “I’m a self-taught hacker and I get — I mean, I used to get — jobs from this guy called Donny. He would pass them on to me and take a cut.”

Interesting. That was why she didn’t have a job history presumably. “Illegal jobs, I’m guessing?”

“Yes. Turned out I was pretty good at computer stuff, but I didn’t have any qualifications because I couldn’t afford school. The jobs Donny passed on paid better than just about everything else and he got me this apartment… It was good. But he turned out to be a creep. He wanted me to sleep with him and when I refused, he kicked me out of the apartment and took all my stuff, including my savings.”

The simmering embers of my anger ignited, burning hot, every protective, possessive impulse going into overdrive. How dare this man hurt her? How dare he take what was hers, what she’d worked for? How dare he not take ‘no’ for an answer?