Page 9 of Bought

But she’d been lying through her teeth the whole time.

I was a suspicious man — Caleb had accused me of being paranoid on more than one occasion — and maybe I was. Then again, I had good reason.

I had powerful enemies and I’d soon learned to treat everyone as if they were guilty until proven innocent. I made no apology for it, not with Isabel to protect, and since her life was more important than anyone else’s feelings I didn’t care who I offended with my suspicions.

This girl — and she was a girl — might look like a little innocent, but there had been something practiced in the way she’d looked up at me, in the way she’d fluttered her pale lashes, in the over-the-top pleading in her eyes.

She was a good liar, I’d give her that, but she was a liar all the same.

She wasn’t lying now, though. Her physical reaction to me was all truth, from that burst of surprise when I’d gripped her chin, to the instinctive, dark rush of fear that had followed it. That tremor, too, was fear. Perhaps even panic.

Interesting.

I should have let her go immediately, since I wasn’t in the business of frightening young women, not if they didn’t want to be frightened. But I was curious now. She’d let fall that cloak in a room full of strangers, displaying her naked body to all and sundry, and there hadn’t been a whiff of fear to her then. Or when she’d come into the room just now. Oh, there’d been a healthy dose of trepidation, but that had been manufactured for my benefit, I was sure.

This panic, however, was completely genuine, and I wanted to know why.

Perhaps she saw my curiosity, because abruptly her lashes lowered, hiding the expression in her eyes, and she didn’t try to pull away again, merely sitting there quiet and still. Whatever had caused that panic, she’d mastered it now.

Her skin was silky and warm beneath my fingers, and she smelled of something sweet, like hot chocolate and cotton candy.

Sweet. Quiet. Obedient. A perfect little sub.

An unexpected and very unwelcome heat flickered through me.

Perhaps you should take her after all? You don’t need to go to the club, not when she’s bought and paid for. She’s yours for the night.

Absolutely not. She was far too young, and I was past the age of being interested in young women. That fear too was a red flag. That signaled complexity and I wasn’t here for complexity. Not when it came to sex. I wanted rules and boundaries and most importantly emotional distance. Unraveling this woman’s fear was not what I was here for tonight.

I was here to go through the ridiculous formalities Arcadia insisted on after the auctions, pay her the money she was owed, and then go visit my club. Where I could find an actual sub who only wanted to get off and didn’t care who with, not some too-young woman who wanted to sell herself for some indeterminate reason.

“I’m not lying,” she said, her clear voice very steady.

I ignored her. “Look at me.”

Her lashes lifted obediently, her eyes silvery and wide. Guileless. Not a trace of fear in them now.

I should have let her go, yet for some reason I found myself reluctant. “You are lying,” I said. “Not that it matters. I’ll pay for a security guard and a hotel room for the night, but I will not be taking you anywhere.”

A silver spark glowed briefly in her wide gaze and then it was gone.

Again, interesting. First panic and fear, now anger, or at the very least annoyance. The mask of the innocent was slipping.

Her gaze had become liquid and even more silvery, tears welling up. Manufactured tears, I was positive. Did she really think crying would make me change my mind?

“Tears won’t work on me,” I informed her. “So don’t bother. With the hotel and the guard, you’ll be safe. If people are really after you, which I highly doubt.”

Her lush mouth hardened, then she blinked, and the tears were gone. For a moment a cool, calculating intelligence looked back at me, the big-eyed, helpless virgin vanishing. And even though I knew it was a mistake, I felt my interest catch like a fishhook on a rock.

There was nothing but blatant challenge in that stare and it went straight to my cock as if she’d wrapped her hand around it and squeezed.

But no.

I didn’t want a challenge. I didn’t want a fight. I got that every day with my company and with Isabel, and what I wanted when I needed distraction was silence. Obedience. Softness and quiet to soothe the jagged edges inside me, not spirit and fire to make them even sharper.

I should have let go of her then, but I didn’t. Instinct had me holding her gaze instead. Staring her down, the force of my will meeting hers and insisting on obedience.

A flush rose to her pale cheekbones, the silver spark in her eyes I’d seen before flickering into life again and abruptly blazing high.