Authors: Vonna Harper
“Someone has to keep his pulse on the budget.” He tapped more keys.
Master Damek sat in the only other chair in the room. Not sure what she was supposed to do, she positioned herself a few feet from him. Lacing her fingers together, she held them over her crotch. As she waited for something to happen, her mind caught on elements of her disturbing/erotic dream. Could it be a foreshadowing of the rest of her life?
“All right,” the strange man said. “The check cleared.”
Check. Cleared.
That meant only one thing, she’d been sold. Why it had taken place before tomorrow’s auction didn’t matter. Feeling as if she might throw up, she stared at Master Damek, but he continued to ignore her.
“That’s it then?” he asked. “The purchase is complete?”
“You sound surprised.”
“Not really.”
“Most times it’s more involved because we have to do a background check of the buyer, but since we’re dealing with someone we know—“
Raymont?
“I understand.”
All she knew for sure was that her new owner was someone Carnal Incorporated was familiar with. Maybe, like Raymont, he’d bought sex slaves before. What had happened to those who’d come before her? Had the owner sold that woman or women? Had they died?
Been killed?
Even as fear closed in around her, she realized Master Damek was signing something.
“That’s it,” he said getting to his feet. “It’s a pleasure doing business with you.”
“Get out of here.”
Her now former trainer faced her. “Come on. You heard the man.”
Staring up at him, she acknowledged she meant nothing to him. Even more to the point, he was so confident of the job he’d done on her he knew she wouldn’t try to run. Confused and defeated, she plodded after him.
When she stepped outside, sunlight again touched her with warmth. There was a breeze now. Whatever happened today, she wouldn’t beg or plead.
He whirled, facing her. Remembering her vow, she stood her ground. “Do you know what just happened?” he asked.
“I’ve been sold.”
“In a way. What happened is I just paid for the cost of the time you spent here.”
“You? Why?”
“Damn good question.” He touched the side of her neck.
She could barely think for the strength flowing from him to her. She leaned into his hand only to jerk back.
“What’s your name?”
“My—Willow.”
“I’d forgotten.” He clenched his teeth. “Damn it, what kind of bastard have I been thinking a woman’s name isn’t important?”
Woman, not slave.
Even though his tension bothered her, she vowed not to say anything, or maybe the truth was her opinion hadn’t mattered for so long she’d forgotten she had one.
But she did, damn it!
“Maybe it’s easier for you to do your job that way,” she said. “If I’m nothing more than some clay you’re molding—“
“You’re a hell of a lot more than that.” Taking hold of her arms, he lifted them and stared at the cuffs. “Things are going to change between us.”
His tone was different from what she’d heard from him before. She couldn’t say where this
thing
between them was heading, but their relationship was evolving in ways she’d never expected. Between the sun and knowing she wasn’t going to stand on the auction block after all, she was starting to get back in touch with the woman she used to be—only different.
“Why did you decide to, ah, reimburse Carnal for my expense?” Had she really just said that?
“Because that’s what it took for them to relinquish ownership.”
Ownership. She now belonged to him.
He went back to studying her. Between his hands on her and their bodies only inches apart, thinking was becoming harder. If only she understood what was happening.
“I’m still figuring it out what I did.” He let go of her arms, then took her hand and started leading her around to the front of the ranch house. Having her fingers intertwined with his pushed her even more off-balance. For the first time she wasn’t afraid of him.
Maybe she should be.
More than one set of eyes locked on them as they walked up the stairs. Much as she needed to put the pieces together, it was easier to remain mentally numb. He guided her through the room where Raymont and Mitch had been and then down a long, narrow hall with doors on either side. Opening the last one on the right, he stepped aside. Shaking, she entered a room with a large window, a double bed, a dresser, and a chair. Pictures of the seashore at sunset decorated two walls.
“This is where I’ve been staying,” he said.
Except for the pictures and window, there wasn’t much noteworthy about the room—or there wouldn’t have been if she hadn’t been locked in a stall.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
She couldn’t remember when she’d last been asked that. Maybe that’s what angered her. “It isn’t fair,” she snapped. “You know it isn’t.”
“Whether I do or not isn’t the point.” He dug into a back pocket and extracted a familiar looking key.
“You bought me,” she made herself say. “Now I truly belong to you.”
To her surprise, he handed the key to her. After a moment, she slipped it into the slot on her left cuff. The cuff clattered to the hardwood floor. She did the same to the other restraint. Everything felt unreal, a dream. Any instant it might become a nightmare.
“Answer your own question, Willow. Do I own you?”
She didn’t know anything except that the two of them were in the room where he slept and proof of her imprisonment lay on at her feet. Numb, she sat in the chair so she could lean over and remove the leather around her ankles. That done, she fingered the collar with trembling fingers.
“That takes a different key. I don’t have it with me.”
Is this really happening? Maybe I’m dreaming again.
“Why are we in here?”
“Because I want privacy.”
They’d have that in the stall. “For what?” She handed the key back to him, remained sitting because she didn’t trust her legs.
“I’m not sure.” When he raked his fingers through her hair, the gesture caught her attention. This was the first time she’d seen him acting less than confident. “There’s something I need to clarify. The money I paid to get Carnal Incorporated to relinquish interest in you isn’t the same as a slave price. It’s much less.”
I don’t understand
she nearly said, but suddenly, maybe, she did. Her now naked wrists and ankles might spell out her new reality.
“I’m free?”
“Yes and no.”
Don’t do this to me. I can’t handle any more.
Instead of explaining, he walked over to the window. If she remembered right, he hadn’t locked the door. After glancing at it, she turned her attention to his broad, strong back. His physique wasn’t spectacular, but he was physically fit. She’d never seen him naked but wanted to—wanted to run her hands over his body.
Wanted to be in his bed.
“What did you mean by yes and no?”
He continued to study the world beyond this room. The window was open, and she breathed in clean air. When her lungs were full, she touched her breast—
hers.
“Carnal Incorporated has
arrangements
with certain influential law enforcement personnel. That way the organization doesn’t have to worry about being prosecuted.
Accusations of wrongdoing disappear.”
Oh my God.
“Do you understand what I’m saying?”
She swallowed and again noted the discarded cuffs. “Carnal can stop me from going to the police.”
“Or the media.”
She tried to imagine herself being interviewed by news outlets but couldn’t—certainly not
dressed
the way she was.
“Then—I’m a burden to you. Unless you sell me.“
“That’s not going to happen.”
She’d been aware of his predator-like movement. Still the speed with which he spun around surprised her. He was still the same man who’d done unbelievable things to her and yet he wasn’t.
“Willow, I spent my childhood dealing with my stepmother’s wrath. It made me tough.
Closed up. Emotionally untouchable. Only I mattered, at least that’s what I believed. The damn bitch who made my life hell taught me a lot about undermining a person’s sense of worth. If I hadn’t run—hell, I did what I had to.”
In a few words he’d revealed much about the man he’d become. Did anyone else know that about him?
“Thanks to her I was a natural for this job. I was damn good at it. But instead of caving in like other trainees, you became stronger. I want to know how that happened.” He again raked his fingers through his hair. “I want to learn who you are.”
I’m not the same person I was a few weeks ago.
She was on her feet without knowing how it had happened, joining him by the window.
The breeze was life.
“Even if I wanted to let you go now, I can’t,” he said from where he stood dangerous inches away. “Carnal’s management wouldn’t have allowed me to do what I just did if I didn’t make that part of the agreement. You have to stay with me.”
With him.
“You—we wouldn’t have to remain here?”
He took so long facing her that she should have been ready for it. Instead, she found herself off-balance, shaking even more.
“No,” he said, “we wouldn’t.”
“Alaska?”
“What? You want to go there?”
No longer caring about anything except him, she lightly touched his chest. “I have for a long, long time. I—I want to fly in a bush plane, climb Mt. McKinley, participate in a sled dog race.”
He spread his hands over her naked buttocks and pulled her against his erect cock.
“Why didn’t you?”
Be honest.
“I was afraid.”
“But you no longer are?”
She wrapped her arms around him, something she’d never thought she’d want to do.
“You taught me what survival is really about.”
“If I did anything, it was force you to draw on recourses you didn’t know you had.”
Maybe he was right. Maybe she was insane to think she wanted to go to Alaska with the man who’d taught her how to be a sex slave. Maybe, all too soon, they wouldn’t want anything to do with each other.
But this was now.
Knowing he wouldn’t stop her, she unsnapped and unzipped him. The tasks done, she dragged his jeans down his hips and rubbed the back of her hand over his erection.
“I never expected this from you.” He threaded his fingers through her hair.
“Neither did I.”
She was no longer the unsure, submissive woman she’d been all her life. While being taught to submit, she’d found an inner strength.
Strength she wanted to share with the man who’d shown her who and what she really was.
Kneeling, she helped him out of his shoes while he balanced himself with a hand on her head.
They were in
this
together.
When he no longer wore shoes or socks, she started to pull off his jeans, but he guided her to her feet and finished the task himself. Then he lifted her in his arms, carried her to the bed, and tossed her onto it.
She didn’t wait for him to remove his shirt but captured his cock and pulled him toward her.
He landed next to her, clutched her against him, and rolled over so he was on his back with her on top. The blood in her temples roared as she covered his mouth with hers. Moments later he positioned her over his cock, and she lowered herself onto him. Became one with him.
Tomorrow was a vast unknown.
Today was for being a woman.
Fucking the man who’d changed her.
Made her better.