Page 5 of Bought

A long-buried emotion flickers in my core. Excitement.

She steps forward, leaving the coat behind. She moves carefully, as if she knows how to run if needed and has already checked the exits.

Smart.

She doesn’t ask questions. She doesn’t play coy. She just crosses her arms.

“You read my rules.”

“Oh yeah.” She eyes me. “I read your rules.”

“Good,” I say.

“And I have some feedback.”

For the first time on one of these nights, I’m speechless.

Her arms tighten around her as she goes all business. It’s fucking sexy.

“The no kissing one, I agree with completely,” she states. “But as for no panties, sorry, it’s too ungodly cold out for that.”

“If you read my rules, then you know my consequences.”

Ignoring my challenge, she holds her ground.

“As I said, I read your rules.” Her gaze is fire. “Now hear mine.”

Damn.

“One hour. No kissing, as previously stated. Condom, obviously. And I don’t do anything degrading or dangerous.”

“Define dangerous,” I say.

“If you’re into knife play, I walk.”

The retort slips out before I can stop it. “You’re in the wrong room if you think I need weapons to make you feel pain.”

Something shifts in her gaze. Not fear, but recognition. Then she looks away, a flush spreading across her cheeks.

“You’ve already earned a consequence.” I eye her thighs. “If you are, in fact, wearing panties under that sexy dress.”

“I’m sure you’re dying to see.”

Her words are calm, held together. But I see the uptick of her pulse, thrumming in that sweet curve of her neck, a spot I want to nip with my teeth, mark with my mouth.

A heatwave is crawling from my core and rising to my chest. Is she one of my kind? Does she like her pleasure doused with pain? I have to know. I need to find out.

And I only have one hour to do it.

“You follow my rules, I follow yours,” she replies calmly, arms still crossed, no drama, no flirting. Just steel. “We both get what we need. Then, we never see each other again.”

She’s not broken.

She’s sacrificing.

And something deep inside me, long buried, responds to that. I should give her the money and send her away. Call it my good deed for the day. But I can’t. The woman—here to be under my control—has power over me.

I want her to stay.