by Raven Dark
As soon as I’d called him a dick, Kane roared with laughter. It was a gorgeous sound that hummed under my skin, and rang of triumph. God, I hated him. Too bad my body didn’t agree with my brain.
He pinched my chin between his fingers the way he had the other day. “I might be a dick, but you’ll still take my offer, and you know it.”
I glared at him. “You don’t know that.”
He grinned and pulled me close. “Come here, angel.”
“Get off me.” I shoved him away, and when he released me, I ignored his worried look and pressed into the opposite side of the car.
“Anika.” The concern in his soft tone nearly made me wish I hadn’t pushed away his comfort. “Are you ok?”
I wasn’t, but I nodded. “Just…give me time to process what just happened. Just back off.” He’d spanked my ass until it hurt like a mother, and then fucked me where his driver could hear every moment.
Like a slave.
“Are you angry with me?”
I shot him a glare. “How can you even ask me that?”
He brushed my red curls from my shoulder and when he spoke, his voice was so tender it made my eyes water. “You liked what I did to you just now, Anika, and you know it. The question is, are you angry with me because I disciplined you and then took what I wanted, or because it got you off?”
My nails dug into my palms and I twisted my head away from his touch. He gave a quiet chuckle, like I’d proven his point.
He didn’t touch me again all the way to our destination.
Jesus, I wanted to believe I wouldn’t accept becoming his submissive at all now, knowing what he’d do to me given the opportunity. Especially if he considered that spanking a mild punishment. Unfortunately, refusing Kane Davros had proven to be impossible up to now.
I had a feeling I wouldn’t be able to walk away from his offer as easily as I’d hoped, and not just because the Gavinis were following me.
3
I was officially twisted.
I’d always known there was something off center about the way I viewed the world, and especially women, but what had just happened with Anika in the back of my limo confirmed it. Or rather, my reaction afterward did.
As we pulled up to Le Crème restaurant, and I took her arm to guide her inside the opulent front entrance, I could practically smell the mix of arousal and hatred on her. The blend was intoxicating. As I imagined all the things she’d like to do to me—gouge my eyes out, knock out my teeth—my dick pressed against my slacks, as hungry and painfully hard for her as if I hadn’t just fucked her like crazy in the back seat of my car. I couldn’t help picturing me dragging her into the nearest private room, shoving her to her knees, and feeding her my cock. Again. Stuffing her throat full of me, making her eat every last drop of my come. And the twisted part? If she hated it—no, because she’d hate it right then—so much the better.
Some conqueror part of me, perhaps the same part of me that made me a Davros, loved the triumph of taking a woman who loathed me. The triumph of feeling her hatred turn to need, feeling her dig her nails into my back, knowing it humiliated her to want the man who would be her ruin.
She’d refuse my deal if given enough incentive, and I couldn’t let that happen. I’d make her accept me, whatever it took. The notion of what I’d be willing to do to make that happen scared me.
Well, I was my father’s son. Jesus, I needed help.
“You had to bring me here?” At least she had the decency to keep her voice low, so the room full of customers, most of them with six figure bank accounts, wouldn’t hear the scorn in her tone. “Do you have a problem with eating food that doesn’t cost as much as a Buick?”
Ah, there it was, the familiar scorn she’d shown the first time we’d met toward my station. I’d been waiting for that.
“Watch your mouth, beautiful.” Keeping my voice soft, I ran my palm up the middle of her back and wondered if her shiver was in pleasure, or revulsion. “I won’t hesitate to use it for my pleasure again, and without even leaving here.”
Every table was occupied by men in suits and women with more diamonds on than was proper. Anika’s muscles tensed, and no wonder. Every eye turned on her. Did she not notice the admiration in the men’s gazes? I gripped her shoulder, unable to help the possession roaring through me at those stares.
“Here we go again. Do you like making me feel out of place?” she hissed.
“Maybe a little.” A waitress led us to the private room I’d reserved in the back. When we were inside and the waitress left, I pulled out a chair at the table. “Here, sit.”
Anika sighed, but slid onto the cushioned seat. She did look out of place in her jeans and worn shirt, but I didn’t care. The waitress had watched her a little too closely on the way in here, but no one dared say anything, not with me there. They wouldn’t lose a customer who spent more money here than most people paid in rent.
The moment her ass hit the seat, her mouth pulled in a wince. I smirked.
“Having trouble getting comfortable, angel?”
She gritted her teeth and hid her face by sipping the water the waitress returned and set down for her. I didn’t miss the confusion that flickered in her eyes. Over what I’d done to her, of course. She still couldn’t make sense of her arousal over being spanked. Or maybe it was who had spanked her that was the problem.
Shit, I wished I’d ignored her need to be left alone and comforted her like she needed.
“You should have let me hold you after, Anika.”
“Oh, you mean after you made my ass feel like I sat on hot coals?”
I snorted at her attempt to cover her lust with anger. “Admit it, you like my hands on you.”
She only glared.
“It wasn’t a good idea to pull away from me.”
“Why? Are you pissed you didn’t get a chance to play hero, Davros?”
“Fuck no. I’m no pussy-ass good boy. I’m not big on cuddling, and I don’t hand hold, but spanking can be…intense, especially if it’s for punishment. Abandonment is damaging.”
“Oh, stop.” She curled her lip. “Stop pretending you care about me, or my feelings, Kane. If you did, you wouldn’t be offering what you are.”
It took a lot to keep my face emotionless. If only she knew. If only she knew how much it ripped me up, wanting to be her savior and knowing I couldn’t. I couldn’t without endangering both of us.
“So, I should just pay of your fifty-thousand-dollar debt to the mob out of the goodness of my heart, then?” The waitress returned with red wine. I paused long enough to let her pour it, gave it the obligatory taste and nodded my approval. She poured a full glass for me, and Anika covered her glass when she moved to pour for her. The woman left and I added, “That’s an awfully big handout to someone whose father spent money he didn’t have.”
Jesus. As soon as I said it and saw the hurt flash across her face, I mentally kicked myself. But I needed this. I needed not to care, and for that, I needed her hatred.
“Can we just get on with what we came here to talk about, please?”
I opened my mouth to agree, but the waitress came to take our order. I ordered for both of us before Anika could do more than stare at the menu, clearly trying to make sense of the complicated names. She shot a look at me loaded with annoyance, and I ignored it. If she thought I was controlling now…
The waitress left, but not without a sneer for Anika, and a too close look at her attire, as if she was trying to figure out what a T-shirt was. I clenched my jaw. That woman wouldn’t get a tip.
“What did you order me?”
“Oysters. Ask your questions, Anika.”
She huffed, then smiled tightly at the ceiling. “How exactly does this work? Do I move in with you for six months?”
“Yes. As much as I love the idea of prowling into your apartment every night and cuffing you to your bed, it’s easier if we use mine.”
Her face turned a gorgeous shade of scarlet and she looked
back at the closed doors to the room. “Shit, now I see why you wanted a private room.”
“See? I do have some morals.”
“Barely.”
I chuckled, hearing the shake of desire in her voice. “That self consciousness won’t last. Trust me.”
She went on as if I hadn’t spoken. “You said you were here on business.”
“Yes. I leave tomorrow.”
“To where?”
“California.”
Her eyes widened. “And you just expect me to pick up and leave with you? Leave everything here? I can’t, I have a job, Davros.”
“You won’t be with me all the time. I come to New York at least once a week to handle the holdings I took over from my father. I’ll come on Thursday nights and leave Monday morning. Your Thursday nights, and your weekends will be for me. The rest of the week, you’ll only have to be with me occasionally, when my business dealings allow.”
She made a soft, livid noise in her throat. I raised a brow.
“Is there are a problem?”
“It’s just, you talk about this so casually. It’s just another transaction, isn’t it? My body’s just like any other object, something for you to eat up and spit out.”
Fuck, the hurt in her voice nearly leveled me. It would have been so easy to scoop her up in my arms, to kiss her fears away and wrap her in the protection I knew I could give her. And then what? A woman like her would never survive in my world, not as long as my father lived. To say nothing of Gala. Until my father died, I had to make the world think I was with Gala. Which only left one role for Anika, and that couldn’t involve love.
“What do you want, Anika? A fairytale? A knight in shining armor?”
She closed her eyes and her voice was almost inaudible. “I want the man I thought you were. The man who took me that night.”
“Well, this is all I can give you. It’s all I know how to give.”
She looked at the ceiling again, and I wondered if she blinked too fast. “And when you leave again? Where do I stay?”
“It depends where we are when I leave. Sometimes you’ll be at one of my estates, when there’s one close enough. Other times, a hotel. Someone will always be around to handle your needs, and to protect you.”
She flinched, and I knew why. I was making this sound cold as fuck. But I’d make up for it that night. In my bed, the last thing she would feel is unwanted.
The food showed up and as soon as we started eating, she went on. “So I won’t have to quite my job.”
“No. Not unless it becomes a danger to you. I want control of you, but I’m not a tyrant. I’ve seen you at work, angel, and I know it’s your passion. I won’t take that from you.”
The first hint of suspicion touched her eyes, and I pressed my lips together. She’d never totally trust I didn’t have an angle, that I wasn’t trying to take more control than it seemed. I hated that she was probably right. I wanted the love she held for nursing, for helping others, to belong to me. I wanted her to look at me with the adoration I saw when she mentioned her job, and the minute I had a reason, it would be mine.
Jealous of her job. See? Twisted.
“There’s a lot more to this, I know. I just…don’t know what to ask.” She picked up an oyster, brushed off the pink meat and poured it into her mouth. I watched her throat work on a swallow and my dick gave a violet twitch.
I swallowed one of my own oysters. “There are some questions I need to ask.” When she looked at me, I added, “Are you on the pill?”
“Let me guess. You can’t afford your slave getting pregnant.”
I let the slave comment go. “I can’t afford a family, no.”
She picked up another oyster. Why did it look like she was too interested in it? “I’m protected, Davros. You don’t need to worry, I won’t saddle you with a kid.”
I narrowed my eyes, puzzled at the extra bite in her tone. She sounded…what? I couldn’t place the emotion. I nodded and took a piece of folded paper out of the inside pocket of my blazer. “Then there’s this.” I slid the paper across the table for her.
Anika scowled and unfolded the paper. She glanced at it, and instantly her face flushed. Her jaw tensed and she flipped the paper over as if she thought the customers in the main room could somehow see the through walls and see what was on the paper.
“Seriously? You want to do those things to me? Why?”
I couldn’t help a grin.
“There is something wrong with you, Davros. I am not letting you stick any “foreign objects” up my ass, and no way are you whipping me.”
My smile grew. Something wrong with me? She had no idea. “That list makes things sound worse then they are. I promise you, most of them can be highly erotic if you do them right.”
“Yeah, right. I don’t trust you enough to try them.”
“Anika.” Protectiveness welled up and I reached across the table, taking her hand before I could consider what I was doing. “I promised you I wouldn’t hurt you. I won’t push you further than you can take. You will have a safeword, a way out, at all times.”
“A safeword?”
“Yes. A word you use to stop me if things become too much.”
“What good is a safeword when refusing means my father and I end up in the hands of the mob?”
“If you’re this recalcitrant, I’d hate to see what you’ll say when I get to the good part.”
“What?”
I drew a breath. “We’ll get to that in a minute. There are rules, and you need to know them.”
“Which are?”
“When you’re on your own time, which, to be honest, will be most of the time, you’ll be able to see who you want, wear what you like, go where you want, as long as it’s not deemed unsafe, and its from a predetermined list.”
Her eyes went big. When she spoke, her voice was stiff and a little too loud. “You want to tell me who to see? Where to go? Are you fucking real?”
With the doors closed, people likely wouldn’t hear, but with a conversation like this, I couldn’t take the chance. I leaned over. “Keep your voice down. There’s a proper way to behave in public, Anika, and you need to learn it.”
She huffed. “You are not controlling my entire life, Davros!”
“If you want me to help you, I will control what I say. In case you forgot, you have a mobster after you. Not to mention, my father’s name means I’m almost constantly under a microscope. Where you go, who you see, what you wear, hell, what you eat will always be an excuse to hurt me. It’s the price of being rich. Especially this rich.”
“This is not about appearances, and you know it. I know how this will go. You’ll start small. Tell me it’s for my protection. Then before I know it, I’m chained to a wall in some dungeon twenty-four hours a day.”
I stared. Disbelief rolled through me, and it settled on me just how horrible my family’s reputation was if she thought I was capable of that. I was a dick, but I wasn’t a madman.
“Anika, don’t be ridiculous. You won’t be a prisoner. It’s important that I protect you, as well as myself. I have a reputation to uphold, and I won’t let you tarnish it.”
“How can I? You can’t tarnish poison.”
I growled low in my throat. “You really hate me that much?”
“Yes.” She sighed. “Ok, look. It’s only six months, right? For all my dad’s debts, paid, free and clear. No more running, right?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
She blew out a breath. “And I won’t have to quit work.”
“No.”
She closed her eyes and opened her mouth to speak. I could feel the agreement hanging in the air. Victory flared in me, but I forced myself to stop her.
“Before you agree, there is one more thing you need to know.”
“Yeah, you said there was a good part. I have to hear this.”
I leaned back in my seat, holding her gaze. “There’s a reason I set the timeframe for six months.”
�
��And why is that?”
“Because.” I paused, bracing myself for her hatred of me to reach epic proportions. “In six months, I’m getting married.”
The words hit me like a fist to the gut. He was getting married.
I could barely process the torrent of emotions roiling through me. Humiliation and hatred for this man warred for headspace, and I didn’t know which was stronger, the mortification of knowing that he wanted me to play side slave on top of everything else, or the knowledge that he’d found yet another way to deceive me.
A woman’s mind is an odd thing. If it meant I’d protect my family from the mob, not to mention stop us from having to look over our shoulders all the time, I could live with jumping through his hoops. I’d see only who he wanted, wear only what he said. Heck, I’d even let him whip me until his twisted heart’s content if that’s what it took. But no way would I spend six months as Kane Davros’ whore, while another woman wore his ring.
Everything in me wanted to throw his wine in his face and stomp out, but I wouldn’t make a scene and show myself to be the white trash the people out there probably thought I was. Instead, I clenched my fists and forced my breathing to stay almost even.
“Tell me something, Davros.”
His dark brow rose, his expression nearly like stone. Only the slight tension in his shoulders betrayed him. He knew the storm was coming.
“Were you, or were you not, engaged to be married when you fucked me?”
For a fraction of a second, his chest caught, and he looked away. Then he met my eyes and his face lost all emotion. “I was.”
My eyes closed, and I swear, the crack I’d felt in my heart the moment I realized who he was stretched wider. Suddenly the wild, erotic memories of him taking me hot and hard, his lips devouring mine—and not once, or twice, but three times now—became something shameful and repulsive. God, I hated him. Strangely, finding out he had cheated on a woman with me gave me a sense of relief. It proved he was as bad, as wicked, as undesirable, as I’d been taught to believe everyone in his family was. He couldn’t be trusted, and nothing I saw in him was what it seemed.