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She held a hand up as though to ward him off, but as she thought back on everything that had happened, one thing really didn’t make sense to her. “I need to know something. Will you at least answer a question?”
He nodded.
“At the auction, when I said what I said, calling all those people perverts, why did that jump-start the bidding? Why did that make me such a hot commodity? I thought it would have the opposite effect, make me less attractive.”
“You really must be naive—or were you just not paying attention? Think for a moment. What do you remember about the audience, those who had come to bid and to observe the bidding. What was going on?”
“I saw a lot of na**d flesh. Women, and even a few men, walking around with barely anything on, like those of us on the stage.” Her stomach roiled. “And there was sex as well, in at least three different places. So that was some kind sick sex club.”
“Keep thinking back. Did you hear screaming as well?”
She nodded, turning everything over in her mind. “So we’re talking sadism.”
“Exactly.”
“And you belong to this club?”
He lifted his chin. “Just joined, and you were my first buy.”
She stared at him, once more feeling like she’d been body-slammed. A week ago, she’d wanted to sleep with Reyes, and now he owned her. He’d hurt her as well, pinching her shoulder to force her to the runway floor, then putting on the painful shackles. She just couldn’t believe this was who he really was.
He scowled heavily now, his nostrils flaring.
She realized suddenly that Reyes was angry, but she didn’t know why. In fact, he seemed downright hostile toward her, which made no sense at all. He was the one with all the power in this situation. He could hurt her, use her, even torture her if he wanted to. She should be the only angry person here.
“Why are you so pissed off?” She sat up and swung her knees over the side of the bed. “I’m the victim in this situation, the slave.”
“You want to know why?” He took a menacing step toward her, bumping against her knees, a hard light in his eye.
She nodded, but he scared her like this. She pulled her robe tight across her chest.
“Because you’ve just f**ked up my plans.”
“What are you talking about? What plans?”
Reyes stared at her for a long moment, wishing Angelica had a little less spirit. He had no intention of sharing his mission with her, but she presented a serious dilemma for him. He needed to take a very submissive slave to Engle’s after-auction party, not a willful human female full of questions and outrage.
In order to sustain his cover, she’d have to be obedient to him, even frightened of him, throughout the entire event. He’d all but made an enemy of the one man who could lead him to the power behind the Starlin Group. But if he took Angelica to the party in her present condition, Engles would know the truth, that all this time Reyes had been fronting, and his cover would be blown.
Right now he had to get away from her, to think, to figure out just how to get her to submit to him. “You’re to stay in this room until I summon you.”
He turned on his heel and walked swiftly out of the guest suite, heading in the direction of the foyer and the broad, curved staircase. More than anything, he loathed that she thought him a slaver, but he saw no other way around the issue. He needed her to play a role, and the only way that made sense was if he brought her into submission so that no matter what, she’d do as she was told.
When he reached the foyer, he pulled his phone from the pocket of his tux and called his head of security, ordering guards to be placed at each door of his mansion. To keep Angelica safe, he had to make certain she didn’t try to leave his house. This exclusive section of the Como system housed a lot of Starlin members, and if she was caught on the run, Angelica could disappear into another slaver’s house and never be seen again.
Runaways were fair game.
He wished to hell he could tell her the truth, but he’d be risking too much, which meant he had to make her believe that she truly was his slave and her survival depended on doing his bidding.
Which meant he had to break her will and do it fast. Most of the time, it took very little to make a human submit—a threat of pain coupled with the taste of great pleasure beneath his fangs if she obeyed. Angelica wasn’t the typical human female, however, and he worried that if he started down this road he’d be forced to do things to her that would make him as bad as Engles.
A cold shudder went through him, but he really didn’t have a choice.
As he started up the stairs, he heard her bare feet slapping against the slate floor. She called out, “This isn’t right and you need to let me go. I don’t care that you bought me at some kind of freak-ass auction. I’m not a slave and you can’t make me one.”
Pausing on the third step and gripping the handrail, he turned to stare down at her as he considered his next move. He’d intended only to retrieve the outfit she’d need for the party and bring it to her, and afterward make her a couple of serious threats that he hoped might bring her in line. But she’d just proved yet again that breaking her will would be no simple thing.
Two of his guards arrived and took up positions on either side of the massive wood front door.
She watched them, her brows raised. He thought their arrival could work in his favor because the men were one more signal her brain clearly needed to help clarify her present reality.
He held a hand out to her. “Come with me. I think it’s time we had a heart-to-heart.”
She looked wary and didn’t move for a long moment. But after glancing once more at the guards, she finally put her feet in motion.
He led her up the stairs, then to the east wing that housed his private quarters, recently renovated to enhance his slaver identity.
He threw the doors wide, then passed by his bedroom, taking his time so she could see the level of his wealth. Money was power, another piece of information she clearly needed to figure out.
He had a sitting room on the right, then his exercise and massage rooms, and finally an expansive bathroom with a deep soaking tub in addition to a walk-in shower.
She didn’t say anything, but she’d slowed her movements to look around, which he took as a good sign.
The last room had cost him over a million, having required the dredging out of tons of rock. But the investment had speeded up his Starlin membership since the room had met the approval of several Starlin men who’d come to make an inspection.
