Page 49 of Vienna Bargain

The intimacy created by his confession was gone. He was once more the cold, angry man who’d caught her in Vienna. The man she’d betrayed.

“Trying to embarrass me?” She turned on her heel then leaned forward against the window.

“Trying to remind you.”

Alena turned her face to the side so she could see him. “Remind me of what?”

She watched as he walked around the office, picking something up off his desk. He shook it out and for a horrified moment she thought it was a bull whip. Then he doubled it over, and she realized it was a long black rope.

Her nerves jangled at the sight. Rope bondage was its own kink, and one she didn’t have much experience with. Was Alexander a shibari artist or was the rope going to be purely functional, used to bind her to something in this room?

“I warned you, that first night, that I was too hard for you.”

“You say that, but you haven’t broken me yet.”

He paused, looking up. “You think I’ll break you?”

“Isn’t that what this is?” Alena’s eyes were straining from looking at him with her peripheral vision so she closed them, leaning her temple against the glass. “You’re going to beat me until I tell you who I am.”

“We have a bargain.”

“Oh yes, the bargain. I’m your sex slave for three weeks and at the end of that time you’ll let me go. No consequences.”

Alexander didn’t answer, and with her eyes closed she had no idea what his reaction to her words might be.

“Except, of course, for whatever other punishments you’re planning to dish out while I’m your BDSM slave,” she continued. “While I have no choice.”

“I gave you a choice.”

“A false choice. When this is over—” She forced herself to shut up.

“When what is over?” His voice was closer than it had been, though she hadn’t heard him move, distracted by her thoughts.

When this is over you’re going to feel like an ass and I am going to enjoy making you grovel for forgiveness.

Imagining that scene, a scene that might never happen, had gotten her through part of last night. There was very little chance that she would actually be in the position to have that conversation with him, unless everything moved far faster than was realistic for an operation of this magnitude.

Plus, once it all came out, he’d be protected by dozens of lawyers.

“That’s for me to know and you to find out,” she quipped to end the too-long silence.

Alexander grabbed her arm and yanked her away from the window, spinning her so they were face to face.

“You are not scared, and you should be.”

“I’m terrified,” she whispered, nose only inches from his, “but I’m not going to beg.”

“I can make you beg.”

She had begged him, damn it. “Maybe, but begging for you to keep beating me mid-scene doesn’t count.”

“Do you want me to beat you again?” His hand slid down to her ass and squeezed.

Alena hissed, eyes screwed shut in pain.

“That was just a wooden spoon; imagine what it will feel like when I cane you.”

Arousal and terror vied for control, neither winning. She was inexplicably and stupidly attracted to him when he was like this—not just dominant but sadistic. She was also terrified, because he could, would, hurt her, both physically and emotionally, when he was like this.

---