Page 30 of Burning Beauty

His eyes narrowed at her, but otherwise his expression didn't change. He didn't address her words at all, continuing as though she hadn't spoken. "You will be available for my use only. You will not fraternize with my people and you will not leave this property without my express consent."

"You don't know what consent means!" she snapped, aware that her accent was becoming more pronounced the angrier she got. She switched to Spanish so she could get her point across. "You are my captor and nothing more. You are a rude and arrogant bully and I will not play your game. If you summon me, I will not come. If you rape or beat me, I will do everything in my power to fight you and then destroy your home. I will make sure you regret bringing me here against my will."

Her heart hammered as she spoke, thoughts flying around in her head. The biggest being her stupidity over speaking this way to a mobster. He could easily pull a gun from one of his desk drawers and kill her, relieving himself of an annoying acquisition.

He watched her facial expressions for a moment, as though memorizing everything she said and did, cataloguing it for later. Then he stood and walked around his desk, his long lean body moving gracefully in yet another superbly cut suit. She wondered if he wore such finery on an everyday basis or if he had a business meeting.

Nic leaned his ass against the edge of his desk, a few feet from her crossed legs. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

She sat mute until he gave her the answer.

“Your brother?"

She felt like he'd thrown a bucket of ice water over her. How could she forget about her brother? Guilt rushed through her. Though Nic had assured her Ruiz was still alive, she didn't know what condition he was in or if his surroundings were comfortable. For all she knew, he was chained in a basement back in Vegas while she was languishing in a mansion.

"You would use my brother against me?" she asked scathingly, preparing to launch into a speech on how much she hated him and how he was the worst human being she'd ever met, and she'd met a lot of dirtbags in her time. He interrupted her before she could continue though.

"No, I will not use your brother against you," he informed her. "I don't need to use your family as a bargaining chip to control you. This I can do myself."

"Then why did you bring him up!?" she demanded hotly.

"Because you do not think before you speak. You don't consider consequences. If I really cared to bring you to heel in a fast and hard manner, I would threaten everything you love and then have someone killed to show you I mean what I say."

She stared at him with horror. He wasn't saying anything she hadn't already suspected about him, but it was still frightening to hear it straight out of her captor's mouth. "You won't do that?" she whispered.

Her brother was the only immediate family she had left, but she still had an aunt and cousins back in Mexico. Nic could go after any one of them to hurt her.

"No," he said softly, shifting until his leg bumped her knee. "I don't need to use those tactics, do I?"

No, he didn't. He had her exactly where he wanted her, and though he might not be able to actually control her, she couldn't go far in her current predicament. Unless she burned his mansion down, and managed to take out all of his security, she was pretty much stuck where she was. Though she wasn't ready to let go of the idea of burning his mansion to the ground, if he really pissed her off.

"What do you want with me?" It was probably a question she should have asked by now. She'd made assumptions based on his words and actions, but they'd never actually discussed his expectations. "I mean, I know you want sex, but what do you expect of me while I'm here?"

"Now you are asking the right question." He looked down at her, a hungry look in his eyes. "I want your body, of course. I want your obedience and willingness too. For your obedience, you will be rewarded with clothing, jewelry and money. For each act of defiance, you will be punished."

She had to bite her lips to stop from shrieking at him. She gripped the arms of her chair with tense fingers and took deep breaths. "So what you're saying to me is that if I fuck you, happily and the way you want it, you'll shower me in gifts?"

"To put it crudely, yes," he agreed.

She stood and went toe to toe with him, uncaring that his height put him at a definite advantage. "You can go fuck yourself, if that's what you think. Because you won't be fucking me, at least not with my consent."

He was on her faster than she had time to blink, taking the back of her neck in one hand and wrapping his other hand around her waist. He swung her around until her ass met his desk and he shoved her back until she was sitting on top of it. She automatically tried to struggle, but he had her hands in his and wrenched them around her back. He forced her legs wide and stood between them, his darkly sinister face above hers.

He leaned in, nuzzling his nose against the underside of her ear. "You think you won't come to me willingly?" he asked huskily, sending a skitter of sensation down her neck when he brushed his lips against her skin.

She gasped and squirmed on the desk, pushing her body against his as she tried to escape him. Every point of contact tingled and ignited with feeling. It was like her body was primally attracted to this man despite the hatred she felt for him. She now understood how a woman could go weak over a man, could forget her convictions.

"Is this rape?" he asked against her ear sending another shiver down her spine.

"Fuck you," she hissed, twisting away from him. "If you have to kidnap women to get their attention then you are not a man, in my opinion."

She thought he would get mad at her, perhaps follow through and fuck her right there on the desk. Instead, he laughed, the sound rich and smooth. His breath caressed the bare skin of her neck and shoulder as he spoke. "Not women, bellisima, just you."

His words echoed what Cassandra had told her. "Why me?" she asked her voice sounding more breathy than she wanted.

He leaned back to look her in the eye and a part of her mourned the loss of his warm lips against her skin. "I don't know why you, Maria," he answered honestly, a small frown puckering the skin between his eyes. "You are certainly beautiful, but I have seen more beautiful in my time. I could snap my fingers and have a dozen beautiful and willing women brought here for my use."

"Then why don't you do that?" she asked scathingly, trying to swallow the jealousy rising within her. Yes, Maria was lovely, she knew she was. She had an aura of sexuality that clung to her like a second skin, it made her irresistible. She knew this, was confident in herself when it came to the opposite sex. Yet his words burned. For some reason she didn't want him seeing beauty in other women. Which was ridiculous because he was her kidnapper and she despised him.

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