Page 39 of Bought

“Because defensive wounds all over him,” Ethan says. “Because spy.”

I nod. Ethan and Jack live in a world where it is very hard to tell why someone wants you. I guess I make that simple for Ethan. I didn’t want him. So he took me anyway. In some perverse way, he didn’t have to worry about whether I was trying to get with him for his money or his power, because I was too busy telling him to fuck himself while he fucked me.

“Jack told me Vipyr operates for the government,” I say, curiosity getting the better of me there too.

“It’s true,” Ethan says. “Our tech is invasive, but when you have seven billion people on Earth, and it takes less than twenty of them to kill tens of thousands, you deploy technology in a way that might not be ethical, but does the job.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me that in the first place? I wouldn’t have… I would have…” I stammer.

“I wasn’t authorized to tell you any more than you already knew. Doing so would have put you in even more danger than you were already in. There are a lot of people who don’t like what we do. If it came out you knew even part of it, you could have been taken by people a lot worse than Jack.”

“Worse?”

“Terrorists,” he says. “If they could break the net, or get a back door to it, that would undermine it completely. That’s why I wanted you to work for us. You would have fallen under Vipyr team security. But you refused, so…”

“So you fucked me in the ass.”

Ethan smirks in spite of the heavy misery that hangs over both of us. “I took you,” he says. “Because you made me wild. You refused to be bought. You…” He draws in a breath. “Jack was right. I fell for you. And that was a mistake.”

My heart sinks and tears spring to my eyes.

“I don’t mean loving you was a mistake,” he adds quickly. “I mean getting caught up in our games, letting you get into trouble. Enjoying your rebellion instead of just squashing it outright.”

It’s only been a handful of days since we met. This has been a whirlwind of sex and danger and death. I was just as intoxicated by it in the beginning, but now that I’ve seen the consequences, I don’t feel like it’s such a fun game.

Ethan takes me by the chin and directs my gaze to his eyes. “I’ve fallen for you, Casey. I want to keep you as my own. But if you want to leave after tonight, I will understand. I won’t keep you anymore. I’ll put a security team on you and they can look after you. You can live your life as you see fit.”

“I don’t want to leave,” I say softly.

“If you stay, the rules don’t change. I will own you, Casey. You will be mine. With all that entails. All of it.”

“You own me anyway,” I say. “If you let me go, that’s because you choose to let me go. That doesn’t mean I’m any more free. I’m always going to be yours.”

He smiles widely. “Well…”

I’ve finally come to terms with what I’ve been fighting against all along. I have been bought. Or rather, I sold myself. The moment I walked into his world, the deal was struck. There is no escaping this now, and I don’t want to.

Epilogue

Two months later…

“Casey!”

Ethan’s voice thunders through the house. I hear him coming from what feels like half a mile away. A smile captures my lips. I’m ready for this. I’m ready for him.

He throws the door open and storms into my room. My office. My lair. Whatever you call it, it’s insulated from outdoor light. It’s not dark inside though. Inside, it is lit with blue and green lights pulsing through water-cooled towers. The low drone of fans and the AC keeps it so I have to wear a sweater at all times.

The door slams shut behind him. We are encapsulated by the darkness and for a moment I can’t see his face. I don’t need to. The flash of a scowl I caught as he came through was more than enough to warn me that he is on the warpath.

“I know what you did,” he growls.

“What do you mean?” I swing around in my racer style gaming chair.

“I mean,” he says, stalking toward me and bending down, one of his big hands on each side of the chair, boxing me in. “I know what you did.”

“I did a lot of things.” I keep my voice light as the green LED light illuminates us both.

He leans in, his gaze intense as his nose damn near meets mine. “You hacked the Vipyr mainframe and inserted an obscene image into our company footers. Today, a thousand high-level clients received their quarterly reports, appended with the image of a man proudly displaying his gaped anal tract.”

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