Bruno’s toes hooked the edge of her bikini top and peeled it back to expose one of her nipples which he tried to pinch by curling his toes.

‘Upstairs.’

Everyone in the room was startled by this bellowed word including Dax and the word had come out of his own mouth. The girl scrabbled to her feet and walking on those heels at an impressive pace she did exactly as he’d commanded. Trying to decipher why he’d ordered her upstairs and away from her task, Dax’s thoughts were interrupted by Bruno’s laugh.

‘No need for a party tonight, you gonna put her through her paces already?’

He and Bruno had agreed to take their time in breaking the woman so that full compliance was assured. Knowing that had been their plan made his outburst all the more inscrutable, but he wasn’t about to show his indecision to Bruno.

‘If it’s got to be done, then it’s best just to do it.’

‘I’ve told her that her place is to kneel at your feet until you give her a command. If you’re not here then I take your place, if you get me.’

‘Whatever,’ Dax said, wondering where Bruno came up with these rules.

‘You’re a lucky dog,’ Bruno said. ‘Not a tough job you’ve got, is it?’

‘I’m still not convinced this will work. I’ll do what I’m told and if this is my assignment then I’ll do it. But keeping her out here and expecting her to—‘

‘Trust me,’ Bruno said. ‘It will take time, but that’s what we’ve got. All you’ve got to do is keep it up for a month and a half. We get that time, do the job, and we get back to the city. Then we’re off the hook.’

‘Yeah,’ Dax said, he and Bruno were off the hook as far as the girl was concerned, but her nightmare would really be just beginning. She had no idea that she was going back to Trystan and was expected to dedicate herself to him.

‘Better get up there, you’ve got work to do.’

‘Good night,’ Dax said, not addressing the innuendo in Bruno’s tone. He had the space of time between here and his bedroom upstairs to figure out what he was going to do with this girl.

On the assumption that the bedroom was where he wanted her, Ivy had gone straight there. Getting away from Bruno the Letch was a reprieve, at least the worst thing she’d had to touch was his feet, she wouldn’t have been able to stomach anything more intimate.

Before closing the bedroom door she’d overheard the men talking downstairs, a month and a half was what Bruno had said. From the sounds of things Dax was no happier about being here than she was, and she wondered now if he was somehow indebted or being coerced into this, which would mean that he too was a prisoner, in some different form than she was. He wasn’t being deliberately cruel through choice, it was a necessity.

When she realised they weren’t talking anymore and that Dax was on his way upstairs, she closed the door and hurried further into the room so as not to let on what she had eavesdropped on.

Dax stalked in and slammed the door, she hadn’t expected him to be so tense with anger. ‘Take it off,’ he said, the order didn’t immediately make sense. ‘The bikini, take it off now.’

Any hope that all they were going to do was sleep went out the window and she stripped off. ‘What are you going to do?’

‘We’re going to pick up right where we left off,’ he said, closing the space between them and fogging her hair with the heat of his moist breath. ‘You’ve been good today, haven’t you? Following all the rules.’

‘Yes.’

‘And you’re gonna keep on doing that all night long, aren’t you?’

‘Yes.’

‘Take that ridiculous shit out of your hair,’ he sneered, but didn’t give her an inch of room to pull the bunches out.

He stayed there, right on top of her, crowding into her personal space. The musky male scent of him permeated around her and when her hair was down he grabbed the hairbands from her and tossed them away.

‘Lose the shoes too.’

Slipping them off, she kicked them behind her. The knot in her abdomen tangled in a thicker web of adrenaline and hormones when she literally shrank down into his shadow.

‘Get on the bed.’

He didn’t ask questions, with him there was no choice, he only gave commands. Non-compliance didn’t occur to her, not that she planned to make this night easy for him.

‘Lie right in the middle,’ he said when she crawled onto his mattress. ‘On your back and look at me.’

Her heart had never beat so fast. Her guts became so heavy that they seemed to sink out of her and down through the bed. Nausea became speckling anticipation that speared from her waist to her hips and the centre of her femininity began to swell when he took off his tee-shirt, then his boots and socks until all that was left was his jeans.

She was glad that he’d told her to look at him because she salivated at the vision he offered. Anticipating what would come next, she tried her utmost to remain meek and appear intimidated because it was exactly what he wanted from her, and what he expected.

Intimidation did come when he dropped his jeans. The weight of his thick erection bobbed to aim straight at her and the well of moisture in her mouth didn’t feel sufficient to accommodate the monster he’d presented for her.

‘Open your legs,’ he muttered and she slid them apart. ‘More!’ he demanded and she complied without doubt of his intentions. ‘Get them nice and wide.’

Her scrutiny was cut short when he leapt forth to join her on the bed. But bracing his forearms on either side of her head he held himself above her in a plank and none of his skin met hers.

‘You’re a clever little minx, aren’t you?’ he said and the bubble of desire in his eyes was too knowing for her to be comfortable. ‘You’ve got Bruno fooled.’

‘I don’t know what you—‘

‘Yeah, you do. You’re not fooling me…’

His mouth opened over hers, but he didn’t let them touch. Their breath merged in a sensual, invisible kiss that made her lips separate further as though accommodating more of him, but it was all an illusion, an unrealised fantasy.

‘I recognise that look in your eye,’ he breathed in a sneer. ‘You’re down there playing “yes sir, no sir”. But you know exactly what you’re doing. What age were you when your mom kicked you out?’

‘Why would—‘

‘Enough of the innocent princess, what were you? Twelve? Thirteen?’

Maybe it took one to know one. She hadn’t known it, but she’d never had a chance to fool him though it still pissed her off to know that she’d been made.

‘Thirteen,’ she said, loosening out of the scared, tense virgin posture. He was still braced naked above her own naked form without allowing an inch of himself to touch her. ‘My mom didn’t kick me out, my stepdad got too close, I left.’

‘Group home?’

‘A few.’

‘Hooker?’

‘No, never,’ she said, feeling claustrophobic in this enclosed space. ‘Fuck me or move.’

‘Which would you prefer?’ he asked.

‘You could go and fuck yourself.’

‘I’ll let you play your game for a while, it’s interesting to watch, hot even, but don’t think about delaying our work. Bruno and I are here to do a job and we will complete it no matter how hard you fight me. I’ll enjoy proving that to you, Minx. That no matter how smart you think you are, you’re not fooling me. I am smarter and I am stronger. You’re going to belong to me and more than that, you’re going to want to.’

‘What job is it that you’re doing? Is this just about me?’

‘You don’t ask me questions, you just concentrate on doing what you’re told.’

‘Which I’m guessing is gonna include me doing you and your buddy at some point,’ she said somewhat grateful that she could now display her disgust.

His face came even closer, filling all of her vision. ‘I will never touch you sexually on the same day another man has,’ he said and from the snarl in his voice she knew the statement was more about propriety than common decency.