‘Lucky me.’

‘You might think you’re a tough chick, Minx, but you haven’t met a man like me; I guarantee it. By the time I’m done with you I really will own you. You’ll be begging to surrender every inch of that fuckable body to me, asking me to own you and do with you anything I please. But I’m gonna get bored of you and when I do, you won’t be able to pay me enough to ever look at you twice again. To me you’re disposable, but I’m gonna be your whole goddamn world.’

‘Keep dreaming, Master,’ she said, spitting out the moniker like it amused her.

‘I guarantee it, Minx. I guarantee it.’ He vaulted off of her to one side of the bed. ‘Get on your own half and stay there.’

The defined muscles of his back might be alluring but she had no intention of, or interest in, touching him. Dax had seen through the façade she had tried to portray in order to regain her strength and make her escape. She should be annoyed or disappointed; instead she was intrigued about how he’d known she was playing them. To improve her technique of disguise she’d have to find out how Dax had figured it out. It was more than a guess, something in him recognised something in her and when it did, she saw it look right back.

Chapter Five

Much later the steady sound of Dax’s rhythmic snore told her that he was sound asleep. Bruno had made a lot of noise going to bed more than an hour ago, and so in this house of unconscious jailors she was presented with an opening. It might not be the safest opportunity, but it was an opportunity that she couldn’t afford to pass up.

She had no clothes on and the bikini wasn’t a choice at this time of night. So on rolling off the bed she crawled around it to snag Dax’s tee-shirt and boxers from the floor. Still in a crouch, she crossed to the door and with deft fingers she opened it without standing and got out of the room.

Keeping moving was key, there was no time for relief. She managed to get the clothes on while descending the stairs and got as far as the front door. The damn thing was locked and there was no sign of a key.

Spinning around with the intention of seeking out the key, she gasped and staggered back against the door when Dax’s looming form materialised from the surrounding gloom. He kept on coming until she was unable to move, pinned between his body and the door.

For half a minute he said nothing then he got hold of her neck and yanked her along. He didn’t speak and she didn’t want to wake Bruno, so she stumbled along without a peep. Relief and gratitude filled her when he took her upstairs and not to the basement.

She hit the bedroom door when Dax threw her against it, then he turned the handle and thrust her forward onto the bedroom floor. Slamming the door, Dax came to her before she could regain her footing and hoisted her up to catapult her over the wooden spindle footboard. She bounced on the mattress and tried to stabilise herself enough to get up, except there was no time, Dax was upon her.

‘Think you could sneak away?’ he growled.

She tried to kick, but his pelvis locked down on hers. ‘Get off me?’ she said, punching out but failing to make substantial contact. Dax got hold of her flailing wrists and locked them on the bed, with her bent elbows locked against her ribcage. ‘Get off!’

‘Oh you don’t want me to yell, Minx. You wake Bruno and you’re going back to the pit.’

‘Let go,’ she snarled through gritted teeth. The glow in his eyes was so intense now that it illuminated the humid space between them.

‘You don’t want me to let go.’

‘I want you off of me. Get off!’

‘I give out the orders, did you forget?’

‘I’ll never give in,’ she panted. ‘I’ll never stop fighting.’

‘You want to die? You’ll fight your way into a coffin.’ She kept trying to wriggle and struggle, never willing to surrender. He elevated her arms and slammed them down again trying to shock her into desisting. ‘Listen!’ Huffing out, she kept on panting but loosened. ‘Be smart. You want to survive. You have to survive, nothing else matters.’

‘I don’t know your story, street rat, but it’s not the same as mine,’ she spat. ‘I don’t want to just survive. I want more than that.’

‘More? There is no more, you breathe in, you breathe out, that’s it.’ His tone of anger spilled out and still in his iron grip he slammed her wrists again.

‘You don’t fight hard enough,’ she said. ‘You’re a hypocrite. You tell me to fight, but it’s you who has given up. Why are you here, Dax? Why are you doing this to me?’

His response wasn’t immediate, the lowering of his brows dimmed his glittering eyes. ‘Why?’

‘Yes, why are you doing this to me? You, why are you here? Not them, not why they’re doing this. You. Why are you doing this?’

‘Because I was told to.’

Just as she absorbed how ridiculous that answer was, he did too. His grip lessened and she released her resistance to it, so they were left lying together panting through this revelation. Now that she was upstairs she didn’t want to go back down. Gaining an ally above ground could aid her escape. Dax had proven he could bend the rules by not immediately revealing her deception to Bruno.

If she could gain Dax’s favour, maybe she could convince him that she should be let go sooner than the deadline she’d heard the men talking about downstairs. Ivy wanted out of here as quickly as possible and maybe manipulating Dax into caring for her was a way to make that happen. Sex might not have been his ultimate goal, but he was attracted to her. Using her body to create a connection between them might save her life.

‘You’re a lapdog. I thought you were a big shot,’ she said. ‘I’m supposed to fear you, Master? I don’t think so.’

Her attempt to shove him off failed and his fingers constricted, crushing into her bones, making her wince.

‘Get off me,’ she cried, her own anger was branded into her diaphragm. This guy was a lackey, the cool, intimidating exterior was a farce and maybe she could use that to her advantage.

‘You’re here to learn your place,’ he said, ‘to learn respect. You’re gonna do what I tell you because I’m in control.’

Her laugh was ironic, belittling him was a bonus to making her point. ‘You’re not in control of anything.’

Proving this to him, she lifted her head and grabbed his mouth with hers. The pounding in her crotch had built until the spasm of her gut made it impossible to ignore the fizz of attraction between them.

If they were going to get physical anyway then it was going to start on her terms, not his. Their power play wouldn’t end tonight with this kiss and the snarling war of their tongues proved it. Writhing for physical control made him exert his superior strength. Her grumbling into his mouth in frustration only made him laugh and snatch his mouth away.

‘Horny, Minx,’ he said, forcing his already probing erection down on her pubis. ‘What’s your game?’

‘This is what you want, Master,’ she said, returning his gesture by grinding her clenched pelvic muscles up to meet him.

‘You take my direction, Minx. You will learn your place.’

‘Oh yeah, which is where?’ The beat of his unyielding chest made her breasts grow, the compressed weight of them fuelled the spill of hormones that sensitised her core. Her arousal had begun in the Vegas suite when the laser precision of his vision had met hers and awareness between them recognised the uncontrollable attraction.

‘Right where you are, under me.’

The pressure of his mouth pushed her head into the mattress and he slid her captive wrists up the bed until they were far above them and their bodies were flush. The weight of him crushed her but she met the full force of the ferocious kiss.

The inferno in her numbed all but the parts of her connected to him. Her wrists, her chest, those broad concrete thighs fixing her in place for him to rub his naked dick into the cotton between them that her own juices were dampening.