One huff followed another. After they were both done and she was riding out the aftershocks, they stayed right there, her on her back, him above her, inside her, staring down into her eyes.

‘Shit,’ he whispered and she had no time to ask why he cursed because his mouth came to hers in a slow, but punishing kiss that pinned her skull to the bench and allowed him to pour the truth of his curse into her. He did care about her, and her admission in the midst of their passion that she wanted this, wanted him, was enough for him to release that truth to himself.

Jerking his mouth away, he dismounted the bench and pulled his shorts back up. ‘No more bikinis,’ he said, picking up his hand wraps from the floor to begin wrapping his hands again.

‘Ok,’ she said, retrieving her bikini from the floor because it was all she had to wear now.

‘I can’t stop him from touching you. If I tried it would… raise too many questions.’

‘What kind of questions?’ she asked.

He looked up from his task, and she saw anger in him now, she definitely recognised it. ‘You don’t understand what’s going on here and how we all fit into the bigger picture.’

‘What is the bigger picture?’ She tied her bikini back on.

‘I can’t tell you that,’ he said. ‘It’s not my decision when you’re told about your purpose. You don’t belong to me.’

Finishing the knot behind her neck, she crossed to him, resting her hands on his hips. ‘I… I think I want to.’

‘That’s what they want,’ he said, his timbre low and quiet. ‘They want you to think that.’

‘What do you want me to think? You don’t want to own me?’

Grinding his teeth, emotions washed over his face. ‘I want you to go upstairs, get showered and changed, then get back to work.’

‘That’s it?’ she asked. ‘You tell me that you don’t want me to wear a bikini anymore and that I don’t belong to you then you just dismiss me?’

‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘That’s it. Get to it, or you’ll get more than a spanking.’

Lowering her chin, she slid her arms around him. ‘Now I’m curious.’

‘This time not from me,’ he said, unlocking her arms from around him. ‘If Bruno catches you not where he left you, then you’ll be going back in there.’

His eyes moved behind her and she turned to see the door to the place she’d been kept captive. ‘You’d let him put me back in there?’

‘Yeah I would,’ he said, without hesitating. ‘Though I’m not sure I’d be able to leave you alone at night.’

The idea of being back in that hovel made her feel sick, but knowing that Dax might come down to join her because he was compelled beyond logic or reason to do so, made her smile. ‘I’ll do what you say.’

‘I know that you will. You were told that was the only thing you had to do, what you were told.’

‘I’m not doing it because it’s Bruno’s rule. I’m doing it because… because I want you to trust me. I’ll have your back, Dax, if anything goes down. I’m going to be on your side.’

‘Talking like that could get you hurt,’ he said with a frown. ‘You worry about yourself, Minx. Nobody else.’

‘Are you doing the same thing?’ she asked.

Leaving him to consider that, she headed for the stairs. She didn’t want him to answer because she didn’t want to push him into saying something that neither of them wanted to hear. If he admitted to caring for her then he would be in trouble. But if he denied it then he would be lying, and she didn’t want him doing that. So she went upstairs and did as he had requested, then went back to work.

Keeping up appearances for Bruno was important and doing so would show Dax that he could trust her. But when they were alone, she’d keep pushing on the buttons that she had found, only now she wasn’t so clear on her motivation. Was she manipulating him to ensure her safety or escape? Or were her own buttons on show as well? Meaning that maybe she too felt more than she’d anticipated for the street fighter with the sinister eyes and the rock hard body that made her weak.

It was a few nights later when she was lying in their bed in the dark that she decided to push for more. He had connected her ankle to the bedpost, as he always did, while he went into the bathroom. The burst of light from the side of the room told her that he was coming back. He extinguished the light, closed the door, and came back to bed.

Because it was so dark there was no way for him to know that she was still awake. Snatching her hand he hauled her body to his, turning his back on her, he pulled her to mould against him, signalling that he was ready to sleep, except she wasn’t.

‘Why do you let me do it?’ she whispered against the smooth skin in front of her lips.

‘Do what?’ he grumbled.

Dax was a man who enjoyed his sleep and when he decided it was time for it, he wasn’t long delayed in achieving it.

‘You let me be me here, in this room, when we’re alone. Why don’t you tell Bruno that I’m playing him?’

‘You’re not,’ he said. ‘He wants you to do what you’re told and you do. You let him do whatever he wants with you.’

‘So you think that if I keep taking his orders it will eventually become automatic?’’

‘What do you want from me, Minx?’ he asked. ‘Do you want me to beat you and lock you up?’

‘No.’

‘Bruno is here to teach you to take orders and I’m here to fuck you into line.’

She was compliant in bed with him – for the most part. So he was right, in a way, he did his job just by sharing a bed with her. But that didn’t explain why he let her sass him in a way that Bruno would never tolerate.

‘Do you have family?’

‘No blood,’ he said.

‘I haven’t seen my mother in years,’ she said. ‘My sister stays with my aunt, least she did the last I heard—‘

‘I don’t need your life story, just access to your pussy.’

‘What about your parents?’ she asked, bending her elbow to curl a hand under her pillow, the other was still confined in his. On nights like this, after she was tied to the foot post, they often slept further down the bed, but her face was still buried in his back.

‘Never knew my mom, dad started me fighting at eight to make us some money, he sold me to the circuit when I was about ten. I ran away a few times, got picked up by the cops a few times, then I met Mauri.’

‘That’s so sad,’ she said, kissing his spine.

‘No sadder than your step-dad molesting you.’

‘He didn’t actually… you know… he just tried it one too many times, and I knew I could only fight him off for so long. My mother didn’t give a damn and so I left. I stayed with my aunt sometimes, then she moved to Florida and—‘

‘Minx,’ he mumbled. ‘I don’t care. Unless your mouth is filled with cock it should stay shut.’

She wasn’t deterred, she knew that she was getting through. As much as he didn’t want her to believe it, he had taken a liking to her. Ivy had seen the way he tensed when Bruno touched her. Dax’s touch had changed too, not all the time, most of the time he still treated her like a piece of meat, but sometimes he’d brush a lock of hair from her face, or slip his fingertips down her spine, and something different passed between them.

‘Sex is better when you know who you’re doing it with,’ she said.

‘Not in my experience. Now shut up or I’ll gag you too.’

That wasn’t completely beyond him, and it was already uncomfortable enough to sleep with her leg connected to the bed, so she didn’t want another tether. Though she imagined she would always find peace sleeping next to Dax because as soon as he started snoring she fell into her own satisfied slumber.

Chapter Eight

For the next month things carried on in the same way, Bruno ordered her around all day, she cooked and cleaned and did everything that she was told to. At night, and in daylight when the whim took him, she became Dax’s.

During the day Dax came and went, she’d heard talk of Brad and Mauri, and murmurs of some other names. But one name that she never heard was Trystan, the name of the man who had gotten her into this predicament in the first place.