“There are always strings attached to everything.” He shrugged. “There will be no sex between us?”
“Yes, there will be sex. Plenty of it, I think. Hope. But protected and no biting. I don’t want to be marked by you, and I certainly have no intentions of marking you.” She wondered if stabbing a verbal knife into her heart was considered marking. But he continued before she could ask him, if she would have. “You’ll live in my house like the rest of them do, and follow the rules that are there until such time as we can get you someplace to live on your own. Once we tire of this thing between us, we’ll move our separate ways. Neither of us will be hurt by this if there is no marking. Right?”
“And the job? What will you have me doing? Servicing you and the other men?”
He moved so quickly that she had no time to back up. “You let any of them touch you and I’ll kill you both.” Her body was on fire again but not from wanting him. This time she wanted to hurt him in the same way that he had her. Right in the heart, tearing it out as he’d done to her. But she only nodded to him, and he moved away. “You’ll only be my bed partner until we both agree we’re finished. Both of us. There will be nothing more, I’m not going to marry you, fall deeply in love with you, nor am I going to beg you to stay with me at the end. It’s just sex.”
Kari knew when she was beaten, and beaten she was. It felt to her as if he’d taken her body and her heart and had stomped them into the ground, then for good measure, he’d put her back together bleeding and dying inside. She nodded to him and left the room just ahead of him. Kari was so afraid that if she spoke to him now, she’d beg him to end her life.
The trip to the car was made in silence. No one spoke to her once they were in the vehicle and even if they did, she wasn’t sure what she’d say to them. Trapped. She was trapped and there was nothing, not a damned thing she could do about it. The drive was long and the big car, a limo, was very comfortable, and she might have enjoyed it even a little had it not been for the company she was with.
The house was huge, bigger than she’d expected. But then, since the first time she’d met these men, she knew they all had money. What she didn’t expect was the woman that met her at the door. This woman looked like she ran a tight ship and didn’t take prisoners. But she pulled Kari into her bosom for a hug, and Kari felt her tears threaten again.
“Ray called me to tell me you were going to be visiting for a while. I’ve put you in the room next to Steele’s, but you can have another if you’d like.” She told her she would, and as far away from the man as possible. “I understand. Ray said that the two of you had some working out to do. I’m Izzy, by the way. I’ve worked for the Bennett family for years and years.”
Kari stopped on the step when she heard the name. “Bennett? This is his house? Mr. Steele Bennett’s house?”
“Yes.” Izzy stood there waiting for her and smiled. “You’ve come to a very wealthy man, my dear. You’ll never have to worry about money again.”
“I’m just his fuck partner.” She flushed when she realized what she’d said to this woman. “I’m sorry. We’re not…we’re not a couple. He and I just like to have sex. He’s laid out all the rules, and we’re going to go our separate ways when he’s finished with me.”
“We’ll see about that, now won’t we? And everyone has to start somewhere, dear.” She started up the stairs again. “There’s two bedrooms on the main floor. One is the master suite, which I’m sure you don’t want, and there’s a little room in the back that is nice but about as far from Steele as you can get. He’ll have to work at finding you for his pleasure. You’ll do nicely in there, I think.”
There was no pleasure going to be had by her, she thought. Release sure, but no pleasure. He’d taken that away from her the moment he told her that there would be nothing between them but mutual gratification. And she’d rather die than to beg anything of him that pertained to her staying with him.
The room she was shown to was beautiful. And if this was small, she’d hate to see what the other rooms looked like. The bed was a big four poster sucker that had a canopy over it. The dressers were all old but well maintained, and their surfaces clean of even a speck of dust. The en suite bathroom, as Izzy called it, was as big if not bigger than the entire room she’d just left at the hotel she’d been at. After Izzy left, she sat on the floor and curled her knees to her chin.