“I couldn’t resist.”
She smiled. “Can we play a little longer at it?”
“It won’t be fun for me now.”
“Why not?”
“Because I won’t be able to treat you like a pet.”
“I suppose not,” she said.
He studied her with an unblinking gaze. “How far were you prepared to go?”
She shrugged. “Quite far. You know me. As far as I can.”
“Many things I do to pets should be reserved for a husband. Or no one at all.”
“That sounds intriguing. Are you very sure you don’t want to continue? You would be the only one in the world,” she said lightly, not looking at him. “To have, for a time, kept a princess as a pet. What would that be worth to you?”
“Come here,” he said in a husky voice.
She strode over to him, looking at his throat rather than his face, mimicking the way Holly had kept her eyes slightly lowered.
He tangled a hand in her short hair and pulled her head back roughly. He brought his mouth to her ear.
“There is a darkness to my nature that very few women can handle. Pets are not girlfriends or playmates. They’re property. You need to understand that. I buy them because owning someone means I can do whatever I want to her.”
She shivered, but every nerve in her body screamed that she wanted to learn what it was like to get swallowed up by this man’s darkness.
She had no idea if she could actually handle it. Earlier her screaming backside had tried to convince her to run. That would certainly have been the smartest course.
“All right,” she whispered.
He unbuckled the collar, which made her look up at him.
“You’ll get dressed, and we’ll leave here. I’ll take you somewhere remote, where even Rocurt wouldn’t think to look. Then I’ll teach you some things you want to know.”
