“No.”
My cheeks warm. “All right. For one month, we pretend that I am your pet. I live with you, and you feed and take care of me, right?”
He nods.
“So far you’ve done well. The food was very good, and your home is very comfortable.”
The corner of his mouth twitches like he might laugh. I don’t blame him. Everything I’ve just said is true, but coming from a sex slave, it sounds absurd.
“You forgot something about pets. They walk around naked, and their greatest joy is when their master pets them.” His gaze rakes over me. “I own you.”
I shudder. He could be teasing, but his tone doesn’t sound like he is.
I agreed to obey whoever won me. These thirty days are what I must get through to be free. When it’s over, I’ll get money for myself and to send back to Russia. I can have a new life without people chasing after me.
Polasky warned me that if my new owner gives me back and asks for a refund, I’ll get no money, and my passport and I will be turned directly over to Egorov. I don’t want to imagine what he’ll do to me after I’ve shown a preference for Alexei. Egorov will likely beat and rape me immediately.
“I… understand,” I say carefully in English. “I will behave.”
“You will? That’ll be a new experience for you, won’t it?”
My eyes widen. “Who says? Because every time I—”
“You stole a coat and sixteen hundred dollars from me.”
“This was necessary. I will pay you back.”
“We’ll see.”
I swallow and then force a smile. “If you tell me what pleases you, I will try to do it.”
“Polasky and Egorov called you a virgin. Are you?”
Blinking, I look away a moment. A flush rises to my face. “Yes.”
He leans forward, and a big hand cups me between my legs. A shocked gasp escapes my lips, and I jerk backward and out of his grip.
“Wait—I wasn’t ready.” My hand shakes slightly. I don’t want to resist, but it’s hard not to when I’m not used to being handled in such a way.
His dark blue gaze fixes on my face. “You can tell me the truth. I didn’t fight because I wanted a virgin.”
“Why did you fight?”
“I want you.”
This small reassurance helps, but I still move around the coffee table to prevent him from grabbing me without warning again. Because he allows me to have a little distance from him, I exhale, trying to relax the coiled tension in my shoulders. “My mouth is all he used.”
“Who? Egorov?”
“Yes, he got me alone and forced me by putting a knife to my face.”
Alexei looks angry, but only asks, “There was no one other than Egorov?”
“Like who?” I say, surprised, my voice angrier than I mean for it to sound.
“Anyone. You were gone for weeks. Wasn’t there a man? You’re too pretty to have been alone.”
“I was alone. I was in hiding! A wig, no makeup except to make dark circles under my eyes, and not nice clothes. You would not recognize me. No one can.”
