“You don’t know how this works, so let me give you a little lesson,” he says. “Your father owes me fifty grand. The interest goes up each day. The more you stall, the more he owes me. You’re not worth sixty grand to me right now.”
I scrunch up my nose at his comment. “Is that supposed to be an insult?”
“I can see why you’re still single.”
“Same. Especially if you do things like this.”
“Who said I was single?”
“No woman in her right mind would deal with this.”
“Well, lucky for you, I’m forcing it on you. Then you can say you’re still in your right mind when you see how charming I am.”
I roll my eyes.
“Sienna,” Ben grinds out, and I can tell his patience is waning. “I own you now. You’re mine. And Iwillget what’s owed to me.”
“You don’t get to use me,” I say, quieter now through the silence. “Not like this. Not ever. I’m not your toy.You can’t barge into my life and demand things. That’s not how this works.”
“It is in my world.” He releases my hip and brings his hand to my mouth, drawing my bottom lip down with the pad of his thumb. “You will fucking follow me, and you will be a good girl doing it. I don’t want any problems. Understand?”
“That’s all you’re going to get, Mr. Volkov.”
For a second, he just holds me there like he’s debating it. Like he doesn’t want to do this to me.
Then he lets out a breath, slow and hot across my skin, and releases my wrists.
“Is that your final answer?” he solicits evenly.
“Is this where you off me?”
He perks a brow. “Off you? I’d fuck you first if I were going to do that.”
I stop breathing.
My body flushes, and I shove at his chest. He lets me, like he knows I need that win.
The second I exhale and think maybe he’ll give me some space, Ben sighs, bends down, and throws me over his shoulder.
“What the…” I yelp, kicking my legs as my towel nearly falls.
“Keep squirming, sweetheart, I’ll drop you on purpose,” he mutters, his hand sliding up the back of my thigh, just under the edge of my towel, his fingers brushing slowly and deliberately. “What will the neighbors think?”
“I’m going to scream! Put me down,” I rage, trying to land a blow somewhere on his body as he carries me from the bathroom. “Right now.”
“I’ll listen when you start doing the same.”
“Put me down!”
“You got it.”
He tosses me onto the bed, just roughly enough to jolt a breath out of me and send me scrambling to keep my towel intact.
I glare up at him, but he’s already pointing toward the closet.
“You’ve got five minutes.”
I blink. “What?”
