I make eye contact with Knox again.
Why is he looking at me like I’m a lunatic?
“What’s your name, girl?”
“Billie Prosper, sir.”
He winces. “Don’t call me sir.”
“Fine. Mr. Morgan.”
He doesn’t seem to like that, either, but the last resort would be calling him Knox and he’s obviously not going to give me permission to drop formalities. Even though I’m already in his house with my boobs out.
“How old are you?”
“Eighteen.”
His pupils expand. “How long have you been eighteen?”
“Nearly a year. My nineteenth birthday is next week.”
For some reason, that seems to earn him a measure of relief. “The fact that you’re young doesn’t excuse your stupidity, you know.”
My cheeks flame hot. “Excuse me?”
He moves closer to me, bringing us toe to toe, his big hands settling on my waist and lifting me onto the edge of his desk.I’m surprised to feel a tingle in my tummy over the raw skin of his palms. His casual strength. The fact that he smells like fresh lake water and fire smoke on the wind. “Coming into a stranger’s house and flashing your tits. Offering him up sex on a platter. And if you’re telling me the truth, nobody knows you’re here.” Fast as a rattlesnake strike, his hand closes around my throat. “I could do whatever I want to you right now, whether I accept your proposition or not.”
I have my switchblade out before he knows I’ve moved, the sharp edge pressed low to his gut where I could have his spleen carved out in three seconds flat. “I’d rather settle on terms before you do whatever you want to me.”
His eyelids weigh down, a muscle snapping in his cheek.
Against my inner thigh, something shifts and hardens. Is he getting an erection?
Lust? I-is this what lust looks like?
“Anything I want?” he asks, echoing my words.
“That’s the offer,” I whisper back. “You can do anything you want to me, if you cancel out the debt my parents owe on the ranch.”
“Who put you up to this?”
“Me.” I wet my lips, surprised when I find them trembling. Not with fear. With something else. The warmth of his body, the overwhelming heat, power and size of it, are having a strange effect on me. I’m starting to get flushed, a weight sinking low and fast in my tummy. “I heard my parents talking about declaring bankruptcy. I can’t let them do that. It would be devastating to my family. Not only to lose the respect of our town but lose the ranch where I’m supposed to live all my life…I can’t allow that.”
If I was expecting sympathy in the wake of my speech, I’d be sorely disappointed. “And you think a roll in the hay with you is worth forgiving thirty thousand in debt?”
It takes all my willpower not to blanch. “That’s how much they owe?”
“Give or take a thousand.” He rubs his thumb up and down in the notch of my throat, leaning back to peruse my body. “You’d have to be a downright life-changing fuck to pay that kind of debt.”
My blood simmers at the challenge. “Did I mention I’m a virgin?”
His thumb halts mid-stroke, something feral shifting in his gaze. That big chest shudders up and down. “A virgin sacrifice, are you?”
I nod choppily, unnerved by the tickle in my belly. Like a feather sweep.
The way my underwear seems to be…getting damp? Why? What does that mean?
“I’ll need to sample some of the goods first,” he says, sounding winded, his gaze zeroed in on my mouth. “Before I make a final decision.”
