I paused, not sure if being starkly honest about my situation was on the table. He could have my body but did I want to share something even more intimate? I shifted and he moved one hand from my ass cheek to my front, gently petting me through the thin silk of my thong.
I froze at the first flutter of pleasure that seemed like a betrayal by my own body. I didn’t consider the possibility that I might enjoy anything that would happen this night. Pain was easier to vilify.
“I wish to know you,” he murmured.
I didn’t want him to know me, not the real me. I resented his fingers, drumming up tendrils of pleasure that I wanted to smother. “I can’t think when you do that,” I admitted, embarrassed. When he didn’t stop, enjoying my discomfort, I blurted out, “I needed the money” if only to get him to stop.
“You are a beautiful girl. Why have you allowed no boys to fuck you yet?”
I blushed, hating the forced intimacy of this moment. “I didn’t want to risk getting p-pregnant or getting some disease for a fuck that lasted all of two minutes.” I gritted my teeth against the unwelcome pleasure he created.
“Smart girl.”
Not so smart. I was here, on the lap of a stranger for the most obscene of reasons. I’d call that pretty dumb in light of recent events.
“Do you fear me?” he asked with a deceptively gentle voice. Don’t buy into the facade, I warned myself. The night was still young. Some monsters didn’t show their true colors until later.
It was convenient that honesty rode side by side with the answer I knew he wanted. I nodded, waiting for his next move.
Henri abruptly stopped petting me and slapped my ass with a curt, “Off.” More than happy to comply, I scooted away, covering my breasts with my arms. He gestured. “You may put your cloak back on. We’re near to our destination.”
He straightened his suit jacket and tie as the car rolled to a smooth stop. Seconds later the door opened. He exited the car with the expectation that I would follow.
A mansion loomed against the moonlight as demure garden lights peeped from beneath manicured hedges and rose bushes.
Did he even notice the beauty all around him or was he jaded to his privilege?
We walked briskly through the front doors into a massive foyer with inlaid marble, much like the mansion that’d held the auction. I didn’t have time to admire the sheer opulence. His quick stride required hurried steps to keep up as he took me to a room off a corridor that spiked off to the left.
He breezed through the large double doors and once I had followed, he closed and locked the door behind us. Was this his bedroom? There was definitely a bed in the room but it was filled with plenty of other things that didn’t involve sleeping.
Was this his…deflowering room? I didn’t know what else to call it. Did it matter? It was abhorrent no matter the fancy features and likely imported furniture. All I saw was an overindulged dick, flaunting his wealth. I wasn’t so easily impressed by shit like that.
He snapped his fingers and gestured for me to lose the cloak. I did as I was told, feeling more vulnerable than ever. What now?
He went to the bar and poured two glasses of champagne. Even though I’d taken a sip of champagne the other day, I lied and said, “I don’t drink,” stiffening against the offer. I didn’t want him to think I was willing to get drunk with him. “My mother is an alcoholic and I don’t want to be like her.”
“Fair enough,” he conceded, allowing me this refusal. He sipped at his own glass, regarding me with interest. Now that we were no longer in the darkened car, I could fully see him. His fine features were almost aristocratic but definitely not pretty-boy prissy. He was tall and broad. His darkened skin spoke of holidays in the Caymans or some other exotic place that I could only dream of. A full head of black wavy hair was perfectly styled with careful attention.
But for all his physical attraction, there was a dark vibe about him that kept me on guard. Maybe it was my internal bias that good people didn’t buy other human beings that was setting me off but I couldn’t see anything but a deviant.
I fidgeted, uncomfortable with the silence. “So now what?” I asked, wanting to get this spectacle over with so I could, possibly, go home. “Should I lay on the bed? How does this work? I’ve never been bought like a piece of meat so I’m not sure of the protocol,” I said, unable to keep the subtle contempt from my tone. Fuck. I was going to end up dead if I didn’t watch my mouth. “I’m sorry. I’m nervous,” I said, trying to seem contrite.
Henri smiled but his eyes remained hard and speculative. “You are unlike most of the girls Madame Moirai procures. You are different.”
I swallowed. What did that mean? “How so?” I suppressed a jump when he moved toward me. I fisted my hands, standing very still, waiting to be touched, knowing my skin would crawl with revulsion.
“You are intelligent,” he answered, walking behind me with slow, deliberate steps, stopping to unlace my corset. As much as I hated the stupid thing that was nearly cutting me in half, I suddenly wanted to clutch the thing to me. “And stubborn.”
If he thought I was different, that must mean he’s done this sort of thing before. “How many times have you bought a girl from Madame Moirai?” I asked, licking my lips, wishing I had water to drink. “I mean, do you do this often?”
“I do it when it pleases me,” he answered, the ribbon slithering free from his fingers. “But I am not often compelled to purchase as I was with you. There was something about you…something that I knew I had to have.” The corset fell free and dropped to the floor, leaving me in the thong and nothing else.
I immediately covered my breasts but he stopped me, reaching from behind me to pull my arms to my side. He slowly turned me so that I faced him. He tested the weight of my full breasts with open admiration. “You have glorious tits, Nicole.” He pinched a nipple and I gasped, causing the other to harden immediately. “So responsive.” He bent down to suck a tight nipple into his mouth and my knees nearly gave out on me. He chuckled as he returned upright, a hungry light in his eyes. He walked slowly around me, inspecting every inch of his purchase, his fingers blazing a trail wherever he touched. “Tell me what sexual experiences you’ve had in your life,” he said.
“None. Isn’t that the point?”
“Have you not touched yourself?”
I gritted my teeth as I answered, lifting my chin in spite of my mortification. “Sometimes.”
“And did you come?”
“Y-yes.”
“Good.”
Fuck his approval. I listened with barely contained contempt as he went on to explain as if I were a student and he was a professor. “A woman should always know her own body. She cannot experience the full range of her pleasure if she doesn’t know how to reach it on her own. However, it pleases me that you are a virgin in all ways, including the most important.”
I didn’t want to be schooled by this man. His arrogance was nauseating.
“Why do you like virgins so much?” I dared. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to ask so many questions but I wasn’t capable of just standing there like some empty-headed sex-bot.
“I find the idea of being the first between a woman’s thighs stimulating. There is something so powerful and primal about being the one to introduce a woman into the world of pleasure. I crave that power and I have the means so I avail myself to it.”
Even if the woman didn’t have much of a choice? “I guess if you have enough money, there’s nothing you can’t have, right?”
His lips tipped in a cool smile as he said, “Correct.”
Stopping in front of me, everything about him hardened and the change scared me. The veneer of the gracious billionaire was unlikely to be genuine. Nice people didn’t buy girls. I sensed this man liked to play, which made him even more dangerous because I didn’t know the rules of his game. “Undress me,” he commanded.