Carter unlocked the door in the morning, letting me out of my cage like some kind of dog.

I told myself not to complain, not when I was able to sleep comfortably in the bed without a chain hooked to my ankle. I could shower when I felt like, pee when I felt like it, and I could look out the window all I wanted.

We were somewhere in between Milan and Verona, in the countryside, without another house in sight. He had olive trees around his property, and there was a high stone wall that surrounded it, keeping everything contained. He had a swimming pool, a nice terrace, and a spectacular garden. There was no way he took care of that himself.

He didn’t wait around for me after he unlocked the door. He headed downstairs.

I followed him a moment later and examined my surroundings, finally exploring the house without him breathing over my shoulder. There was a picture mounted on the wall, so I stopped to look at it. Carter was in it, along with other people who looked similar to him. It seemed to be a family portrait at Christmastime. Of course, they were all beautiful just like him.

I glanced down the hallway and assumed the room with the partially open door was where he slept. His office was there too. I was tempted to sweep the place for stowed away guns, but he probably cleared everything—with the exception of his room.

I still hadn’t decided what I was going to do about him. I could either try to kill him or convince him to let me go. He seemed to be a momma’s boy, so that told me he had a heart under that hard chest. But the fact that he bought me at all told me he wasn’t innately kind. If I laid my cards on the table too soon, he would never drop his guard and would know I would always be a flight risk.

So I had to do this carefully.

I walked downstairs and joined him in the kitchen. He had made a cup of coffee with the espresso machine.

“Can you cook?” He unbundled the newspaper from the rubber band and laid it out on the table. He pulled out the sections he wanted to read, sports, world news, and surprisingly, comics.

Cooking was one of my skills. I hadn’t done it in years, but I used to cook almost every meal. “Yes.”

He grabbed his coffee and headed to the dining table. “I want scrambled egg whites, a piece of toast, sliced tomatoes, and an assortment of fruit.” He issued the command without even looking at me. He turned his back on me, the muscles under his skin shifting and moving as he carried himself. All the muscles of his back were precisely tuned, like he lifted various kinds of weights to work out each one. With tanned skin that complimented the dark hair at the nape of his neck, it was a nice sight. His sweatpants hung low on his hips, showing the muscles that flanked him on either side of his spine.

The sight distracted me for a moment. “That wasn’t a very nice way to ask.”

He didn’t turn around as he stepped into the dining room, which was filled with natural light. “Because I didn’t ask at all.”

I reminded myself that making him breakfast was much better than the ways Egor expected me to serve him. He preferred to have large meals in front of me while I starved. Then he liked to beat me until tears emerged from my eyes. Only then would he fuck me, when he could listen to me cry.

This was definitely preferable.

But I refused to be grateful for it.

I whipped up the food he asked for and served it to him.

His newspaper was off to the side, and he was scrolling through his phone, checking emails. He didn’t lift his gaze to look at me. “Thank you.”

“Sure.” Now that my job was done, I walked back into the kitchen.

“Sit with me and eat.”

I came back to him. “Eat with you?”

“Yes.” He kept typing a message. “You made something for yourself?”

“No. You didn’t tell me I could eat.” If I ever tried to eat without permission, Egor didn’t refrain from strangling me, which was ironic considering he starved me in the first place. He pushed me until my breaking point then punished me for placing a piece of bread in my mouth.

He finally looked up from his phone, his right eyebrow arched. “You were waiting for permission?”

Maybe he thought it was a joke, but I certainly didn’t. “Yes.”

His incredulous look slowly evaporated, replaced by a look of sadness. He never asked me about my past, where I came from, and he’d waited a few weeks before he bothered to learn my name. He’d seemed indifferent to me. “Well, you can eat whenever you want while you live here.”

A sense of gratitude welled up inside me, and it was so strong that I nearly let tears form in my eyes. His gesture wasn’t even that kind, but it meant the world to me. It was one of the few times I’d been treated as a human being in the presence of a man. He had more power than me, but he didn’t abuse it like the others did. “Thanks.” I walked back into the kitchen, made something for myself, and then joined him at the table again.

He read the newspaper, took a few phone calls, and then picked at his food slowly. He paid more attention to his coffee, savoring that more than the food. He didn’t make eye contact with me once or attempt to make conversation with me. Then the phone rang again.

He nearly did a double take when he saw the name on the screen. He took the call quickly, hardly letting it ring. “Hey, man. How are you feeling?”

I couldn’t hear the voice on the other line, but I knew it was someone special. Carter spoke to this person differently from all the others. He was excited, invested, and enthused. Even his tone was different.

“How’s the wife?” He listened to the man talk on the other line. “I’m glad you’re doing better. How much longer will you be staying with your parents?” He leaned back in his chair and looked out the window. “I’ve been meaning to stop by, but…I’ve had my hands full.” His eyes finally moved to my face for the first time since I sat down. “Yeah, I’ll talk to you then. Bye.” He hung up and set the phone on the table.

“Who was that?”

“You’re nosy.” He picked up his mug and sipped his coffee.

“I only ask because he seemed important to you. You spoke to him differently from everyone else.”

He set down his mug then looked at me, his brown eyes bright as they reflected the morning light coming through the window. His hair was messy because he hadn’t showered yet, but the sleepy look suited him. I imagined the women he brought home loved that look every morning. So far, I hadn’t seen him bring anyone home. If he wasn’t fucking me, then he must be fucking someone. “My cousin. But he’s more like a brother.”

“Is he okay?”

“He had an incident a few weeks ago, but he’s going to be alright.” He didn’t elaborate and didn’t invite me to ask questions.

Now I knew he was close with his cousin as well as his mother, along with his sister. It seemed like he had a nice family he could always turn to. If he had people in his life, what did he need me for? “I’ve been trying to figure out why you want me around, but I haven’t figured it out.”

His hands came together in front of his chest. “Maybe you’re overthinking it.”

“I thought you’d want me for sex, but you don’t look like the kind of man who struggles to land pussy.”

The corner of his mouth rose in a smile. “Why do you say that?”

“Uh, it’s obvious.”

He narrowed his eyes on my face. “Not to me.”

“Oh, come on. You’re hot.”

Now he grinned completely, the corners of his mouth rising toward the ceiling. “Hot, huh?”

Maybe Carter was a psychopath who was just trying fuck with me, to lure me into a false sense of safety before he struck. Knowing I could eat whenever I wanted and didn’t have to wear a chain around my ankle made me feel like a real person. That gift of slight independence and freedom had improved my mood incredibly. But I would be stupid to assume it would always be this way. Men didn’t buy women for a fortune just to keep them around. “A tad. So what does a man like you want with a woman like me?”

He shrugged. “That’s my business.”

“Since I’m one of the two of us, I think it’s my business too. If you don’t want to torture me or fuck me, then what do you want?”

His eyes darkened in a new way, locking on to my face with laser-sharp precision. “Who said I didn’t want to fuck you?”

The air left the room with his comment, and the peaceful morning suddenly became potent with silent threat.

“I just said I wouldn’t fuck you if you behaved. But the second you screw up your end of the bargain, I’ll screw up mine.” Without taking his gaze off me, he grabbed his coffee and took another drink.

I refused to break eye contact to show weakness, but I was definitely afraid of his words. I was afraid of the way they made me feel. It wasn’t terrifying like it was with Egor. He never threatened me at all, just beat me and fucked me whenever he wanted. But Carter made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end with just his words. I felt the warmth in my belly, the mix of fear and excitement in my heart.

“And just so you know, I hope you do fuck up.” He finally broke eye contact with me and picked up his newspaper again. “You can waste your time trying to understand me, but trust me, you never will.”

“Why don’t you just tell me? You bought me for a reason. I might fulfill that reason if it’s not repulsive.”

His eyes scanned back and forth as he read the newspaper. “Look, I bought you at the Underground to piss off someone.” He tossed the newspaper aside. “He crossed me a few months ago, and I knew he wanted you, so I made sure I got you first. It was a pissing contest, is all.”

“You bought me for fifty million for your ego?” I asked incredulously.

“Sweetheart, I’m a billionaire. I have so much money, I don’t even know what to do with it. So just be grateful.”

“Be grateful?” I cocked an eyebrow. “Why should I be grateful?”

He rested his elbows on the table and leaned toward me. “I don’t need to know where you came from to understand what you lived through. The scars on your back spell it out for me. My company is preferable to your previous master. So, yes, be grateful.”

A glimmer of hope erupted in my heart. “If you just bought me to piss someone off…will you let me go? Not tomorrow, but eventually?” I had to figure out how to escape one way or another. This man wasn’t keeping me in this house. I had a life to get back to. I would either have to kill him or hope he would release me. He was the one who would dictate how that would happen.

He held my gaze for a long time, his eyes shifting back and forth slightly. When he was this focused, he looked even more beautiful. When he was angry, he seemed confident. When he was pissed, he seemed aggressive. With those muscles and good looks, he had the perfect package. “Never.”