ALTHEA
Holy fucking hell. Is this really happening? This guy is real? After nearly a month since receiving the cell phone and note, I had convinced myself that I was playing into some lengthy prank. The types of text messages shared between us were so short and vague that they could have been produced by an autoresponder service. Half the time, he didn't even reply.
Still, that initial text message motivated me to get a job. Prank or not, I'd dawdled around long enough, leeching off of my mother. It was high time that I started earning my keep, even if it made me miserable.
After I confirmed that I had gotten a job, I stopped texting my new owner. He didn't seem much interested in me anyway, and to be honest, I was over the whole VirginsforSale.com thing. They keep sending me emails telling me that my new owner has released money into my account, but the website says they won't pay me until thirty days have passed, so there's no real way to tell if it's legit or not.
But now here we are, face-to-face for the first time. When I saw the limo waiting in the parking lot, I was certain it was for someone else, or it was just waiting there until the driver got a call from a client. I never in a million years thought it was for me.
The man inside is way more handsome than his picture. For several seconds, I think that I must be mistaken, but then he holds up his phone and shows me the same headshot of him against a purple background that I was sent. It's definitely the same guy.
“Get in,” he says in a voice that's nothing like I had imagined. Deep and masculine, yet with a soft edge.
“Get in,” I parrot stupidly, gawking at him like he's a celebrity.
He moves over, urging me inside.
I shake my head, trying to make sense of everything. “I don't even know your name—who you are.”
He gives me a disapproving look. “Don't make me repeat myself.”
Alarms go off inside my brain. Handsome or not, only an idiot would get inside a vehicle with a stranger and travel to an unknown destination.
“That's not safe,” I mumble, hugging myself.
“You signed a contract,” he reminds me firmly. “I came to collect what is mine.”
The way he says what is mine makes a shiver roll through my body and settle at my core. What is his? Does he mean me or my virginity?
My mind goes blank as I stare at him and feel my common sense slowly drain away. His dark eyes are full of confidence and hunger, but his jaw is set in disapproval. I'm pissing him off. No doubt, this isn't what he signed up for. I'm not being the compliant doll that he paid for.
He paid for me. He owns me, I remind myself. It's a staggering thought. If he's here right now, does that mean that everything was real?
I bite my bottom lip before speaking again. His eyes instantly fall to my mouth. “If I get into that limo with you, what will happen?”
“I'm going to fuck you like we agreed upon,” he replies unabashedly.
My knees feel weak. Again that swirl of desire kicks up in my loins. No one has ever talked to me like this before.
“We don't have all night.” He steps out of the limo, and my head tilts back to look up at his face.
Tall. So tall compared to me.
He grabs my arm and starts pulling me towards the limo. It takes me a moment to realize that I'm being abducted.
“Hey, let go of me.” I start to struggle, but he's way too strong. Within seconds, I'm inside the limo. The door is closed behind us, and I feel the vehicle lurch forward.
What desire I felt is replaced by panic. What in the hell is going on? This isn't what I imagined it was going to be like at all. I was supposed to have more power than this—supposed to be able to refuse. Maybe this was a trap after all. Who knows what's going to happen to me now? A million horrible thoughts rush through my mind.
“You can't do this!” I try to go for the door. I'm so damn desperate I'd jump out of the moving vehicle to escape. My hand reaches the handle, but my fingers slide off of it as my captor wraps his arms around me and pulls me back with him onto the seat. “Let me go!”
“Shhh,” he whispers into my ear. “It's alright.”
“It's not alright. You're kidnapping me. Where are you taking me?” I demand, trying to twist around in his arms. His grip is like iron, though.
“I bought you. I own you now. You belong to me.” His voice is full of need as he whispers aggressively into my ear.
My body stills as I feel something shift beneath my ass. My clit pulses from the sensation. I stop struggling. My heart is beating out of control, echoing in my ear from adrenaline.
“If you're a good girl, I'll let you go. Or maybe I won't.” His grip tightens on me. That's definitely his erection poking my ass.
“What are you going to do to me?” I ask between clenched teeth, trying to keep my fear from causing tears to pool in my eyes. I was stupid for allowing this to happen. I should have never clicked on that fucking ad.
“I'm taking you back to my house. Unless of course, you'd rather me fuck you right here.” His lips trace the curve of my neck.
“And then what?” I lean away from him.
“And then we'll see what happens from there.”
“And then you'll kill me?” I practically spit at him.
He gives me a confused look, his eyebrows furrowing. “No. Oh God no.” His hold on me finally loosens enough that I'm able to push out of his arms and take the seat across from him.
We've pulled onto the highway. If I tried jumping out of the limo now, I'd risk being badly injured. I may even die. I need to wait for a better opportunity to make my escape.
All the passion in his expression is gone. Now he just looks troubled. “Wait. You did sign up for that website, didn't you?”
I purse my lips, wondering what exactly I did sign up for. Not to be abducted, for sure. Maybe VirginsforSale.com was a cover for something else, something darker.
“What did you sign up for?” I throw the question back at him.
“You are Althea Ellis, right? The girl on VirginsforSale.com? The one I bought? You knew about this? I haven't just been talking to some computer that tricked me into thinking I was talking to you this entire time?” He grills me with questions.
A chuckle escapes my lips. I've had the same fears and doubts. He ended up being real. Yet I still don't understand what's going on.
“What's so funny?” It's obvious he does not find this situation amusing.
“What do you think you bought?” My nerves start to settle as I begin to realize that he's every bit as confused as I am.
“What the website promised. Your virginity. Your obedience. You.” He sits back and crosses his leg over his ankle, looking like a businessman.
“Then why did you come abduct me so forcefully? I don't even know your name. I know nothing about you. Like any sane woman would willingly get into a car with a man they don't know.”
He sighs, annoyance returning to his expression. “I assumed you knew I would eventually come claim you.”
“Is that how this works?” I quirk an eyebrow.
“That's how I work,” he tells me unapologetically.
“I wasn't aware I'd been purchased by a brute,” I mumble beneath my breath, though he obviously heard it because his entire body tenses.
“Well, like it or not, you sold yourself to a brute.” His eyes narrow at me. “Will you renege on your contract?”
Now that the confusion is clearing up, it's much easier to see things as they are, not as my frightened mind had imagined them to be. I look the man before me up and down. He is, in fact, the guy from the picture. And if everything is legit, then he paid fifty thousand dollars for me.
“I haven't seen a penny of the money I was promised yet,” I inform him. “The website said they won't pay until thirty days after the amount is released by you.”
His expression softens. “I'm sorry. I wasn't aware of that.”
“Then how do I even know any of this is real?” I hug myself, closing myself off to him further.
“Are you just in this for the money?”
The question catches me off guard. Yes. No. If I am being honest, I'm not really sure.
“Are you just in this for the sex?” I ask.
He snorts. “Do you think I need to pay for sex?”
Arrogant prick, though there's something incredibly alluring about that.
“No, I don't think you need to pay for sex.” Certainly not from someone like me. Hell, had I first spied him walking down the street and thought I had half a chance, I'd be spreading my legs for him for free.
“Then there's your answer.” He stares across at me intently. “Now it's your turn.”
“For what?” I'm so befuddled by why he would want me that I've forgotten what he asked.
“To answer my question. Are you just in this for the money?” A flash of annoyance crosses his expression, and I immediately feel guilty for having disappointed him in some way, though I'm not sure why.
“What if I said yes?”
“Then I would be the one to end our contract. Right here. Right now. You should know that I don't pay for sex.”
“So you're paying to own me then?” I can feel some of the tension leaving my shoulders knowing that we're both in this for the same thing—for something deeper. It makes me drop my guard a little.
“That's what the website said.” A smirk plays at the corners of his lips.
“And you came to claim me...in the most brutish of ways?” My eyes widen flirtatiously.
“I make no apology for the way I am. I just ask you to accept it.” There's definitely not an ounce of apology in anything about him. He has all the mannerisms of a man in charge. It's such a turn on that I find myself blushing.
“I can try.” I bite my bottom lip, averting my gaze shyly.
“There is no try,” he tells me, his eyes burning into me, making me feel small and vulnerable. “Come here.”
My body is buzzing with nervousness, but I do as I'm told, crossing the space between us. As soon as he's able to reach me, he grips my waist and pulls me down onto his lap. I shiver from the closeness, my mind going wild with fantasies of what he might want to do to me. I have a feeling that he's even less conventional in the bedroom than he has been about this business.
“May I know the name of my new master?” I ask, feeling the word master roll off of my tongue with all its implications.
“Your new master?” He slides a hand over my thigh, drawing it up until his thumb is pressing into the leg of my shorts. I suck in a breath as I feel him reach the place where my thigh and groin connect. No man has ever had his hand so near to my sex before. “My name is Gavin Errico.”
“Gavin,” I mouth his name, trying it on for size. I like the way it flows so easily.
“And as soon as I get you back to my house, I'm going to eat your pussy until you're screaming it.”