Page 6 of His Dark Purpose

Her scathing expression and no-nonsense words had well and truly conveyed her displeasure, so he couldn’t comprehend her sudden silence.

Something must be wrong.

He didn’t want to think about what that might mean, though inevitably, his thoughts started to catastrophize.

What if she’d found the key to the cuffs?

His pulse quickened as he paced into his enormous kitchen. She’d be out of his room and loose before he knew it, possibly even fleeing the house if she could get away with it. Panic seared across his chest at the debilitating idea, but he shoved it aside. She wouldn’t find the key because it was currently stowed away safely in his personal safe.

But what if she yanked so hard at the metal bracelet that she damaged her delicate wrist? The concept that his treatment had caused her any tangible harm distressed him. He’d promised to look after her, and he meant to.

“For God’s sake!” Finding a tray hidden in one of the dozens of cupboards, he slammed it on the counter. “Enough speculation!”

The only way to know why she was quiet was to get up there and discover for himself. Raiding the fridge for snacks, he placed them on the tray, along with two glasses of water. Whatever happened, she’d need to be fed and watered while she was there, and the mini-fridge in his bedroom had little more than an emergency bottle of champagne.

“All right, little girl.”

Carrying the tray back to the exit, he abandoned the kitchen to solitude.

“Let’s see how good you’ve really been.”

Chapter Two

Resolve

Amy

“One noise,Amy. If I hearanythingfrom you, you won’t know what has hit you.”

Kyle’s final warning rang in Amy’s ears, her throat drying at his temerity. He’d seemed so vicious, the utterly foreboding man who’d dragged and cuffed her so unlike the Casanova who’d seduced her that she’d hardly recognized him.

Perched on the edge of his gigantic bed, her pulse raced as the memory of his words ricocheted, subtly shifting her fear to fury.

How dare he?

The conclusion rattled through her rushing mind, pinballing as the ultimate answer to every question she poised.

How dare he treat me this way?

How dare he throw me over his shoulder as though I’m a rag doll?

She tugged at her lower lip at the irony of that query. Kyle had hauled her over him on numerous occasions since Jonah had gone back to university, and her complaints had been limited to excited squeals as she feigned pathetic attempts to kick back against him.

But that wasn’t the point.

“He still has no right!” She stomped her bare foot on the soft pile of the carpet, aware that the ridiculous pair of heels she’d been wearing must have been lost somewhere in the chaos. “The fact I previously consented doesn’t give the bastard carte blanche to do whatever the hell he likes!”

Frustrated tears pricked at her righteousness, and for the hundredth time since he’d left her to rot with only his threats hanging in the air, she tugged pointlessly at the metal restraining her. It didn’t matter how hard she pulled, the cuff wasn’t giving way, and the only casualty of her futile attempts was likely to be her poor wrist.

Amy had never been handcuffed before in her life. She’d never been embroiled with the police, so the experience was utterly galling. Staring at the unyielding metal, she’d already decided she much preferred the soft confines of his silk ties.

“Not that he has any right to bind me!”

Anger ballooned inside, mingling with self-pity and fueling her ratcheting sense of loathing. She hated him for the secrets he’d kept and herself for falling for him. They’d been so happy together, flirting and playing while they found their feet in the new relationship, and all the while, she’d sensed it was all too good to be true.

Hewas too good.

Sniffing back her misery, she’d never been so upset to be right.

---