Page 31 of Captive Prize

Ah. There it was. That was the real reason he took me.

He didn’t want me.

He wanted what I knew.

The secrets.

The strategy.

The reasonLos Infideleshad teamed up with me in the first place.

Who the fuck was this man, and why did he care?

I could tell him. But then I wouldn’t be the strong, badass boss he thought he had chained in front of him.

So instead, I smiled at him. A slow, condescending, even mocking, smile. “Go to hell.”

Tension filled the room between us.

His eyes dragged over me slowly, and I couldn’t help but stare at his lips—the same lips that had kissed me so intensely before he abducted me.

Flashes of what had happened between us danced through my mind, and I couldn’t push them away.

Not with him looking at me like that.

Not with him watching me with more heat, more respect, than any man had ever given me before.

And that was the pathetic part. This man who took me, who kidnapped me after kissing me, looked at me with more reverence than the men who were supposed to serve me.

He grabbed my chair by the legs and pulled me forward, closer to him.

So close he spread his own thighs, placing me in between them so I couldn’t escape that dark, addictive aroma, or the heat radiating off his skin.

“Zoya, that wasn’t an answer.”

His words were barely more than a whisper.

“It’s the only answer you’re going to get.”

His hands moved to the edge of my seat, just outside my thighs, his thumbs grazing me. Just a brush. Barely a touch. But I felt it. I felt everything.

And worse—he knew I felt it.

“Zoya, this doesn’t have to get ugly.”

He was so close it made it hard to think.

It was a distraction.

It had to be a distraction.

A cold, determined fury settled in my core, and I straightened my spine.

Did he think that because I was a woman he could show me just a little bit of attention and I would give him whatever he wanted? Like I was some silly little girl that could be played?

The attraction and chemistry didn’t go away.

God, my life would be so much easier if they went away.

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