The lights go out. I’m plunged into darkness, and all I see is that satisfied glint in his dark, fathomless eyes when he called mePet.
CHAPTER FOUR
Ares
“She’s going to be quitethe handful. Are you sure you’re not in over your head?” My twin leans against the doorjamb as I watch my little Pet on the monitor. It’s pitch black in her cell, and still she stalks the length of the tiny room like a caged tiger, bumping into things, banging on walls, the floor. Likely looking for a way out. She won’t find one; that room is secure.Like my ability to make even the most stubborn of women kneel.
“Are you doubting my ability to train her on time, Brother?” I lean back in my chair, rest my feet on the desk, and lace my fingers behind my head. I’m the picture of cool, calm, and collected.Hermes doesn’t buy it. Not after the incident with the last slave I trained. My brother has lost faith in me, and I’m not entirely undeserving. “Because I haven’t met a woman yet who I couldn’t break.”
“Maybe not a woman,” he murmurs.Asshole. “But you’ve never quite had a deadline like this.”
“True, but I’m not perturbed. She’s a dancer. She’s used to being given orders, she’s used to a strict regime, and I dare say she’s even sucked the director’s cock a time or two for the perfect role. She’ll do nicely, and her body will do what I tell it, when I tell it.”
“You better hope so, because thanks to you, this just became a fucking PR nightmare. What happens when some old coot who attends the ballet every Sunday with his wife recognizes her face at The Ranch?” He pulls a cigarette from the pack and lights it. Thick rings of smoke escape his mouth and float up toward the high ceiling.
“Then they’ll know why we’re asking four times the amount we usually charge.”
“Yes, and a fat lot of good that will do if you can’t make her yield.”
“Leave her submission to me, Brother.” I set my feet on the floor and lean my elbows on the desk, watching my little Pet grow more and more frustrated by the second. “You just concentrate on finding us a buyer at auction for a pretty penny.”
“Oh, I’ll get a pretty penny. Prima ballerina in the European marketplace? It’s every Russian man’s fantasy.”
“Just make sure it’s the right Russian.”
His face falls, and I regret saying anything at all, but Hermes doesn’t need a reminder of what’s at stake here. “Fine, I’ll leave you to your little plaything. Just remember, she’s a different girl than we saw on that stage.”
“I remember.”
“You have everything you need?”
I grin. “I will once you’re gone.”
“You know to contact me if you need me.”
“I won’t,” I say assuredly, and flip him the bird as he exits the surveillance room and strides down the hall.Asshole. On the monitor, his shiny shoes walk across worn floorboards to the front door.