the page.
“Nick brought me back with him. We were looking for Brie when your father took her hostage,” she finally said.
He was staring out of the window at Central Park now. So she’d gone back in time—good for her. Then she knew how excruciating leaping through time was.
“You do plan on leaping into the vault, don’t you?”
He wanted to tell her to shut up.
He turned to look at her instead. “Why leap when I can walk inside?”
She smiled. “Good point.”
He’d never let her know that he feared pain, much less the evil causing it. From the moment his demon grandfather had abducted him when he was nine years old, taking him from medieval Scotland to the modern world, he had learned what evil really was. Evil enjoyed fear and pain, and inflicted both at will. Evil lusted for sex, power and death. He’d been kept a prisoner for sixty-six years. And evil had been merciless with him.
At first, he’d thought to escape. At first, he’d thought he would be rescued. Within months, maybe a year, he’d lost hope and wanted to die.
“Do you have an ounce of courage, Ian? Oh, I forgot—your father is a coward, too.”
He tried to fight to free himself but it was impossible. Tears of rage and helplessness streamed. “He’s a hero—good, not evil—like ye!”
“He is evil now, as evil as I am!Yes, your father has fallen to the darkness, Ian.” He laughed. “You are the means I will use to destroy your father. You do remember that, don’t you? It’s the only reason I am bothering to keep you alive…”
He was released. “My father will kill you,” he cried.
“No, I will destroy him. Then you will be freed—and allowed to grow up. And you will live with the guilt, the pain and all these memories—until the gods let you die.”
He flinched as he was caressed…
To this day, he didn’t know how anyone, much less a boy, could have survived what they’d done to him: the rape, the torture, the sick games.
Ian turned to look out of the window, away from Sam, who was clearly trying to guess his thoughts. He had been powerless as a captive, but he had control now. He had wealth. He did as he chose, when he chose—and no one and nothing could or would ever stop him. Anyone who thought to get in his way would pay.
Control meant everything to him. It was a matter of life and death—it was a matter of survival. It was even a matter of sanity.
He had spent most of his life in submission. He would do as he damned pleased now.
He had spent most of his life in pain. He intended to spend the rest of his life in pleasure.
He glanced at the woman seated beside him in the cab. Sam Rose was as fearless as he was not. If she knew his secrets, she might not be so hot for him. But she’d never know the truth. No one ever would.
“What’s got you glowering? Talk about a mood swing.”
“Read my mind.” He managed a smile that felt nasty. But he knew what he needed to get the bitter taste out of his mouth, his gut and his soul.
“You haven’t taught me.”
“Then come here.” He patted his lap.
“No deal.” She smiled coolly at him.
He laid his hand on her hard thigh, his fingertips against her sex. Just barely, he waggled them, pressing the steel cuff into her abdomen. “Have ye ever thought to ask me to take ye into the vault again—nicely?”
She struck his hand away, but he’d felt the thick pulse there, beneath the flimsy dress. “I can tell you’re amused by the handcuffs, but we’ll see who has the last laugh.”
“Ye can have the last laugh,” he murmured, staring at her classic profile. “I’ll even give it to ye.”
“This is a business arrangement, but I’ll help you into a cold shower,” she said.
He was finally, thoroughly diverted. “The sooner, the better,” he said swiftly. “Will ye wash my back? Or will ye cuff me to my bed an’ watch me while I…sleep?”
For one moment, their gazes met, and he was certain she knew exactly what he’d be doing while she watched. “Your mind is one track. What a surprise. I’ll be on the other side of the glass when you shower and guess what? I have no interest watching you do anything.”
“Liar,” he taunted.
He thought she flushed.
“We’re handcuffed to one another,” he said softly. “What do ye expect me to think of?”
“Pay the driver,” she said tersely, as the taxi came to a stop in front of his new town house. “By the way, why did you decide on New York City?”
He handed the driver a bill and told him to keep the change. She was on the curb side and he leaned over her to open the door, pressing her back into the seat. “I moved here so I could screw ye.”
“Yeah, right. Good luck,” she said, slipping out of the cab and away from his body. “In case you haven’t noticed, Maclean, you don’t intimidate me one single bit.”
“Then I’ll have to change that.”
The taxi drove off and she said slowly, “I can’t imagine you with a bimbo for more than two minutes, except, of course, for sex.”
She seemed to understand him and he smiled. “Even bimbos have their uses.”
She shook her head.
“Don’t ye use yer boy toys?” he asked softly. It crossed his mind that, when it came to sex, they were alike. It was late enough that no one was on the street as he went to the front door of the turn-of-the-century building and keyed in the door code. Sam stood close behind him, due to the cuffs. He’d left the lights on in the entry foyer, which had double ceilings. As he closed the door he glanced at her bleeding arm, and then at the torn dress. She seemed to be indifferent to the gash on her ribs.
He wondered if she’d even cried out a single time in pain, during the leap she’d endured.
Sam was eyeing the almost microscopic cameras that were angled at the front doors and noting the cameras in the entry hall. She hadn’t missed the cameras outside, either. He waited. She glanced at him and said, “High tech, huh?”
His security system was state-of-the-art. It was not aimed at burglars. But he didn’t owe her any explanations. She was now taking in his furnishings, which were mostly antiques. She put her messenger bag on an Irish library table from the seventeenth century. Even the chandelier above them was from fifteenth-century France. Only the rugs were new—or fairly new. Above the front door was a pair of genuine sixteenth-century swords. “Interesting choice of décor for a modern playboy,” Sam said. Her gaze was sharp.
