rising off her skin, Aric detected the undeniable scent of truth. It was impossible to imagine what bizarre set of circumstances had brought a big-city bookkeeper to his bedroom…and honestly, he didn't care.
"Please," Jo implored him. "You have to understand that I didn't mean for any of this to happen. Please don't hurt me."
"I'm not going to hurt you," Aric said, retreating only far enough to close the bedroom door. The pleading in her voice, along with the rising desperation in her scent, was heating his blood to new levels. He'd never realized how tantalizing a woman in distress could be, especially since he knew that she was perfectly safe as long as she was with him. "I'm going to do everything but hurt you."
This couldn't be happening.
Jocelyn snapped her gaping mouth shut as the solid-wood bedroom door closed with a heavy thunk. The alpha turned back to face her, a hungry, calculating look in his eyes.
Yes. Whatever this was, it was one hundred percent happening. She was trapped. No one would hear her cries. Whatever he wanted from her—and her mind resisted the obvious guess—he would have it unless she did something fast.
And she had only one thing left to trade.
"Fine," she snapped with forced bravado and tossed her heavy bag to the foot of the bed. "If nothing I say will stop you, then maybe this will."
The alpha paused, raising an eyebrow at the sight of her soft leather bag lying inches from where he stood. He picked it up, finding it much heavier than he expected, and opened the zipper, then pulled out the folded sheaf of papers she'd shoved in there nearly twenty-four hours earlier, the evidence she'd lifted from the files.
He looked up at her suspiciously. "What's this?"
"Not that—look underneath. There's two million dollars in there." Jocelyn held her breath. She'd played her only card, and in doing so, traded away her hope for the future. She'd taken the money thinking it would save her life, and maybe it still would—but she'd hoped it would last a little longer than a single day.
"You were carrying two million dollars in cash with you?" The alpha sounded more puzzled than amazed.
"I was," she clarified. "Now it's all yours, if you let me walk out that door untouched."
The alpha set down the bag without even bothering to look inside. Instead, he simply stared at her thoughtfully, not saying a word.
She did her best not to flinch under his gaze, but it took a tremendous effort. This man, with his coiled energy and massive muscles, was more intimidating than anything she'd ever encountered before—and that included John.
Jocelyn prayed that his stony silence meant that he was considering the deal. How could he not? There was a lot of money in that oversized workbag.
But her hopes were dashed when he lazily swiped the bag off the bed and onto the floor as if it was nothing but trash.
"Wh-why…?" Jocelyn seemed to have lost the ability to put together complete sentences, no doubt due to the intense gleam in the alpha's dark eyes. The money only seemed to have irritated him, for some reason she couldn't fathom. She gave up maintaining her façade of calm and began to shake openly.
"You really don't know where you are, do you?" he demanded.
Of course she did. She wasn't stupid, despite what her current circumstances implied. "The Boundarylands."
"But you have no idea what that means. You think I give a shit about your beta money?" His expression was full of contempt as he gave her bag a nudge with his boot. "Look around, bookkeeper Jo. Look at my house. Look at me. What the fuck would I do with two million?"
Jocelyn bit her lip, desperately searching for an answer. But there were only two things that she knew for certain this alpha liked.
"You could buy a lot of booze and hookers with that kind of money."
"I make my own damn whiskey," he said, his voice going all low and rumbly again. "And why would I need to go looking for whores, now that I've trapped a pretty little intruder right here in my home?"
Jocelyn gulped, her heart practically stopping. The situation was spiraling out of control faster than she could keep up with. All that remained to do was to beg for mercy.
"Please," she whispered. "Please."
"You don't have start begging me to please you yet, little Jo." The rumbling turned silken. "Wait until your legs are wrapped around my hips. Until my mouth is on