This Is War, Baby - K Webster Page 0,31

waves her hands in the air—“I don’t know. Abuse. Sex. Humiliation. Murder.”

My eyes rapidly begin blinking at her. Her words confound me. Why would such an innocent person expect something so horrible? I must worry her with my silence because she reaches for me. And just like that, the world I try to forget forces the reminder into my face.

“Don’t touch me!” I roar and glare at her hand as if it has invisible poison dripping from it, burning holes into the leather of the seat between us. For all I know, it does.

She jerks her hand back and tears well in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I was just—”

“Well don’t. You are never allowed to touch me. Ever. Are we clear?”

Her body hunches and she nods. An apology is on the tip of my tongue but I swallow it down. I don’t even know how to explain myself to her.

“Why did you buy me then? If you bought me and you don’t plan to hurt or sleep with me, then what exactly do you want me for?” She’s trying to put on a brave front but the fear in her words betrays her effort.

“Exactly as the auction stated. I bought a companion.”

She scoffs and shakes her head. “You don’t really believe that do you? That it was an auction to buy a companion?”

But I do.

I spent hours on the website that I’d found on one of Dad’s wealthiest client’s server. It intrigued me and I studied it for weeks. They were to have an elite fundraiser of sorts and men could choose companions—a glorified, expensive dating site if you will. It was themed and what drew me in was the allure of the pureness of the innocent flower.

Pure means uncontaminated, unpolluted, untainted, wholesome, and clean.

Clean.

“That’s exactly what it was. I’m a lonely man because of my…because of my…” I trail off, letting the horrors that define me die in my throat, “and you’re going to entertain me.”

She laughs again but this time it is almost cruel. “Entertain you? How? Dance on the damn table in my underwear? And for how long? Forever?”

I glare at her. Never in a million fucking years will her feet ever touch my table. “Fuck no! Talk to me. Sing to me. Eat with me,” I snarl. “And yes, for-fucking-ever.”

She flinches at my tone and leans as far from me as she can get as if I might strike her. Not happening. Not even with my black leather gloves to protect me.

“Sir,” she tries again in a small voice, “you bought me for five million dollars. Those people are running a sex ring which you signed up for, not an expensive dating site.”

Sex ring?

I glower at her. “Impossible.”

But is it?

“Tell me.” Her voice drops to a whisper. “Did you think I was going to receive any of that money for my services—the five million? Did you think I had in any way complied with this?”

Doubt creeps into my veins. “The website said—”

“The website was wrong,” she argues, emotion thick in her throat. “Please just let me go. My parents are searching for me, I’m sure of it.”

What did I think was going to happen?

That she’d want to marry my sorry ass?

That she’d want to adhere to all my weird-ass fucking bullshit?

That this was a legitimate transaction between willing parties?

“I didn’t…I didn’t know…” My words are garbled and messy. Confusion scrambles my brain—thoughts darting every which way.

Her pleading words cut through my jumbled haze. “I’m only seventeen.”

Everything about her seems young. Wide, doe eyes. Soft, unsure voice. Shit!

The pressure in my brain surges and grows until my head feels as if it is going to explode. What have I done? This is against the law.

“We aren’t going to have sex,” I assure her through clenched teeth, trying desperately to keep my maddening migraine at bay. “I don’t want you to even fucking touch me. Just stay with me. That’s all. Stay. Money? Cars? Diamonds? Houses? I’ll give you whatever the hell you want.”

Money talks. I’ll bribe her with anything it takes to get her to stay. It’s not illegal if I don’t sleep with her. Right? My mind whirs with article after article I’ve read over the years. None of the news stories ever mentioned anything about a willing underage companion. Sure, there were lots of articles about kidnapped teenagers sold into sexual slavery, young women victimized by older men, and other horrible things. Things I would never do to her—to anyone for that matter. But never