Bartered (The Encounter #1)(6)

Merde. How old was she? How come I forgot to ask her this one vital question? She couldn’t be eighteen,could she?Imbécile! (Moron.) How did this slip my mind? Because your cock twitched and it was all you could think about then, my mind immediately supplied the answer. So much for fair thinking…

Looking at her in the eye, I prayed she wasn’t that young. “How old are you, Isobel?”

“I’m twenty-three. It’s my final year before I graduate…”

Thank goodness she wasn’t as young as I’d feared.

“Where do you study?”

“In England, but my home is Athens. I was here to visit my father for a week because my mother asked it of me.”

So Callas was here vacationing his summer in Monaco to gamble away while his family was back home in Athens? What a remarkable man, I thought sourly. My own father could be cruel in his own right, but he never once abandoned me for his own pleasures, even after my mother died a few years after giving birth to me. Eli Xavier was tough, but even with his hard exterior I never once questioned his love or intentions.

Flickering my gaze back to the beguiling woman, I knew I wouldn’t want any more than the six months offered. Besides, the old man Callas needed to be taught a lesson. I’d have to make sure he was banned in all the casinos in Monaco and France. If he wanted to gamble, he’d have to go elsewhere.

“The agreement is for six months, ma belle. That’s up to you if you want to sign it or not.”

She gave me a seething look before breaking away. “You know I don’t have a choice.”

I did, and I had to capitalize on it because there was something about her I wanted to taste. She looked too delectable—supple and ripe—and the thought of roughening her up a little with disheveled hair, bruised lips from kisses, and raw, throbbing lips from my passions… What decent man with standards wouldn’t be tempted to make an exception?

This was the main problem with us. Place sex, beauty, and innocence in an equation, and men would have a hard time looking away; would have a tough time fighting their own animal urges to dominate and mark the very woman who had their engines revved up like no other.

I was the very same man. Even though I had always vowed not to play in this sort of field, a lot of men in my world took part in it. It had always amused me, but it had never come to a point where I had wanted to actually see and sample it myself. Beauty like hers didn’t come often, however.

Alors. I was here and I fully intended to enjoy it as much as I could.

“Hugo?” Her soft voice with my name on her lips almost made me groan in frustration.

“Oui, ma belle?”

“You said I could negotiate terms… I have a few of my own…”

This certainly got my full, undivided attention as I wondered what she’d negotiate with me. “Go on?”

She took a deep breath and exhaled as loudly as she’d inhaled, as if she was preparing to say something she knew would displease me. “My stipulations are… well… uh… I don’t want vaginal sex, even if there’s protection. It’s non-negotiable.”

I waited a beat or two, hoping she meant it as a joke. But when her face remained the same, I instantly blew up. “Mon dieu! What’s the point of all of this then? I want you in my bed, and I won’t have it any other way!” What man would agree to such an atrocious deal?

My outburst didn’t seem to bother her as she slowly stood up to face my enraged state. “I will be in your bed—be your third woman—never question that. And we’ll be having sex, but not there…”

I froze, eyeing her as if she had grown horns on her head. “Come again? I think I misheard you.”

“You didn’t. You heard me fine.”

Taking a few steps to meet her, I gave enough distance because I didn’t trust myself to be this close to her and not dump her in bed, open her legs, and plow into her supple body. “You don’t want vaginal, but anal you’re okay with?” What madness was this? Besides, what kind of woman would agree to such an arrangement? “May I ask why?”

She didn’t blink before giving me an answer. “Everything is personal… except for that.”

Isobel was young, maybe her understanding in what was personal and what wasn’t had been muddled by her ex-lovers?

“Ma belle, you might confuse the two, but trust me when I tell you that anal is personal; probably more personal than anything. Virginity is a rarity these day, but anal virginity isn’t something a woman casually gives to any man they come across—it’s for the man they love or trust. I am neither of those in your life.”

“Not to me. I find the other way much more sacred, and I only share that with someone I love. I hope this doesn’t offend you, Hugo, but I’m trying very hard here to meet your needs as well as my own.”

She was honest; I’d give her that. This certainly placed a strain on my plans. “Very well. If you insist.” I was getting half of what I’d hoped; however it wasn’t all lost. “You said you wanted a few. What are the others?”

“I want my own bedroom.”

Sleeping with my lovers wasn’t a thing I was accustomed to. She’d know soon enough. “It’s already waiting for you, ma belle. What else?”

“If there’s an emergency that would need me to go home, I’d like it if you wouldn’t hinder that right for me.”