OWN HER: A Dark Mafia Romance(122)

He put his hands on my tied wrists, pressing them hard against the metal arms of the chair. It wasn’t painful, but I winced anyway, giving him what he wanted to see. I could play along with the best of them.



“So, who sent you?” he asked me again.



I closed my mouth tightly and smiled at him. I wasn’t about to tell him so easily. He was going to have to work for that answer.



“No more smart-ass answers, huh?”



“Not at the moment,” I told him. I couldn’t help myself.



“I see. So, what? If I let go of your arms and stand up, maybe step away from you, you’ll start with the smart mouth again?” he asked, stepping away.



“No,” I said, shaking my head, taunting him. He didn’t know what to do with someone who wasn’t afraid of him, and I was loving it. He probably didn’t realize it, but he had given himself away with the tenderness he’d shown while tying me up.



“What’s it going to take, then?” he asked. “You obviously want something out of me in return for that information. What do you want? Do you want me to promise I’ll keep you safe from your boss when they learn that you were caught and that you gave them up? Sure, I can do that. I can help you get far away from them, where you won’t be able to bother either one of us anymore.”



I cocked an eyebrow. Was he really bargaining with me? I really must have gotten under this man’s skin for him to trade in his usual brutal methods for trying to talk information out of me. I decided to throw him a bone. I took a deep breath so I could keep a straight face.



“I don’t want immunity or protection,” I told him. “What I want to know is when you’re going to start torturing me for information. If you’re really Cole Masterson, known for beating the shit out of anyone who crosses your path, why haven’t you done the same to me? I’m waiting for the sting of your hand across my cheek, the taste of my own blood in my mouth from where you busted my lip. I’m waiting on cuts and bruises from where you try to force information out of me,” I taunted him.



I’d never thought of torture as something that might have been sexually gratifying, but as I listened to my own words, I started to get turned on by the possibility of such close physical contact with Cole. It wasn’t that I wanted him to hit me or beat me, but I craved his touch again.



“I won’t be torturing you,” he answered me. He stepped closer to me as a smile crept across his face, and he ran a hand gently along my cheek.



I turned my face and let his skin pass in front of my lips. I thought about nipping him with my teeth lightly, just enough to get his attention and let him know what kind of physical contact I did want from him.



“I can take it,” I told him, looking up at him, letting my voice grow heavy with desire.



“I’m sure you can. You seem to be able to handle yourself very well, Sasha. I’m impressed you can run with the big boys out here like you do,” he said. I couldn’t tell if he was paying me a compliment or just being patronizing. I wanted to take it as a compliment.



It was definitely a boys’ club, this whole business of dealing with crime bosses. I hadn’t run into many women while I’d been working for Fang. Most of them had been on the sidelines, performing supporting roles instead of trying to make any progress of their own. I didn’t really mind the lack of women in my line of work. It made my job easier. There was no real competition, and I was able to slip under the radar because most of the other bosses didn’t expect to find a woman stealing from them.



As a woman, when I was “caught,” some of the guys even went so far as to assume I was just a decoy. Of course, until running into Cole for the first time, I’d only ever been caught when I allowed myself to be. Being legitimately caught and tied to a chair was new to me. I wasn’t quite sure how to handle myself, but I could see the desire in his eyes, and I knew I’d found my way out of trouble, my way into his bed, and my way into his confidence.



“There are other ways to get me to talk, you know,” I teased him, loading my words with a suggestive tone.



“How would that be?” he asked me, raising a playful eyebrow.



“I’m sure you know how to make a woman do anything you want, Cole Masterson,” I taunted him. Most men, even if they were smart enough to see that someone was stroking their ego, were dumb enough to fall for it.



“And I’m sure you know how to make men do the same,” he said to me, proving that he could see straight through me.