Chapter 40

"Oh god," Claudia whimpered.
Tyson felt the tension thrumming through her body despite his much heavier one crushing her into the couch. He knew she was aroused, but fear threatened to overwhelm the desire she was beginning to feel. He had to remind himself to go slower with her. She wasn't some woman he picked up off the street for a quick fuck. For his purposes, she was pretty much an innocent in his world. Caught up in a drama she couldn't hope to cope with alone.
He eased his hips away from hers. If he thrust against her ass again he was likely to lose what little restraint he had left, shove her dress up the few inches it would take to get at her pussy and fuck her until she couldn't stand, let alone contemplate leaving his penthouse without permission and an armed escort.
"Calm down, baby. I'm not trying to scare you."
"Then why did you say that that you want to keep me and have sex with me?" she whispered, her voice shaking.
He sighed and released his grip on her wrists. He felt something like remorse when he saw the red marks marring her white skin. It had been a very long time, if ever, that he'd needed to keep his strength in mind when dealing with a woman. He tended to pick tough women, whores with padded curves that could handle his appetites in the bedroom.
"I want truth between us. You asked me a question and I answered you honestly." He sat back, giving her room to roll onto her side, curl her legs up and bring her arms down. She wrapped them around her middle, as though protecting herself in some small way. He found himself fascinated with everything about her, including the way she moved, delicate and feminine. "You may not like what I have to say, but you'll always know I'm telling it like it is between us."
She lay on her side for another moment just breathing, then nodded in acknowledgement. "I guess I can appreciate that," she said softly, pushing herself up until she was sitting once more. She shoved her hair back off of her face, the honeyed ends feathering around her in disarray.
Tyson watched her movements, mesmerized. No matter how she ended up in his penthouse, he couldn't regret bringing her here, even if it was under duress. He had wanted her badly, had men watching her every movement, and had studied pictures of her daily. He had absorbed every word of the information collected on her until it was memorized: height, weight, family, birth origins, birth name, alias, education, jobs, sexual partners. The last part had made him want to commit murder. It was also the knowledge that he could cheerfully kill her ex lovers with his bare hands that convinced him his obsession with her was real and long term.
She looked at him, her green eyes large in her face. "You won't let me go?" she asked, as though needing to hear it out loud again.
"I won't let you go," he confirmed. "I can't let you go now. Delgado will have people out there waiting for you. I have enemies too, they would have noticed you leaving the club with me and sold the information."
She frowned. "Because of you I'm in danger again. You've given away my whereabouts. I was doing just fine before you came along."
He studied her features. "You were happy hiding in the shadows, working night shifts, barely seeing the light of day? So afraid that you would be tracked down that you broke from your family and friends and hid from the world? I also know that your boss at the café offered you partnership and you turned her down. Dante Marquez would have tracked you down eventually. He was already closing in when I first checked into your background. I more than likely saved your life. Now you have the necessary protection, rather than facing that conscienceless bastard alone."
She stared at him, her eyebrows raised. "Do you have any idea how arrogant that sounds? It's your conscience I'm questioning at the moment."
"Baby, you aren't raped and dead," he pointed out harshly, running his huge hands across short hair. "A certain amount of arrogance is required in my line of work. If I didn't believe in my own authority, no one else would either."
She appeared to mull this over. She seemed to subconsciously relax, loosening the arms she had wrapped around her waist. "What exactly do you do?"
He shrugged. "I have stakes in several lucrative businesses, a few casinos in Reno and one in Vegas, restaurant chains and clothing brands. I also acquire majority shares in struggling companies, have my team of consultants pull them out of the red then sell off what's left."
"That doesn't sound nice," she said. "Don't people lose their jobs that way?"
"If I didn't buy out the companies and fix them, they would be snapped up by someone else or go under, in which case the staff of said company would lose their jobs anyway."
She continued to frown at him, her delicate brows arching downward in displeasure. "You aren't telling me everything, are you?" she asked intuitively. "You didn't obtain this kind of wealth just from buying and selling other companies. Unless you own Google or something."
Tyson knew from studying her that she had a sharp brain, except when it came to choosing lovers. He wasn't quite ready to enlighten her as to all of his business interests yet. "No, I don't own Google."
She stared at him. He could see her mind working. She wanted to know how far to push, how many questions he would let her have before shutting the conversation down. She was testing the boundaries of his supposed honesty. He couldn't blame her, but he was soon going to have to show her the error of using her inquisitive mind against him. He didn't need to be a mind reader to know what she was thinking.
"What then?" she demanded, taking that step over the line. "Do you also own illegal businesses? Is that how you've become so rich?"
"Claudia," he said her name warningly.
She persisted. "At a guess, I would say very few people in this country could afford private elevators and garages on the top of exclusive downtown high rises."
"You won't like the answers, Claudia, so stop asking the questions."
"Why should I?" she snapped, her tone sharp but also shaky with nerves. "You know everything there is to know about me. What are you hiding? Is it because you aren't a legitimate businessman? I want to know exactly who my kidnapper is and what he does for a living."
"Why do you want to know?" he asked quietly.
She didn't heed his dangerous tone, plunging on recklessly, as though testing the limits of his patience as well as honesty. "I want to testify against you too, when I get free. I want to be able to tell the FBI all about you and your dirty businesses so they can nail you for that as well as unlawful confinement, you son-of-a-bitch."
The curse was barely out of her mouth when he reached across the length of the couch, grabbed her by the arms and dragged her struggling into his lap.
"Take your hands off me!" she shouted.
He picked her up like she weighed little more than a doll and forced her facedown across his lap. She tried to brace herself against the couch and push back off his lap, but he held her down easily with one huge hand spread across her back. With the other hand he yanked up the skirt of her dress, shoving it easily over her rounded ass.
The sight of her generous ass cheeks displayed in white lace panties nearly neutralized his previous anger. But he had to show her that she needed to be more careful when choosing her words. He didn't mind her anger, but she needed to learn how to control herself around him. The very few people who spoke to him the way she had tonight had immediately regretted what was left of their very short lives. Tyson hadn't reached his level of power by taking shit from anyone.
He wasn't about to allow his woman to think she could get away with bad behaviour. He had to ensure she knew what to expect from him from the start. Which meant she would learn to watch her tongue or take the beating he would mete out. He brought his hand down heavily across her buttocks. She shrieked at the painful contact and squirmed.
His dick responded instantly. "If you keep moving like that, I'm not going to wait to get you to my bed. I'm going to put you down on your hands and knees and fuck you right here."
She froze, her breaths coming out in shallow gasps.
Tyson spanked her ass several more times, taking pleasure in the sight of his mahogany skin against the creamy pink blush of hers. Her thighs and ass cheeks turned from pretty pink to red as he continued beating her backside. He loved the way her plump, resilient ass jumped under each blow from his hand. He had meant to discipline her, but found himself thoroughly enjoying each smack and the viewing feast it gave him.
He spanked her for longer than he had intended, his anger long since forgotten in the heat of his arousal. It was everything he could do not to thrust his hips up into her belly with each blow of his hand. She had to feel the brand of his hard cock against her. Finally he stopped, leaving his palm curved across the cheek of her ass.
His harsh, roughened breathing mingled with her quick gasps. She no longer struggled to get up; her body lay limp across his thighs. Her head was tilted away from him, her face not entirely visible. He wanted to see her expression, see if he had hurt her too much or if she was now more resigned to staying with him.
His eyes swept across her skin, noticing the pink flush that spread across her entire body from the one cheek he could see, down her neck, across her back and arms. The heat from her body seeped through his trousers, calling to him. He didn't think she was in so much pain that she couldn't move. He was beginning to realize she was turned on. So much so that it likely shocked her, paralyzing her.
There was only one way to find out. Pressing down on the middle of her back to keep her from arching up when she realized what he was doing, he ran the fingers of his other hand down the seam of her ass and pressed them firmly against her panty covered pussy. Satisfaction filled him when the rough pads of his fingers encountered hot, soaked lace. She was wet for him.
As he had anticipated, the intimate touch caused her to abandon her frozen state. She shouted something incoherent and tried to shove back against his restraining hand. Leaning forward, he covered her body with his chest, immobilizing her. He let her struggle until she realized she wasn't going anywhere.
"Are you done?" he asked, when she stopped moving.
She nodded her head. "Yes, yes!" she gasped. "Please, just let me go."