Bought (His For A Week)

“You’ve got a lot of forbearance,” Ben commented.

“In a good way or bad?”

“It’s neither good, nor bad. But it was the smart thing to do, not to waste more time with that prat.”

Leaning the side of her head against her hand, she blew out a long breath. “I don’t know. Like you said, someone’s got to call him out on crap like that, but you never know who you’re dealing with. I remember when my father got pulled over for nothing more than a DWB, and I was scared to death that something would happen to him. These days, standing up for yourself can get you killed. But if you don’t stand up, are you being complicit? A coward?”

“Every situation’s different.”

She looked out the window, feeling unsettled. She didn’t like that she had to make nice with a man who didn’t deserve it. It felt like he had gotten away with something he shouldn’t have. But she had been fairly certain by the cop’s demeanor that he would have made trouble for them if they’d made any waves.

Ben’s voice cut into her thoughts. “Like you said, it’s not worth it.”

“You really think so?”

“Would I rather sit in jail when I could be spending that time making your body quiver and shake? Hell no.”

“Then why were you antagonizing the guy?”

“I wasn’t in a good mood. He interrupted us.”

Which was a good thing, she considered. She had let Ben mess with her enough.

“It was fun hearing you call me ‘bae’ though,” he said, looking over at her.

She flushed. “It’s just what came out first because I was worried you were going to mess with the cop still.”

He nodded as he focused back on the road. “I like ‘Master’ better.”

Course you do. She cleared her throat. “So when and where were you behind bars?”

“In Hong Kong when I was a juvenile delinquent.”

“What were you jailed for?”

“I was in a brawl at a dai pai dong—it’s kind of like an open-air food market.”

“Do you miss being in Hong Kong? Or China?”

He glanced at her. “Are you just making conversation?”

“What’s wrong with making conversation?”

He didn’t say anything. She couldn’t figure him out. One instant he was offering up all kinds of information about himself, the next he somehow managed to steer the conversation from answering her questions.

“You still need to piss?” he asked.

“Ugh. Now that you mention it...”

“Take your shorts off.”

“That’s okay. What if we get pulled over again?”

“You think there’s more than one patrol officer out here?”

“You never know.”

“Just undo them.”