Bought for Her Innocence

And then threw her onto the long leather seat as if he was dumping out yesterday’s garbage.

Undignified protests sputtering from her mouth, she had barely even straightened on the seat when the limo took off.

“What the hell do you...”

The dark scowl etched on his brow shut her up instantly, his silver-plated watch glinting in the dark as he barked out commands in Greek.

Jasmine pressed her fingers to her temple and forced herself to breathe in and out. She sat up straight and looked out the window, struggling to rein in her temper. Of course, the tinted glass offered up a reflection of the man’s aquiline nose, sculpted cheeks and a mouth made for sin.

He didn’t get off the phone all through their drive through the city. They had left her dirty neighborhood, drove for a long while and finally had crossed the motorway when the limo came to a stop. Even then, he didn’t look at her. Only waited patiently when the door was opened.

Jasmine scrambled out with as much dignity as she could muster, given that he was dragging her with him as if she were a recalcitrant child.

“Oh, wow...” she said, as she finally noticed the sleek lines of the jet that was already idling. Glancing around only now, she saw the acres of empty land stretched out on all sides, a string of lights marking a couple of runways. They were at a private airstrip, miles away from the city.

She pulled at her arm. His fingers dug into her flesh.

“Ow, ow... Dmitri, you’re hurting me.”

He let her go so suddenly and with such force that she half stumbled. She couldn’t believe it was the same man who had fed her pasta with such tenderness. “What is wrong with you?” she yelled.

Fury gripped his features. “You were not supposed to leave the hotel suite. There was a report of a young woman’s body found near the...”

Turning around, he kicked at the ground, causing asphalt to fly around them.

She put her hand on his arm and he tensed. “I was never in any danger.”

“Theos, Jas, do you want to go back to that life? Is that it? You’re just as addicted to the danger and desperation of it as him? Like the whole infernal lot of people I’ve been cursed to know?

“If you are, tell me now. Because I won’t have your death on my conscience, too.”

Andrew. He was talking about Andrew, Jas realized slowly—about Andrew’s lifelong gambling addiction.

How long had he known? Had he found out after he had talked to Noah?

But Jasmine couldn’t bring his name up. Not when the very subject of Andrew seemed to push them both into a dangerous territory. Not when she didn’t trust herself to say something nasty just because Dmitri was here and her brother wasn’t.

Dmitri had had a benevolent godfather who had come for him just at the right time, true. But the whole world knew how hard he and Stavros had worked to turn their godfather’s small factory into a global empire.

While Andrew had only continued to make worse and worse choices.

“I’m not Stavros. I won’t save someone against their own wishes to self-annihilate, Jas. If I walk away now, I will never come back.”

“No, I don’t want to go back,” she answered, all her fury fizzling out at the anguish in his words. “Not for a day. I was angry that you...” Her claim sounded so childish to her own ears. It wasn’t his fault that she was feeling so fragile.

She met his gaze squarely. “I only went back to collect a few things, Dmitri. I was going to beg you to...” She paused, realizing she hadn’t actually come up with a plan except to throw herself at his mercy.

Again.

“Beg me for what?”

“A job. Or something.”

His fury shifted as he assessed her with disbelieving eyes. He ran a hand through his hair. “That’s the first sensible thing you’ve said to me. And you wasted my entire evening.”

She did seem to have a death wish, because the words poured out of her without the basic check her brain was supposed to engage. “An evening of more festivities in Monaco?”

Instantly his expression shuttered, changed. An infinitesimal moment in which she caught a glimpse of something, a hunger, beneath the surface. Just as she had seen in the photo in the newspaper.

When he looked at her again, the careless indifference was back in place. “My activities or my personal life is none of your business, so stay out of it.”

When she dug in her feet, he turned around with a sigh. “And before you waste another few minutes, yes, your life, at least for now, is my business.”