I couldn’t help but wonder what went through his thoughts when he saw me like that. There was an annoying little voice inside me that wanted to understand the inner workings of his mind. I wanted his secrets. His vulnerabilities. And for the first time in my life, it wasn’t even because I wanted to exploit them. I just wanted to collect them and keep them for myself. A silly notion made sillier by the fact that he had just taken me and hauled me off into the middle of the desert. Who knew how long he’d make me stay here.
“What is this place?” I asked as the giant adobe walls came into view. He’d called it a compound, but this was a fortress.
“It’s my club. This is where I live.” His reply was terse as he focused his attention on the keypad, punching in a code that opened the gate.
Inside, it looked like something out of an old western film. Houses dotted the landscape far and wide, and I didn’t know how big the property was, but it stretched farther than I could see. In the center was a giant structure that I assumed from the bikes parked out front must have been the clubhouse. Ace drove right by the building, veering off onto another road that took us farther into the mysterious community. I was taking it all in when his gravelly voice intercepted my thoughts.
“You should probably know it’s pointless to tell anyone your sob story about being here against your will. If you try to run, they’ll turn you right back around and send you home to me.”
Home to me.
For some reason, those were the words that echoed louder than the others. I was going to live with Ace. I’d be sleeping and eating and breathing in the same space as him. A ball of nerves formed in my stomach as a million new questions sprang to mind. Where would he keep me? What would I do all day out here in the middle of fucking nowhere?
Another wave of nausea hit me as I processed what was happening for a second time. It was real now. He’d stripped me of my freedom. He’d hauled me off to a prison in the desert where I had no say in anything.
“I’m not staying here,” I told him as he pulled into the drive of a stucco house. It was of medium size, a neutral, unassuming color, and I knew it must be his.
Ace didn’t say a word in response to my protest. He simply got out of the truck and walked around, hoisting me out and propping me upright on the pavement.
“Are you going to behave?” He arched a brow at me in question. “Or do I need to haul you into the house myself?”
In my head, I was already scheming up an escape plan, and it must have shown. Instead of waiting for an answer, he wrapped a lodgepole of an arm around my waist and heaved me over his shoulder.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” The words bobbed from my lips as my head dipped up and down in time to his steps.
“The first thing you should know about me is that I don’t have a lot of patience for the games you like to play. If I have any doubts about your intentions, I will take away your freedoms so fast your head will spin. Don’t test me, Birdie.”
He uttered the words all growly like, and instead of listening to the threat like I should have been, I was squeezing my thighs together. There was something about that gravelly voice that was like crack to me. I could only imagine what it would be like to hear him whispering his threats and demands in my ear while he was splitting me wide open with his thick cock.
The thought sent a chill through me. I hadn’t thought about a man that way in… well ever. It had never happened before. I’d been with men, but not of my choosing or my own free will. And since then, I’d been content in my belief that I didn’t need that type of relationship with anyone. But now a firestorm of thoughts and feelings were crashing through my mind like I was a hormonal tween at a boy band concert.
Ace swung open the front door and carried me inside the space where his boots echoed off the stone floor. The place was surprisingly clean and well furnished. He actually lived here. I could tell by the mixture of lemon-scented cleaner mingling with traces of leather and a scent distinctly Ace.
“You can put me down now.” I wiggled in his grasp, but he kept moving, hauling me over to the sofa and plunking me down onto a cushion with all the delicacy of a bull in a china shop.