His Captive, The Unabridged Collection: Billionaire Dark Romance by Meg Watson Page A

darkened room.
    “Why am I here?” I asked, my voice very small in the huge room.
    His lips pressed hard together and I saw the muscle jump at his jaw again. I knew that expression: constrained displeasure. I needed to try something else.
    “What are you going to do with me?”
    His gaze seemed to harden for a moment before he relaxed, a strange sort of peaceful smile spreading over his face. “That depends entirely upon you.”
    “Me?”
    “Your... level of obedience.”
    My obedience?
    “What do you mean? You haven't commanded me to do anything—not since, er...”
    “Ah, so you remember.” He leaned back, basketing his hands in his lap.
    “Well, of… Of course I remember,” I whispered. I could hardly hear myself over the rising sound of my heart beat.
    “Then you remember the rewards… For your obedience?”
    I said nothing, quaking where I sat like a trapped rabbit.
    “Answer me!”
    His bark was as loud as it was sudden, and I leapt to a crouch, wrapping my arms around my knees.
    “Yes! I remember!” I admitted, the knowledge sour in my stomach. My thighs quaked insubordinately. My body remembered, even if my mind was trying to forget.
    “Directions, Jolie,” he reminded me in a cool, controlled voice. “All you have to do is follow my directions. It’s really very simple.”
    “So... if I'm obedient, what happens? What if I say no?”
    He sighed impatiently as though my denseness was wearing on his nerves. “Let’s come to an understanding: If you're a good pet, you'll be rewarded. If you're difficult, you'll be punished. It's as simple as that.”
    “A pet?” I spat, unable to stop myself. His face hardened to marble.
    Just agree, Jolie. Just try. It may be your only chance.
    I tried to correct myself, to appear like I was considering it. I stared at his hands the way I had in the bar, my hair falling softly over my cheeks as I stood to face him.
    “That’s more like it,” he said in a low voice.
    He stood from the chair, tugging his shirttails down efficiently before striding toward me. I remained stock still, my eyes downcast, my fingers twisting the thin fabric of my nightgown.
    I shifted a bit as he circled me. As much as I hated to admit it to myself, I knew I would do it. Being entirely at his mercy, my fate entirely dependent on how submissive to him I would be... I didn’t know. It seemed… too wrong. Did I even have a choice? My heart flopped around in my chest like a wounded bird.
    But he didn’t say he would let me go.
    “I don't… I don’t think I like the sound of that,” I whispered timidly. “I still don't even know why you're keeping me here, and you want me to be obedient, like some... pet?”
    All the tenderness fled from him in an instant. I must have carried on the charade of resistance too long, because he was well and truly angry. I shrunk back from him as he jabbed a finger in my direction.
    “You're being stubborn. You know very well the situation you're in. It is very simple, Jolie: Obey, or suffer.”
    Without giving me a chance to respond, he moved back to the door, throwing it open and stepping through before he slammed it shut behind him. The bolts clicked loudly back into place, and I was left alone with my thoughts again.
    I'd provoked my captor, the person who held the key to my freedom. I bit the hand that held the key.
    Good fucking going, Jolie.
     

CHAPTER 5
    I don't know why I felt the urge to argue. Every time I thought I knew what I was doing, I did something else entirely, fucking up my own plan before it could even work.
    Get him to like me. Get him to feel bad for me.
    Nope, can’t do it.
    Be obedient. Fake it.
    Nope.
    Do something, anything… Just to keep safe until you can figure out how to get out.
    Instead I seemed to antagonize him purposely. It was like I wanted him to punish me then and there, to see what it was like. I wanted to know definitively what the worst was, because not knowing was terrifying.
    With a growl of