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calm. “Thank you for your offer, Sylvia, but I think I’ll manage.”
    She chuckles. “Perhaps you can send your little slave girl to serve me when you are done punishing her,” she suggests. There’s a tone in her voice that fills me with panic. This is a woman who relishes cruelty. I can sense it.
    “Perhaps,” Dylan drawls. He signals to me and I crawl to the dungeon, where I am going to be punished for my disobedience.
    ***
    I still bore the scars from that punishment. During my examination, Karen had run a finger over the raised ridges in my upper thighs, where my skin had been sliced open by the lash of a cane soaked in brine, so it would be more pliable, as well as burn my wounds when my bottom had been flayed raw.
    That had been the last gesture of anything resembling defiance. I’d been kidnapped from American soil in the flickering dusk. I was in a foreign country, far away from home. I was the slave of a rich and powerful man and there was no escape.
    Three raised lines. Three burning strokes of fire. Karen had looked at me with a raised eyebrow, but I’d kept silent and she hadn’t pressed for an explanation.
    “Turn around.” The voice jolted me back to the present. I obeyed instinctively, showing the two men my naked, rounded ass. The scars were disguised for the moment under a layer of concealer, smoothed on by a clucking Thai girl who seemed intent to make me as close to perfect as she could.
    “Nice.” This time, it was the bodyguard speaking. “Are you bidding on her then, Anton?”
    Anton. Not Alexander. Instantly, my body relaxed, though I still wasn’t comfortable being naked in front of the two men. But it didn’t matter. Anton wouldn’t win me. He wouldn’t share me among his bodyguards, the way Dylan had. Lucien would pull me out before I had to go through with my role as a slave.

Chapter 6
    Alexander:
    “That’s her.” My voice sounded strained. My heart still pounded with shock. I had always hoped I would meet her again, but as time elapsed, that hope had faded. I could have searched for her, but I’d wanted to respect her desire to stay unknown.
    Jean-Luc leaned forward. “Nekrasov seems quite taken with her.”
    “Mm.” I liked Anton. He was a friend in a world where true friends were few and far between. But right now, I was fighting the urge to walk over and punch him. I wanted to lay claim to her.
    My head of security laughed. “You aren’t jealous often, Alexander,” he mocked. Then his expression turned serious. “If Lorraine doesn’t think her cover story checks out, you must be careful, no matter how much you want this woman. I’ll start the investigations right away.”
    “That’s fine,” I said. I was distracted. I was watching her drop her robe for Anton. As her naked body came into sight, I lost track of my thoughts entirely. She was so beautiful. Even from a distance, her body begged to be touched. Held. Caressed.
    Jean-Luc coughed and my attention returned to him. I shot him a rueful look. “Sorry. Check her story out, but the operation against Sylvia must remain a priority.” My supposed girlfriend was in Bangkok arranging for the purchase of slaves for her brothels around the world. The transaction needed to be disrupted carefully in a way that it couldn’t be traced back to me.
    He nodded. “Salim might call you,” he said. “He’s furious about Tunisia. He thinks you are allied with Sylvia.”
    My lips narrowed with distaste at that idea. “I’ll straighten him out,” I promised. Sylvia was evil. Every time we were together, it felt profoundly wrong. “She’s promised to stop in here today.”
    “Lori let her in?” Jean-Luc was clearly surprised by that.
    “I called in a favour,” I replied. “I want Sylvia where I can keep an eye on her.”
    We talked briefly about logistics for a few more minutes, but I was watching her at the same time. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. The woman I’d known as Rachel in Paris, two years ago.