Chapter 5

FIVE

DOMHNALL

I keep my hand locked on Madison’s elbow as I deposit her in the backseat of my car.

“I thought we were just going to another room of the club?” She looks up at me with confused eyes. “And that there’d be a security guard there, too. That’s what Moira said.”

“Did she?” I mutter, furious all over again that she’s targeted my sister. “But that’s not what you came here for, is it, Mads?”

Moira called her Brooke . I huff out a snort. Probably a new name in every port, right? That’s how her kind work.

“Mads? My name is Brooke.”

“Is it?”

She shoves a hand out to keep the door open when I try to shut it, and her wobbly voice sounds afraid when she asks, “What’s going on?”

It makes that rare flare of joy burst forth in my chest. I’m glad she’s afraid. No one ever gets beneath my control, and I’m almost as pissed off at myself as I am at her. Fuck her for showing up here like this. “You tell me.”

She crosses her arms over her chest as if covering her peaked nipples will really provide any modesty. “I don’t know. I came here for the auction. Moira said that afterwards, we would— That whatever man bought me would take me to a nearby room so we could?—”

“Fuck?” I say bluntly.

She nods, cheeks going red.

“And you just happened to be here. In Dallas. Befriending my sister. Showing up in my best friend’s club naked for an auction of your supposed virginity.”

The idea that she’s still a virgin is fucking laughable. I can’t believe she’s still using this old shtick. Vulnerable little waif needs a big man to protect her.

Her eyes search my face and the confusion suddenly clears.

“Wait.” She sits up straighter, half getting out of the car. She reaches out a hand towards me, stopping at the last moment before touching my suit-coat arm. “Do you know me?”

Her change in demeanor is somehow alarming, and I take a step back. “What the fuck’s your game, Mads?”

“You keep calling me that. Who’s Mads? Please.” She’s almost frantic now, pulling at my coat sleeve. “Do you know me? Who am I? I was knocked on the head two months ago. I didn’t even know my own name at the hospital after the mugging and I didn’t have any ID on me. I thought maybe you were familiar. Almost like I—like I trust you. Please, if you recognize me, tell me who I am!”

It takes me a few seconds before I can make sense of her gibberish.

“Wait.” I finally bark out a laugh. “Are you trying to say you’ve got amnesia ?”

“Yes! Exactly.” She breathes out in relief. “That’s it. Amnesia.”

I can only stare at her.

Wow.

She must really think I’m a total fecking eejit to fall for that one. She’s supposedly got amnesia and just happened to be released to the women’s shelter where my sister works? I first met her in Ireland. Pretty sure she didn’t end up in Dallas, Tx with a magical case of amnesia except by design.

She frowns, head shaking slightly as she watches every twitch of my face. “Why is that funny? ”

Because all I can do is laugh. She has got to think I’m the dumbest box of rocks to fall for her sweet-as-all-American-apple-pie shit twice.

“No,” I say honestly. “I don’t know you. Now get back in the car. I just paid fifty million dollars for your virginity. It’s your turn to pay up.”

Her shoulders sink and she obeys, sitting down in the seat and pulling her legs back in.

I slam the door on her and sit in the front seat, quickly hitting the child locks on the back doors. I’m not letting her go now that I’ve got her back in my grasp again.

I never knew her, that’s for damn sure. But if she’s back, I can play along with her games just enough to tease out what the fuck she’s up to this time around. And to get my retribution. Oh yes, I always dreamed about what I’d do if I ever got my hands on Madison Harper again…

“Put on your seatbelt,” I bark, then burn rubber pulling out of the parking lot to drive the ten minutes back to my house. There’s a little yelp from the backseat, but then a click that tells me she’s complied.

I really don’t get the play she’s trying to make here. Did she think I wouldn’t recognize her after all these years? Did she really think just because she left me behind with as little care as every other stupid fecking mark of her and her father’s cons, I’d forget her the same way?

I glance in the mirror. She looks almost exactly the same, like she stepped through a time portal. She mighta already had work done. She’s two years older than me. But while I look like I’ve earned every line of my twenty-six years on my face and then some, she’s still a dewy-faced debutante.

Maybe I’m the only one who’s changed. But she expects me to be the same dumb fuck I used to be, overtaken by lust and nostalgia for the pussy I never got to fuck—as if I’d just invite her back into my life?

That’s disappointing, because it means I built her up in my mind as more intelligent than she actually is. In reality, she’s just as disappointing and foolish as all the rest of them.

Well, Mads, you might’ve been expecting the little lamb I was, but I’ve gone and become a wolf since you last knew me .

Still, if she came for games, I’m suddenly thinking I would very, very much like to play.

She doesn’t say a word, and when we pull in my large, four-car garage, I’m all but leaping out of the car to lift her out of her seat, again by the elbow.

“Did you tell Quinn or Moira where we were going?” Madison asks, looking around in wide-eyed wonder at the high ceilings of my mansion as I drag her down one hallway after another toward my elevator.

I hit the down button and the door immediately pings open.

“Come,” I say brusquely, and she steps forward onto the elevator with me. My hand’s still on her elbow but she’s walking forward of her own volition. Which tells me that whatever game she’s trying to play this time around, she doesn’t mind walking into my trap.

Four-D chess always was her favorite kind. She lets you think you’re winning only to go in for the kill once you’ve exposed your vulnerable belly.

“The bedroom’s just in here,” I say once we step off the elevator. “But I want you to wait outside for a moment. Will you wait outside like a good girl?”

She pauses, breath catching at my question, but then she nods. “Uh. Sure.”

I smile and run the back of my fingers down her cheek reassuringly, giving her a little smile. “Good.”

So many years I spent thinking of all the things I would do and say to her if I ever had her in front of me again.

I can’t help but stare now that she’s here. The cascade of silky dark brown hair over her shoulders makes me want to run my fingers through it just like I used to when the sunlight would hit it as we picnicked by the Dublin River. We’d spend hours just walking and holding hands, barely talking sometimes. It didn’t matter how foggy it was out, she made it feel like the sun was shining in that deep, dark, cracked place inside me.

I love you, Domhn , she used to throw her arms around me and whisper. Swear we’ll run away together? Just you and Moira and me. Her sweet voice in my ear and the scent of her jasmine perfume drugging all my other senses. I’ll love you forever .

I was such a stupid, obvious, unloved little piece of shit, she and her paps probably scouted me a mile off. The memory creates such a sharp, painful ache, I want to run my fingers through her hair all right. And then yank her head back to demand answers. Will she cry prettily for me? Her uncertain hazel eyes flicker back and forth to check out her surroundings, giving her a Bambi look. I’ll so delight in making the mascara run down her cheeks.

Yes, Moira and I had to flee our home country because of Mads but her betrayal goes so much deeper.

I know . I saw last night. Oh god, Domhnall. I saw .

I turn away so she doesn’t see the gut-churning rage on my face. I slip into a nearby room, and when I come back out, I have a black silk blindfold in hand.

Finally, fate has smiled on me by allowing this foolish woman to dare show her face to me again. I always knew one day I’d find her. I never expected her to surprise me, but oh, how I’ve waited for this.

Finally, I’m going to take back the power she and her father stole from me.

“I’m going to put this around your eyes now and lead you into the bedroom,” I say, offering one of my gentlemanly smiles out of my suitcase of facades.

I’m very handsome, I know. It disarms her.

Does she think I’ve bought her ludicrous amnesia story? Or does she know I know we’re back to our old chess games and just think she has the upper hand because she always used to be able to lead me around by my dick?

Her eyes flick to mine uncertainly, but she stands still as I slip the blindfold over her eyes. Only once she can’t see me do I allow myself to really smile. With all my teeth like the wolf I am.

Then I open the door wide and lead her inside to my room with assorted whips, cuffs, chains, and cages.