Free Raw, A Dark Romance by Tawny Taylor

rip me to pieces. But deep inside I believed he would subdue those feral drives because he felt something between us too and he wanted to understand it.
    “Leave now. Before I change my mind,” he growled.
    My brain told my legs to move. But they didn’t listen. Instead I stood in place and gazed into his eyes. There was so much turmoil in that man. More than there was inside me. Maybe that was why I felt so enraptured by him. We were two souls that had been shredded apart. Somehow, our brokenness wasn’t so ugly when we were like this, standing eye to eye, being open and honest and vulnerable.
    “You hurt me,” I told him.
    “I hurt them all.”
    “Yes. I believe that. But do you feel this for them too?” I pressed my hand against his chest. “Do you feel anything for them?”
    His mouth pulled into a thin line. “Nothing. As I feel for you.”
    “Liar.”
    His jaw ticced. He jerked his gaze away. “Leave, puta.”
    I swung. My palm landed on his cheek. The large slapping sound echoed off the walls. “Stop calling me that. I’m not your whore. I never was. Not in my eyes and not in yours either.”
    He shook me again, this time violently enough to rattle my teeth so hard I was afraid one might be knocked out. “What the fuck are you trying to do to me?”
    I didn’t know the answer to that question. The truth was I had no idea why I hadn’t run out that door yet. Since I’d found out I had been bought and paid for, I’d been searching for an escape. I had one now. It had been handed to me on a silver platter.
    But I hadn’t left.
    Why?
    I said, more to myself than to him, “There’s something about you—“
    “There’s nothing good about me,” he interrupted, fingers tightening on my arms.
    “But there is. I know. I see it.”
    “You don’t see anything but what you want to see. You see the fantasy. A rich man who can buy you anything.”
    Anger flashed in my gut. What the fuck? “Is that really what you believe? Really?” I smacked him again. As hard as I could. Across the face. He smiled. And that only made me more furious. “I think you know I don’t give a damn about your money. I don’t expect to marry a billionaire. Not you. Not any. All I need is a decent man who can support his family.”
    Had I just said that?
    Had I just admitted that I didn’t ever expect to marry a rich man? After hoping all these years that I would marry a man with tons of money so I could help children?
    My dreams were stupid. Honorable. And good. But idiotic. And unrealistic.
    No rich man would want me. Virgin or not.
    I’m such an idiot.
    “If you don’t care about money, why sign with an agency, puta?” he challenged, releasing me.
    I rubbed one arm with the opposite hand. His fingers had bruised me. “Because my friend works for FI. I signed up as a favor to her. That’s what friends do for each other.”
    He scoffed. “That is what friends do for each other? They sell each other to the highest bidder?”
    My insides twisted. “She didn’t know.”
    “If she works for Franchot then she knew.”
    Dammit, this guy really knew how to push my buttons! I despised him for that. I shook my head so hard I got an instant headache. “Hell no. Absolutely not. My friend would never do something like that. Never!” I wanted to punch him. My hands curled into fists. My fingernails dug into my palms. “She didn’t know what Franchot was doing. And when I tell her, she’s going to be furious. She’ll quit her job.”
    One side of his mouth curled up, producing a lopsided smile. “Ah, puta, you live in a fantasy world.”
    I swung a fist at him, but he dodged the blow.
    “No I don’t, and stop calling me that, you bastard.”
    I swung at him again. This time he caught my wrist and jerked me against him, pinning my arm behind my back.
    With my tits smashed against his hard, hot bulk, he glowered down at me. “You believe you can spend one hour or two with a man and know him. You believe you can change a