He knew what was at stake for her if she let herself want him. But the fact of the matter was she did want him, and he wanted her. And he wasn't going to spend the rest of their lives wheedling and whining and arguing with her about it.
She didn't think he was serious. That's what it all came down to. She didn't believe he truly wanted her or that he was committed. And until this exact moment, maybe he hadn't been fully invested, but he knew after all these years and what he almost lost that the way he felt about her was never going away. And if she still obviously wanted him after everything, well, they just had to move past it.
He had a sudden inspiration. “Do not move from this spot or there will be consequences.”
Lindsay left her in his suite and went down to the main floor. He popped his head inside the game room where Brian and one of the trainers had an intense game of poker going. He didn't even want to think about what the stakes were with Brian in the game.
“Where's Anton?”
“Went to bed,” Brian said, not looking up from his cards.
Lindsay let the door slam shut behind him and went to Anton's room and banged on the door.
“Go away!” Anton shouted in his thick Russian accent.
No one could say he hadn't tried the polite way. Lindsay shrugged, opened the door, and walked inside. Annette was in a rather compromising position, bent over and bound to the bed posts, leaving very little to anyone's imagination. Another woman watched from a plush chair in the corner, transfixed. A new girl.
“I thought I said go away,” Anton growled.
“You should have locked the door if you didn't want to be disturbed. I have important business with you.”
“It can wait.”
“It involves money.”
Anton untied Annette. “Kiska, I will only be a moment.” He glanced over at the other girl. “You can play together while I'm gone. But no orgasms.” He turned back to Annette. “I mean it, Kiska.”
“Of course, Master, no orgasms.” But it wasn't at all convincing.
Anton followed Lindsay out into the hallway, shutting the door behind them. “This better be good.”
“How would you like to make a sale?” Lindsay asked. They were in a lean period since almost every girl currently in residence was new and untrained. No money was flowing in. And though they were perfectly safe financially, Anton always got antsy when the money stopped flowing in the right direction. This was doubled by the fact that they'd just brought in several new trainers.
“You have a buyer for one of the girls? You know no one is for sale right now. They're not finished with training.”
“I want to buy Shannon.”
Anton looked at him as if he were speaking another language. “Buy her? You don't have to buy her. She's not for sale. I know Brian bought Mina but that was to stop a real sale from going through. The house would have lost money otherwise. Just take her if you want her. No one will question it.” He turned to return to the girls.
Lindsay put his hand on the door preventing Anton from opening it. “No, I'm paying you, and you're writing me a bill of sale. Right now. Let's go to the conference room and make the transfer.”
Anton seemed deeply annoyed by this interruption when he had two naked women waiting just a few yards away. Let him be annoyed. Lindsay wasn't about to spend weeks or months convincing Shannon he wasn't playing a game.
Shannon had been waiting on Lindsay's bed for the past thirty minutes. She couldn't begin to imagine why he'd left so suddenly, but the longer he was gone the more worried she became about what it might mean. What sort of punishment was he devising? Hadn't he said no punishment if she got out of the pool? Was he going back on that now?
She still didn't believe he was training her. This was some stupid lark. Boredom. Or some strange act of goodwill where he thought he was saving her or doing this for her own good. She couldn't afford to trust him or fall for it. What if she gave in to him and he lost interest? Maybe he had some odd passing attraction. But it was just that. He would never give her what she really needed. Couldn't he see how this would hurt her more than if he just ignored her?
She jumped when the door opened. Lindsay dropped papers on top of the bed in front of her.
“What is this?”
“It's a bill of sale. For you. You think this is some game? You think I'm just messing with you or doing some weird experimental therapy? As far as the house is concerned, you now belong to me. All of the trainers are being notified. Every single living soul in this house will know by morning that you belong fully and completely to me. Is it real enough for you now?”
The piece of paper on top was a very official-looking bill of sale for... no. That was insane.
She looked up. “How stupid do you think I am? You think this proves anything? You think I believe you paid three million dollars? For me? The way I am? When you could just do whatever you wanted? Nobody was going to stop you. This charade is sick, even for you.”
“Look at the other papers.”
Shannon rolled her eyes but set the bill of sale aside and looked at the papers underneath. It was a printout from his bank showing the wire transfer. Realistically the house could just transfer the money back to him, but it all seemed like a lot of trouble to go to. Besides, their business was far too illegal to transfer large sums of money back and forth willy nilly. It could create questions and put them all at risk.
About a year after coming to the house, Shannon had asked Annette how they got away with such large transfers of money without drawing suspicion. Annette had said they created a DBA under the corporate structure for Extreme Luxury Vacations, and had payments sent to that account. A somewhat elaborate website had been created, and occasionally they got a call for that. Gabe usually charmed them, bullshitted his way through it, and called around and got something set up, while pocketing a tidy profit that should be a crime in and of itself.
When Shannon had seemed shocked, Annette had just shrugged and said, “What can you do? Sometimes money and intelligence do not in any way correlate.”
Wasn't that the truth.
But there were never refunds. The house didn't do refunds. So if such a large sum were to be transferred into the house's bank account only to be returned soon after, or ever... it would be an anomaly, and with increasing bank security and national security, such an anomaly was too risky. Lindsay and the rest of the guys wouldn't take such a large risk all for the sake of a game.
Shannon blinked suddenly, realizing Lindsay was speaking to her again.
“I told you I want you. I've always wanted you. I've wanted you for eight years. You think that feeling is going to change? Especially when I almost lost you? Twice now.” He was pacing, looking all intense and disheveled, a completely unnatural look on the doctor. “I'm not playing a game with you. You know the rules of this house. You know what you signed on for when you came here. You belong to me in the same irrevocable way you would have belonged to whoever had bought you if things had gone differently.”
Shannon felt the walls close in. If things had gone differently. Such a casual way to put the single most shattering day of her life.
“Sir... I...”
“Master,” he corrected.