Bought: A Dark Billionaire Romance Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Epilogue

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  Bought

  By

  Loki Renard

  Copyright © 2018 by Stormy Night Publications and Loki Renard

  Copyright © 2018 by Stormy Night Publications and Loki Renard

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Published by Stormy Night Publications and Design, LLC.

  www.StormyNightPublications.com

  Renard, Loki

  Bought

  Cover Design by Korey Mae Johnson

  Image by iStock/LightFieldStudios

  This book is intended for adults only. Spanking and other sexual activities represented in this book are fantasies only, intended for adults.

  Chapter One

  “I have an appointment with Ethan Keller.”

  “Are you sure?”

  I can hear the sneer before I look up from my phone to see a beautiful young woman looking at me like I’m barely sentient trash.

  She’s sitting beneath a red down-light that makes her look like the bouncer in a vampire movie, though she’s dressed like a puritanical stripper. Enough sex on display for everyone to appreciate how hot she is, but a high collar and long sleeves that make her still seem professional.

  The poised receptionist gives me an icy once-over and given our surroundings, I can’t blame her. I’m not exactly dressed for this.

  I’m wearing a faded red hooded sweatshirt, covering the t-shirt that has a rip in it. I have jeans on too. Not the sleek super tight-fitting jeans women like this receptionist might wear on a Saturday brunch, but ones with enough room in them to fit things in the pockets. Most important, I have my battered workhorse of a laptop tucked under one arm.

  Okay, I don’t look my best. But I’ve been working fourteen-hour days for the past week and frankly, we’re all lucky I had time to take a shower at the company gym and put my hair into a ponytail. I made an effort, dammit.

  “Very sure,” I say.

  “Let me check with Mr. Keller.”

  It’s pretty obvious that the only meeting taking place right now is the one with me. It’s ten o’clock at night. I’m surprised the secretary is still even here. Hope she’s getting some decent overtime.

  “Okay, well, I have the email right here…”

  I attempt to show her the calendar app on my phone, but she recoils from it and disappears through a door that is set into the wall in a seamless “I expect you to die, Mr. Bond” sort of way.

  That leaves me standing there, bringing down the tone of the place.

  It’s a long way up to the top of Vipyr HQ. And it’s a long way down too. I wander over and look out a highly polished window, down into the city below. Lights dance and flow with the pulse of life. Up here, I feel strangely removed from it all. It’s almost like whatever is out there can’t touch you here.

  It’s hard to believe that all of this exists because of a relatively small piece of patented code. The least talked about, most installed piece of software globally. It’s embedded in the back end of thousands of other apps, helps them to communicate data to servers more efficiently than anything else.

  “Mr. Keller will see you,” the secretary says from behind me. Her tone hasn’t changed much. She’s still acting as if she’s doing me a favor just by looking at me. Funny how the rich and famous seem to pay underlings to make other people feel like scum. It’s like they don’t know we mostly do it to ourselves for free. Everything about this place is designed to make people who don’t belong here feel inadequate. It’s working.

  I don’t get to go through the sweet secret door. I have go through the glass doors marked with the V for Vipyr. It’s heavier than it looks and it threatens to swing back and catch me on the ass on my way through. This place is full of hostiles. Even the doors don’t like me.

  “Goddamn,” I swear under my breath. The hall beyond is not long, but there are three doors in it. One at the very end, one on the left, the other on the right. There’s no indication of which one I should go to. Ethan Keller’s door doesn’t have anything so pedestrian as a name plate on it. I guess I’m just supposed to rely on the sensation of being on hallowed ground to know where I am.

  I start with the door on the right and tap on it. There’s no answer.

  “Uhm, Mr. Keller?”

  “Over here,” a voice chuckles behind me.

  I turn around to see the man himself standing in a now open doorway. The left. Of course he was on the left. The devil always takes the left hand path, and if the devil were to incarnate as a tech CEO, he would look like Ethan Keller, I’m sure of it.

  “People do that all the time,” he says, his wickedly handsome face warped with amusement at my expense.

  “Maybe you should try labeling the door then.”

  “Maybe,” he says in the sort of tone that strongly implies he has no intention of doing that whatsoever. “Come on in.”

  His office is bigger and more nicely decorated than any place I’ve ever lived in. It has the square footage of multiple apartments. It’s big enough to get lost in, and decorated with so many wonders of technology it’s hard to process them all. I’m sure some of them are as yet unseen prototypes. There’s something that looks like a VR headset, but it’s attached to a full body suit. I get a little closer to it, wondering how it works. Is Vipyr going into VR? Full body VR? That would be incredible.

  He clears his throat again, reminding me that he’s there. Oh. Right.

  I turn my attention back to the man himself and look at him. Really look at him. What I’m about to say is likely going to piss him off. I hope he doesn’t shoot the messenger.

  There is no doubt that Ethan Keller is one of the great minds of his generation. He is thirty-three years old, with a thick head full of dark hair. He has piercing blue eyes, the kind that seem to be analyzing everything with ruthless intelligence. As he looks at me, I feel like I’m being taken apart.

  I try to meet his gaze. He’s never seen me before, has more data to process. I see pictures of him all the time. It’s impossible to work in this industry and not know who he is, even though he keeps a relatively low profile. He has hard, angular cheekbones, eyes that are naturally narrowed. His nose is pronounced, but not unattractive, and he has a strong chin and jaw. A handsome face. He could be a model. But he doesn’t need to be. He could look like a bridge troll for all it matters.

  I felt underdressed compared with the secretary. I now feel like I’ve wandered in wearing my pajamas. He’s wearing a suit. I’m guessing it’s probably very expensive, judging by the way it fits his body.

  I am very, very close to losing my nerve.

  Coming here is probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. But I have to do it. It’s the right thing to do. There’s always the chance he isn’t aware of what’s going on beneath his nose. Could be some rogue element in his company. If it is, he will appreciate what I have to tell him.

  “So,” he says. “Your messages were very urgent. I hope you have the evidence to back them up.”

  “Uhm, yes.” I fumble
with my laptop, and open it on the corner of a desk bigger than a bath. I have it set up to run right away, so immediately a block of code appears, gleaming white on black. The screen is a bit dirty, I realize, never really noticed in my dusty little apartment.

  He stands a few feet away, his arms folded over his chest. I find it almost impossible to keep calm as I start to speak. I hate giving presentations, and that’s what this feels like. Ethan Keller has the same effect on me as a crowd of a million might. My palms are sweating and my voice shakes as I start to lay out what I’ve found.

  “Uhm. So. Okay. Well, I, uhm. Found something when I was working on an app using the Vipyr framework.”

  “Mhm.” He waits patiently.

  “It’s, uh… in the code… It, uh… well… it looks like it’s doing a few things it shouldn’t do. Like, uhm, well, it seems to be scraping personal data, and then using that data in concert with data collected from other users to create profiles that can indicate preferences a user hasn’t directly expressed. Like… uh…”

  “You’re describing advertising,” he says dryly.

  “Well, uh, yeah, I mean, yes,” I stammer. “But this is on a whole other level. This is, uhm… more like mind reading. Deducting qualities of a consumer based on a vast array of data points…” I find myself talking more quickly. What I’m describing is wrong, but it’s also pretty impressive.

  “We call it deep penetration.”

  I blush even though I really don’t want to. He said those words that way on purpose. He’s trying to throw me off.

  “Oh, so you know about this?”

  This is the million dollar question. And I already know the answer. I can see it written on his face. It’s in his complete lack of surprise. I thoroughly expect to be thrown out of his office at any moment. In the silence that follows, I start talking again.

  “Well, because, if you didn’t know, it’s uh, illegal, and even if it’s not illegal, it’s wrong. People don’t know what they’re giving away when they use apps built on this framework.”

  “I believe it’s all laid out in the terms and conditions,” he says calmly. Too fucking calmly. Why am I here? The question suddenly pops into my head. He knew why I was coming to talk to him. I hinted fairly heavily in the email I sent him. I figured his invitation meant he didn’t know, but now that just seems stupid on my part.

  I never realized how much like a shark he looks in person. Those eyes. They’re frighteningly magnetic. Still waters run deep, and when I look into his gaze, I feel as though I’m at risk of falling into a void I might never return from.

  He’s handsome, there’s no doubt about it. But he’s handsome in a way that should scare anyone with a soul.

  “So,” he says in that husky purring rumble of his. “What you’re saying is you’ve discovered a function of the code, which you believe gives me the power to potentially manipulate millions of people. And you’ve come to me in the hopes of…” He spreads his large hands in an elegant questioning gesture, palms up.

  Right here is the futility of my entire premise.

  “Asking you to stop?”

  He laughs. He laughs in my face, an amused, dark, borderline mocking laugh that makes me blush with shame.

  “So you believe, Callie…” His laughter fades.

  “Casey,” I correct him.

  “Sorry, Casey, of course,” he smirks, not sorry at all. “So, Casey. You believe that you have uncovered something with the kind of power to influence everything from the washing powder people buy, to the candidates they vote for… and you think… that…” His cheek quirks a little, and I suddenly realize that all along he’s been trying not to laugh at me. “And you think you can ask me to stop using it and I will?”

  “Well.” I clear my throat. “I mean, when you put it that way it sounds…”

  “You are dangerously naive,” he says, his features becoming composed once more. “I thought you would at least be here to extort some kind of profit. If the technology you are describing does in fact exist, it would be worth billions of dollars. And you come in here…” He runs his eyes over me and I feel the judgment of me, my clothing, my presentation. I’m an engineer, not a model. He’s used to women in designer clothing. Does he even know what a chain store is?

  “You come here,” he continues. “And you ask me just… to stop.” The muscle in his jaw is twitching again. I get the sense that when he tells this story later he will not be so restrained in the way he shares it.

  “It would be the right thing to do.”

  “You,” he says, “are a danger to yourself.”

  I pull my hooded sweater a little tighter. He’s sort of right. I can feel the danger in the room, but it’s all coming from him.

  “Are you going to have me killed?”

  He snorts. “No, I am not going to have you killed, Cassie.”

  “Casey. You know my name is Casey!” I add a silent asshole to the end of the sentence.

  “Yes, Casey, of course,” he says in a way that strongly implies that it doesn’t matter to him at all. “You come to see the CEO of the largest tech firm on the planet, asking him to shut down an alleged technology that would allow him to make the people who use his platform puppets of his will, and you think that has a chance of working? You’re a very naive little girl.”

  “I’m not a little girl.”

  My voice shakes with fear as he takes a step forward. He’s even taller than I thought. I am not a tall woman, and he is a giant of a man.

  “Yes, you are,” he says softly, his fingertip running beneath my chin to tip my head up. “You have no idea how small you are.”

  I had no idea it was possible to be this afraid, this pissed off, and this aroused all at the same time.

  He’s not just sexist. This goes so far beyond sexism I don’t think it even matters whether I’m female or male. Everybody is small compared to Ethan Keller. He has shrunk the whole world to the point nobody can touch him.

  At least, that’s what he thinks. I can’t fucking wait to prove him wrong.

  “I’m sorry to have wasted your time,” I say, reaching for my laptop.

  He shuts it and pushes it away from my hands.

  “We’re not done here, little girl,” he purrs in that dangerous tone. “I have a proposition for you, and a lesson to teach you.”

  The breath catches in my throat.

  “A lesson?”

  “Proposition first,” he says. “I’m prepared to offer you a job here at Vipyr. You are obviously a talented coder and…”

  “No, thank you.”

  He cocks his head to the side. “No? I haven’t even mentioned remuneration.”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  Now I know what surprise looks like. This is the expression I wanted to see on his face when I told him what his code does. Brows up, eyes wider, his mouth slightly ajar. He recovers quickly, but for a fraction of a second, I get my satisfaction.

  “You are either more innocent even than you look, or you are…”

  “I earn enough money from my own work,” I tell him. I know he won’t understand. Men like him accumulate wealth and power almost compulsively. My not being interested in a share of it doesn’t make sense to him.

  “I would triple your income,” he says. “And offer you shares in Vipyr too.”

  He doesn’t get it. He thinks it’s about numbers. It’s not.

  “You can’t buy me, Mr. Keller.”

  He smiles broadly, white teeth flashing in a dangerous smile. “Everybody has a price, Casey.”

  At least he’s finally managed to remember my name. That’s something.

  “My price isn’t one you can pay.”

  “Oh, no?”

  “It’s integrity,” I say. “And you have a zero balance where that’s concerned.”

  I am being ruder than I should be, but he has insulted me and wasted my time. He may as well just have blown me off. Then I wouldn’t have come here and made an idiot of myself.
/>   One of his thick brows rises. “I see,” he says. “You like to think you’re independent, don’t you, little girl.”

  “Stop calling me that.”

  He ignores me completely and just keeps talking.

  “Nobody is independent. Nobody exists on their own. Everybody has some place in the power structure, and if you’re not prepared to rise through it, you will find yourself sinking. I offered you a way out of what’s going to happen to you, Casey. Remember that.”

  Now he’s just plain threatening me. I’m starting to lose my temper. And I’m starting to get scared again. A threat from Ethan Keller has to be taken seriously, but fuck this guy.

  “What’s going to happen to me?”

  “I’m going to take you.”

  “What?”

  “I’m going to take you,” he repeats calmly, as if he’s saying something perfectly normal. “You’re going to be mine. I will train you to be something more than what you currently are.”

  “You think you can make me a better software engineer?”

  “I think I can make you my obedient possession.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” There’s an edge of panic to my voice, because on one level, I don’t understand what he’s saying at all. And on another level, I understand him perfectly. Ethan Keller is a man who owns things. People are no exception. Because people are just another kind of thing to him.

  They say there are more sociopaths in CEO positions than anywhere else. I’m pretty sure I’m looking at one. I refused his offer, but that’s not acceptable to him. It’s not an option I have in his world. So he’s going to just… take me.

  Except he isn’t, because I am a person and unlike the sycophants and whores he surrounds himself with, I don’t want him. At all.

  “That is not going to happen,” I say as calmly as I can. Is he even connected to reality? Am I? It really did feel as though I lost something the moment I stepped into the Vipyr offices. The rules of the world outside these walls are somehow suspended at the instigation of this entirely dangerous man.