That’s what brought her into his life.
He could take a strong woman for such money and make her weak. Money in itself buys whores, but 100 million dollars buys power. And with that sort of power, you could take a strong woman, strip her of everything she has, and reduce her to nothing but a cheap whore, and inflame her with lust that betrays her own dignities. He felt himself stiffen again at the thought. Sex for him had little to do with physical attraction, and everything to do with power.
He donned his tailored suit, with matching blue neck tie.
An Oxford graduate with an Master of Business Administration, Andrew had worked at the Bank of England for nearly a decade before opening his own Merchant Bank. He now earned more in a day than most did in a lifetime. He specialized in unique acquisitions, which were as varied as they were expensive. He specialized in convincing people to sell before they knew they even wanted to.
Some of his previous transactions included such wonderful items as a nuclear submarine for a private buyer, the secret plans for a new type of hydrogen engine, new pharmacological products, and the remains of one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
For the most part, his transactions were perfectly legal, so long as he didn’t get caught, on the international playing field that he worked. Some projects more so than others.
Today’s acquisition was on the dangerous end of that scale, and completely destroyed any pretense of legitimacy.
He looked at his watch, an old Rolex. It was ten minutes past nine in the morning. It would be in his possession by now. The thought made him think about his acquisition. He smiled happily.
With a 100-million-dollar price tag, the risk versus benefit had convinced him that he was making the right investment. And after all, that was the only way that a real businessman could look at his transactions. It wasn’t a matter of being moral or ethical, instead, he saw everything as risk versus benefit. In this case, he could amass an even greater fortune for a few day’s work and minor risk, or he could be caught, and spend the rest of his life in jail, or worse, depending on the country of capture, end up shot by firing squad.
When the request was first made from the buyer, he had said that he’d hate to put a price tag on a person’s life. But then, when the buyer threw out the figure, he was confident such a price covered it.
He checked his watch again.
It was 9:15.
He should have heard by now.
Andrew walked toward his private lift. Sarah remained on his bed, sensually lying on her side, naked as the day she was born, a look of pleasure mingled with guilt abjectly painted on her face.
He smacked her bare ass, and she turned around and sat up immediately.
“Hey, that hurt, you asshole!”
He ignored her complaint. “Sarah, I need something from you.”
“Anything for you Andrew.”
“Good, I’m going to need the precise date your father’s going to release his statement.”
She sat up, looking serious for the first time that day. “You know about the development?”
“Of course I do. Why did you think I seduced you?”
A frown crossed her face, and for a moment, Andrew thought she was going to cry. He’d not expected that of her.
The thought made him happy.
“You planned this entire thing, because you wanted to know when my father’s going to come out with the news on Worthington Enterprises?”
“That’s right,” Andrew said cheerfully.
She frowned. “That’s what this was about, wasn’t it? You never loved me? You wanted to know protected information.”
“Yes.”
“Well you can get fucked. I won’t do it. Besides, do you realize that you and I could both go to prison if we were even caught talking about such things? Don’t you know what that sort of information will cause on the stock exchange?”
“Insider trading at its grandest scale!” he replied.
She laughed.
“Of course you do. And with the amount of money I’m sure you could move on it, the investigators would quickly track it down to me. So no, you can find another whore to fuck!”
She went to slap him, but he caught her hand. There was no way he was going to let her, a woman, strike him in the face.
“Here Sarah, have a look at these pictures I had taken last night specifically to remember you by. I wonder what all those trashy mags would think about publishing these images of the world’s richest and most prominent feminist.”
Sarah dipped her head as she scanned the pictures he placed in front of her.
Andrew saw with more than a little pleasure, that it was the third picture that made her realize her mistake. It wasn’t being tied spread-eagled, or the marks on her wrists and back from where she’d struggled that had done it for her.
No, it was the image of her face begging for him. A suppliant resolution that she’d accepted her fate, as the weaker sex.
To be abused.
He looked at her beautiful face. There were tears in her eyes and she looked miserable, but there was something else too. He thought he’d imagined it at first, but the more he examined her countenance the more he realized it was there. It was relief. She had been in control her entire life, and he’d made her lose it.
“It’s August, the 23rd.”
There were tears in her eyes.
“Good.”
Andrew looked at his security guard who’d walked into the room. “Trent, please see this woman out.”
Sarah quickly attempted to get dressed while the security guard grabbed her.
“Oh, and Sarah…”
“What?”
“I’ll be in town again in two weeks.”
She stared at him, understanding slowly dawning on her.
“You will come to me.” A Machiavellian grin crossed his face. “In the meantime, I forbid you to touch yourself.”
“Yes, master.”
Chapter Six
Andrew Brandt caught his private elevator to his secure carpark, ten stories below his One Hyde Park penthouse. It was currently the world’s most expensive and overinflated piece of real estate. He would have to start making his way to meet the buyer.
In his car, he switched his cell on.
Andrew didn’t believe in the concept that cell phones were invented so that people could maintain constant contact. He had kept a strict policy of being contactable during specific business hours or prearranged times outside of those hours.
After returning home from his work in Amsterdam the day before, he’d picked Sarah up. She fell into the category of business, even though he didn’t entirely dislike the prospect of seducing her. His business was to be with her, and for that, he did not want interruptions.
His smartphone came up with two messages:
Something’s wrong.
Call me.
It was Alex, one of the operatives he’d used in Amsterdam.
Andrew relaxed into the seat of his Bentley.
It was going to be a long day.
He then pressed ‘call Alex.
“Do we have the product?” Andrew asked.
“No. Someone else kidnapped her before we could do so. It happened yesterday.”
“Yesterday? I saw her yesterday. Do you know who?”
“No, but we’ll keep trying. It’s not like they’re going to get her out of here without us noticing. We have all local airports, marine ports, railway stations, and bus lines covered.”