Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 148397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 742(@200wpm)___ 594(@250wpm)___ 495(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 148397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 742(@200wpm)___ 594(@250wpm)___ 495(@300wpm)
Sighing, he nodded along. “You make a decent point. I’d just hate for you to miss out on all the ways a subservient jewel can make you feel.”
Grabbing the brand-new whip from the bag, I tossed it by my plate. “I won’t be missing out on anything. You gave me this to use. I’m grateful and I’m looking forward to it, but I’ll only agree to go into the snuffbox with you if you agree to let me do this my way. You want me to be happy? Give me full rein of Ily’s education. You’ve had her now. I honoured that part of our deal. While she’s in your home, she will obey and be polite to you. I’ll ensure she doesn’t speak back to anyone but me. She will be the perfect jewel you expect. However, when she’s under my rule and about to take my cock, she has my permission to call me whatever the fuck she wants. She can fight me. She can try to hurt me. I need you to agree that you won’t interfere because this is what I want, got it?”
For the longest moment, he didn’t speak.
Shit, what are you doing?
I’d shared too much. Given too much away.
But…if Ily and I were going to do this. If we were going to pretend? If we willing engaged in all the depravity on offer in this place, I needed constant fucking feedback that she was still with me. Still playing with me. Still strong. If she turned into Rachel or the others…
It can’t happen.
If she broke, truly broke, I’d use my switchblade to end both of us because freedom or no freedom, if her mind didn’t stay intact there was nothing left for either of us.
Steepling his fingers, he pursed his lips and studied me then Ily. He looked as if he could smell a rat without being able to see it. Perhaps he’d seen what happened on the toilet last night. Maybe he’d heard our pact. Maybe he knew far more than I feared but finally, he stood and held out his hand.
I stood too, placing my fingers in his.
Squeezing hard, he dragged me forward. “I accept your requirements, and I look forward to seeing you step into your rightful place as Master. Shall we get started?” Letting me go, he looked at the sky. “I know we said this afternoon but I’m suddenly eager to see you in action. What do you say, pretty Ily? Fancy being whipped before lunch?”
Her eyes snapped open.
A flash of light in her gaze.
Behave. I glowered.
I’d agreed to hurt her while we had sex, but I didn’t want to ever raise a hand to her without it.
For a second, rebellion twitched her lips, but then she nodded like a perfect jewel. “Yes, Sir V.”
He swooned dramatically, pressing his knuckles to his forehead. “Be still my heart, it’s a miracle. Polite and demure. Wonders will never cease.” He waggled his finger in my face with a chuckle. “Seems you might be onto something. Right…I’ll just go collect Rachel from her appointment with Dr Belford, and we’ll go have some fun.”
Striding off, he gave me a wave.
I waved back.
The minute he was gone, my legs gave out, and I fell back onto the chair.
Ily shifted closer. Her hand touched my ankle beneath my jeans.
I looked down and caught her stare and prayed to every fucking entity that still listened to help us.
I won’t break. Her eyes shouted.
I might. I shrugged.
Together, we waited silently for Victor’s return.
* * * * *
The snuffbox was pretty much everything I expected.
Tucked down in the eastern most corner of the gardens, past the vegetable patch, behind the glass-fronted orangery, and hidden in the shadow of the battlement wall, the brick and ivy-covered tower looked like a small observatory.
Or a jail…depending on the viewer.
“Here we are.” Giving me a beaming smile, Victor withdrew an old-fashioned key from his pocket and opened the heavy, creaking metal door. It swung inward, sensor lights sprang on, and he led us inside like a sadistic prince.
Unclipping his leash from Rachel, he pointed at a spot on the floor in the centre of the room. “Wait there for me, my pet. I’ll just show Henri the ropes.”
Her blue eyes skated to me, then to Ily.
Something passed between them.
Ily tipped her chin.
Rachel nodded and braced her shoulders.
What had they communicated?
The fact that I’d slept with both women last night repeated over and over again, amplifying my shame and regret. Rachel carried Victor’s baby. He’d so flippantly ordered me to kill her. She’d lived a life of horrors, and now I was going to save her.
Save both of them.
Somehow.
“Run along,” Victor repeated, annoyance on his face for her delay.
“Yes, Sir V.” Rachel dropped her eyes then stepped down the four stone steps and into the pit below. With a barely-there shiver, she kneeled on the hard damp rock and bowed her head. Her teal silk dressing gown splayed around her bare legs like turquoise puddles.