He tears his eyes away from my chest, and they travel down to my pants. He shakes his head. “From now on, you’ll wear a dress.”
Uhm, okay.
He puts his hands around my waistband, and this time there’s no prior warning. He pulls down my pants, revealing old cotton underwear and two mismatched socks.
His eyes flit over my body, his smirk wider than ever. My face flames again, and this time it’s straight embarrassment.
I bring my hands over my underwear, partly to cover the gaping hole in it, partly to prevent him from taking the last shred of dignity from me. His hands are rougher than before as he clamps down on them and rips them off.
My eyes widen, but I barely have time to register that I’m fully naked, except for my socks, before he lifts me up and carries me over to the leather chair behind the desk. He sits down, positioning me on his thighs, and holds me there for a moment beforebending down and removing my socks.
All resistance has left me now. I’m frozen in his lap, shock, fear and humiliation battling it out in my mind.
He puts his left arm around my waist, and his right hand goes back to my stomach. His touch still feels oddly non-sexual, but then again I’m sitting fully naked on his lap. I’m probably grasping at straws right now.
“You’ve been very naughty, pet.” His voice is warm and low, and his breath lands on my neck, just below my ear, making the goosebumps pebble again on my back.
I should probably be seething in indignation right now. He grabbed my face and examined me like I was cattle, and now he’s speaking to me like I’m a puppy that hasn’t been housetrained yet.
I promised myself when I left my father’s house that night with blood on my hands that I’d never again let anyone treat me like he or my stepfather did. Yell at me, punch me, beat the shit out of me, fine. But anything else…
And now I’m naked in another man’s lap, turning to putty in his hands.
He keeps talking, and though he’s still addressing me, he almost seems to be speaking to himself. “You shouldn’t have done that. You shouldn’t have gotten involved. Though I guess you didn’t know. You couldn’t have done it on purpose. Still…” He removes the arm from my waist and his hand reaches for my hair, his fingers threading through the matted curls. I find myself arching into his touch, then freeze.What the hell is wrong with me?I ask myself for what feels like the hundredth time.
But for once, he doesn’t seem amused. He keeps stroking my hair, talking in an absent-minded sort of way. “Everything’s wrong now. Now they’re involved. That wasn’t the way things were supposed to go. They’re going to expect certain things. If I don’t punish you, they will.”
My eyes widen. I try to swallow, but there isn’t enough saliva left in my throat. What does he mean, punish me?
I pretty much assumed I’d get murdered the second I woke up in this room. But since it didn’t happen right away, I guess some part of me untensed. Now, we seem to be circling back to my initial assumption.
“Are you going to kill me?” I ask, trying and failing to keep the tremor out of my voice.
He actually sounds shocked. “Of course not.”
Enough saliva reenters my mouth to allow me to swallow. “Are you going to… are we going to have sex?”
He chuckles. “Do you want to?”
“No!” I say, my voice cracking.
He goes back to stroking my hair in a soothing gesture. “We’ll see about that later.”
Later. The word twists in my stomach. So he’ll rape me later. Even so, a wave of relief washes over me.Latermeans I’m going to live, for a while, at least.
“I promise you they won’t hurt you,” he adds, his fingers in my hair soothing me in spite of myself.
I don’t care right now about whatthey’lldo, whoever they are. The other Devils, I suppose. I care about the intentions of the man whose lap I’m currently sitting on, fully naked.
“Areyougoing to hurt me?” I ask.
His hand leaves my hair to stroke my back, still soothing.
“I think so,” he smiles.
Panic swells in my mind, even as my body relaxes under his touch. I press my eyes shut in confusion.
He pauses a beat then says, “For now, though, I’ll just lock you in the cell.”
