She was wrong.
She was oh so wrong, and she knew it as soon as she entered the morning room. Her pulse stopped for the briefest of moments, and not out of excitement. For there, in her family’s morning room, stood Captain, the last person on earth she needed or wanted to see. She didn’t like him as a member of the Animos Society. She didn’t need him showing up at her home uninvited as well.
“Oh. Captain,” she said, etching a smile upon her face. “Hello.”
“Piggy. You kept me waiting.”
“I was wearing pajamas. I needed to change.”
With the majority of her body exposed by the sundress, her skin reacted to his stare, flushing all over. She couldn’t help but think of Daniel’s eyes on her. They were gentle, almost caressing in their exploration of her body; Captain assessed her, taking in her uncovered legs and arms like they were slabs of meat to be measured on a butcher’s scale. Under his piercing eyes, she might as well have been stripped nude and set under his magnifying glass.
“I’m surprised to see you here. After you left the party last night…” Captain trailed off. Once again his eyes wandered the trails and planes of her body, an exercise of his power. She fought a shiver. “I assumed you’d be waking up at your mechanic’s place.”
“You came to check on me,” Sam accused.
“How’s your Mud Duck doing?” Captain asked, ignoring her.
Daniel never ignored her. He took every thought and question and idea she had on its own merit. He was careful with language and even more careful with his attention.
“Fine.” Sam’s jaw tightened.
“He was plenty embarrassing at the party last night. Good choice. He really looks smitten with you. It’ll make for a good laugh when all of this is over.”
“He isn’t a laugh,” Sam countered. “He’s a person.”
The defense was soft and brittle, too quiet to be heard. She was too cowardly. At the end of the day, no matter how she hated it and him, Captain held her future in his clammy, wandering paws. Appearances and deference were important. She could no longer be the woman she was last night… Or the person she was this morning when she got caught singing to herself in the shower.
“I came here to ask you something. Not as your regent, but as…” Captain ran a hand through his unruly hair. “Whatever I am to you.”
Nothing. You’re less than the dirt I walk on, the liquor I pour down the drain at the end of the night, and the mud between my toes after running barefoot through the rain.
“Yeah.” Sam sank into the nearest chair. Captain would say whatever he wanted to say no matter her feelings on the matter. Might as well be comfortable. “Shoot.”
From her place at the edge of an overstuffed cushion, she watched her unexpected guest. He stood in one of the windows overlooking the whole property, and a freezing chill gripped its spindly hands around her throat. Cold eyes surveyed her family’s grounds with the same hungry glare he served her every time they were in close company.
“There’s a ball tomorrow evening and I would like for you to attend. As my date.”
Would you give me the great pleasure of being my date to a ball at Ashbrooke Manor this Friday?That’s how Daniel asked her out. His was a question, a choice, a decision he hopefully laid at Sam’s feet.
All leftover glow from Sam’s one spectacular night vanished. Captain didn’t even have the decency to pretend she could choose. Where Captain was concerned, she knew the wordnowas no longer a part of her vocabulary. For so long, she assumed he only liked to threaten this sort of forced intimacy. The random groping, the heavy breath he laid on her skin every time he got too close, the lewd comments… She always assumed he relished the power trip. Now, she wasn’t so certain. Maybe this was bigger than her, bigger than the psychosexual games he’d been playing since she first declared herself a candidate for Animos.
Maybe this was about Ashbrooke. Marrying a duke’s daughter would certainly move him up in the world. And there was nothing to set Captain apart in this world like his unbridled ambition.
The air in the room hardened to unbreathable lead, filling up Sam’s lungs with heavy metal.You swore you wouldn’t do this, she admonished the shivering muscle in her rib cage.You swore you would have your one night of freedom and be content forever… At least until you’re a member of Animos. Youhave toaccept him.
“I’m flattered,” Sam replied, as if she’d been delivered a body bag.
“I thought you’d be.”
He was so knowing and magnanimous; she had to know. “Why?”
Laughter broke the air. It wasn’t the belly laugh Daniel let loose when she made a sly joke. This was malicious. Taunting. She heard his laughter in the same way she heard everything Captain ever said to her—as a threat.
“Don’t play coy.” He glided from his post at the window to the place where Sam perched herself. If he saw that her hands were shaking, he didn’t care. “I’ve noticed the way you look at me, the little rebellions you try during your Animos tasks, the way you danced with your mechanic last night. You’ve been trying to get my attention. I have to give credit where it’s due. It’s worked.”
“I don’t want anyone to think I got into the Society because I’m your girlfriend,” she countered, refusing to open her mouth too wide in case the bile filling up her throat took its chance and escaped.
“Then we won’t put labels on it,” Captain said, in what Sam assumed was supposed to be a seduction. He towered over her, casting his long shadow over her pale face.
