“Some are Born to sweet delight.
Some are Born to Endless Night.”
—William Blake
Alow whistle sounds when I enter the dining room. Aubrey sits alone at the table, one leg crossed over the other and her red hair spilling down one shoulder. Her head tilts as she looks me up and down. “Going for a carefree look today, huh?”
“Sorry,” I mutter, ignoring the sting at my ankle as my burn flares to life. She pushes a full plate of food toward me once I sit beside her. “Woke up late.”
Her lips quirk. “I noticed. The other girls finished their breakfast almost twenty minutes ago.”
I push the scrambled eggs around my plate with a fork, Adam’s naked, dripping torso still taunting me. His white towel hung low on his hips, letting me glimpse the hard V-shape disappearing beneath it. I knew he was cut, I felt it yesterday when my palms were pressed against his chest, his abs. But that’s not the same as seeing it bare, watching the ripple of muscles tense across his body when he spotted me on his bed.
That alone sent a surge of warm satisfaction through me. And when my eyes dropped lower, it only confirmed that at least a part of him wanted me, too.
But then I’d looked back at his eyes. They were as cold as the room encasing us.
He claimed me.
He owns me.
So why doesn’t he take me?
“Big night?”
“Hmm?” I take a bite and glance at her, slowly remembering where I am.
She leans back against the seat, still watching me closely. “You’ve got that look.”
“What look?”
“I call it the Matthews Effect.”
I pause mid-chew, my eyebrows shooting up. “The what?”
“Happens to all of us.” She winks. “You’ll understand soon enough. Now hurry up. We’ve got a job to do.”
The Matthews Effect.Finishing my bite with a swallow, I think of Frankie.
Did she feel it, too?
“What’s this?”
“This,” Aubrey mutters over my shoulder, her eyes skimming the paper in my hands, “is a list of your daily duties.”
My brows furrow while I review the checklist. Dishes, sweeping, mopping, assisting with food prep and cleanup.
It’s all housework. And it’s all in the kitchen.
I blow out a breath and let my hands fall to my sides, still clutching the page. “Wow.”
“Problem?”
“Just ... not exactly what I was expecting.”
Aubrey chuckles and starts walking past the ladies’ quarters, me following at her side. “Disappointed?”
“No.”
