I looked over at him. He blurred in and out of my vision as my eyes became glassy. I could not bring myself to talk. It would break my focus.
“Do you want to get off the rice?” he asked, almost kindly.
I nodded slowly.
“How do we ask for things?” he crooned, standing from his seat and circling to the front, kneeling in front of my face. His riding crop traced gently over the red marks on my thighs, making my skin twitch at the touch.
“Please,” I barely made out in a breathy voice.
“Please what?” he asked, tilting his head like there was something to be confused about.
I shifted desperately. “Pleaselet me off the rice.” My voice shook.
“Do you think you’ve earned it?”
“Yes.” I nodded. “Please, I have done all you asked!”
Those deep amber eyes looked down at me, a pitiful expression spared on my behalf. He twisted the crop between his fingers as he contemplated my plea, relishing every additional moment of my pain.
“Fine,” he finally spoke, standing up in place. “One more thing, so I know that you are sincere.”
I couldn’t look up. My eyes were trained on the rice.
His leather boot rolled the grains, cracking and grinding them as he stepped before me. “Kiss it for me,dorogusha.”
Despite hearing his pet names many times before, this particular instance held such apathy that I could taste it sour on my tongue. The tang quickly turned as real as the bile in my throat when long fingers tightened against my scalp, forcing my face down in prostration.
“Don’t make me repeat myself.”
My trembling lips touched his boot, the scent of mink oil and blacking in mynose. I stayed still, not knowing if it was enough, if following the rules would be enough to avoid his wrath for however long I’d be here. In this room. A prisoner. Food in a pantry.
The creaking of the door did not even bring my attention fully back. All I wanted to do was close my eyes, and I did.
“Ah, you’re a little late to join, but maybe next time?” Luka mumbled, his grip on my hair tighter.
There was a long pause, but he did not need to speak for me to know who had walked in. It made me want to sink into the rice like quicksand, weighed down by my humiliation.
“You have... exactly thirty seconds... to explain.” The words sounded painful in Silas’s throat, like he was holding back the rage of something so formidable that it could be biblical in scale.
“Training the new pet, of course. We had a great time—right, Alina?”
I shook my head, but he pressed my face harder into the leather, and the heat rose in my neck and ears.
“Twenty seconds . . .”
“Don’t be foolish, Silas. We both know that you would not lay a finger on me while I hold your prized possession. One jerk of my wrist and she’s gone,” Luka said with a chipper tone, like he was telling a lighthearted joke.
I squeezed my eyes shut as I felt the tingle of the crop tracing down my spine. All I could manage was a whimper.
“The garden, ten minutes.”
“Sounds like a date,” Luka purred.
There was a thick tension in the air as the words ran out. Either they had nothing else to say or did not want to say it in front of me. It felt like an eternity. I wanted to be alone. For both of them to leaveme instead of using me for their own idiotic games. I wanted to gohome.
I got my wish in a sense as my mind slippedinto darkness, not remembering even the door slamming before I was lulled off to the back of my mind once more.
49
