Walking into Ravensgate was stepping back into the past. As she stared at the block-print fan palms, on their lightless black paper, it was easy to imagine herself in another time. A time where a woman was mistress to her house only insofar as permitted by the master.
And it’s painfully clear who rules here.
A terrifying thought struck her: could Nathaniel be the one to have attacked her?
Voices down the hall made her duck out of sight before she could fully consider the horrific implications of what had just passed into her head.
“—making a mess of things. I thought you were supposed to find it.”
“Yes, well, I didn’t count on guests, did I?”
“Oh, but she’s such a sweet little dear. You’re not jealous, are you, Ben? If you are, you know you’re letting Baby Cal ride roughshod all over you. He lives to provoke you.”
“I’m not letting him do anything,” Ben said angrily. “He does whatever he wants.”
“You’re the heir.” Odessa’s tone was flip. “Act like it. Do whateveryouwant. Don’t come whining to me. Speaking of, I wonder where Cal’s frightened little plaything is. I haven’t seen her since dinner. I hope he didn’t break her already . . .”
Ben made a disgusted noise. If he responded, Nadine didn’t hear it as the two of them floated their way to the left.
Towards that awful dining room.
So even Cal’s siblings thought she was sleeping with him. That made what Nathaniel had said to her even creepier in context. Why would he be giving her tips to “excite” his son?
Nadine let out a breath and headed for her room, thinking she would change her clothes before hazarding a bath and asking one of the staff members of this house what they had in the way of first-aid. But her good luck abruptly ran out in the upstairs hall, as Cal Cullraven stepped out of his bedroom, with wet hair and a dampened maroon shirt, looking like he just took a bath himself.
He does whatever he wantsechoed in her ears like a warning. Not that she needed one, or to eavesdrop on his siblings to know what he was really like. She’d heard the way he talked to his clients on the phone and she’d witnessed firsthand his ability to railroad people into confusion, for no other reason than because he could.
Seeing him now, when she was at her most vulnerable, left her feeling close to despair.
Because—unfortunately—that wasn’t all he made her feel.
“Nadine. Where have you been? We’ve been looking for you.”
Have you?She looked up at him, scanning his face she wasn’t even sure was really there—the small hint of kindness that she craved from him, perhaps. He didn’t look kind now; just alert and wet. His damp hair was still dripping and his shirt clung to his body like a second skin.
He’s unshaven, too.
“What happened to your neck?” He was looking her over as if he thought she already belonged to him. “And the rest of you?”
“You mean you don’t know?” The words burst forth, tinged with a remainder of her earlier terror. When she inhaled, she imagined that she could still taste the bright, coppery tang of blood.
His eyes narrowed. “Is that blood on your shirt?”
To her immediate shame, she burst into tears.
Cal stepped forward, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her snug against his shirtfront; and if a spider’s embrace were half so intoxicating, it was no small wonder why so many flies perished. She went limp against him, hating herself for it but unable to move as he traced strong, capable fingers down her back and over her sides in a way that made her jerk and shudder as the black wallpaper and its bronze-dusted fan palms morphed into a shadowy blur before her eyes.
Please don’t, she thought, when his fingers hesitated briefly at the hem of her shirt.Not now. Not when I’m too weak to resist.She clutched at him tighter at that slight touch of skin on skin and Cal paused before pulling one arm away, sliding his hand into her hair. But as he tried to cradle her head, he brushed the tender bruise from the rock and she bowed back against the cage of his encircling arm, feeling as if she were one sharp plummet away from total destruction.
There was something hot and possessive in his eyes, and she thrilled at it, even as it made her want to flee. It was the same thing she’d felt when he made her touch him, his sizable cock rising against her trembling fingers as he told her,that’s all because of you.
“Tell me what’s wrong.”
“I—” The breathlessness in her voice scared her. “I have a head wound. I’m frightened.”
He could have been the one who attacked me. He’s strong enough.
Why wouldn’t he have known where she’d been hit on her head, though? Someone standing in the main chamber of the mine had knocked her unconscious and then dragged her. If it had been him, he would have known to avoid it.
