There’s room for both of us in here, could fit five of us in here, but his presence inside the four walls sucks up the space and I feel suffocated before he’s even locked the door behind us.
He turns to me, leering close. “Try the rest on.”
I stare at him, giving him my best scowl. “Why?”
“Because I said so.”
“Is this what our life’s gonna be like now? You tell me what to do and I just sayyes, Daddy?”
A glimmer of something flashes in his eyes as his mouth twists into a pucker. Is he trying not to smile?
“In a perfect world, yes,” he says, voice dropping an octave.
His body is close enough to mine to feel the heat coming off him, or maybe that’s just me.
“So in this perfect world of yours, I just bow to you like some obsequious slave?”
“A man can dream,” he mutters. “Are you going to try the rest on?”
I swallow the hard lump forming in my throat. “Fine. Yes.”
“Good.” He backs away and drops onto the little bench against one wall.
I eye him. “I’m quite capable of trying these on without supervision, Caden.”
He crosses one leg over the other. “You think I’m dumb to not think you won’t just stand in here for five minutes before coming out and saying they’re no good? You’ve got used to my clothes too much, you need something feminine. You’ve got…” his eyes travel down my body, “good legs. No harm in showing them off.”
I fold my arms. “Was that a compliment?”
“It’s an observation.” His face hardens. “Now undress.”
I roll my eyes, drop my arms, and grab the first dress on the pile. I feel his eyes burning into me as I take my clothes off, so I turn around just so I don’t have to face him.
I pull the dress on. It’s a bodycon stripy dress that drops close to my knees. I do a sarcastic twirl for him, avoiding meeting his eyes.
“Good. Next.”
I take it off and go through three more. He says yes to all the short and revealing ones. I’m surprised, really. If these are outfits he expects me to wear when we’re in front of people, I would have thought he’d be one of the controlling ones that wouldn’t want his woman showing a lick of skin. But by the looks of it, he’d want to show me off. Can’t say the prospect doesn’t make goosebumps rise on my skin.
The final outfit is a short-sleeved black mini dress, pleated at the bottom. A cute skater dress. It has a long zip at the back, and when I hit midway, my arm doesn’t go up anymore. I drop my hands and turn to him, waiting for his opinion.
Instead of giving one, he gets to his feet, hands coming onto my waist softly, and he guides me to the side. We face the mirror and I see us together for the first time.
He catches my eye and holds it there. He’s so much taller than me. Such opposites. His dark hair, tattoos, and eyes all contrast with my bright blonde hair, blue eyes, and scarred, undecorated skin.
He holds my gaze as he lifts his hands from my waist to my back, and I feel the zipper rise to my neck. He’s so intense. So overbearing. He zips me up in slow motion, I can almost feel every single tooth of the zip connecting. The only thing breaking the silence is my breath, shallow and quick as my heart rate accelerates.
The zipper stops at the nape of my neck, and his hands come back to my waist. He doesn’t stop looking at me for a second. I can’t tell what he’s thinking. I can’t decipher the hard expression on his face.
“Looks good,” he says quietly, a rough rasp to his voice.
It’s too hot in here. I can feel the sweat on my back seeping into this lovely dress already. “We’ll add it to the pile then.” That came out way too thick and hoarse.
He tilts his head, finally breaking our gaze as he comes closer to my ear. His fingers trail slowly down from my waist. “It’d be easy access, too.”
My chest hitches. “For what?”
His fingers reach the hem of the dress, hooking inside, the tips of his fingers grazing my hot skin at the top of my thighs. “Whatever I wanted.”
