Page 24 of Two Sides of Sin

Now, all we had to do was wait.

Chapter 20

June

“Julian?” I called out, but the name was swallowed by the heavy velvet drapes and the cold stone walls of the manor.

I found the cleaning staff in the shadows of the dining hall. They moved like phantoms through the house, their eyes fixated on the floorboards as if looking up might get them in trouble. When I asked for Julian, the head housekeeper didn’t even stop scrubbing the silver. She simply jerked her chin in the direction of the upper floor, her voice a thin, frightened rasp.

“Mr. Julian is out, Miss June. But Mr. Cain… Mr. Cain is in the main office. He has been there for hours training the new butler.”

“Oh… okay,” I murmured, the words feeling small in the vast, echoing hallway. I tried to offer a polite smile, but the housekeeper was already back to the silver, ignoring me as if I had already walked away.

Rude…

I turned and walked off, my footsteps sounding too loud against the empty hallways.

As I turned the corner into the final corridor, the silence of the house was violently disrupted.

It started as a low, guttural vibration—a sound that was less a voice and more an animalistic release. I stopped, my breath caught in my throat immediately. From behind the heavy door of the office came a wet, rhythmic sliding sound, followed by a moan so deep and dark it felt like a physical caress against my skin.

Confusion warred with a sudden, illicit heat. I knew those sounds. I knew the frantic, desperate tone of a body being pushed to its limit, but I had never heard them from Cains office before.

I slowed my pace, my heart hammering as I crept closer. The sounds grew louder and more violent.

Suddenly, a heavy clatter erupted from behind the door, the sound of something hitting the floorboards. I froze. Then, the rhythm started.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Something was slamming into the wall with a relentless force.

It wasn’t just a noise, it was a vibration that I could feel in the soles of my feet.

It was a heavy pounding against the wood of the wall, so forceful it made the frames in the hallway rattle.

Between the thuds, I heard a sharp, female gasp a high pitched intake of breath that was quickly muffled by a low, authoritative voice.

The banging grew faster, more frantic, a relentless assault of flesh against wood. I stood there, my fingers hovering over the handle, paralysed.

I should have turned back. I should have run. Instead, I leaned closer, my forehead touching the grain of the door.

I hadn’t realised I was leaning so hard against the grain until the latch gave way with a sickening clack.

I tumbled forward, the air rushing out of my lungs as I hit the Persian rug. The impact jarred my spine, leaving me sprawled face down out on the floor, gasping and disoriented. I scrambled to look up, my breath stopping as the scene in the office came into sharp, gruelling focus.

Cain was standing, a towering, predatory figure against his desk. A blonde woman bent over the edge, her back arched at a painful breaking point, her eyes covered by the silk fabric of Cain’s discarded suit tie, knotted tightly behind her head. She was sobbing—in pain or pleasure I’m not sure, as he drove into her with a mechanical brutality.

His dominance was predatory. With one hand, he held both of the woman’s wrists pinned securely behind her back, further restraining her against the desk.

His other hand wasn’t on her. It was wrapped tight around a heavy steel choke chain.

The chain led down, locking onto the collar of a man positioned between the woman’s legs. He was on his knees, his face buried deep between her thighs, his tongue working with a frantic precision. Every time the man tried to pull back for air, Cain yanked the chain, the metal links rattling with a lethal snap as he forced the man’s head back into place, pinning him there.

I was in such a state of shock that the second man felt like a shadow—an extension of the furniture, until Cain’s eyes locked onto mine. He didn’t stop. He didn’t even break his stride. He just kept fucking her while looking at me.

“June,” he rumbled, his voice a low, terrifying vibration that seemed to shake the very floorboards. He gave the chain a forceful tug, pulling the man’s head even firmer against the woman’s slick skin. “Meet Percy. He’s the new butler I hired. Excellent choice of staff, if you ask me. Very… obedient.”

Percy let out a muffled, strained grunt against the woman’s thigh, his hands gripping her hips for balance as Cain continued to slam into her from behind. The woman thrashed, her muffled cries of pleasure lost in the repetitive thud of the desk.