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“Father,” Montgomery clipped out.
The girl looked our direction, her mouth dropping open before she scurried down the last few stairs. But Montgomery’s father jogged the last few steps, caught her around the elbow, and kissed her deeply, reaching a hand around and spanking her ass until she yelped and giggled.
When he finally pulled away from the girl, he stared straight at Montgomery, giving the girl’s breast a last squeeze before sending her on her way.
I thought he might approach us, but he just smirked and followed the girl out.
I didn’t like that man. Montgomery’s father. I looked to Montgomery and saw his jaw was tight again, but I had no idea what he was thinking.
“I don’t understand,” I said quietly after the front door slammed behind them. “That girl. I thought we could only be claimed by initiates.”
“Sometimes the discarded girls think sleeping with the Elders is still a ticket to a better life.”
“Is it?”
Montgomery glared at me. “Only if you think being a part-time whore who occasionally gets rewarded with diamond bracelets or other trinkets is a life you want.”
His words were vehement and full of anger, maybe even hatred. I didn’t understand him. Did he hate me? Did he think I was a whore? I was essentially sleeping with him for money.
“Why did you choose me?” The question was out of my mouth before I really thought about it.
It was the wrong thing to ask, I could tell by the way Montgomery’s face immediately shut down. His features became even more severe as he turned to me.
“Don’t get any romantic notions in your head. We both want something and these trials will help us achieve those goals. We’re here to use each other to get ahead. Nothing more.”
His words felt like a slap across the face.
“Who said I have any romantic notions?” Outrage out of proportion to the situation lit through me, and I had no idea why.
But I’d never been good at holding my tongue. “You think just because you’re rich and a little bit handsome every woman in a fifty-mile radius wants to fall down at your feet and fawn all over you like Mrs. Hawthorne does? Ha.” I sat up straighter in my chair. “I just thought we could be civil to each other since we’re in this together.”
“We aren’t in this together. We’re in this separately. I get what I want. You get what you want. End of story.”
“Fine.” I lifted my chin a notch higher. “Then tell me the rules so I don’t incur your anger, oh master.”
His eyes narrowed on me. “You aren’t to go anywhere alone in the mansion without me escorting you. You will watch your tongue. You will understand that for the next three plus months, you’re in a world where women are silent and men rule. I don’t care if you don’t like it. No one is forcing you to be here. So, either use your safe word and lose everything, or do what you’re told.”
“Because you want to use me like a sex toy just like your father used that woman?”
Well, that set him off.
“Never. I’m nothing like my father.” The words came out hissed through his teeth, and he’d advanced so that his face was only inches from mine.
“Why are you doing all of this if you hate it so much?” I asked. I genuinely didn’t understand him. “Why are you here?”
“I’m here because this is just the way things are. I’m here to get what’s owed me. Now, I don’t see any reason for further discussion between us. We’re here to do a job, and we’ll do it. That’s the end of it.”
It was my turn to glare at him. That was the end of it? Just because he declared it was? What a pretentious, overstuffed, overbearing—
A bell rang and then Mrs. Hawthorne reentered the room carrying another tray. She came in smiling but then saw Montgomery and me facing off. Her smile immediately turned into a glare, directed straight at me.
“Are you disrupting the peace on your first morning, girl?” she snapped.
I threw my hands up in the air. “I didn’t do anything!”
“Everything’s fine, Mrs. H. Is our second course ready?”
Her face softened again. “Yes. I’ve also been instructed by your father to deliver the invitations for tonight’s event.”
Montgomery took the tray from Mrs. Hawthorne. “Thanks, Mrs. H. I’ll take it from here.”
Mrs. Hawthorne fussed at him. “That’s not your job, laddie. I’m here to take care of you.”
Montgomery smiled at her, again showing the tenderness that I sometimes glimpsed in him. Which only made his coldness to me more frustrating and confusing. “You’ve taken care of me for years. Why don’t you take the morning off?”
“I’ve never taken a morning off in all the years I’ve worked here!” Mrs. Hawthorne sounded offended at the mere suggestion, her accent thicker than ever in her ire.
