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Right, he doesn’t like to be disobeyed. Despite everything that happened last night, I’m still just his prisoner. I still must do as he says. I can’t believe I gave myself to the likes of him. It’s so shameful. Have I no self-respect?
Sighing, I throw the covers off my head, concealing my breasts as I sit up. I don’t meet her eyes until her gasp prompts me to spin and look at her. “Oh,” she says, covering her mouth. Her cheeks grow red against her pale skin. “Oh! Well, this is such a relief. I was so worried, after the mad stunt you pulled yesterday, that I’d find you in the worst way. But oh, I’m delighted. This is much better.” She claps before covering her mouth again.
I shiver. Yes, I remember. He saved my life last night. But he did so after putting me in danger in the first place, so what must I feel about that? Gloria’s eyes scrunch up, and a muffled noise escapes her clasped hands.
“Are you laughing?” I ask, reaching for her hands and attempting to pull them away from her face. She moves away from me, still hiding. “It’s not funny,” I say, folding my arms and wrinkling my brows at her.
“Why? Oh, I was overjoyed for you, but should I not be? Did he? Did you not want to?” she asks, removing her hands. The flushed color drains from her face.
I groan and throw my head back against the pillow before shaking it. The truth is that I loved it. I loved it so much, I hate him for making me feel so bothered. I hate that I woke up this morning without him in bed, without him initiating another moment, because I certainly wouldn’t. I’d rather suffer a desperate need than give him that victory. Although, last night, I made no efforts to hold back what I felt.
Now, I’m the one covering my face. “What’s wrong with me?” I grumble. “He called me a whore,” I say, widening my eyes at her. “And I liked it,” I whisper, bringing my hand down swiftly against my mouth. She smiles even wider, and I groan, “How can I want anything to do with such a detestable man?”
Grinning, she whispers, “Have you looked properly at the man? How could you not?”
“Gloria!” I gasp, dropping my hands to my lap.
“What? Just because I have a man, it doesn’t mean I can’t see. All the women in the house practically drool over him. Not me, of course. I’d never trade my sweet, kind Lucian in for such a beastly man.” She waves.
“See?”
“But it’s not in the least bit surprising that your loins ache and weep for him,” she says, grabbing my legs and laughing.
My tightened lips tremble with the laughter I bite back. I fight against the heat rushing up my skin. “Yes. Well, looks aren’t everything. Why are men so…” I squeeze the air, imagining his neck.
“Well, they’re not all bad,” Gloria says.
I tilt my head with raised brows. “Yeah, well, my father doesn’t count, and he’s the only good man I know. Take Heath for example.”
“Heath?” Gloria cocks her head.
“Yes, Heath something or other. I’m surprised I forgot. The man sure knew how to talk about himself, without stopping. He loved the sound of his own voice.” I grimace from the memory as a bout of nausea washes over me. “Even at night, when he’d already left for the day, and I was getting ready for bed, I could still hear his voice droning on like the constant buzz of a bee.” I shiver.
“I mean, hewasgood looking. Like the beast, he had all the women of Colderidge swooning over him. And boy, did he make that go to his head. He couldn’t understand why I wanted nothing to do with him, and the rejection seemed to make him cling even harder. I thought that was torture then. Look at me now.” I tilt my head at Gloria.
“Marriage to him wouldn’t have been so bad. But I would have been miserable. I could never love that man. And even the men before him who I thought I loved, they soon grew bored with the idea of me not proving my love to them by letting them sleep with me. Or our interests didn’t align. Soon, that temporary love would fizzle out. Have the romantics been wrong about love? Does it just not exist?” I ask.
“Oh, it does. It certainly does.” Gloria nods. “What I’ve found with Lucian is incomparable. Hearing your stories, I think I might be luckier than I realized,” she jests.
The beast’s voice echoes in the hallway. His bass is like the bang of a gun going off. It sounds as if he’s moving toward the door, and we both straighten. Our hearts seem to have stopped beating. My blood gushes within my head, pounding at my ear drum as if it’s about to spill out. We both look at each other. I’m still comfortable lying in bed, and she’s not doing what he’s ordered her to do.
“Come on. Make haste.” She reaches for my hand and pulls me from the bed.
We don’t breathe again until his voice fades toward the stairs along with whoever he must be talking to. My chest tightens, and I swear. “See? I don’t want that. I don’t want to love… that!” I throw my hands up in the air.
Gloria rubs my arm. “Let’s try to accomplish speaking and working at once.” She walks ahead of me, into the adjoining bathing room.
Following alongside her, something catches my attention in the mirror. The brightest reddish-purple bruise is on my neck, and I touch it in confusion. My eyes widen as I press my fingers against it. “What is that?” I gasp.
Gloria peeks out from the bathroom at me. “Oh, that’s a love bite, dear.” She grins. “Lucian gives me them all the time.”
Her voice fades as she disappears in the bathing room, and I’m left staring at it. A love bite? I’m trying to recall whether I was bitten when last night’s images flash in my mind. My entire body heats up again, burning from the memory of his sweet aggression. Looking at my naked image, I see everywhere he touched and filled with a part of him. My lips part at the obscenity. My own hands, against my skin, feel naughty, and I drop them to my sides. Damn him.
“You know what I love the most about my times with Lucian?” Gloria says, and I hurry away from the mirror to join her. She’s ladling last night’s water from the tub into a small metal basin. It’ll take several of those basins to empty the tub. I grab the second pitcher to help scoop the water out.
“You don’t have to do that, dear.” She looks up at me with wide eyes.
“I want to. Besides, it’ll go a lot faster with two people, won’t it?”
