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I’ve never, since that first date he set up, felt as if I meant absolutely nothing to Theo. It’s a strange feeling to have now, after so much has happened. I don’t even feel like I’m looking at the same man I married.
This is someone else. The man I was told I ought to fear.
I feel my eyes welling with panicked tears. I don’t want to cry—I want to be strong, to have a spine of steel and stand up to him, but what does it matter? He already knows almost everything. He knows about Adrik. And for all the things I know abouthim, one of the things I don’t know is what will touch him more—bravery or tearful pleading.
The man I spent the days with before and after our wedding would have been moved by tears; I feel sure of it. But this man—I have no idea. I don’t know ifanythingwould matter.
Tears and pleas didn’t help when he fucked you over the dresser.
A shudder goes through me at that memory. I still feel ashamed for how I responded, for the way the pain of his hand spanking me melded into a strange, heated kind of pleasure that left me wet for him,soaked,that had me coming on his fingers and then on his cock with the kind of wild abandon that I don’t seem to be able to control around him, not even when I should.
“Adrik told me everything, you know,” Theo says calmly, his fingers laced together in front of him. “Everythingheknows, at least, which wasn’t extensive. Smart of you, not to spill it all to him. I’m quite sure I got everything he had to tell me out of him—no man can withstand that and not spill his guts to God and man. He had a few choice things to say to me at first, but I curbed that tongue of his quickly enough.”
Tears spill onto my cheeks as I try not to imagine what he could possibly be referring to.Did he cut out his tongue? Oh god, please—
“I know what you’re thinking,cailín. His tongue is still intact, although I did consider cutting it out, for having dared to taste you—even kiss you, for that matter. But I left him mostly in one piece for now, minus a few little bits here and there. Everythingyoumight consider important. Especially his cock—I want him to have that for what comes next.”
“What are you talking about?” I whisper, horrified. “Theo, please—this isn’t you—”
“No,a stór. You onlythinkit isn’t me, because I never showed you this part of myself. I tried to be a better man for you, to give you only the parts of me that could be gentle and kind. I thought perhaps, with my wife, I could be different. But I see now that gentleness only breeds complacency and makes others think they can take advantage of me with impunity.”
“Theo, no—”
“I’m telling you all of this,” he says abruptly, cutting me off, “because I don’t wish to waste time with your efforts to convince me that I’m wrong, or that I don’t know the truth, or that I don’t understand what’s happening. I know, Marika, that you were not a virgin when you came to our marriage bed, as I was led to believe. I know that I was not your first. I know that you sullied yourself with a guard meant to protect you. I know that thisentiremarriage was a plot between you and yourgoddamnedbrother, to entrap me and lull me into a sense of security so you could have me murdered.” He gives me a cold, tight smile. “And the worst part about it, Marika, is that it very nearly worked. If not for your foolish bodyguard, I would have fallen for all of it. That is my fault. But I will rectify those mistakes now.”
He motions to the guards again, other ones than the men boxing me in so that there’s nowhere for me to go in the small office, and they unzip my suitcases. For the first time since I’ve walked into the room, Theo stands up, pushing his chair back as he stalks over to them.
“Let’s see what else you’re hiding,cailín,” he murmurs. “You were so quick to put your own things away. Not very fitting of a spoiled little Bratva princess, is it? You’ve been waited on hand and foot your whole life; why would you start doing something for yourself now?”
I feel every muscle in my body go tense as he starts to sift through the suitcases. I know what he’ll find—it’s almost impossible for himnotto find the pills hidden there, unless he stops with just the first few items in the suitcase. And I don’t think that’s what he’s going to do.
He flings my clothes over the office floor—sweaters, jeans, dresses, down to my underthings, and my face burns as Theo flings my lacy bralettes and panties over the rug, followed by some of the lingerie I’d bought for him and hadn’t had a chance to wear. He looks up, seeing the flush on my face, and sneers at me.
“Shy now?” he growls, holding up a see-through blue pair of panties tied in the back with velvet ribbons. “You weren’t so shy when you were lettingAdrikfuck you raw, were you? He madesureI knew about that, that you let him come inside you and then told him to buy you a pill the next day. You couldn’t even savethatfor me, could you,fraochún?”
His accent is thick and ragged, the words coming out in a burst of rage. I’ve never seen him so angry, and it’s terrifying. And both the anger on his face and my fear only intensifies when I see his hand close around something inside the suitcase, and I know he’s found the pills.
“You fucking bitch.” Theo stands up, his face contorted in anger as he holds up the packets of birth control pills for me to see. He stalks towards me, his guards moving aside to give him a clear path, and I shrink back, sure that he’s going to hit me. The rage on his face is more violent than anything I’ve ever seen, even on my father’s face.
“I know you remember the conversations we had about children,” he hisses, his voice low and deadly. “How I told you that I wished I could give you time. That I didn’t want to force children on you. How I bared my feelings to you about the insistence of the Kings thatIproduce an heir. I gave youamplechances to confess! And you told me it was all just nerves, that you were happy todo your fucking duty, and all the while, it didn’t matter if I came inside of you or on your face or your goddamn tits, you wouldn’t have gotten pregnant either fucking way!”
He’s breathing hard by the time he finishes, and he throws the pills down to the wooden floor, stomping on them with his shoe. Again and again, as the plastic and the pills crush beneath his foot, leaving shards and powder in their wake, until it’s all destroyed, and he’s looking at me with an expression very close to hate.
Theo reaches out, his fingers touching my chin in a gesture that’s almost gentle, a reminder of how he once touched me, how I’m sure he never will again. “I cared for you,cailín,” he murmurs. “I wanted to make a life with you. And every word out of your mouth was a lie.” He nods to the guards on either side of me. “Bend her over the desk and strip her. And bring the other one in.”
I open my mouth to let out a scream, but one of the guards clamps a heavy gloved hand over my mouth, two more manhandling me to the desk as Theo stands there watching. I writhe in their hands, gasping and trying to plead, realizing what’s almost certainly going to happen. Theo is going to fuck me here while his guards watch, and he’s going to make Adrik watch, too. And after that—
After that, I don’t know what happens to either of us.
I’d worn a cranberry cashmere sweater dress on the plane and black velvet knee-high boots, hoping I’d see Theo and it would remind him of our flight to Ireland, soften him enough to let me explain. Instead, one guard kneels to unzip my boots while another reaches for the dress and drags it unceremoniously over my head, throwing it aside as two more hold me in place, making sure I can’t fight back. Ishouldbe trying to fight back, I know that—but I can’t move. I can’t believe this is happening—and at the same time, I don’t know how I ever expected that it would turn out any other way. I conspired with my brother to bring down the most powerful man in Chicago, all the while lying to both him and my brother about my innocence. What other way could it ever have gone besides this—me humiliated and punished for my crime?
The guards, for their part, handle me with a sort of detached terseness that half-surprises me. However, I suppose it shouldn’t when considering that I’m half here because of my dalliance with another man. They know what happened to Adrik, almost certainly, and I’m sure that’s the reason their hands and eyes don’t wander as they strip me bare. They carefully avoid touching my bare skin as much as possible, avoiding my breasts and thighs and pussy as they strip off the black lace bra and panties I’d worn just in case Theowassoftened enough by my appearance to listen to me, and he got a chance to see them, carefully looking away.
“You can enjoy the show, men,” Theo says sarcastically as they step back, the two holding me, maneuvering my now-naked body towards the desk. “After all, I’m not the only one who got to see and touch her, so you might as well enjoy the view. But keep your hands to yourself, until you’re on your own time. Make sure he does as well,” he adds, and I hear the sound of someone being dragged into the room.
I twist my head around, and see Adrik—but he’s in terrible shape. His hair is matted against his head, his face swollen, his hands cuffed behind his back. He’s dragged in naked, and bruises and cuts and welts mar so much of his skin that there’s barely any untouched flesh. I can’t see if he has all of his fingers, but when he bares his teeth in a snarl at Theo, I can see that a few of them have been ripped from his mouth.
“Get him up against the wall where she can see him, and he has a clear view of what I do to her,” Theo snaps. “Since you couldn’t keep control of your cock while she was in your care, we’ll see if you can while you watch me punish her and fuck her. See how all my other guards manage to keep their cocks in their pants and their hands off of themselvesandher—and she’s bare in front of them? They can see her fucking cunt, and they still manage to keep their erections all zipped up. But not you. Pathetic excuse for a fucking man.” He spits at Adrik, who recoils, the furious look on his face clearly indicating that he wants to go for Theo. But there are too many guards around him for him to lunge at the other man.
