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‘What’s happening?’ I demanded, clutching the towel to my chest.
He stepped forward, the expression on his face grave. It suddenly struck me as odd that this time, for the first time since I had met him in my father’s house, there was no sexual innuendo, no inappropriate touching and no threats. He was sombre, and that was more terrifying than I could have ever anticipated.
‘You’re nervous,’ I said incredulously. I looked at his hand, seeing a slight tremble there. ‘Why are you nervous?’
The unflappable bastard had had his cage rattled. But by who, and why?
‘Put the dress on, honey,’ he said shortly. ‘Or I’ll take you out there naked, and trust me, you do not want that. You’ll be eaten alive.’
Bella laughed dryly behind him.
‘What do you care?’ I muttered, but I turned my back to him and hurriedly threw the dress over my head, letting my towel drop at the same time. I didn’t like the idea of being eaten alive naked, whether it was a real threat or not.
Somehow, I knew that things were about to change. I’d sensed it as soon as Murphy had walked into the room.
Are you going to sell me?
Yes.
YES. Dornan’s reply rose in my throat like bile, and I swallowed anxiously.
I panicked while I was smoothing the dress down. I panicked as Murphy sat me on the edge of the bed.
I panicked while the skinny bitch chewed gum and carefully applied make-up to my skin. I panicked as she used a blow-dryer to dry my hair. It was a silent scream that tore at my insides, threatening to bubble up and spill from my lips unbidden.
Never show fear. The mantra that I had chanted in my head, over and over, since I had offered myself to Emilio. But my resolve was wearing thin, and my fear was breaking me open, shining through the cracks like a million dying stars in the night sky. People would see through those cracks, and they would know. They would see my fear and they would enjoy it.
I didn’t fight Murphy or his bitch offsider Bella because I knew what was held over me. I could practically see the crumpled photograph of Luis in Murphy’s breast pocket, right over the spot where his dead black heart would sit.
I didn’t fight, because I knew it would be futile. This was the part where they would take bids on my life.
‘Stand up,’ Murphy ordered, after Bella had finished applying a truckload of mascara to my eyelashes. ‘Give daddy a twirl.’
I didn’t twirl. He could go fuck himself.
Murphy stood to the side a little as Bella tossed the make-up bag on the bed and left the room, slamming the door behind her.
My eyes still on the door, I jumped as Murphy grasped my chin in his long fingers.
‘I’d buy you,’ he said.
I took all the rage and the hate that had been sitting inside my chest for the past few days, and channelled it into my knee. I smiled sweetly as I brought it up into his balls, hitting my target with force and precision.
I grinned as he doubled over in front of me.
‘Baby,’ I said in his ear, ‘you couldn’t afford me.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
DORNAN
He could feel his father’s eyes on him; could feel the rage inside Emilio, burning two holes in his face.
The girl was going to be auctioned off, and the sadness that spread through Dornan’s chest at that fact was deeply unsettling. He’d spent mere moments with her.
But he had tasted her tears.
Tasted her blood.
