I have just enough time to spot Antonio and silently beg for help, but the prick turns away and resumes his conversation in the hallway. What a fucking jerk. He doesn’t want to help me. That makes him almost as bad as Xavier.
“If you keep disobeying like that, I’ll run out of places to hurt,” Xavier spits out, grabbing my clothes. It rips as he pulls me closer, the sound of fabric coming apart at the seams sending shivers down my spine.
Emboldened by the rip, Xavier groans and rips the rest of my silky robe open, throwing the remains to the ground. Once again, I’m fully at his mercy, exposed to him, wearing nothing at all.
His hungry gaze drinks me up this time. There’s no denying the fact that he’s looking - no, devouring - me whole with his eyes.
“You look so pretty right now, Tallulah,” he mutters, reminding me of my smeared makeup, wild hair from swimming and my frightened eyes. I know he’s making fun of me, but I risk another look at him, and he looks deathly serious. “But since you refuse to follow a single fucking direction, here’s your extra punishment.”
He clamps a pair of cuffs over my wrists while I stare at him with a seething glare. Then he attaches a chain to the cuffs and forces me to leave the room, tugging on the chain to make me follow along.
“Wait!” I cry out in a panic. “Let me get dressed.”
“You lost your clothing privilege tonight, angel,” Xavier delivers in a cool, detached voice. “You’ll just have to get used to being naked.”
I blanch as he leads me outside. The guards quickly look away, as if competing to see who will look at me the least. Xavier seems pleased at this, but it pisses me off. I feel like nothing. Like some invisible wallflower no one even notices in the room. My temperament flares, reminding me how desperate I really am for anybody’s attention.
Xavier marches me to the car. Antonio opens the door for me and I get inside, sullen. Xavier follows, keeping my hands cuffed and putting my belt on himself. He doesn’t use one.
I stare out the windows as we drive back to the city. This was supposed to be a fun, exciting and romantic night, but everything’s gone wrong. I can’t believe Xavier hit me. The way he punished me suggests he’s every bit as ruthless as his reputation claims.
I thought I was an exception, but tonight just proved the opposite.
Xavier Gunn has no fucking problem hurting me. In fact, I think the bastard enjoys it.
He doesn’t speak to me on the way home, and I don’t say a word either. At least nobody can stare at me in the car, since it’s just us in the backseat. But once we return to the Casa, I quickly realize Xavier won’t let me get away with my transgressions quite as easily.
By the time we pull up, every single employee of the Casa is out on the lawn in the morning sun. Maids, servants, stable boys, gardeners - everyone is here, and they all look mortified as Xavier helps me out of the car like the perfect gentleman.
It feels as if my whole body is on fire with shame as he shows me to the door. The cuffs around my wrists feel like shackles, the leash fucking humiliating and giving the impression that I’m property. None of the help look at me, all of them averting their gazes. It makes me so angry. It makes me feel like I’m nothing worth looking at.
Angry tears burn my eyes, but I force myself to blink them away, following Xavier into the house. He unlocks my cuffs in my bedroom and I sit as far away from him as possible after ripping out a dress from my closet and sulkily pulling it on.
I don’t know what bothers me more - that Xavier made all those people stand around while I was naked, or that he barely touched me himself. He must not be attracted to me. Any red-blooded man wouldn’t have been able to resist, but Xavier barely looks at me. Why does he hate me so much?
It must all just be an elaborate plan to hurt my parents. I should’ve known it all along.
“Where are my puppies?” I demand from the far corner, angrily glaring at Xavier. “You didn’t have them sent away, did you?”
His eyes darken, and for a moment, I fear the worst. That he gave the dogs away, or worse. But a moment later, the two angry furballs race into the room, practically climbing each other to get closer to me. For the first time in hours, I laugh as they lick my chin.
“Thanks for letting me keep them,” I mutter sheepishly, refusing to meet Xavier’s gaze. “I love them.”