Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Jasper
We take breakfast in my office, with Juliet seated on my lap while I feed her bits of this and that from the plate we share. There’s a highchair stored in my closet, but after the eventful morning we’ve had, it doesn’t seem like the right time to add to her distress. Maxwell would tell me the longer I delay, the harder it will be for her to accept her role as my Little girl, but I can’t bring myself to upset Juliet further right now if it can be avoided.
Especially since much of what her Auntie Cat and I have planned for the day cannot be.
As we eat, Cat chatters brightly about the island and all the wonderful things available for “sweet Little girls” like my princess. Despite herself, Juliet leans in, curiosity stamped all over her face as she listens to her Auntie Cat’s excited tales.
“And once you’ve settled in a bit, I’ll take you and Tori to the spa for a bit of pampering. Just us girls. No mean old Daddies around to spoil our fun,” she adds with a salacious wink.
I roll my eyes, but don’t bother to contradict her. Cat is, possibly, the strictest of all of us, and as Tori recently learned, she is just as quick to put a naughty girl over her knee for a healthy dose of discipline as any Daddy. While she might spoil them rotten, she isn’t going to allow them to become spoiled, and it’s a distinction we all appreciate.
“Who’s Tori?” Juliet asks, her mouth turning down in a frown. “Is she your… umm…”
Longing fills Cat’s eyes as she shakes her head. “No, she’s not my Little girl. She belongs to Maxwell. But she is an absolute darling and I have no doubt you two will hit it off fabulously.”
Does Juliet hear the hint of warning beneath Cat’s words? It’s subtle, but it’s there. The girls will get along, or they will have Auntie Cat to answer to.
Not for the first time, gratitude fills my chest. When Maxwell first approached me about the island, I wasn’t sure about Catharina’s presence. My reservations had nothing to do with what’s between her legs, and everything to do with the fact that I’ve sat on the opposite side of the table from her during a negotiation and I know better than any of us how downright vicious she can be.
But Auntie Cat is almost a completely different person, and after getting to know this version of Catharina Montgomery, I can’t imagine us building this life, this family, without her.
A quick glance at my watch shows we’re running a bit behind schedule and I grimace. “We need to get going if we’re going to make our appointment at Solene’s.”
Juliet’s head whips around, her hair smacking me in the face in the process, and her eyes are almost comically round in her heart-shaped face. “Shut up . You do not have Solene on this island. She stopped designing clothes ages ago.”
“Two years,” I correct her with a smug smile. “And she didn’t stop designing. She simply… shifted her focus a bit. Once we discovered Solene’s secret, it was remarkably easy to convince her to move to our island. She and her Mommy have been a wonderful addition to our population.”
I don’t think I could have shocked Juliet more if I’d told her Solene was secretly an alien in disguise, using her work as a fashion designer to study the human race. “Are you serious? You better not be fu—messing with me.”
“Good girl.” Pulling her close, I press a kiss to her forehead. “Thank you for catching yourself. Daddy is very proud of you, princess.”
“It’s not a big deal,” she mumbles, but there’s a smile on her lips and her cheeks have turned a pretty pink at my praise.
“Either way, I am very proud of you for correcting yourself before I had to. But if we miss our appointment at Solene’s, I’ll have to spank you again. Not much gets her riled up, but I’ve heard she’s a holy terror if you make her wait.”
“So she hasn’t changed,” Juliet says with a loud, happy laugh. “God, I haven’t seen her in forever, it seems like. Can we go now? Please?”
“Absolutely.”
But as she’s sliding off my lap, we’re both stopped by the sound of Cat clearing her throat. Pinning us with an exasperated look, she gestures to Juliet. “Jasper. You cannot let your Little girl leave the house with her hair looking like that.”
Frowning, I look at Juliet’s hair. It’s a bit matted from her sleep since I didn’t bother to wash it, but not too bad. “You have a brush in your purse, right? We’ll just take care of it on the way.”
If looks could kill, I would be annihilated right there on the spot under Cat’s withering glare. “Men. I swear. Come with me, Juliet. Auntie Cat will get you straightened up while your Daddy calls Solene to let her know we’re going to be late.”
Taking Juliet’s hand, Cat flounces out of my office. I watch them go, torn between annoyance at Cat’s high-handedness and gratitude that I have someone to help me with these little details I’m apparently oblivious to.
Settling on gratitude for the time being, I pick up the phone and call Solene.
Juliet
“I cannot believe he was going to let you walk out of here with your hair looking like you just rolled out of bed.” Huffing indignantly, Auntie Cat all but drags me upstairs to the room I awoke in this morning. It doesn’t escape my notice that she knows exactly where that room is without asking, and my mind goes into overdrive trying to figure out what exactly that means .
There’s obviously a good bit of forethought and planning that’s gone into their little island getaway here, but to what end? And who else is involved? She mentioned someone named Maxwell, but that’s not exactly an uncommon name in our circles. How the hell did they get fucking Solene of all people to come to their island? When she disappeared from the public eye a few years ago, there was rampant speculation about where she’d gone and why she’d stepped out of the limelight at the height of her career.
The press would have a field day knowing she was secreted away on some island in the middle of nowhere, helping a bunch of kinky billionaires play dress up with women they've kidnapped.
While my mind is distracted trying to figure out what the fuck is going on, Auntie Cat steers me to the bathroom where she not-so-gently pushes me down onto a stool in front of a giant vanity. I yelp as my punished bottom presses hard against the stool, but between the oddly thick underwear Jasper put me in and the padding of the stool, the pain quickly fades to something more bearable as I look at the vanity she’s sat me in front of. For a moment, the materialistic side of me takes over and I run my hands lovingly over the stunning white marble. I didn’t really have time to notice the finer touches earlier, what with the soap in my mouth and all the threats of more spankings. “Oh. This is lovely.”
Auntie Cat’s gaze meets mine in the mirror and she smiles. “It is. Your Daddy spared no expense building this home for you.”
Home . There’s that word again. It lodges in my throat, cutting off my air supply. Whatever twisted game Jasper is playing, surely he can’t mean for me to actually live here.
In the reflection, Auntie Cat’s smile fades. “What’s wrong, sweetheart? You look like someone stole your puppy.”
“This isn’t my home,” I whisper, tears filling my eyes as I twist around to look up at her, letting my plea fill my eyes and voice. “Please, Catharina. I can’t stay here. Jasper doesn’t even like me.”
“Nonsense, little girl. Your Daddy wouldn’t have brought you here if he didn’t want you here. So I suggest you put those thoughts out of your head right this instant.”
There’s an undercurrent to her words that has my bottom clenching instinctively. Being spanked by Catharina Montgomery was certainly not on my Bingo card for this year or any other, but it doesn’t seem like it’s off the table, all things considered. Still, I can’t help but pressing, just a bit. I have to do something to get the hell off this island and if anyone might heed my appeal for sympathy, I imagine another woman would.
“Doesn’t it matter that I never asked to be here? He basically kidnapped me!”
One dark, perfectly sculpted eyebrow arches upward. “Did he? Because as we were told, you called him demanding to come stay with him while your legal troubles worked themselves out. From what I heard, he did try to warn you that you wouldn’t enjoy it here.”
“I mean… yes . But he didn’t tell me about any of this!” I gesture to my Little girl dress, the room, her. Everything.
“Ah, well, it’s a Daddy’s prerogative to decide what his Little girl needs to know and when.” Auntie Cat’s smile returns as she picks up the large square hairbrush on the counter. “Now, turn around so I can do something about this hair.”
“But—”
Her dark eyes flash with warning, immediately stopping my protest in its tracks. “Little girl, unless you want me to bend you over this vanity and use this brush to paddle your bottom, I suggest you stop arguing and do as you are told.”
Tears burn in my eyes as I slowly force myself to comply. With my ass still on fire from Jasper’s paddle, there is no way in hell I’m risking another spanking so soon.
“Thank you for listening, sweetheart.” Auntie Cat’s voice returns to its previous gentle, cajoling tone as she tugs the brush through the ends of my knotted hair. It’s further testament to how distressed I’ve been all morning that I didn’t give a second thought to how I look. “I’ve always been a bit envious of your hair, you know.”
“What?” Startled, I lift my gaze to meet hers in the reflection. “Me? Seriously?”
“Mmhmm. There was a time I wanted nothing more than to be one of the blonde beauties our circles so covet.” A smirk tugs at her lips. “I grew out of it. But the fact remains that you still have absolutely gorgeous hair.”
“I didn’t think you even knew who I was.” While I had seen her at various social functions over the years, I’d always been too intimidated to actually approach her.
Looking back now, I can’t help but wonder if something in me recognized something in her. Whatever it is inside her that’s brought her to this island with my brother. I’m not the type to be scared of anyone, ever, but I’d always found myself giving Catharina Montgomery a wide berth.
“Of course I knew who you were, silly girl. Elizabeth Carrington’s only daughter, which makes you heiress to a not-unsizeable fortune. An even larger fortune, I imagine, now that you are a Blackwood as well.”
“It should have been. They cut me off.”
The room seems to vibrate with Auntie Cat’s throaty laughter. “Did they, now? Well, that’s understandable I suppose, what with all the trouble you’ve managed to get yourself into the past few years. But you’re here with us now, and your Daddy will take care of everything.”
“But I don’t want him to take care of me.” I’m aware I’m whining, but I can’t seem to help myself. Between the clothes, the spankings, the bottle and the soothing rhythm of the brush running through my hair, I’m starting to actually feel like a child despite myself. “I want to go travel the world and live my fucking life.”
I catch Auntie Cat’s expression in the mirror and notice she’s frowning at me again. The disappointment on her face twists my stomach into knots. “I know full well your Daddy does not allow that kind of language, little girl. Do I need to call him to come wash your mouth out before we go?”
Panic beats at my chest at the memory of the soap burning my throat and nasal passages. Not to mention the horrible taste. I’d do anything to avoid that fate again. “No, Auntie Cat, please don’t! I’m trying to be good, I swear!”
“All right. But if it happens again, I will spank you myself while he scrubs your mouth clean. Understood?”
Whew. A small reprieve, at least. I’ll have to remember to watch myself in front of her in the future. “Yes, Ma’am.”
“That’s a good girl.” Still frowning, she resumes brushing and we sit in silence for a while as she untangles the knots before parting my hair down the middle. “Juliet, what do you think would happen if you returned to New York right this very minute?”
“I guess I’d go home and beg mom and Arthur to help me.” But even as I say the words, a pit forms in my stomach. My parents have already cut me off, which is the whole reason I turned to Jasper in the first place. What makes me think they’ll take me back now?
“Oh, my sweet, na?ve Little girl.” Shaking her head, Auntie Cat tucks the brush under one arm and begins twisting half my hair into a complicated braid. “Let me tell you exactly what would happen. If your Daddy gave into your demands, you would be arrested on the spot the moment you stepped off his plane. And unless your parents change their minds about cutting you off completely, you’ll stay in prison until your trial, which could be several months away. If they are willing to pay for a halfway decent lawyer, you may get off with a few years of probation, which means none of that world travel you were just talking about. But most likely you’ll go to jail, and I don’t think I need to tell you that prison would not be kind to a pretty thing like yourself.”
Her words are like a bucket of ice-cold water being dumped on my head.
Because she’s right. Even if I could convince Jasper to take me back, and even if everything went my way when I returned, my ruse would be uncovered in a heartbeat. Instead of the tragically missing daughter of a wealthy family, everyone would see me for what I actually am: a wanted fugitive who fled the country while awaiting trial. The media is unlikely to be kind to me, and if public opinion turns on me, the courts very well may follow.
Which means I’m stuck on this island with my fucked-up stepbrother and his equally fucked-up friends. And I have nobody to blame but myself.