20. June
June
“Julian?” I called out, but the name was swallowed by the heavy velvet drapes and the cold stone walls of the manor.
I found the cleaning staff in the shadows of the dining hall.
They moved like phantoms through the house, their eyes fixated on the floorboards as if looking up might get them in trouble.
When I asked for Julian, the head housekeeper didn’t even stop scrubbing the silver.
She simply jerked her chin in the direction of the upper floor, her voice a thin, frightened rasp.
“Mr. Julian is out, Miss June. But Mr. Cain… Mr. Cain is in the main office. He has been there for hours training the new butler.”
“Oh… okay,” I murmured, the words feeling small in the vast, echoing hallway. I tried to offer a polite smile, but the housekeeper was already back to the silver, ignoring me as if I had already walked away.
Rude…
I turned and walked off, my footsteps sounding too loud against the empty hallways.
As I turned the corner into the final corridor, the silence of the house was violently disrupted.
It started as a low, guttural vibration—a sound that was less a voice and more an animalistic release.
I stopped, my breath caught in my throat immediately.
From behind the heavy door of the office came a wet, rhythmic sliding sound, followed by a moan so deep and dark it felt like a physical caress against my skin.
Confusion warred with a sudden, illicit heat. I knew those sounds. I knew the frantic, desperate tone of a body being pushed to its limit, but I had never heard them from Cains office before.
I slowed my pace, my heart hammering as I crept closer. The sounds grew louder and more violent.
Suddenly, a heavy clatter erupted from behind the door, the sound of something hitting the floorboards. I froze. Then, the rhythm started.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Something was slamming into the wall with a relentless force.
It wasn’t just a noise, it was a vibration that I could feel in the soles of my feet.
It was a heavy pounding against the wood of the wall, so forceful it made the frames in the hallway rattle.
Between the thuds, I heard a sharp, female gasp a high pitched intake of breath that was quickly muffled by a low, authoritative voice.
The banging grew faster, more frantic, a relentless assault of flesh against wood. I stood there, my fingers hovering over the handle, paralysed.
I should have turned back. I should have run. Instead, I leaned closer, my forehead touching the grain of the door.
I hadn’t realised I was leaning so hard against the grain until the latch gave way with a sickening clack.
I tumbled forward, the air rushing out of my lungs as I hit the Persian rug. The impact jarred my spine, leaving me sprawled face down out on the floor, gasping and disoriented. I scrambled to look up, my breath stopping as the scene in the office came into sharp, gruelling focus.
Cain was standing, a towering, predatory figure against his desk.
A blonde woman bent over the edge, her back arched at a painful breaking point, her eyes covered by the silk fabric of Cain’s discarded suit tie, knotted tightly behind her head.
She was sobbing—in pain or pleasure I’m not sure, as he drove into her with a mechanical brutality.
His dominance was predatory. With one hand, he held both of the woman’s wrists pinned securely behind her back, further restraining her against the desk.
His other hand wasn’t on her. It was wrapped tight around a heavy steel choke chain.
The chain led down, locking onto the collar of a man positioned between the woman’s legs.
He was on his knees, his face buried deep between her thighs, his tongue working with a frantic precision.
Every time the man tried to pull back for air, Cain yanked the chain, the metal links rattling with a lethal snap as he forced the man’s head back into place, pinning him there.
I was in such a state of shock that the second man felt like a shadow—an extension of the furniture, until Cain’s eyes locked onto mine. He didn’t stop. He didn’t even break his stride. He just kept fucking her while looking at me.
“June,” he rumbled, his voice a low, terrifying vibration that seemed to shake the very floorboards.
He gave the chain a forceful tug, pulling the man’s head even firmer against the woman’s slick skin.
“Meet Percy. He’s the new butler I hired.
Excellent choice of staff, if you ask me. Very… obedient.”
Percy let out a muffled, strained grunt against the woman’s thigh, his hands gripping her hips for balance as Cain continued to slam into her from behind. The woman thrashed, her muffled cries of pleasure lost in the repetitive thud of the desk.
Cain’s gaze raked over me, cold and unbothered by my presence on the floor. A dark, smirk pulled at his lips, the look of a man who enjoyed the audience.
“Now,” he hissed, his grip on the choke chain tightening until the metal bit into his palm.
“Unless you intend on joining us, I suggest you get the fuck out—before I make the decision for you.”
The shock finally subsided. “Omg… omg!” I gasped, the words tumbling out in a panicked breath as I slammed my hands over my eyes, desperate to block out the sight of the chains and the depravity unfolding in front of me. “I’m so sorry! I’m sorry!”
I scrambled to my feet and bolted, my feet slipping on the rug, my mind a screaming wreck of what I had just witnessed.
I tripped over the threshold, my hands catching the doorframe as I hauled myself back into the hallway down the stairs and into the garden.
The scent of the roses was thick, almost sickly in the midday heat, hanging in the air like a perfumed shroud.
Usually, I loved this corner of the garden, but today the sweetness felt heavy, like it was trying to mask the thick, carnal scent of the office I’d just ran from.
My heart was still a frantic mess in my chest, the image of Cain’s relentless body and the repetitive thud-thud-thud of the desk burned into my mind.
I squeezed my eyes shut, desperate to claw my way out of the memory, but I couldn't escape the picture of him. I struggled to drag the image of his naked body out of my head, but it was impossible when it so perfectly resembled Julian’s.
In every single way, they were identical.
They were both... gifted. I would give them that.
The realisation made a sick, thrilling heat curl deep in my stomach, and I tried to push the now-spiralling, completely inappropriate thoughts from my mind.
It was madness. It was taboo. But staring at the memory of Cain felt exactly like staring at the ghost of Julian, and the line between my saviour and my predator was beginning to blur into something terrifyingly inescapable.
This was supposed to be my sanctuary, the only place where the oppressive energy Cain carried couldn’t reach. Julian and I had spent countless afternoons here, buried in the high grass, building a place of peace we could retreat. And now it felt tainted with my inappropriate thoughts.
A soft meow comes from my right. I’d made it a habit to feed the three stray cats that claimed the manor grounds as their own private kingdom.
Cain hated it, protesting they brought “vermin and filth” to the estate.
He took a twisted pleasure in scaring them off, but I didn’t care.
I kept feeding them anyway. Screw him. He didn’t understand that some things just need a little kindness to survive.
Jasper, the long haired stray, was currently keeping me company. He was a ghost given form, his stark white fur like spun silk as he leaned his weight against my side, purring with a soothing tenderness that regularly grounded me.
I was lying on my stomach, the blades of grass cool and tickling against my skin while the sun baked the back of my legs.
I was tracing the silver embossed lines of the Poe book Julian had given me, trying to lose myself in the dark, rhythmic cadence of The Raven.
It was a strange comfort. Poe’s words felt more like home than any room in this manor.
They understood the beauty in the macabre, the holiness in the ache.
A shadow suddenly stretched across the page, cold and daunting.
Jasper recoiled, backing away with a hiss born out of instinctive terror.
His back arched before he vanished into the rosebushes like smoke. That was my first clue. .
I looked up, a knot of cold dread forming instantly in my throat when I saw Cain looming over me.
He wasn’t like Julian. Julian was a slow burn ache, a fire you wanted to get close to even if it scorched you.
Cain was a sudden, freezing draft in a windowless room.
He stood there, his hands in his pockets, looking down at me with the same intimidating, detached, clinical focus he’d had while buried inside that blindfolded woman.
My skin prickled as I noticed he hadn’t even bothered to change his shirt, a small, dark splash of something—lipstick maybe, marked his collar.
“Uhh, hi,” I said, my voice sounding smaller and more fragile than I wanted. I tried to pull my legs together, feeling suddenly, terrifyingly exposed.
“Waiting for Julian, little bird?” he asked. His voice was smooth but the gravelly edge from his exertion upstairs still lingered underneath. It made me feel instantly uncomfortable.
“Well, I’m definitely not here to see you,” I countered. I managed a half-smirk, though my pulse was still rabbiting. I flipped a page of my book, trying to look busier than I was, but my fingers were trembling.
He let out a dry laugh that didn’t reach his eyes. “Oh, I could only hope to be so lucky as to command your undivided attention, June. Though, I believe I had it quite clearly only a few minutes ago.”
A traitorous heat crawled up my neck, a deep, stinging blush that broadcasted exactly how much of his depravity I’d actually seen.