Chapter 17
Sabine
Astor releases my wrists,sending my arms falling around my waist like dead weight. “Again,” he says, low and menacing.
“Again? W—what?”
It takes a second to realize he’s asking me to slap him again.
“No,” I reply with exactly zero gumption.
“Again.” The word rumbles through his throat. He’s trembling again. “Hard this time, Sabine. Harder. Make it hurt.”
“Why?”
“Because I need a reason to punish you. I need a reason to tie you to the bed and fuck you until you come so many times you forget your own name.”
I am completely dumbfounded, unable to respond, unable to think, unable to breathe. I stare at him, gobsmacked.
When I don’t slap him, his eyes slowly ice over.
Switch, off.
“Smart decision, Miss Hart.”
With those words, Astor steps back, shoves me against the shower wall, turns, and walks out of the bathroom without so much as a glance.
My jaw drops. I stare at my flushed reflection in the mirror, unable to process what just happened. The whiplash of it all.
I listen to his brusque steps leave the room.
My heart is racing, my head spinning, my sex wet and throbbing.
The door slams shut.
What the hell just happened?
I hear a voice outside the room. Snapping out of my trance, I yank down my dress, dart out of the bathroom, and tiptoe in a jog to the door, then press my ear against it.
It’s Cillian. “Whoa, man. You okay, Astor?”
“No.”
Astor’s angry footsteps fade down the hall.
There’s a pause, and when the knob turns, I stumble backward.
Cillian peeks inside. He frowns as he looks me up and down, and I get the sense he’s checking to make sure Astor didn’t kill me.
Then he shakes his head and disappears, shutting—and locking—the door behind him.
An hour later, there’s a knock at my door. I open it just as the manor’s sentinel, Leo, disappears down the hallway.
In front of my room sits a rolling cart with a five-course meal.
The appetizer? A family-size bag of potato chips.
The main dish? A sixteen-ounce filet cooked medium-rare.
The drink? Exactly one gallon of water.
The dessert? A bag of cinnamon gummies (the little bear kind) and two painkillers.