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33
Annie
"That was too close."
Lettie was right. But I felt like giggling. Or having hysterics.
We got back to the room moments before the guards showed up. There wasn't even time to throw ourselves into the beds and pretend we were sleeping and no reason to, as it turned out. The pair of them, the ones from the shower room, had less than no interest in what the hell we'd been doing.
"He wants two of you."
That was the one who had assaulted me. Standing there in the doorway, enough brawn to make sure no one could slip past them. Everything inside me tightened with the desire to kill him.
I'd kill his partner for good measure.
At the statement, all of us looked at each other. "Any two?" Mia asked, bolder than I'd seen her. "Or does he have specific requirements?"
Nikki had curled into a ball on the bed, arms around her knees. She looked like she as trying to disappear. Mia sat calmly observing the men.
It was Lettie and I who both stood, as if unwilling to be seen on a bed with any sort of suggestion behind our being there. Or as if we were going to operate from a place of power. We didn't have the power in this situation, but standing made us feel better.
The guard who spoke wasn't the one who had assaulted me. "Don't be stupid," he said. It seemed like a sort of general warning. "He wants the new bitch and you." He pointed at Lettie.
We looked at each other. Too soon for any kind of exchange of ideas just through a glance, but it seemed likely Bevington had made a bad choice.
Then pain flared again from the brand on my ass and fear raced up my spine. If he touched me, if he did anything to me, the pain would be so horrible I wouldn't be able to react. Even with Lettie there, what could she do? I'd never even seen her in a stress situation. She might instantly collapse. She might instantly give in to whatever he wanted.
Dread coiled up in my belly.
Lettie reached over and took my hand. "We need to get ready." She waved a hand at her clothes, which definitely weren't sleep clothes, though that didn't seem to occur to the guards. "He won't like it if you bring us down looking like this."
A tiny fraction of the dread backed down. She'd phrased that exactly right. Not We can't come down looking like this or He'll be angry if we come down looking like this, both of which put the onus on us. The guards, especially this pair, didn't give a shit what Bevington did to us as a result of being angry at how we looked. Instead she'd put it on them without doing so directly. He won't like it if you do this suggested his anger at them without coming out and saying so.
The guards exchanged a glance that suggested they had been together long enough for a limited amount of telepathy, then answered as if of course they knew that and of course they'd meant we were to go with them as soon as we were ready.
I mentally laughed. Not much, but it felt good to see someone else wrongfooted for a second.
The guards waited on the outside of the Harem door. I thought probably they weren't supposed to be in the room at all. Every time I'd seen them they were waiting outside or just inside the room. Naturally Bevington would want to keep his toys to himself.
"You need to be prepared," Lettie said.
She'd been nothing but kind to me, but I nearly snapped at her, asking what she thought I was doing in here in one of the bedrooms, digging through the case of stuff Evie had sent with me. "What do you mean?" Even that came out short, but I thought she'd understand.
I was pawing through the case, looking for everything I'd seen Evie pack which seemed to be rearranged, when Lettie put a hand on m arm. I stopped and looked at her, intending to go right back to what I was doing, then stopped completely.
Lettie nodded like now she had my attention. "He asks for two of us at a time on purpose."
Impatience. Wasn't that every guy's fantasy? Hell, he could insist his entire harem put on a live sex show for him. Maybe it was a surprise that so far, he hadn't, not since I'd been here. Then again, there was always the risk that one or more of us might find pleasure that way and I thought he would want to be the only one who could provide any of us with pleasure of any sort.
I went still with that thought. Pleasure. Or pain? I thought he was willing to let pretty much anyone hurt us with his permission.
Like maybe each other? What could be more divisive? Did he care if we liked each other? I didn't know but the answer was probably that he did care.
That he was against it.
"What are you talking about?" It wasn't something I really wanted to know.
Lettie dropped her chin down, kind of like half a nod. "He's apt to order me to take a cane to you."
