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Rage and confusion warred within my mind. "Why are you doing this? What has happened?" I asked.
If he heard me, he chose not to answer. Rather than continuing to try something as pointless as talking to four walls, I left for breakfast. For once, I was the last to arrive. The others turned to look as I entered. Bri and Payton only glanced before going back to their food. Dahlia, however, locked her eyes on mine. The anger and hurt on her face hurt me deeply. Not only that but she’d taken a seat away from where she usually sat beside me, instead sitting where Ashley had on her one and only day in the house. All I wanted was to explain to her. To talk this out, so that she could see why I’d brought her here. If she could only see it from my perspective, she might allow me in. It was the one place I wanted to be. To have her fully and completely accept me and all that I wanted for her.
Sam’s order still rang in my mind as I walked in. No reason to delay things more than necessary. Instead of heading for my usual seat, I crossed the room and opened the china cabinet. Barely even thinking about it, I pulled a whip from within. The tool had been designed for urging horses on, now the tool was more associated with sexual adventures. BDSM and other types of pleasure and pain play that I typically enjoyed. Payton would not enjoy what I needed to do.
"What’s that for?" Bri asked. I could hear the trepidation in her voice.
Dahlia didn’t say anything but watched me as I stalked back across the room with the riding crop in my hand. She glanced quickly from my eye to the whip and back again. Payton had already figured out what I had to do. He dropped his fork and leaned back to cower away from me.
"Please," he whimpered.
I sighed heavily as I stepped up next to him, looking down upon his terrified face. "You know this isn’t personal. He ordered it. Now I have to do it."
Without waiting for a response I slashed out with the whip. The sound of it hitting his cheek was like a quiet gunshot. Payton tumbled to the side, falling out of his chair and clutching his cheek.
"You don’t have to do this," Dahlia said. She’d risen to her feet and glared at me.
"I do," I said slowly. "I told you. Things have changed."
She and I both hissed in pain as Sam shocked us.
"What the fuck is going on right now?" Bri asked, looking back and forth at us. "What do you mean things have changed?"
Sam didn’t want the others knowing my little secret yet, or so it appeared.
"I mean things are escalating," I said. "Or at least that’s how it seems to me."
Dahlia didn’t correct me, nor did she out me to the others. This was the second time we’d been together that she had a perfect chance to tell everyone what I really was and hadn’t. Maybe there was hope after all. Though she still gave me a hard glare as she retook her seat. I saw no love or warmth in her eyes.
Letting my rage play out, I brought the whip down again and again on Payton. The strikes taking him in different spots as he writhed and twisted on the ground, trying to get away. Shoulder, neck, back, chest, calf, hand, face again. Sweat beaded on my face as I brought the final stroke down between his legs. The square leather head of the whip slapped into his balls with a muffled and meaty thwack. His scream and begging stopped immediately, replaced by a high pitched squeal of pain.
The whip clattered on the ground as I tossed it aside, done with it. My cock was hardening in my pants from the infliction of pain on the man at my feet. Thoughts and emotions swirled in my head. What I truly wanted was to fuck Dahlia, right here, while Payton moaned in agony. To have her wrap her legs around me. Imagination and desire had me too preoccupied to realize what Bri was doing until it was too late.
When I turned to go to my seat, she was already standing behind me. There was just enough time for me to frown in confusion before she buried her fork in my shoulder. More shocked than hurt, I gasped in surprise and took a step back, grabbing my arm. Bri didn’t release the fork, it slid out of me no sound, blood oozed between my fingers.
"Drake," Dahlia called out. The worry in her eyes managed to push the pain away.
Grimacing, I gave her a nod. I would be fine. The wound wasn’t terrible. I’d had worse. My hand still ached sometimes from when it had been stabbed. Compared to that, this was a bug bite.
"What was that for?" I asked, staring daggers at Bri.
She rolled her eyes, and lifted her device. "Why the fuck do you think? He told me too. Said you weren’t hard enough on Payton. You needed to be taught a lesson." She sat down and stuffed a bite of pancake into her mouth using the same fork she’d stabbed me with. Red tinged her lips from the blood that had stained the tines. "You should be happy I only used the fork and not a knife."
All I could do was grunt at her. The anger that roiled inside me wasn’t for this woman, annoying bitch that she was. No. It was for my partner. The man who’d cut me off from the outside world, who’d turned his back on me with no warning, and could at any minute sentence me to death. He could have easily ordered Bri to slice my throat when I turned around.
Taking my seat, I ate the food that had already grown cold. Payton slowly recovered and made his way back to his seat. His right eye was red and swollen from where I’d struck him on the eyebrow. He didn’t bother eating, instead he sat, arms crossed and head down. When I looked over at Dahlia, the rage in her eyes had softened. She looked at the blood dripping down my arm, and back to my eyes. The question was there in her gaze. She wanted to know if I was okay. A slight grin tugged at the corners of my mouth. I nodded once, and she chewed at the inside of her cheek, thinking. Finally, after a few seconds, she returned my nod. Hope surged within me.
At the end of breakfast, Payton and Bri were both sent off to their respective tasks. Bri to the viewing room, and Payton to the music room. The two hurried out, leaving Dahlia and I lagging behind. Once they were out of sight, I decided I didn’t give a shit if Sam was watching. I had to press her body against mine, her warmth on my flesh. I grabbed her and pulled her into a hug.
Dahlia fought for a few seconds, beating her fists into my chest. She cried and sobbed until her furor leached away.
"I don’t even know who you are. I want to hate you," she said, trying to pull away.
"You know who I am. I never lied to you."
She stopped and gaped up at me. "All you’ve done is lie," she hissed.
With a shake of my head, I touched her face gently. "Never once. Maybe I hid the truth, or bent the truth, but I never lied."
