a friend like him.”
“He will take you into town tomorrow. You can buy Miranda and Eric something from one of the shops. How are they?”
The smooth skin of her beautiful throat rippled through a swallow he heard. “They’re better now.”
He liked that she didn’t insult him by attempting to lie. “After hearing from you.”
She inched another step back before nodding.
“Do you think I might strike you, Yasmeen?”
“No. But I’ve been wrong about that before.”
“Really. When?” His mind opened up, and suddenly he wasn’t the only one listening for her answer. The darkness inside him wanted to know who it would swallow.
“A couple of the homes I stayed in weren’t the best place for a little kid. If the men drank, they usually weren’t happy drunks.”
“They hit you?”
“A few of them.” She was playing with the ends of her hair, wrapping a lock around her pinkie so tight the tip was turning purple. “I only had to stay a couple of months before my worker pulled me from places like that.”
“Have you always been Yasmeen Michaels? Or did you go by another name growing up?” His insides were charring at the image of his pet as a ten-year-old girl, cowering in a corner as some drunk slapped or punched her.
“No. I’ve always been Yasmeen.”
“Did they make you bleed?”
Her hands coming to rest on his waist had him blinking to find her face only inches away. “Lucian, it’s okay. It was a long time ago.”
“Did you bleed by their hand?”
She dropped her eyes. “Sometimes. One of them slapped me across the face once for not closing the bread bag after I made my lunch. My nose started bleeding. It wouldn’t stop even when he sent me off to school. The nurse let me know about the pinching-the-bridge-while-tipping-your-head-back thing.”
“How old were you?” He was whispering. In his head, something was roaring in outrage.
“Nine.”
He nodded stiffly and bent to press his lips to the straight slope of her nose. “I would never strike you. Not for any reason.”
“Okay.”
“But I will spank you as a punishment if you deserve it. And to pleasure you, of course. Your ass, your clit, and your entire pussy if I see your body respond.”
A shaky laugh puffed out to warm his throat. “Uh, yeah, we’ll have to discuss that before—”
“We just did. Go to sleep now.”
He left her there. He had some records to dig up.
EIGHT
Yasmeen watched her imperious lover walk away, his shoulders stiff, blinders firmly in place.
Spank her pussy? Jesus…
“Er, where are you going, Lucian?”
“To my office.”
Her stomach dropped. Goosebumps pricked on her arms. She wasn’t sure what was worse, the idea of him going off alone looking as he did or him leaving her alone.
“Here in the castle?” Please say yes. She didn’t relish the thought of clinging to his ankle and riding his foot all the way to the foyer before he kicked her off and left.
“Yes.”
She breathed a little easier, but the closer he got to the door, the faster she began raveling and unraveling her hair on her throbbing finger. She pressed her lips together. She wouldn’t ask if she could go with him. She wouldn’t. Or, God forbid, ask him to stay with her because she was feeling vulnerable. No way. No way in hell.
“Goodnight, pet.”
“Goodnight.”
She watched the muscles beneath his shirt tighten and release with every step he took away from her. His watch glinted as he reached out and turned the knob. He walked through the door, closing it behind him. Panic filled her as the stunning room transformed into a dark attic in her mind. All around her were dust motes and spiders, a flickering nightlight, and that dirty little bed she ended up sleeping in for almost five months.
And then she was running. She wrenched open the door and called out, her voice tight and high. “Lucian?”
He stopped fifteen feet away and came around to look at her with a frown.
She’d never felt so weak. “I don’t want to stay up here by myself. Can I come with you?” Her pulse hammered when his eyes narrowed on her. “Please? I promise I won’t bother you. You won’t even know I’m there.”
A full minute went by before he lifted a hand. With a relief that weakened her muscles, she skipped to him and slipped her hand into his.
“Thank you.”
He gave a clipped nod. “Would you like to put something on your feet?”
She looked down at her bare toes and shook her head. What if he left without her?
“I laid