The Price (House of Sin #5) - Elisabeth Naughton Page 0,62
like letting him go anywhere without me. He’d asked me to come with him, and some protective urge inside me was desperate to keep him in my sight.
“Are you sure?” I asked, looking up at him.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” He straightened and smiled at the receptionist.
She held out her arm toward a door to the right of her desk. “This way, sir.”
Sir. My stomach felt as if it dropped like a stone.
The women at that clinic back in New York had used that word. All of the women at Covet, the fashion magazine where Luc had worked when I’d met him, had called both Luc and his brother Gio sir. Many of them, I knew now, had been sexual submissives trained by their depraved House.
Luc disappeared through the doorway with the blonde, and the door closed behind them with a clap that sounded like a gunshot in my ears.
Drawing in a breath, I closed my eyes and told myself Felicity would not have sent us to a place like that, with women whose only purpose was to sexually serve the men around them.
But even as I reassured myself of that fact, I remembered that box of sex toys Felicity had given me. And I heard her words by the car. “Until he can regain control of his sexuality, he can’t heal. And if he can’t heal, he can’t get past what they did to him. And we need him to get past it. The future is perched on a ledge, waiting for Luc to become the man he was always supposed to be.”
Bile rose in my throat, and I swallowed it back. If I couldn’t help him sexually, would Felicity have sent him to someone who could? To women who were trained to completely submit in a way I never would?
“Mrs. Salvatici. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
My eyes shot open at the sound of the cultured British voice coming toward me. I jerked to my feet, shaken by the fact I hadn’t heard a door open, hadn’t heard footsteps across the hardwood floor, hadn’t heard anything but my own neurotic fears spinning a million miles per hour in my head.
“Um. Hello.”
I stared wide-eyed at the woman who stopped in front of me. She was several inches taller than me, with wide blue eyes, silky blonde hair that fell in soft waves to the middle of her back, and a slim, perfect body that could’ve just stepped off a catwalk.
She held out her hand. “I’m Abigail Stanton. You can call me Abby.”
Her fingers were long and slim, her nails perfectly manicured, and when her hand closed around mine, she pulled me in and kissed both of my cheeks before I could stop her.
She even smelled perfect—like lilacs.
As she released me and I took in the slim, fitted purple sweater dress that hugged her curves and showed off her breasts and kneehigh black stiletto boots, I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of doctor looked and dressed and acted like this. Or if she was even a doctor at all.
“I see Eve has already taken Mr. Salvatici back for his exam.”
“Exam?” Alarm bells rang in my head, and I glanced toward the door Luc and that blonde had disappeared through.
“Don’t worry. It’s not something he can fail. Height, weight, a quick health questionnaire, that’s all.”
Her words didn’t calm my anxiety any. I remembered all too well the questionnaire I’d been told to fill out at that medical exam in New York, all the personal, sexual questions I’d refused to answer. And I couldn’t help but notice the blonde’s name was Eve. Just like the woman who’d tempted Adam in the Garden of Eden.
I swallowed hard and crossed my arms over my chest, wishing I’d worn something sexy now instead of the long black skirt, flats, and chunky sweater. Next to this goddess I looked frumpy and plain.
“You’re a doctor?” I asked, knowing I sounded like a bitch but unable to keep the bite from my voice. “This doesn’t look like any medical office I’ve ever been in.”
“Yes.” She smiled. “I’ve been practicing for nearly ten years. All my clients are thoroughly satisfied.”
Oh holy hell, she had not just said that. I could literally feel the sickness rising in my belly.
Her smile faded. “I should make one thing very clear to you, Mrs. Salvatici. My methods are a bit unorthodox. And while I am able and willing to treat all members of the Entente, I do remain loyal to House Merrick. I’m treating