Twisted - Esme Devlin Page 0,34

fail to understand?”

“I… I don’t know. You letting me go I guess.”

“Impossible,” he says dismissively. “Even if I did, you wouldn’t be any safer. The world outside would eat a little thing like you alive. Try again.”

This feels like a trick question. Like whatever I say, he will just use it against me and do the opposite. “I don’t understand. You said I wouldn’t be able to sit down for a week after you’d finished with me. And now you’re asking what will make me happy?”

He laughs and lifts my dress up, exposing my bare flesh. I inhale a sharp breath, mentally kicking myself for reminding him about something he’d obviously forgotten.

He cracks his hand down hard across my cheeks, ripping the breath from my lungs while he chuckles with glee. And then he rubs the sting away. “Done,” he says. “Consider your lesson learned. It was merely bravado and deceit, played out for the benefit of every man and woman watching in that room. We can’t let them think you are special to me, can we? I thought you might have worked that out by now.”

“How would I have worked that out?”

“Have I ever hurt you?”

I almost say yes. Yes, he did, but then I remember that was only a dream. “No. Not really.”

“Exactly,” he says, still rubbing the sting away and making me squirm.

“That doesn’t mean you won’t, though.”

“Hmm. I suppose you’re right. I might hurt you. But only if I think you want or need me to.”

“That will never happen,” I argue.

“I’ll be the judge. Anyway, I digress. What would make you happy?”

For him to leave me alone? I almost let the words slip out, but I catch myself. Don’t be stupid, Sapphire. Yes, this could be a trick. But also, he might actually give me something I want. I can’t gamble that away just to spite him.

I need to be smart and use it to help me.

“Learning things makes me happy,” I tell him.

“Oh, how perfect. You have a curious mind, just as I do. Well, what kinds of things would you like to learn? Shall I bring you books? Teach you Russian? School you in the art of fellatio?” He chuckles after the last one, clearly finding himself amusing.

“Answer my questions,” I suggest.

“Hmm.” He gets up from the bed and begins pacing the room in front of me. “I’ll think about it. Knowledge is power, after all, and I enjoy you having none of that. But I do want to please you. Yes, I will sleep on it.”

He walks toward the door, as if he meant what he said quite literally. “Baron?”

He pauses. “Yes, dear?”

I jerk my wrists, reminding him I’m still tied to the bed on my stomach. “Can you let me go?”

“No. No, as much as I enjoyed my last suicide shift, I do think I’d prefer to sleep tonight. But I almost forgot. Tell me, how do you feel about me?”

“I… I hate you.”

My body freezes as I wait to see if he will lose his temper. But he merely lets out an amused chuckle. “Quite right.”

The room plunges into darkness with the sound of the lamp switching off, and then I hear the door close and let out the breath I’d been holding.

Sleep does not come to me easily.

14

Sapphire

I awake the next morning to find another gift on my pillow, but before opening it, I immediately scan the room to make sure I’m alone this time.

He’s not in here, but my wrists are no longer bound above my head and the shutters are open.

It looks like it’s dusk outside.

Stretching my sore arms, I pull back the covers to find my stockings and dress have been removed, and I’m lying in a small silk nightdress. Black, of course, like everything else.

The fact that he seems to have an aversion to anyone else seeing me tells me it was quite clearly him who changed my clothes. The thought makes me shiver.

I reach over and grab the gift, which is nothing more than a piece of paper, and unfold it.

Dearest Sapphire,

Maxim informed me you could read. I do so hope you can also write. You’ll find writing implements in the desk across from the bed. I have also left some books for you, personal favorites of mine I think you will enjoy.

There are clothes in the tall dresser. You should be appropriately dressed at all times, and you will remember to paint your face. Why? Because it makes me happy. That is the shared