I yelp and clutch the dress to my body, but it’s too late. He’s seen everything.
This must be Aubrey’s father. There’s something familiar about him. There’s pride in the breadth of his shoulders. Arrogance in his handsome face. I’ve seen him somewhere before.
His eyes flick back to mine, and I can see he’s puzzled about why there’s a naked girl in his daughter’s bedroom. He glances at the open window, and then back at me. In horrifying slow-motion, I can see him making the connections, one after the other, entirely logical but completely wrong.
I didn’t climb in through the window. I’m not an imposter. I’m not stealing.
The words are screamed inside my head, but I can’t seem to make my mouth work.
The silver-haired man steps toward me, fists clenched at his sides. In a low, seething voice, he says, “You vile little thief.”Chapter FiveDevrimThe last thing I expected when I came home early from the palace was to find a stranger in Aubrey’s room. A naked stranger, going through my daughter’s things.
In my house.
I envision Wesson and the other guards turning over my cell, searching for any little thing I enjoyed. My toothbrush. A packet of ramen noodles. Reminders I was a human being, not an animal, all taken away from me and broken before my eyes.
“How dare you.” I advance on her slowly, not knowing what I intend, except to put the fear of an entire pantheon of gods into her. “You thought you’d just come into my house to help yourself to my daughter’s belongings?”
Twenty-seven years I’ve had to suffer my privacy being invaded. I’m not going to put up with it a moment longer.
“I’m not a thief,” the unknown girl exclaims, shrinking back, still using Aubrey’s dress to cover her naked body. So, she’s a liar, too, trying to pretend that the dress I bought for Aubrey is hers. I’ll teach her what misbehaving girls get in my house.
Swift, harsh punishment.
“Do you know who I am? Whose house you’ve broken into?”
She nods rapidly and whispers, “You’re Aubrey’s father. I think you were at Court last night. There’s been a misunderstanding. Aubrey and I were just—”
“Don’t you dare speak her name!” I roar.
Tears spring into her eyes. Yes, fear me, little girl. By the time I’m done with you, you’ll never be tempted to break another rule in your life. The gown swathes her breasts but leaves her long legs bare, and I see a hint of her white briefs.
I’m the one who metes out punishment now.
My house. My rules.
“I’m just—Aubrey asked me—I’ll go. Please just let me go. I know I shouldn’t be here.”
She admits it. Rage expands through me, and I reach out and snatch her wrist, hauling her to me. The gown drops from her fingers, and she stands all but naked before me, her mouth parted in fear and her amber eyes sparkling and wide. Her full lower lip is trembling.
“I’m going to have to teach you a lesson, little girl. A short, swift lesson about what happens to liars and thieves in my house.”
I hoist her into my arms, and she begins to wriggle and squeal. She’s slender and strong, and I have to hold onto her tightly. Her breasts squash against my chest, and I feel her nipples through the thin fabric of my shirt.
I sit down on Aubrey’s bed with the young woman pressed, face down, over my lap. She’s panting and protesting, but I pay no heed. Why should I show her mercy when she’s disrespected me so profoundly? If she were a man, I’d take my belt to her, but girls, girls need to be spanked. Something swift and humiliating to make her remember right from wrong and think twice about who she dares cross in the future.
Now that I have her where I want her, I’m able to take a good look at her. She’s slender, but pleasingly plump about the hips and behind. Her skin is unmarred by tattoos, but there is a mole in the small of her back and one on the inside of her right thigh.
For a second, I wonder what it would be like to lean down and kiss those moles.
She tries to squirm away from me, but I catch her wrists in one hand and pin them behind her back. “Oh, no you don’t.”
She’s still squeaking, her voice muffled in the bedclothes, begging and pleading for mercy, as I raise my hand high.
“Daddy, what are you doing?”
I look up from the wriggling girl on my lap and see my daughter standing in the doorway, her eyes wide with horror.
“Aubrey,” I say calmly. “I caught a thief in your bedroom, trying on your clothes. Now I’m teaching her a lesson. You may wait downstairs.”
“She’s not a thief,” Aubrey says in a strangled voice. “She’s my friend. I met her at the ball last night and invited her over for tea. I told her to try on the dress.”