“Then let’s change that.”
Before I have a chance to respond, Valentine grabs the back of the chair. I shriek in surprise, grabbing onto the sides, as the chair tips backward and together we’re dragged across the room.
Righting the chair, Valentine stands behind me as I stare at my own reflection in one of his full-length mirrors.
I’m at a complete loss for words. I don’t recognize the woman looking back at me.
The makeup that’s been applied is far sultrier and more contoured than anything I’ve ever managed to do. I almost look beautiful, even by my own self-deprecating standards.
My dark hair falls in gentle waves over my shoulders, leading my eyes downward and drawing even more attention to my rather scantily clad body.
Valentine leans over the chair from behind, still watching me in the mirror as he reaches to rearrange one side of my hair and tuck it back behind my ear.
“There,” he says, his eyes dropping to my chest as his other hand lifts to lightly trace a long fingernail over the contour of my breast, “we wouldn’t want to leave too much to the imagination tonight, now, would we?”
I shiver at his touch, which only seems to delight him further. He glances up at me in the mirror again, his grin widening as he looks me over. He moves to cup either side of my breasts, pushing them closer together as he tries to further emphasize my cleavage.
“It appears Lucien didn’t do quite as good of a job as I know him capable of,” he says with a disapproving click of his tongue. “No matter, we can fix that later.”
Valentine straightens before pulling off his jacket and beginning to uncuff and unbutton his shirt.
“I thought we were going out,” I ask, my heart starting to pound in my chest as I watch him undress in the mirror.
“We are,” he answers. Glancing up at me through the mirror, he seems to be able to read the hidden meaning behind my expression. “I’m not undressing foryou. No, not just yet.”
With that, he pulls off his shirt down over his powerful shoulders as he strides over to disappear into a large walk-in wardrobe.
When he re-enters the main room, he’s wearing a new suit, this one somehow crisper and even better suited to his body, complete with heavy, silver cufflinks.
This is a power suit if ever I saw one. If I wasn’t already terrified by his presence, I most certainly would be now.
I don’t even realize what he’s carrying in his hand until he’s standing behind me once again and clipping one side of it to the back of my necklace … or should I say, collar.
“I wasn’t going to try to run away,” I say; otherwise, at a complete loss for words.
“I know,” Valentine says, “this is merely to remind you of your place tonight.”
“My place?” I scoff, glaring at him even as he drops the length of the leash and walks back across the room.
“You’remypet, now, not Dante’s, and I’ll do with you as I please. The sooner everyone realizes it, the better.”
“I’m no one’s pet.”
“And yet, here you are.” I don’t even know what to say to this as Valentine returns. He tosses a pair of strappy black stilettos to the floor beside me. “Put them on.”
“No.”
Evelyn!
My refusal doesn’t seem to bother Valentine in the slightest, quite the opposite actually. He reaches for the black leather of the leash, and I need no further encouragement.
I scramble to grab one of the heels, but I’m not fast enough as Valentine yanks the leash back. I’m thrown back with it, clutching at the necklace as he continues to pull.
“When I tell you to do something,” he hisses in my ear, “I expect you to obey, immediately. I thought you’d have realized this by now. I have far worse ways of making you do as I say. Don’t push me to use them on you. I’d be more than happy to. Understood?”
I nod.
“Say it!”