The color drained from his face. His mouth gaped. I waited for his protest, but it didn’t come. He pressed his mouth into a firm line, then nodded. “I understand.”
Zadie made a low, strangled sound. I wondered if her precious heart was breaking.
“If you see this girl on campus, who is she?” I pressed.
“Uh…” Schiffer rubbed his chest, stole a glance at Zadie, then aimed his eyes toward the ground, “I don’t know her. She’s a stranger.”
“Wrong,” I barked, making the girl beside me jump. “You don’t see her. She doesn’t exist to you. Your eyes stray to her even once, I’ll consider this peace treaty broken and be forced to tell Reno you were spitting in his face tonight. You feel me?”
“I feel you,” Schiffer choked out.
I tipped my chin at Julien and Marco. “Take care of him. I need to have a conversation with Zadie Night about what it means to be my property.”
No doubt Julien strongly disapproved of what I was doing, but he knew the score. His mouth stayed on silent as I steered Zadie through the warehouse. Her short legs scampered to keep up with my swift pace, but I wanted her out of here as quickly as possible. She didn’t belong here. Not in this place, not with these people. Hell, shedefinitelydidn’t belong with me. But I’d paid in full, and now, she was mine.
My SUV was parked across the street. I opened Zadie’s door for her and watched her climb into the passenger seat without any protest, then I locked her in and rounded to the other side. I jumped in, turned over the ignition, and pulled away from the curb, driving us back to Savage U.
After unlocking my phone, I tossed it to her. “Put your number in there. Then call yourself so you have mine.”
“Okay,” she said quietly.
“What do you think is happening right now?”
She looked up from my phone, the screen lighting up her face. “I think you’re going to explain what it means to be your property.”
I hit the steering wheel. “No, Zadie. Don’t repeat what I said. Tell me whatyouthink is happening. What doyouthink it means to be my property?”
Her exhale was delicate. “I haven’t really thought about it. You mentioned sucking your—”
“We’re not doing that tonight.” My lip curled with disgust, though I wasn’t half as disgusted as I should have been. “Not when that asshole’s scent is on you. I don’t want his sloppy seconds, no matter how pretty you look when you’re afraid.”
I expected her to make a quiet protest, like she had that night in her dorm, but she remained silent. Her shallow, panting breaths were the only sounds between us.
“I’m taking you back to your dorm. You’ll go upstairs and text me a picture of you secure in your room. You have tomorrow free, but when I contact you, I expect an immediate reply. On Monday, after your classes, you’ll come to my house and we’ll go over what it really means to be owned by me.”
She said nothing, but there was no question she heard me. Even though I didn’t want to give her a break, I did. Zadie might’ve had poor taste in who she gave it up to, but a girl like her wasn’t in situations like what went down in that courtyard very often. Or ever.
She needed a minute, and quite fucking frankly, so did I. If I started making more demands now, I’d overstep into a realm even I wasn’t into. Taking Zadie as my property was walking the line, but I wasn’t pulling back fromthat. No, I planned to enjoy every second of having Zadie Night under my control.