Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
I felt numb inside, not sure what to think. I had never seen such a brutal display and I knew I should be horrified. And yet…Hornsby had insulted me in the most vicious manner possible. He had offered to buy me for an hour—the very thought made my skin crawl.
I decided I didn’t know how to feel, but I didn’t want to stay here and watch the horrible Duke scrabbling on the floor, trying to pick up his severed fingers with the two digits remaining to him—the thumb on his right hand and the pinky on his left. Most of the severed fingers were coated in the golden goo that had shot from the fake shaft earlier—it was truly disgusting to behold.
“Come on, Princess,” Slade said again and put an arm around my shoulders. “Let’s get the fuck out of here so the staff can help him. They won’t do it while I’m around.”
“They won’t? Why not?” I asked, as we walked away.
“Because they know me,” Slade said simply. “And they know better than to mess with Clan Cruel.”
I felt a shiver run through me as I cast a last look over my shoulder at Duke Hornsby. He was still kneeling on the floor with a pile of goo-soaked fingers in front of him, having no luck at all trying to pick them up.
“Help me, Goddess damn you!” he screamed at the staff who were giving him wary looks. He looked up for a moment and our eyes caught. He held up a trembling hand and pointed at me with his thumb. “You’ll be sorry!” he mouthed, clearly being careful that Slade didn’t hear him. “Very sorry!”
I faced front again, feeling sick. Could Hornsby really hurt me? Not as long as I was with Slade, but what about when I went back to L’Crist? At the very least, he could spread lies and rumors about me and completely ruin my reputation.
I didn’t want to think about that, so I pushed the idea away.
“What…what did you buy?” I asked Slade, trying to keep my voice from trembling.
“Later for that. How do you feel?” He gave me an anxious look as we stepped into the vertical lift.
“I…I don’t know,” I confessed.
“I want you to know what you witnessed back there was justice,” Slade told me. “Anyone who disrespects the wife of a Clan Cruel Enforcer can expect that and more. We don’t tolerate insults to our women.”
“I…I see,” I said faintly.
I had seen duels fought aplenty and witnessed men boxing each other as well. But I had never seen anything like the casual violence the man I was married to had just performed. And he didn’t seem a bit sorry or uncertain about it—for Slade, cutting off someone’s fingers was just business as usual.
I wasn’t sure how to deal with that.
29
SLADE
Aurora was quiet all the way home and I cursed the bad luck that had put the fucking L’Crist Noble in our path. I shouldn’t have punished the bastard in front of her. She wasn’t used to the ways of Clan Cruel—she didn’t yet understand that the honor of our women is the most important thing to us. We don’t tolerate anyone disrespecting a wife or a fiancée because if we did, where would it end?
I wished I could explain all this to Aurora, but she didn’t seem to be in the mood for explanations. She was sitting in the passenger seat, staring out the viewscreen with a shocked look on her face. To make matters worse, it had started raining and the gloomy atmosphere outside seemed to magnify the feeling inside my ship.
I had planned to take her out for lunch to a nice restaurant but when I asked her, she only shook her head and claimed she wasn’t hungry.
“Please, could we just go home? Er, back to the penthouse?” she asked in a low voice. “I’m tired—I’d like to lie down.”
My heart ached to see her looking so low. I wished I could pull her onto my lap and wrap my arms around her and comfort her. But something told me she didn’t want me touching her right now.
We got back to the penthouse and I had some of the resort staff bring up all the packages and bags from the store. Our shopping trip—which had been so much fun to start with—had definitely ended on a sour note.
Aurora said nothing as we rode up the lift and as soon as we got into the penthouse, she locked herself in the bathroom. I heard the water running and realized she was going to take a bath.
That upset me—I wanted to be the one to bathe her. I wanted to wash her hair and massage her beautiful curvy body. Not just for my own pleasure, but for hers as well. And to prove to her that I could be gentle as well as violent.