“Shut up!” she shouted with sudden fervor. The hint of fear I’d sensed in her had been overwhelmed by rage. I’d hit a nerve. “You don’t know me at all.”
She shoved back from the kitchen island where we’d been eating and got to her feet. Without a backward glance at me, she stormed out of the room.
I caught up to her before she got to the foyer. “Where do you think you’re going?”
I wrapped my hand around her slender arm when she didn’t stop walking. She tried to jerk away, but I held her fast.
“Away from you!” she burst out. “Let me go.” She shoved me. When that accomplished nothing, she beat at my chest with her fist.
I didn’t even bother catching her wrist to stop her. I simply started walking, keeping my grip on her arm. I was careful not to hold tight enough to bruise, but she had no hope of escaping me.
She was forced to follow, even though she continued to twist her arm in my grip.
“Let me go,” she demanded again.
“No. Stop struggling, or you’ll hurt yourself.”
“You’re hurting me,” she shrieked. She was getting dramatic again. I didn’t find her quite as cute anymore.
“No, I’m not. Calm down.”
I started leading her toward the stairs.
“Where are you taking me?”
“I’m putting you to bed.”
“What?” she spluttered. “You can’t do that. I’m not a child.”
“You clearly can’t behave like a rational adult. If you act like a brat, you get treated like a brat.”
“Stop calling me that.”
“Stop acting like that.”
Her teeth closed with an audible snap, and she glowered at me in sullen silence. She also stopped trying to get away from me. She wasn’t exactly meek, but she’d definitely gotten the message.
Good. Between her hysterics and Joseph’s melodrama, I was ready for this day to be over.
When we got to my room, I finally released her, but I kept her fixed in my stern stare.
I gestured at my overturned bedroom. “I expect this mess to be cleaned up by this time tomorrow,” I informed her.
Her jaw dropped, as though she couldn’t believe the way I was treating her.
And maybe she couldn’t. I was sure she’d been coddled and given everything she’d ever asked for in life. If any girl had ever needed structure and discipline, it was Ashlyn.
She belongs to Joseph, I reminded myself before I got any more ideas about disciplining her.
I closed the door, hiding her from my view. I needed to put distance between us, or I might do something I’d regret. I made sure to lock her in before I went back to my media room. I didn’t want my little captive to try to escape when I wasn’t watching her.
Chapter Seventeen
Joseph
“Do you know what your friend did to me?” Ashlyn fumed as soon as I opened the bedroom door. She sat on the bed, her arms crossed. She didn’t appear to have been engaging in any activity other than stewing over whatever was making her angry.
Marco had told me he locked her in the room over an hour ago. She’d had a lot of time to get worked up.
“He said you were angry after dinner, so he brought you back up here.”
She slapped her hand down on the mattress beside her. “He didn’t bring me back up here. He put me to bed. Like I’m some sort of naughty child. He keeps calling me a brat. He’s a misogynistic prick.”
“He’s not,” I corrected her, maybe a touch more sharply than I should have. Marco loved women. In his own way.
She glowered at me. I didn’t like when she looked at me like that: like I’d betrayed her. Like she hated me.
I lifted the shopping bags I’d brought with me, a gesture of contrition. “I got some clothes for you in the city.”
Her frown eased, and her eyes sparked with interest. She wanted the clothes. I wasn’t sure if she simply liked new, pretty things, or if she was desperate to change. She’d been wearing the same clothes since Marco had abducted her last night. That had been over twenty-four hours ago.
I decided I didn’t care what the source of her interest was. If she was excited for me to buy her new things, I was happy to give her anything she wanted.
She pointed at the foot of the bed. “You can leave them there,” she said in an imperious tone I didn’t care for. “I’m going to take a shower.”
I didn’t move to comply. This haughty attitude didn’t suit her softer nature. And it certainly didn’t suit me. I’d give her anything she asked for, but if she thought I’d obey her commands, she was sorely mistaken. I might worship her, but that didn’t mean I was her slave.
“What?” she asked when I didn’t do as she demanded. She was getting annoyed. “Do I need Marco’s permission to take a shower or something?”
Something dark stirred in my chest. Because I knew exactly how Marco would feel about her waiting for his permission to do anything. Given the opportunity, he’d probably deny her the shower and insist on bathing her himself. I had my kinks, but Marco possessed his own perversions.
But Ashlyn didn’t belong to him. She was mine, and as much as I’d like to join her in the shower, I was very aware of her anger toward me. She wasn’t going to forgive me for my complicity in her capture. I wouldn’t impose myself on her when she wasn’t willing. No matter how badly I might want to.
“You don’t need Marco’s permission,” I informed her coolly. “But that attitude won’t get you anywhere with me, either.”
Her jaw dropped, but no words came out. I supposed I’d subtly dominated her in the past, but I’d never been overt about it. I could reel myself back now, but I didn’t want to. The dark part of me accepted that she was my captive, and I could treat her how I wanted. It was liberating. Something was shifting between us, even if she didn’t recognize it yet.
She’d railed at me for hiding my true self from her during our time together in Cambridge.
Well, if she wanted the real me, that’s what she’d get. I might not be willing to fully corrupt her with all my perverted desires, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to take her in hand when she was acting this way. Because Marco was right. She was being a brat, acting out in a fit of anger.
She could pout all she wanted, but that wouldn’t sway my decision to keep her. She was in danger, and I didn’t have a choice. I didn’t want the choice. Marco had done me a favor when he brought her to me. I could finally show Ashlyn who I really was, even the ugly parts of myself I wasn’t proud of.
I set the shopping bags down and rifled through them, quickly finding what I wanted.
“You can take a shower,” I told her. “Here. This is what you’re wearing to bed.” I held out the short, silky black nightgown I’d bought for her.
Her eyes widened, and her lips parted on an incredulous gasp. I almost groaned at the sight of her shocked, innocent expression. Her open mouth practically begged to take my cock. I’d never felt her lips around me before. I’d always fucked her tight pussy. There were so many other ways I wanted to take her.