I can’t believe I hear disapproval in Kiln’s voice. It’s almost as if he feels sorry for me.
Sloane fists my hair and forces my head up. His hold isn’t particularly painful. When I see them all watching the spectacle we’re making, it takes everything in me to hold back tears of shame. One escapes, though, and I sniffle.
He only anchors my head in place for a moment before letting go. He knows I’m not going to look away since he’s ordered me not to.
“Now, answer.”
I’ve forgotten the question or who asked it. I’m humiliated and I’m angry and I’m confused. “You sound like a creepy dungeon master.”
That muscle ticks in his jaw again and he glances away. “You either listen to me or not.”
He returns to whispering amongst him and me.
“What happens if I don’t?”
“The same thing that will happen if you pleasure yourself when I’ve told you not to.”
He won’t allow me into his bed anymore. He’ll take away the intimacy and the feeling of belonging to him. He’ll just leave me cold.
Pressing my lips together, I turn my back on him and curl up.
Sloane
Kiln wants to bash my head in. I wish he would rush me. I could fuck him up, and release some of the anger I’m feeling. Anger and disappointment. I’m angry that I didn’t impress the threat of my punishment on Georgie enough where she’d heed me, and disappointed she failed. On her behalf and my own.
Our trip is over before we have time to settle in good. When we deplane, the tarmac is wet and the skies are gray. Georgie trudges behind me, head down, not talking.
She’s embarrassed. Even before my display, the fact that they were all staring at her when she walked on discomfited her. She added offense on top of insult when she plopped next to Kiln, and injury to the pile when she attempted to slip away from me and go to the bathroom.
The drive to the hotel is silent. Georgie is staring out the window. Kiln is driving and Quint is in the passenger seat. On the second row Maitland and Adam aren’t saying anything, either.
“Your tutor should be at the hotel when we arrive.”
For a moment, she doesn’t answer. “Just another pussy for you to fuck.”
“Shut up, Georgie. I meant what I said about your filthy language.” I don’t bother to respond to her assumptions. For all I know, Jaeger has hired a ninety-year-old man.
“Fuck you,” she spits on a whisper. “What more can you do to me? I’ve decided I don’t want the dick of a thousand ports. Wherever in the world it lands, it seeks and finds pussy, so keep your cock. And I don’t want a fucking tutor. It’s beyond fucking creepy that you’ve fucked me today, and tomorrow you’ll be fucking quizzing me on world fucking history.”
She’s struck me right in the heart and split my conscience open. Glaring at her, I grip her thigh in warning. The others are too close for us to have this conversation.
“Please, let me call my grandmother,” she finishes in a small voice that’s thick with tears. “I want to go.”
She needs to go. It’s just that I don’t want her to.
“Fine,” I lie. “We’ll do the concert and then I’ll get you back to Houston.”
I remember all that Helen has hanging over my head. Incarceration for starters. Attempted murder or some shit with Crowell. Statutory rape of Georgie, whether I’ve fucked her or not. And exposure. Exposure of all the skeletons in my closet. My family ties to Kiln and Jaeger. Steffie’s death due to the horrible “accident” of she and I falling into the water, and my father being unable to save both of us. She’ll expose it all, crucify me. I feel sick to my stomach, because it would be just the icing on the cake.
Georgie will discover I fucked her mother twice.
More than anything, she’ll let the world know I destroyed Kiln’s marriage to the one girl he ever loved. The one person he could love.
And I did it purposely, methodically, and with stone-cold totality.
Chapter Twenty
Georgie
I’m laughing my ass off, even more so at Sloane’s furious expression. We’re sitting in the hotel room, and Jaeger has just barreled through the door with my tutor.
He’s more like a god. Reddish blond hair and gorgeous blue eyes. I’m tempted to ask if they’re faking. Maybe, Jaeger has hired him to fuck with Sloane, before introducing me to my real tutor.
But, Sam’s all mine, and we’re sizing each other up. He seems as shocked by my appearance as I am by his. My much needed laughter dies away as tension rises. The moment was good while it lasted. Now, it’s gone, and I’m reminded about our conversation on the ride to the hotel.
My head and my stomach are hurting, and the urge to cry once again overtakes me.
“I’m ordering pizza,” Adam announces to no one in particular. When there’s no comment, he looks at me and I paste a smile on my face.
“Pizza is fine.”