Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55109 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55109 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Bryn stops writing and puts down his pen. I notice that Anita has taken a step back, as if she’s afraid. I stay where I am, watching the way Bryn’s dark eyes lock onto his wife.
“I think you know better than to speak to me that way, Nina,” he says. His eyes flicker to Anita and me. “If you ladies will excuse us, I need to have a discussion with my wife.”
Anita grips my sleeve and pulls me out of the room. Nina hasn’t moved. She looks very proud and elegant, her chin raised, her green eyes lit with determination.
“We’re not going to London, are we?”
I murmur the question to Anita as we shut Bryn’s door behind us. Anita obeys Bryn. I wonder if that is because she identifies herself as a demon, and Bryn is a demon slayer. There is so much madness in this big, rambling old house.
Anita leans up against the wall and shrugs. She’s taking this in stride, but as the sound of leather making contact with flesh starts to emanate through the door, I can’t be as calm. Bryn is punishing Nina for daring to ask him to go out. One crack after another comes through the door, and after a half-dozen of those strokes, I start to hear Nina gasp and whimper.
“She didn’t do anything wrong. Why is he punishing her?”
“Because he’s a kinky fucker,” Anita smirks. She’s not upset by what she’s hearing. If anything she looks amused by it. I don’t have her equanimity. Hearing someone being hurt for no good reason makes me very upset. I stand, staring at the door, my fists clenched. When a particularly loud squeal can be heard, I put my hand on the handle.
“Don’t,” Anita says. “She wouldn’t want you to interfere.”
“So we just let each other get beaten? Is that it? We’re all submissive little whipping girls waiting for our masters to thrash us?”
“When you say it that way it sounds kind of hot,” Anita grins. She’s irrepressible, and quite demonic. I don’t share her amusement or her joy. I am appalled. And I am once more propelled to action.
I am in our room, packing my bag. I don’t have many things left to pack, but I am packing them, nonetheless.
Cosmos comes in and puts his hand on my shoulders, leaning over me to look at the pitiful bag of possessions.
“What are you doing? I thought I asked you to get some gym clothes, not pack everything you own.”
“I’m leaving.”
I expect him to come over all authoritarian and tell me that I’m not going to leave, that I’m his wife and I’ll do as he says. But he surprises me by asking a question instead.
“Why?”
“Because this is a house full of controlling misogynists, and I am not interested in living here for another day. Did you know Bryn whips Nina if she dares leave the house? We just asked to go to London and she’s…” I draw in a breath.
“Bryn’s a pretty intense disciplinarian,” Cosmos says. “But we can go to London, you and I.”
“And what about Nina? She’s stuck with that man. He has to be twice her age. There’s something so fucked up there.”
“There’s a lot of fucked up there,” Cosmos agrees. “But Nina chose to marry him, knowing what he was.”
“Did she? Or was it like our wedding? She barely knew what was happening and just ended up in wedlock basically by accident?”
“There are no accidents. And no, they were married in the traditional way. They’re in love, as strange as that might seem to you and me. I’m sure Nina knew what she was going to get when she went and confronted Bryn. You and I can go to London. Let’s go now.”
I hesitate.
“I feel bad leaving the others. Anita and Nina wanted to go.”
“Well, there’s no chance Thor or Bryn would allow them to go with me. They don’t trust me with anything. They certainly wouldn’t trust me with their wives.”
I frown. “Why are you the black sheep of this fucked-up family? You seem to do more than they do.”
“It’s precisely because I do things that I’m the black sheep. They usually don’t approve of the way I behave. But I do what needs to be done. And what needs to be done right now, is you need to be taken on a shopping trip.”
Holy shit. I think I love him.
Not because of the shopping. Because he wants to make me happy. Bryn’s first instinct was to tell Nina no. Cosmos’ first instinct is to tell me yes. I think I have the pick of the bunch. Cosmos is hotter and sweeter than any man I have ever met.
He offers me his hand and draws me down the hall, away from my half-packed bag and to the outside. He seems to have an instinct for what I need. He’s dominant, but he’s not controlling the way Bryn seems to be.