Total pages in book: 214
Estimated words: 199879 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 999(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 666(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199879 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 999(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 666(@300wpm)
The man opens up a briefcase and pulls out a single picture. His eyes meet mine before he drops it in front of me. I keep mine on his when he speaks. “The girl in the first picture was my sister.” Deafening silence falls over the room. “The woman in this photo”—he taps the one that still lies in front of me—“was the last person seen with her.”
Swallowing, I drop my eyes to the picture, and my heart races at what I see. “You said…” I clear my throat. “That none of them were connected to the Lords.” My eyes raise to his once more.
“None were. Until now…”
ASHTYN
“Ashtyn?”
I ignore the woman’s voice behind my back. It reminds me of nails in a blender. Makes your skin crawl and is annoying as fuck. And she repeats herself over and over. If she asks me how I feel one more time, I’m going to scream.
Maybe throw something. It’ll give them a reason to think I’m crazy. I’m pretty sure my mother wants to send me away. Not sure why, though. It's not like she’s actually raised my brother and me. In our world, the Lady—a Lord’s wife—sits in the corner looking pretty while the nannies are the true parents. It’s because of them that I’ve actually survived this long.
“Ashtyn!” my mother barks my name this time.
I turn around to face the two women. Leaning back against the floor-to-ceiling window, I cross my arms over my chest. She’s been making me come here for years with her. You can say I’m in denial all you want, but she’s the one who needs professional help. Not me.
“See what I mean?” my mother whispers through clenched teeth as if I can’t hear her.
The woman gives me a big fake smile, pretending she didn’t hear her. “How was your weekend?” she asks me.
I go to answer, “Fine,” and my mother huffs.
“I caught her watching porn. Again.” She reaches into her Louis Vuitton and pulls out a piece of paper. I’m not surprised she took a picture and then printed it off. Evidence, she calls it. At least that’s what my father said he needed when she told him I was a sex addict.
You have to actually get fucked in order to be one. But whatever. My father understood that I’m not a sex addict. Do I think I could become one? There’s always hope. I’m also twenty-one years old. How many women my age haven’t watched porn?
Her therapist looks at the paper and frowns. “I thought we talked about this?” Her eyes meet mine.
I give them my back once again and look out the floor-to-ceiling windows. As a child to a Lord and Lady, they’ve been throwing sex in our faces since we were kids. Yet when we want it, they reprimand us for it.
Make it make sense.
I mean, I know the logic behind it. It’s a test. They’re always testing us. The Lords are made to remain celibate for their first three years at Barrington University while going through their initiations. Their senior year they get a chosen—a girl to fuck.
I don’t know about you, but I think that sounds amazing. Fucking use my body. Show me what it’s made for. Instead, I’ve had to get myself off.
My father is a Spade brother. All Lords have to offer their children to the Lords. That’s why they reproduce in the first place. Their sons go through initiations, and their daughters must serve the men who make it.
But a daughter of a Spade? I’m given to another Spade brother. The next generation. In three weeks, my father will gift me to a Spade brother as an offering to his Lords. I don’t know who it will be, but I know who I want. And the way he looked at my body at the party when I was dripping wet out of the pool, I’d say he wants me too.
Saint is the one guy I dream about at night. He’s the one I imagine fucking me when I watch porn. He just has this way with his eyes. Like he’s always undressing me. I knew he was going to the party. I overheard my brother talking about it on the phone. So I made sure to go, and I wanted to be in the pool when he arrived. Am I poking the bear? Yes. Do I want to see what it’ll do once provoked? Also yes. But it backfired. I passed out when he drove me to my parents, and I woke up in my room all alone this morning. My car parked in the driveway without a text or call from him. Not like I expected one. I’m not his friend; my brother is. So I decided to watch some porn and try to relieve the pain between my legs that Saint left me with last night.