“I said I was sorry about that.” Her voice sounded tiny in the dark expanse of the car.
“Oh, you will be,” he told her in that foreboding tone which made her throat dry. “You’re going to be so fucking sorry, Lily.”
She panted at his thinly-veiled threat. Oh, God, even for Ethan, that sounded ominous.
“What have you decided?” he asked, meeting her gaze. “About your parents. Are you calling them or not?”
Oh fuck, her parents. In the emotional frenzy of Ethan’s warning, Lily had nearly forgotten all about them. A wave of fresh shame washed over at that realization. She was definitely the world’s worst daughter.
“I-I need some time to think,” she stammered. “I don’t know what to say to them tonight.”
Ethan nodded, but he looked pleased. “I think that’s a good choice, Lily,” he praised. “The first one you’ve made tonight.”
Chapter Four
Ethan
Relief emanated from Ethan as they passed the telephone box en route back to the house. Ethan hadn’t been thinking clearly when he’d suggested Lily call her parents, and when he’d mentioned Jody, panic had bloomed. The last thing Ethan needed right now was for Lily to find out about Jody, and he knew that made him a hypocrite, but there it was. He had demanded the truth from Lily, but he couldn’t offer her the same yet. Hell, the last time he’d been honest with her, they’d ended up having to come out here, with all of the ramifications that had happened since. He couldn’t go through that. They couldn’t. Their relationship might not survive it.
Not now.
For the time being at least, it seemed Lily was content not to make the call, and as he swung the car back onto the gravel driveway, Ethan was grateful for that one, small mercy.
“Stay there,” he warned as he cut the engine and dove out of the door. “I’ll come and get you.”
Opening the passenger side, her expectant green gaze met him. “I can probably hobble there if it helps, sir?” she offered.
Ethan shook his head. “No hobbling until we find out what you’ve done.”
He watched as she swallowed back on whatever response was on the tip of her tongue.
Good, he mused as he glared at Lily. Let her swallow it down. There’d be a whole lot more swallowing in Lily’s future.
Offering Lily his arm, he helped her out of the car, before sweeping her back into his arms. For once, she didn’t resist, and Ethan actually heard what sounded like a contented sigh as she leaned flush against his chest. They were back in the house in a few minutes. Ethan hadn’t even bothered to lock the door when he’d fled earlier, but as he placed her down on the stairs, he ensured that he locked it. He could feel the weight of her stare as he slipped the old key into his back pocket, before flicking on the hall light.
Ethan’s gaze fell over the mess he and his father’s sledgehammer had created. There were splinters of wood everywhere he looked, and, of course, the door to the basement was virtually destroyed. Following his gaze, Lily twisted from the step she was sitting on to take in the scene.
“Oh my God!” Her expression looked horrified as her eyes absorbed the destruction. “You did this, sir?”
He glowered at her. “Yeah, someone decided to lock me in the cellar.”
Lily gulped, her face blanching as she met his gaze. “Can I help you clean it up?”
Ethan’s features softened. That was more like the little Lily he loved. “Not now,” he replied. “Now, we look at this ankle.”
He beckoned to her with one finger, the way he had done back at home when he’d wanted her to take his cock in her mouth. Lily’s eyes sparkled at the gesture, and the small smile at her lips told him her mind had gone to the same place.
Gingerly, she eased herself back to her feet, balancing on her right leg as she reached for his outstretched hand. “I can walk if you help me, sir?” she murmured, but Ethan didn’t know why she bothered.
It was already decided. He was carrying her. Once she was back in his arms, he stalked down the hall, treading on the debris of the door. His attention flitted briefly to the sledgehammer by the doorway before he nudged the door to the kitchen open. Switching on the overhead light, he deposited her onto one of the old wooden kitchen chairs that still remained in the place. For a moment it was bemusing to see her sitting there, in the same seat he regularly used to reside in as a child, but the clarity of the memory faded almost as fast as it arrived. The past was the past. Lily was about his future, and right now that meant tending to her injury.
“Slip your shoes off and pull your tights down.”
The order came from him as he towered over her, and he noted the way her coy gaze flitted to meet his.
“Now, Lily,” he reminded her, shifting his hands to his hips as he waited for her cooperation.
She nodded before she worked on the tights, easing her hips from the wood tentatively before she dragged the fabric down her long limbs. Ethan wondered which hurt was causing her the most concern—the ankle, or the belt marks on her arse—but as she complied with his request, Lily didn’t complain about either. Ethan dropped to his haunches, helping her remove the tights from her small toes.
“Let’s look at this,” he mused in a suitably unimpressed tone.
A part of him still couldn’t believe Lily had been stupid enough to make a run for it in the dark, let alone leave him locked in the basement. But then, they both seemed to have made some silly miscalculations recently.
Lily winced as he lifted her foot, running his fingers over her ankle. His youngest brother was a doctor, and Ethan had spent hours studying his books. He’d know a break if he encountered one, but that wasn’t what his examination revealed. Lily’s ankle was slightly swollen, but as he guided her through a range of motion, he decided it was likely just a bad sprain.
“You’ll live,” he concluded as he met her flushed face. “But you’ve got some swelling here, which means you’ll need to stay off it as much as possible. For now, at least.”
Fortunately, for what Ethan had in mind, that didn’t matter much.
“Okay,” she said with a sigh. “I’ll try, sir.”
“Don’t worry,” he told her as he rose to his feet. “I’m going to help you.”
Her eyes widened. “You are?”
Evidently, she knew him well enough to know that was bad news, and Ethan’s lips curled at the thought. “Oh, yes,” he assured her, wandering into his father’s sitting room to the place he’d flung his bag when they’d arrived. Unzipping it, he found his jacket.
“Sir?”
Her inquiring tone met his ears as he reached into the pocket, his fingers finding the metal handcuffs just where he’d left them.
This was going to be fun.
“Stay where you are, little one,” he instructed, pulling the cuffs from their hiding place.
And soon she would be staying—wherever he left her.
He sauntered back into the kitchen, catching the worried look on her face as she clocked the handcuffs.
“Etha—”
“Don’t.”
His bark made her lips still, and Lily pulled in a shaky breath. “Don’t even think about telling me you don’t deserve these, Lily, because there’s really no point. We both know the truth. Don’t we?”
He took a long stride toward the chair she was sitting in, and watched as she pulled her lower lip between her white teeth.
“Don’t. We?”
Lily’s frightened eyes met his gaze. “Yes,” she admitted. “Yes, sir.”
He nodded. “Right. It saddens me to say it, Lily, but right now I can’t trust you, so that means you’ll be restrained until I can.”
She looked to be on the verge of tears again, but he watched as she nodded her head again.
“Give me your right wrist.”
Slowly, she lifted her arm in his direction. Ethan could sense the trepidation in Lily. She wanted those cuffs on her just about as much as every other woman had, but there was one c
rucial thing she didn’t know—Lily was the only one who was going to live to tell the tale—assuming things didn’t go very badly wrong for her. Ethan slipped the metal bracelet over her delicate skin wordlessly, watching at the way she panted when the mechanism locked into place. The only key was in his inside pocket—just like it always was—but, of course, she didn’t know that. Lily would have to trust him.
She had no choice now.
Ethan lowered her arm gently. He fell to his knees beside the chair, locking the other cuff to one of the two posts that held the seat together. These chairs were older than he was, but they were well made, and he doubted Lily had the strength to break them in order to free herself. Looking into her eyes, he doubted she’d even try.
“Ethan, I’m sorry…”
The apology bled from her lips as she took in her latest predicament. All the fight and fury seemed to have slipped from his little flower, but Ethan knew it was simmering in there somewhere.
“I understand why you did it,” he murmured as he stood over her once more. “I don’t like it, but I understand.”
She sniffed. “I was stupid,” she confessed. “And then once I’d done it, there was no going back. I just had to run.”
He shook his head at her defense. Lily was going to have to do a lot better than that.
“Can I trust you to wait here while I get some things?” His tone was intentionally sardonic.
Lily’s gaze flitted between her cuffed wrist and his face. “Yes, sir. I’ll wait.”
Ethan smirked. He bet she would.
Chapter Five
Lily
As he stalked from the kitchen, crunching over the broken wood of the basement door, the tears began to fall again. Lily felt so damn pathetic, sitting there crying, but somehow, she couldn’t help herself. She had all this emotion in her, with nowhere to go, and now that Ethan had brought her back here, things were worse than ever.
Why hadn’t she kept running? Why did she have to fall and hurt herself?
She shook her head as the questions raced through her mind. Hadn’t she known he would come for her? Hadn’t she said as much herself? So far, he’d been pretty good with her. Pretty calm and dare she say it, attentive, but based on the latest addition to her right wrist, Lily had an idea his generous mood wasn’t going to last.
“I need you to eat.”
His words rang out around the kitchen as he strode back inside and pulled up the chair opposite her. “I only have cookies,” he told her, placing the pack on the table beside her. “But you need them, Lily. You haven’t eaten for hours.”
Lily bit her lip. Ethan was right—as usual—but somehow, food was the furthest thing on her mind.
“Okay, sir.”
It was barely even a whisper, but she’d said it.
Ethan’s eyes drilled into her, before he leaned forward, sliding one cookie from the pack and breaking it in half. “Open.”
Lily’s lips parted reflexively. “I can manage, sir.”
He shook his head at her slowly. There’ll be no more managing, little one.
His thoughts were coming in loud and clear. No more thinking now, Lily. No more waywardness. Just obedience.
“Do you understand?”
She jumped at the abruptness of his tone, which seemed so harsh compared to the alluring timbre of his thoughts.
“Yes,” she gasped, pulling in a breath. “Yes, I understand, sir.”
Though Lily couldn’t honestly say that she did. Not much made sense anymore, except the electrifying energy between her and Ethan.
His blue eyes pinioned her. Lily?
Lily opened her mouth, holding her lips apart as he eased the small piece of sweet cookie between them. She chewed on the thing unthinkingly, not processing how it tasted or how little she wanted it. All that mattered was pleasing Ethan. Being his good girl, at least until she could find a way to make up for locking him in the cellar.
Ethan nodded, as he fed her the next piece. “Better.”
He didn’t exactly sound pleased with her, but he wasn’t angry, either, and the storm that was threatening to brew in his dark gaze had alleviated. A little at least.
“I have some tea bags,” he informed her as she chomped through the remainder of the cookie. “If I can find some cups around here, but there’s no milk.”
She swallowed the abrasive crumbs, forcing them down her throat. “Thank you, sir.”
Lily watched as he puttered around the kitchen, finding some mugs, which he rinsed in the sink before filling the kettle and lighting the stove. She hadn’t seen him so comfortable since they’d left his house.
Ethan threw a smirk in her direction. “Don’t get used to it, little one,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m hardly domesticated.”
She bit back on the smile that rose to her lips. That’s exactly how he seemed. Domesticated. Ethan smiled as he wandered back toward her.
“No, that’s how you’re going to become,” he told her in a dark tone.
Lily shivered, an instinctive response to the way he was gazing at her. Hungrily. “Sir?”
She didn’t know what else to say.
“Domesticated.”
He pronounced the word in a slow and unsettling way, the notion making Lily’s heart pound faster.
“You’re going to be the one broken in, Lily. I am going to domesticate you.”
Oh, fuck. Lily didn’t even know what he meant, although the devil in his eyes gave some of his intent away, but oh God—just the way he said those things. It made her belly flip and arousal pool at her sex.
“Oh, you like the sound of that?” he asked with a laugh just as the kettle began to whistle behind him.
Lily panted. “I don’t know what you mean, sir.”
An arrogant sneer passed over his face. “You will, little one. I can promise you that.”
Ethan
He fed her half a dozen more cookies while they waited for the tea to cool. It was tantalizing feeding her by hand, and the whole time, Ethan kept imagining Lily the way he wanted her to be—once this punishment was dealt with, and once they were away from here—once they could actually start a life together, he imagined the way he would train her as his little pet. She’d get used to receiving food from his hand, and she’d love it, too. Lily had a lot of new things to learn…
“Have you decided how to…” Lily hesitated, though Ethan could guess what she was going to say next.
“Punish you?”
She gulped. “Yes, sir.”
“I don’t remember giving you permission to ask questions, little one.” Ethan scowled as he chastised her, relishing the way she physically shrank at the admonishment.
“I’m sorry.”
He smiled at that. Soon they would see just how sorry Lily really was. “Actually yes,” he concluded after a moment. “And it’s not what you think.”
Lily’s eyes widened, and he wondered for a moment what she was thinking, but Ethan resisted the urge to slip inside her head and find out.
“I…” she panted. “I wasn’t thinking anything, sir.”
Ethan snorted. “You’re always thinking, little Lily. Despite what you’ve been told.”
He watched her for a moment. Lily was filthy from her unexpected adventure in the dirt, and he’d have to make sure she was cleaned up before he could begin her lesson, but it was getting late. The lesson would have to wait until tomorrow now anyway.
“Another cookie?” He cocked his brow at her as he asked, as though he was daring her to defy him.
“If you want me to, sir.”
Now, that was more like it. Much more like the compliant Lily he’d missed. “I do,” he insisted, reaching into the pack again. “There won’t be much more until we head out and find it.”
Although that wasn’t strictly true. Ethan had noticed a few bananas he left in the car from before this impromptu trip into the country, so they had breakfast at least. His gaze fell over the state of her clothes. He’d have to buy her s
omething new to wear at some point, too.
“You look far too comfortable there for my liking,” he mused aloud.
Lily’s back straightened at his declaration and instinctively, she pulled against the metal at her wrist. Ethan smiled.
“Far too comfortable,” he determined, placing the cookie down on the table before he rose and shifted to her side.
Lily moved, too, all of her focus on him as he reached into his pocket to reveal the small handcuff key. “Sir?”
Ethan’s gaze flitted to her briefly, and in his head, he reminded her what he’d already informed her.
Obedience, Lily.
She bit her lip, nodding her head in response, but her attention remained on Ethan as he unlocked the cuff from the chair.
“Sit back,” he told her sternly. “Right into the chair.”
Oh God, her thoughts mewled, but he watched as she acquiesced, wincing as she shuffled her arse back against the wood.
“I need your other wrist now.”
Ethan hadn’t told Lily what he had in mind, but he guessed his intention was becoming pretty clear from his instructions.
“Sir, please,” she rasped, twisting her head to try and meet his eyes.
“If you piss me off, Lily, then I’ll gag you, too.” He paused, allowing those words to sink in. “Would you like that?”
Lily sniffed. “No, sir.”
“Then get to it.”
Slowly, her left wrist dropped to her side, and Ethan reached for it, pulling it to meet the other, already cuffed hand. Lily’s mind was in free-fall as Ethan secured the handcuff to her left wrist. Both her hands were now cuffed behind the chair. He’d worried that she’d have little leeway in the new bondage, but as it turned out, her long arms meant there was more space than he’d imagined. Standing over her once more, Ethan returned to his place to look at his girl.
Now, that was much better.
Her face was flushed again, her eyes large as she tried to accept the new predicament, and, of course, her chest looked fabulous now her wrists were bound again.
Fallen: (A Psychological Dark Romance) (The Dark Necessities Prequels Book 2) Page 3