Page 17 of Skin Trade

The bathroom door to Seth’s room was closed. Someone had fixed the lock. He was on the other side, sleeping, letting others carry his orders out.

When Payton went back into the bedroom, Sky was standing exactly where she’d been left.

“Please dress and then sit,” she said. She waved her hand towards the dresser. “I am to attend your hair.”

“I can do that.”

“Sir says--”

“Do you always call him Sir? Why not Seth? He’s just a man.”

“Sir is respect,” Sky said. “He did a lot for me and in return I attend to his wishes. I owe Sir my life. Please, put the dress on so we can go down to the dining room. Sir does not like lateness.”

Payton didn’t want to change. In fact, she didn’t want to be ordered about. Not that Sky was ordering her about. No, the commands she gave were second hand from the man in the other room. Well maybe if Sir wants, Sir just doesn’t get.

“Do you mind if I dress myself and do my own hair? I will be ready in time. I just don’t like anyone touching me. I will talk to Seth. Tell him it was me.”

Sky looked positively out of place with the request. Like she didn’t know what to do with that answer. Perhaps she wasn’t used to getting a no either.

“If you are late--”

“I won’t be. I promise. I’ll get ready and then I’ll call you. 353, right? Then you can take me down to see him.”

It didn’t seem like Sky was going to agree. For someone who cast her eyes down so much and stood with a weak hunch, she also had a way with her.

“Please. I will be ready.”

“I will come back in twenty minutes if you have not called. You will be ready?”

“I promise.”

Sky nodded.

After Sky left, Payton closed the door behind her and put the chair back in the way to stop anyone from just coming in again. Then she stood for a moment and let her body relax. She sighed. How different things were here. How different she was, and she’d not been here long enough, but part of her knew she could bend the rules this way. Or maybe that was just because she was her father’s daughter. Test the boundaries first, instead of assuming they’re there and holding oneself prisoner and bound for no reason.

As she glared at the dress, she chewed on the edge of her thumb. There was no way she was going to put it on. Not even in the privacy of her room. She’d be more covered up if she went down to dinner wearing only a bath towel.

Sky had put the dress on the bed, and like before, Payton picked it up and hung it back in the wardrobe. It really was beautiful, but no. She was not wearing that. She went to her chest of drawers and pulled out clothes from there instead.

She pulled on a white t-shirt. It had a rose on the front and was frayed in places. Not that it was frayed out of age or use, but rather from fashion. She pulled out a pair of Capri jeans, the kind that stopped part way at her calf, and she grinned as she pulled them on, maybe even smirked a little when she pictured Seth and his face when he saw her.

To complete her look, she slipped on a pair of Converse pumps. She laced them and then tied her long dark hair up into a messy bun.

Sir would get used to not always getting what he wanted. Or Sir could go and have a fucking tantrum.

She dialled 353 on the keypad by her bed and told Sky she was ready.

Sir wanted, did he? Well, she’d show Sir.

Chapter Fourteen

The look on Sky’s face was enough to make Payton consider going to the wardrobe and changing into the dress. It was one thing to not play by Seth’s rules just to get a rise out of him, and perhaps push some boundaries, but it was another to make someone else pay for her rebellion.

“That is not the dress,” Sky said, enunciating her words and her steel grey eyes going even wider. “Sir will not be happy.”

But that was the point. She didn’t want him happy. She wanted to show him … show him and others like him she was not a thing to be ordered around.

“I didn’t want to wear the dress.” She paused a moment to watch Sky and see just how much the girl was panicking. If it was a lot, she wasn’t showing it. “Will you get in trouble?”

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