Page 35 of Deception

“They only told me to get you ready for him.”

“What does that mean?” I amble to the bed and take a better look at the belt. Pulling at all the different chain ropes, I try to make sense of it. “Ready for him?”

“Yes, ready for him,” she exhales, pushing my hands to the side and placing the chains the correct way.

It’s a harness. They’re trussing me up like an animal. Instantly, my spine stiffens as I take a step back.

“I’m not wearing that.” Pulling the towel tighter around me, I go to the wardrobe and take out a nightdress. “I’m not an animal or…or…”

“You are alive, Lucy.”

I stop, ravelling the white cotton around my hands. She hasn’t used my name before, and the action gives me pause. It feels good to hear someone use it, even if it sounds odd after so long without hearing it aloud.

“I’m…I’m not Tomasz’s pet. I won’t let him chain me up like livestock going to market.”

Softly, she smiles down at her feet before tugging the nightgown from my hold. “Keep him happy and he’ll keep you alive. You can’t get out of here if you’re dead.”

Without another word, she throws the nightgown on the floor followed by the towel she unravels from me. Grabbing the underwear from the bed, she goes about dressing me in the strapless dress and the heels before she sits me at the vanity and moves on to fixing my hair and make-up.

“You’re beautiful,” she tells me, clasping the top of the harness at the back of my neck. While she brushes the curls she styled into loose waves, she hums, “Very beautiful.”

“Elif—”

“And you’re strong, yes?”

“Elif, I can’t?—”

“Yes?” Pulling me to my feet, Elif stands in front of me. With the heels on, I’m taller than her. Not by much, but enough that she looks up at me with her brown eyes wide on mine while she waits for a reply. “Yes?”

“I hope so.”

“No, the right answer is you are. You’ve made it this far, so you can keep going. You’re strong, beautiful, and smart. Everything a powerful man admires.”

For the first time since I laid eyes on my outfit, my heart beats with something other than disappointment or irritation.

“I don’t think it’s admiration that Tomasz has for me.”

“Hmmm…lust and admiration aren’t far off each other, you know…”

“Does he—” I swallow down my question, but it balls in my throat until I ask again, “Does he have other…girls?”

Rounding me, Elif stops at my back and goes about clasping the harness at the top of my butt. She doesn’t answer my question at first, and I don’t ask again because of course he does. I’m not special to him. Fuck, for all I know he’s married and has kids, and I’m just his whore. A plaything he’ll discard.

The quiet makes me feel sick to my stomach with all the thoughts in my head running riot.

I’m strong and I’m smart.

Strong. Smart.

Strong and smart.

It’s all I keep repeating to myself as she checks my hands and then chains my wrists to the front of my hips. We’re walking to the bedroom door when she stops us in our tracks.

Standing in front of me, Elif gives me another once-over before looking up at me and smiling. “No.”

That’s it. One word. One syllable.No.

Teeth sinking into my lip, I return her smile as she opens the door and stands to the side so that the guards take me to their master. The young one walks ahead while Gregor squeezes my arm, widening his strides so that it’s harder for me to keep up in my heels without stumbling.

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