Page 13 of A Light in the Darkness
Moose laughs, but he doesn’t deny any of the insinuations I’ve made. He doesn’t have to. I’ll let Remy do it for him.
The phone is already ringing through the speakerphone before he even realizes what I’m doing, and there’s a moment of confusion while he tries to figure out my play. I haven’t talked to Remy since the day I left Costa Rica, and I’d love to continue to ice him out, but the look on Moose’s face when realization hits makes it worthwhile.
Remy answers on the second ring, his voice choked by confusion or panic or the girl he’s got his dick in. “Claire?” I close my eyes, trying not to let myself imagine the scenario at the other end of the line. “What is it? Is everything okay?”
“Of course, everything is okay.” I laugh, hoping it will cover the doubts that came rushing through me the minute I heard his voice. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
Rhea watches me curiously as I slip out of Moose’s reach and he seethes, looking ready to knock the phone from my hand and the head from my shoulders. Remy doesn’t offer an answer, so I press on. “I was just wondering something, and I hoped you could help me out by answering it for me.”
The silence is so thick I think it may smother me, but it lets me hear the wild pounding of my heart. “Anything.” He says after a moment. I try to imagine him on the other side of the world. Is he lying in bed with another woman? Is he on his boat replacing the memories of me with another girl who was so eager forhim to get her out of her clothes? Is he wrapping his arms around the throat of another, trying to claim them?
The thoughts make me angry, so I don’t know why I entertain them, but I can’t get them out of my head until he asks, “What do you need?”
“I was having a little bit of a dispute with my bodyguard,” I chuckle, because it still sounds so ridiculous to say that out loud. “You see, he seems to think that youownme.”
Rhea clamps her hand to her mouth to avoid her loud laugh from spilling into the silence, which is tense as Moose stares daggers at me.
It takes a minute before Remy answers.
“That’s not a question, Claire.”
“Fine. You see, my bodyguard seems to have seen my body before. Or my tits, at least, judging by the way he looks at them.”
When Remy says nothing and Moose shakes his head at me, promising me that he’s going to get me back for that, I decide to cut to the chase. “Moose has seen the video of my auction, and he is under the impression that you bought me. That you own me. But that’s not true, right, Remington?” I’ve never called him by his full name before, but it feels good as it slips off my tongue.
The power is definitely doing something to me, making desire pool between my legs the way it did when I taunted Wes with the knife.
There’s a long silence where I don’t even bother wondering what Remy is doing, and then he says. “Right.”
“I’m not your whore?” I prompt, waiting for the stiff, “no” he gives in response. “You don’t own me.” I say, confirming the words for both Remy and Moose. “So, I’m free to fuck whoever I want?”
“Claire…”
“Remy,” I sigh his name like a petulant child. “I just need you to clear this up for him. See, IthoughtI knew the answer. Ithoughtwhen I came home, that anything between us was gone and I wasfree to do whatever I wanted. Ithoughtthat was the whole fucking reason you didn’t let them sell me into sex slavery to begin with.”
“Jesus, Claire,” he growls, growing exasperated with my questioning. “Are you serious?”
“Of course I’m serious. See, tonight I’m going on a date and if it goes well, I may just want to go back to his apartment. But even if I don’t, I need to make sure Moose isn’t cockblocking me because he thinks it’s your command… unless itwasyour command.”
“I don’t own you.” He says, and I wonder if I’m imagining the reluctance in his voice. “You can do whatever you want.”
“So, if I want to let the whole fraternity take turns on me…” I think those are the words Moose used, and judging by the raise of his eyebrow as he stares back at me, I’m guessing I’m right. “Then I can?”
“What the hell are you doing, Claire?” Remy sighs. “Have you been drinking?”
“Not yet,” I laugh. “But I will be. And if I get drunk enough and decide I want to… oh, I don’t know, fuck Moose or something…” I let the words hang taut in the air, daring anyone to refute me. “I can, because my body fucking belongs tome, right? I get to choose what I do with it?”
It’s probably a good thing I’ll never have to see him again, because I’m pretty sure he’d strangle me the next time he sees me for acting like this. Lucky for me, he’s in Costa Rica, and I am here. If I’m going to move on and have the life that I want, he is either going to have to be okay with watching from the wings, or he’s going to have to give up this illusion he has of control.
I expect him to give me more silence, to call me a brat, to give me the venom I’ve been giving him. But Remy does none of that. His voice is calm when he says, “I don’t know, Claire. You tell me. When you make yourself come, I know it’s my name on your lips. So maybe Idoown you… or maybe I just own the best parts of you.”
It’s me who is silent now, trying to decide whether he’s bluffing. But the smirk on Moose’s lips tells me he isn’t. Remy didn’t justguessthat my orgasms are still his.
He fucking knew it.
“I have to go.” Remy hangs up the phone before I can even get my brain to process what just happened.
Across from me, Moose’s smug grin turns to laughter at the look on my face. “What’s the matter, princess?” He teases. “Earlier, you seemed excited by the idea that I had seen your videos. Now you don’t like that?”
