Page 14 of Sinful Palace

I felt like I was drowning, lungs burning as a current sucked me into the darkest depths of the ocean. Dizziness overcame me, and I went limp and stopped crying, finally letting the fear take me. I had no other choice.

Logan pulled the sheet off a few minutes later. “Did you like that?”

I was too choked up to reply. I simply shook my head instead.

“Good. That was for last night,” he said.

“I’m sorry,” I managed to get out. “I’m so sorry.”

“Are you really?”

“Yes.” I nodded as much as I could in the cramped space as tears coursed down my cheeks in hot rivulets. “I promise I’ll be good from now on.”

He chuckled. “You’ll have to forgive me for not believing you,” he said, reaching one hand out to the lid. He slowly dragged his fingertips over the glass, and goosebumps peppered my arms in their wake, as if he were actually touching me. “You have a history of failing to keep your promises of good behavior, don’t you?”

I let out a sob. “Yes.”

“You’re incorrigible, aren’t you?”

“Maybe,” I murmured.

“If that’s the case, give me one good reason I shouldn’t keep you in here,” he said, tilting his chin to the side.

“You… you can’t,” I said, trembling like mad. “You have to let me be seen in public. Go to college. See my friends. Attend Order functions. Otherwise someone will eventually realize I’m missing. Then they’ll come looking and realize what you’re doing to me.”

Logan laughed. “I know that. I’m not a complete moron,” he replied, rubbing his jaw. “But we don’t need to do any of those things today, do we? So tell me: why should I let you out right now? What’s stopping me from keeping you in here for the next twenty-four hours?”

My whole body felt like it was deflating. “Nothing,” I muttered. “There’s nothing stopping you.”

“Why?”

“You own me. You can do whatever you want to me, and I can’t stop you.”

He smiled. “Good girl. You’re finally saying the right things.”

“Does that mean I can come out?”

His smile faded. “And here I was thinking we were finally making progress.”

“I was just asking,” I said, voice coming out in a pained squeak. “I’m sorry, sir.”

He sighed. “You aren’t allowed to ask questions unless I give you permission, Willow. When are you going to learn your place?”

“I’m sorry. Please show me, sir,” I replied, my voice barely above a murmur.

A tiny seed of an idea was budding in my brain. There might be a way out of the box after all. I just had to play my cards right.

Logan raised a brow. “Show you?”

“Show me my place. Teach me.”

“That’s what I’m doing right now,” he said, narrowing his eyes.

“No. You’re just letting me lie here. I might hate it now, but if you leave me here all day, I’ll accept it eventually,” I said.

Logan laughed. “Bullshit. You’ll go crazy.”

“No. That’s how people’s minds work. If you give them a problem that they can’t control, they’ll eventually get used to it. I know you don’t want me to get used to this. You want me to keep seeing this as a punishment, don’t you?”

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