Page 70 of Violent Delights

Chapter 42

Liana

“You stole that coat,” he says, pointing a trembling finger at me.

My heart stops in shock.

He knows.

I don’t know what happened after he left my room. I don’t know what or who tipped him off. But I know that he knows.

He knows I’m not the woman he thought I was.

I stare up at him, my mouth partly opening as I try to come up with a reply, but the words escape me.

“You stole that red fur coat,” he repeats, putting emphasis on every word. “Didn’t you?”

“You’re scaring me, Master-”

“Tell me!” he interrupts me.

I hurry to nod. “Yes, I did.”

His face changes again, now displaying the despair of someone who just lost something valuable forever.

“You’re not Ruby Red,” he whispers.

It’s not a question, but a statement. Yet I reply by shaking my head.

“I’m not,” I whisper.

He’s struggling for breath, and throwing his arms up in the air.

“I fucked up,” he gasps, short of breath. “I so fucking fucked up.”

I don’t know what to say, so I just remain in my spot, my fists clenching around the towel that I have wrapped around my body.

“My name is Liana,” I say in a low voice. “I told you.”

“Fuck,” he says. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuuuck!”

I flinch when he raises his arms again, but he only does it to ruffle through his wild hair, holding his head with his hands as he stalks, pacing back and forth through the room.

“Fuck!” he continues cursing. “This is not fucking happening!”

He’s so loud and so wildly distraught that I’m scared of him for the first time in weeks. I want to move out of his range, but I don’t even dare get up on my feet.

Suddenly, he stops mid-motion, freezing for a moment, before he turns back to me, looking at me with worry painted across his face that is unlike anything I’ve seen on him before.

“I’m so fucking sorry,” he says. “I made a mistake. I fucked up so badly.”

He approaches me, going down on his knees in front of me, so we’re almost on eye level as his gaze fixates on mine.

“I thought you were someone else,” he explains. “A woman named Ruby Red. I… hired her to do all of this. To role play with me.”

I bite my lower lip. Well, there you go. I was right.

“She… you were wearing that coat,” he adds, gesturing over to the hideous fur coat that’s hanging over the end of the bed. “That was the token that helped me recognize her. That coat. You had that coat, and the business card, and-”

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