Page 100 of Bake the Town Red

Somehow, I’m up again. In the air. In his arms, being carried to the shower.

“Are you staying?” My fingertips draw the shape of a heart on his chest, just below his collarbone. It becomes a red heart because I’m scratching his skin, my blood mixing with his. “Or do I need to cry again?”

He levels me with a look that says he won’t joke about my meltdowns. So chivalrous.

“I’m staying. I’ve wanted you to stay for the past two nights, but fuck. I was trying to be respectful. Was trying not to break down when you demanded to go home by yourself.”

“Be respectful tonight too.” My fingers bite into his neck. Pull on his short hair. “Stay.”

The doorway to the bathroom won’t fit us both. Tyler twists to the side, squeezing our bodies past it. Same as always.

“You won’t like what I’m going to do to you. What I’ve been planning on doing to you for years.” The orgasm hasn’t drained the darkness out of his eyes. They’re every bit as ferocious, even under the hot water spray. “Protesting won’t do you any good.”

His gaze should raise a ton of red flags.

Instead, it piques my curiosity.

“Do what?” I’m on the floor. Tyler leans against me as he reaches for the shampoo on the plastic rack. “Tyler, what are you going to do to me? Because honestly, I don’t think my ass can take any more. Not tonight.”

Tyler’s eyes narrow. During those magical, fucked up years when he’d been my guardian, he’d give me the same look a lot. It happened mostly after I said inappropriate shit that made his grandma laugh.

Will he laugh now?

“I’m going to lock you up.”

Shampoo is squeezed into my hair, rubbed into my scalp. It feels so nice that I ignore what he just said.

“You’re going to let me suck your cock?” I close my eyes, humming. “Why wouldn’t I like that?”

A loaded silence takes over after my question. I don’t have it in me to press Tyler. I don’t have anything left in me at all. I’m worn out, bone tired, and in desperate need of sleep.

Which is why I allow this. Allow him to say nothing while he massages soap into my body, washes me clean, and helps me out of the shower.

He tugs a towel from the hook on the wall, wraps it around my body. Wordlessly, Tyler reaches with his arm to the medicine cabinet, never turning his back to me. Once he fishes out the first aid kit, he sterilizes the cuts on my hand, the open wounds his bite marks left on my neck. Bandages both.

“Well, are you?” We’re next to my dresser in the living room after he carried me there. He pulls a black T-shirt over my head. A T-shirt and nothing else. “Going to make me suck you?”

“Another day.” He slaps my hand away, not letting me grab the pair of panties in his hand. The weirdo ties them around my eyes, then walks me to the couch that’s facing away from the room. “Keep it on. Stay here. I’ll change the sheets.”

This is actually kind of cute. “Where’s my asshole and what did you do with him?” I call after him.

“He’s here.” Tyler is efficient, returning to my side quickly. His thumb grazes my cheek when he rips the panties blindfold off my eyes. He’s wearing his T-shirt and briefs, smirking in this new, wicked way of his. “I warned you I’m not the same as I was.”

“Okay…”

His hand is on the small of my back and he walks me back to the bedroom. Throws me on the bed on my back. Lifts my shirt to my breasts.

“Stay,” he repeats.

My eyes follow him as he picks his bag off the floor. Opens it. Pulls out a—

“No.” I sit up, shaking my head. Maybe if I cross my arms, I’ll look more intimidating. Maybe he’ll remember all those people that went into my shop and never came out. “Absolutely no.”

The stainless steel and the design of the chastity belt are beautiful. Delicate even. But I won’t be caged. Even though I was allowed to go to school, for all intents and purposes, I’d been Uncle Al’s prisoner for six months. Ian and me.

Never again.

He turns the lock on the front of the chastity belt, opening it. “Yes.”

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