Page 165 of Ashes of Sin and Stardust

Ozzy and Eddy both showed me a variety of options and even drew out a few ideas, but nothing seemed to strike me as perfect. Photos on his phone and drawings in his notebook fell short of what I wanted for her. Something unique, collar-like, identifying, but not upsetting to her.

“That her?” he asked finally, after ten minutes of looking through the options and bouncing ideas around.

“Yes,” I whispered. I watched Julia hold up a skirt against Alice’s waist, make a face, and then put it back.

“Dang. Never pictured you with a brat.”

“You know her?”

“A little. I do a lot of jewelry for Pierce, so I’ve run into her a few times.”

Hasevery single oneof my friends met Alice before I did?

I looked back at the two girls. Julia seemed to search through the rows of designs before inspiration struck, and she scampered into her workshop, returning a moment later with a half-finished piece. The black leather piece stopped mid-thigh, had a slit up the side, and was covered in rhinestones swirling across the material, resembling galaxies and shooting stars.

I knew it was perfect before Alice’s cry of delight even reached my ears.

I looked back to Ozzy. “We have some time. But I’d like it within six months. I’d like it to be... unique. Get creative.”

“You got it, boss man. I’ll draw up some ideas for you.”

We left Julia’s shop with two new skirts for Alice, and the cuffs I’d commissioned Julia to make quite a while ago. I refused to show Alice what was in the mysterious box, ignoring her begging and whining and threatening an “extremely boring time-out” as punishment. That seemed to do the trick.

I thought about the matching collar in my dungeon, and I wondered if I should bring it back to the shop and have Julia re-sell it. The section with my name engraved into it could be removed. Alice said collars were off-limits, and I wasn’t going to fuck with that.

But after she’d shown up on my doorstep, my vision had returned stronger than ever, and I still saw her wearing it. For now, I’d keep it in the bottom drawer, tucked away with the whips and the chains and the other stuff she didn’t want to play with.

Even if I never saw that collar around her neck, I knew Alice was mine, and I planned to keep her, no matter how frustrating she made it for me.

Chapter 39

After we left Julia’sshop, Reuben took me to the hair salon. “She needs split ends fixed, and some new shampoo. Whatever you have that you think will be good for her.”

Karla was a pretty cool chick. She was a little taller than me, but not by much, and she had a similar style to mine. She was dressed in tattered black jeans, hot pink boots, and a crop top. Her dark brown curly hair had blue and pink dye at the tips, and her eye makeup was on point. We laughed and chatted while she washed, trimmed, and styled my hair.

“You’d look super-hot with bangs, girl.”

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