Page 25 of Savage Assassin

Is it?The worst part is likely over forme, unless we’re caught. Levin won’t hurt me, and soon I’ll be on my way to Boston, away from Diego’s clutches and any other man who wants to hurt me on his behalf. But for all the other girls–

I’m pretty sure that the worst is just beginning, for them.

“We’ll dress you up pretty, so there’s no chance of him being dissatisfied,” the woman continues as she leads me down the hall. “I’ve got just the thing.”

It seems somehow more horrifying that there’s a room with clothes just waiting for the purchased girls, to show them off after the auction. This entire mansion seemsfullof horrors, and I know I’m going to be spared most of them, so long as Levin and I both play our parts well. It sends another surge of guilt through me, like I’d felt down in the cells.Why do I deserve to be so lucky?

My feelings had been hurt that the other girls had been so angry with me, but I can understand it better now. I had a wealthy father to save me, who could buy a man’s services and me as well, to get me out of here. I have very little doubt that Levin can pull his part of this ruse off, which means that it’s only me who has to manage until we can leave. That’s all I have to do, in order to be the lucky one who is whisked away from all of this.

The guilt feels almost as bad as the fear had earlier.

“Here we are!” There’s a forced chipperness in the woman’s voice as she leads me into a room clearly set up to be some sort of dressing room, with large wardrobes, a long vanity with a mirror, cosmetics and hair products strewn across it, and another long table with shoes and jewelry spread over it. It’s yet another ostentatious display of wealth, that Diego has these things here to be thrown away on decorating women that someone else has purchased.

The woman turns to me as I stand, frozen in the center of the room. “Do you want me to pick out what you wear, or would you like to?”

The idea of choice hadn’t even entered my mind. I swallow hard, shaking my head. “You choose,” I manage, and she clicks her tongue as if she has an opinion about what I’ve just said, but I’m not sure if it’s a good or bad one.

What she pulls out of the wardrobe is lovely, something that I could never have imagined wearing outside of a bedroom with my husband. It’s a long Grecian-style dress made of see-through, misty green chiffon, gathered at the waist and falling in pleats in front and behind that will onlyjustkeep eyes from seeingeveryintimate detail of my naked flesh. It’s split up to the waist on either side, leaving me bare from hips to toes, and the neckline of it plunges all the way down to the waist, leaving a deep and wide v of cleavage. The sides are open as well–in fact, the only fastenings on the dress are at the waist and at the shoulders, where the chiffon is gathered in place.

The woman drapes it over a chair, unceremoniously yanking off the ivory silk slip I was wearing. I had on only a thin silk thong beneath it, and she pulls that off, too, discarding both in a bin as she reaches for the chiffon gown. I suspected that I wouldn’t be wearing anything underneath it, but I hadn’t fully grasped what that meant until the woman puts it over my head, and I see myself in the mirror.

I’ve never felt so torn about anything. On the one hand, it’s stunning.Ilook beautiful in it–the color suits my tanned skin and black hair, and it drapes over my slender curves in a flattering way. But it shows far more than I couldeverbe comfortable with a stranger seeing–and I’m going to have to wear it out into a party full of strangers. The chiffon, draped over my bare breasts and falling pleated between my legs, gives the illusion of hiding my nipples and the bare skin between my thighs until I move, and then anyone watching can see a glimpse of dusky nipples and intimate flesh.

Everyone is going to see me like this.Levinis going to see me like this.

The latter thought doesn’t upset me as much as it should. But the former is horrifying.

It’s not as if I have a choice.

“We’ll leave your hair down,” the woman decides,tsking as she makes her way around me, inspecting me. “And just a little makeup. Just something to accentuate. Your hair and face are beautiful already; there’s no reason to do very much.”

She pushes me down onto a stool, and I sit there, frozen as she fusses around me. She runs some other product through my hair that leaves it smelling like flowers and shining even more than it had already, fluffing it with her fingers, before she brushes a hint of rose-gold eyeshadow and a flick of mascara over my eyes and taps a rosy stain onto my lips. “That’s perfect,” she says with a satisfied lilt in her voice, before retreating to the table covered in shoes and jewelry.

When she comes back, it’s with a pair of nude, strappy heels high enough to keep the dress from dragging too much on the floor–it’s a bit long for my slightly-less-than-average height–and rose gold drop earrings set with tiny diamonds. “Just a hint of sparkle,” she says, slipping them into my ears. “There. You look like a princess.”

Iwasa princess, or the closest thing to one,I want to bite back.I still am. I’m still Ricardo Santiago’s daughter, and the man who bought me is going to take me home. You’re all fools who think you’ve outsmarted my father, but you’re not.

I keep the words clamped tightly behind my lips, though. For one thing, it would give up the entire ruse. For another, it’s not this woman’s fault. None of it is. She’s doing her job, and if she failed at it, she’d be in her own sort of awful position. I can’t be angry at her for trying to maintain some optimism in this house of horrors.

“Thank you,” I tell her, a little unevenly, as I stand up. “Should I go back to–him, now?” I don’t dare say Levin’s false name, for fear I’ll fuck it up.

“He’ll be waiting downstairs for you. Come along, I’ll take you to the staircase, and then I need to go and help the next girl. Most of them are finished up already–we took care of the others while you were recovering.”

It’s a little embarrassing to know that I was the only one who passed out, but it’s not as if I could help it. And Iwasthe last one to go out.

She walks me to the edge of the staircase, as promised, and then quickly walks off, towards another room. I’m left standing there, heart in my throat, knowing I need to go down to Levin.

The sooner I do this, the sooner it can all be over.

He’s waiting at the bottom of the stairs, still in the same suit as earlier, his jaw set as he looks towards the arched doorway that will undoubtedly lead us to the party in the other room. At the sound of my footsteps, he looks up, and I see an emotion that I’ve never seen directed at me–at least not until I was kidnapped. It’s only on his face for a moment, but it’s there–unmistakable and unmissable as he sees me in the sheer chiffon gown, until he wipes it away in an instant.

Lust.

I realize, in the instant before it disappears, that I don’t hate it as much as I should.

Elena

“We should go join the others.”

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