Page 34 of Tyrant (The Villetti Chronicles)

“Crawl to my chair.”

Somehow I managed to raise up on my hands and knees. I let him lead me over to his desk. He sat behind it, leaving me to kneel beside him.

“Give me your hand.”

I raised it up, still refusing to meet his eyes. Zayn snapped cold metal around my wrist before he attached the other end to the arm of his chair. He’d threatened to handcuff me to his desk at one point. I shouldn’t be surprised he was a man of his word.

“You’re going to stay there for the rest of the afternoon. When it is dinner time, you will sit with me and submit to being fed. Then, when it is bedtime, you will crawl upstairs because you aren’t permitted to walk. You’re going to stay with me since you’ve threatened to leave. Clearly, you can’t be trusted and until you can, you will sleep on the floor where I can see you.”

My head whipped up to his. He wasn’t even looking at me, but I couldn’t stop staring at him. I was going to stay in his bedroom.Hisbedroom… with him… naked.

My thighs squeezed together as I tried to deny how it made me feel.

How the fuck was I going to survive that? I’d never been in his room. And now I would see it, but not under the circumstances I secretly wanted to. No, this would be a punishment on a whole other level. One I was not looking forward to… at all.

Twelve

Zayn

This fucking girl was driving me crazy. And not in a good way. More like in the ‘I wanted to gag her so she couldn’t provoke me’ type of way. Her mouth with those damn full lips of hers had me thinking things I shouldn’t be. Had me wanting things I had no business even considering.

My eyes flicked down to the floor of my bedroom, eyeing the dark shape on the rug. I wasn’t completely heartless. She had a blanket and a pillow, but she wasn’t allowed clothes. Something I regretted dictating given the constant battle I had seeing her that way. Especially when I’d made her sit in my lap at dinner and fed her by hand. She hadn’t appreciated it at all, but she took her punishment. She knew I would make it worse if she kept breaking the rules.

Having her naked in my lap had been a mistake. I had been so close to giving into the urges coursing through my veins. I kept it together. There was no other choice. This was about teaching her a lesson. It did not include touching her inappropriately. I couldn’t without her expressed permission, anyway, having given her my word. I didn’t want her thinking I’d try to take things she wasn’t willing to give like her uncle.

The cunt was lucky he was no longer alive. The more time I spent with Ari, the more possessive I became over her. I couldn’t let her leave. She wasmine, even if she was currently making my life difficult.

You wanted a challenge, didn’t you? You wanted a change from all the fucking boredom. You’ve got it right here. She’s it and you can’t get away from it now.

Ari thought I would allow her father to provoke McGovern into war over her. No one wanted a war. Not when it would bring problems to my door. Bennett wasn’t just a lowlife gang leader, he was in business with both me and my father. It wasn’t common knowledge, of course. He wanted more than just to run shit in Hackney. It was about securing a future for him and his family beyond the petty squabbles between boroughs. The one man who could make it happen was my father. Bennett wasn’t a stupid man, but his daughter was his everything. He would do anything to protect her.

I didn’t know what happened to her mother nor why he was the one to raise her, but I knew Ari was his world. He always talked about how proud he was of his little firecracker. To me, Ari always seemed more like a little fairy with her wings clipped by the environment she’d been born into. Didn’t matter if she’d been sent away for school. You could take the girl out of Hackney, but you couldn’t erase the fact she was born into the underworld.

It was something I could never escape. Neither could she.

My problem now was Ari wouldn’t forgive me if her father got himself killed. I couldn’t let that happen. I wanted to keep her, not make her hate me for life.

In order to protect her and him, I needed more information. I needed it all before I could make a move. So much was at stake here beyond just me and her. If I pulled the trigger and intervened, I would get questioned by my father. Something I didn’t need under any circumstances. Especially now he’d made it clear he wasn’t going to leave me to my own devices any longer. He wanted me to step up. Pity he didn’t realise I had no incentive to until now. Until… her.

There was one major thing I didn’t understand. Why had her uncle intended to give her to McGovern? It made no sense for Justin to be disloyal to his family. At least, not from what I had heard about him and his relationship with his brother. It had niggled at me since the day she’d showed up in my office. What the hell was Justin’s game?

Ari shifted, pulling the blanket higher over her bare shoulders. I hadn’t heard her breathing even out since I’d turned the lights off. She wasn’t asleep. It seemed both of us were suffering from an overactive mind. At least, I assumed it was why she couldn’t sleep other than being uncomfortable on the floor.

“Arianna.”

“Yes, sir?” came her soft voice almost immediately.

“Come here.”

“Why?”

I almost shook my head. She knew the rules. Obey me without hesitation.

“Now, Arianna.”

She was slow to move, but she did. Ari kept the blanket wrapped around her as she stood and came over to the bed. I hadn’t laid down, merely sat up against the headboard with the covers pulled over my legs.

“Sit.”

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