Chapters (66)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Keep Reading
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sneak Peek
- Find Me
- Books by Mary Catherine Gebhard
- Acknowledgments
He shook his head, that wicked smile on his pink lips. “You’re mine until I say you’re not. You stand when I tell you to stand. You kneel for as long as I say kneel. I get to play with you for months.”
I lifted my eyes to Grayson’s deep, cutting blue eyes, heart throbbing at the promise in them.
The threat.
He quirked his head. “All my pets died. Will you survive?”
“Mr. Grayson—” My uncle stopped abruptly.
No, no.
My uncle, the man who’d taken me in when I had no one, who’d practically raised me, who’d worked as a servant his whole life and said the key to surviving it was keeping your dignity, had just found me on my knees before Grayson Crowne.
Six
STORY
My uncle came to an abrupt stop, eyes landing on me, crouched and shamed before Grayson Crowne’s feet. Sewage filled my veins, and this time I looked at my knees, because I couldn’t bear to see my uncle’s face.
He’d become a blurry Polaroid. His small frame—in a light suit as always—and curly gray hair, cropped close to his dark skin, just out of focus.
What had I become to him? My mother, maybe.
My uncle tried to warn me before he’d brought me in, but I had nowhere to go. My mom was dead. To my dad’s side of the family, I didn’t exist. My uncle was the only living member left.
A moment passed. I could feel my uncle watching me, and then he asked the only question he could: “Mr. Grayson...you called?”
Not Why do you have a servant on her knees? What are you doing with my niece?
Those were questions I would have to deal with, and his unasked questions burned into ruinous answers the longer he watched, the longer I didn’t stand up.
“You should start with the bed. Strip it.”
“Of course, sir.”
More shame swamped me. Grayson didn’t make it sound like we’d slept together, but he didn’t not either.
Grayson placed an untied sneaker beneath my nose. “Tie my shoe.”
“What?” I jerked my head up, meeting his stony blue eyes. “You can’t be serious.”
Grayson swiped a measured hand over his forehead, pushing messy blond hair from his brow, his glare pinned on me. I was once again hit with how devastatingly handsome he was, the kind of looks that ruin.
“When I say jump,” he said.
I bit the tip of my tongue, anger flooding my chest as I leaned forward, and my fingers shook on the laces. That was when I finally met my uncle’s eyes, as I tied Grayson’s shoe.
Shame drenched my soul in oil.