Sebastian - Dark Bonds (23 page)

“Not as mad as I am with you, my darling,” he counters, his lips curled and his eyes crinkled warmly. 

“You don’t look mad.”

“That’s because you’ve been punished and therefore I don’t wish to dwell.  However, we need to have a conversation tomorrow, revisiting the premise of submission.”

“Let’s talk now,” I suggest, feeling feisty still from the alcohol.

“No.  We’ll talk in the morning.  You need to sleep.  It’s late.”

“But …”

“Bed.  We’ll talk tomorrow.”  He loosens his tie and my mood lifts as I admire the spectacle that is Sebastian.  His eyes burn with amusement as he notices my admiring stare.  His black hair, speckled with grey at the temples, adds maturity to his otherwise youthful looks, a dark stubble shadow across his square jaw and tendrils of hair escaping above his now open shirt collar transform my respectable country gent into a dark, sensual ruffian.

“I’ll be up in a minute, I need a glass of water.”  Aroused, yet mildly afraid I decide to try and sober up before getting into bed with my mercurial man.

As Sebastian ambles tiredly upstairs, I head for the kitchen where I find Scarlett at the oak table, thumbing through a magazine.  She’s wearing only a white muslin nightgown, through which her nipples are prominently visible.  Expecting Sebastian, I see. 

“Scarlett.”  My voice is clipped as I take a glass from the cupboard and fill it from the tap.

“Mrs. Dove.  How was your evening?”

“Fine.  It’s late, why are you still up?”  The cool water quenches my raging thirst and begins to clear my head.

“Do you have a problem with me being up?  I do live here,” she replies pointedly, concentrating on the magazine page, which I see is an advert so clearly not as interesting as she would have me believe.  Not interesting enough to prevent eye contact, unless of course she can’t face me.

“Yes.  You do, but for how much longer?  I wonder.” 

“I’m sorry but what the hell is that supposed to mean?”  She finally raises her startled eyes from the page.

“Just that, if Sebastian and I decide to make this stay a more permanent arrangement, then your services won’t be required.” 
Put that in your pipe and smoke it, missy!

Her expression changes to one of amused pity, and it takes all of my self-control not to wipe the smirk off her pretty little face.

“Just as I thought.  His Lordship would never send me away.  He needs me, just like he did before and just like he always will.  I thought getting you here would be good for him.  I really did.  But you know what?”  She spits her spiteful words with venom but I let her continue, keen to see more of the true Scarlett.

“You’re no better for His Lordship than his dead wife was.  She couldn’t fulfil him and neither can you.”

Stunned at her outburst, I’m shaking with rage.  “What the fuck would you know about him?  All you are to him is a skivvy.  A low, weak, pathetic little waif who has the personality of a gnat and the sex appeal of a stick insect.”  My trembling hands carefully place the glass on the granite worktop, my hands gripping the edge for stability.

“Is that what you think?”  She asks mockingly.  “Do you really think he can ever be satisfied by you?  You wouldn’t even be here now if I hadn’t stupidly thought that you’d fulfil the ‘wifey’ role; to provide him with the family I can’t give him - Libby couldn’t give him.  That’s all you’re here for.  Nothing more.  You’re not needed for anything else, you see.  I can meet all his needs other than giving him a child.”

The shock of her words is a fist to my stomach.  “You’re lying,” I hiss.  “Sebastian loves me.  Not because of Bella … or of Joe.  He loves me.  You just can’t handle that because you’re obsessed with him, aren’t you?  Well let me tell you, lady, when he hears what you’ve just said to me, you’ll be out of here so fast it will make your sick little head spin.  So … will you go willingly or will you wait for him to fire your scrawny ass?”

“Poor bereaved Elizabeth,” she sighs, shaking her head sorrowfully.  “Your mind hasn’t been right since your son and husband died, has it?  You messed up your marriage, you screwed around, you threw yourself at the first eligible man who would take you in and then, when I give you the golden opportunity to satisfy his need for a family, you mess that up too …”

I slap her face hard enough to sting my palm.  “Don’t you ever talk about my son and my husband again, do you understand? … And what the fuck do you mean when you say you ‘gave me the golden opportunity?’  What the hell did you do?”

She raises a frail hand to her reddening cheek … and smiles.  “Do you think I’m not used to pain, Elizabeth?  Do you think I don’t enjoy it?  That’s what I live for.  I’m here to take the pain away from Him - the pain that Libby caused, the pain that infertility caused, the pain that you cause.  I was wrong to bring you here.  I see that now.”

“Bring me here?” I screech.  “What the fuck are you talking about?” 

“That poor husband of yours.  Dear dead Alan.  He was a lousy lay - I have to agree with you on that one.  Even so, it pained me but I did what I thought was right.  For Him.”

Oh my God.  The accident.  Did she
...

Movement in the corner of my vision snaps my gaze away from Scarlett.  Sebastian leans against the doorframe, wearing a robe.

“Who wants to tell me what the hell is going on?” he demands sternly.

The room is spinning.  He’s talking - I see his lips move but my ears don’t hear what he says.  He’s walking toward me but it’s in slow motion, as though someone hit the slow replay button on a movie clip.  She killed them.  Oh my God … she killed them.  The words won’t leave my lips, the shocking thought too horrendous to verbalise.  His arms are around me and the world goes black.

Coming May 2013

Sebastian
– Retribution

© Janey Rosen

www.janeyrosen.com

Romantic, tragic, funny and dark ... Elizabeth Dove is a mother, wife and successful business woman.  To the outside world, she leads a perfect life.  Elizabeth knows differently ... frustrated in a passionless marriage, she embarks on an illicit journey to rediscover her sensuality.  When Elizabeth meets Sebastian De Montfort, Lord of Penmorrow House in Cornwall, she is thrust into his world of sexual domination, dark secrets and self discovery.  As she is taken deeper into submission at the hands of Sebastian, Elizabeth soon discovers that she faces a far greater threat than at his hands.  Retribution is the darkest chapter of Elizabeth's journey as her story concludes in this third book in the erotic series.

Be sure to read Sebastian - Secrets first, with Elizabeth's story continuing in Sebastian - Dark Bonds, and concluding in Sebastian - Retribution.