Page 15

I watch him study me.

And he does, for a long moment, just rinses his gaze over my back.

I catch a wink in the reflection.

My attention swerves to his free hand.

The wink of silver—a short knife.

I bite back a wince as his grip tightens on the side of my neck. He holds me in place, no wiggle room, and brings the knife to the spine of the corset.

His gaze lifts.

The shadows that lurk around him thicken. His eyes darken with the suffocation of the dim firelight. And the deadly look he cuts through me is a statement. I feel the pinch of it in my gut.

I don’t move an inch.

He pushes the flat side of the blade to my back. The pressure clenches my spine. It slides upwards, pushing between the dress and the ribbons.

Ice-cold trickles of anticipation run through me.

Gazes locked in the mirror, he speaks in a rough voice, a warning, “I find it difficult to believe you don’t understand a basic order.”

A breath pins to my throat.

He yanks the blade, hard. “Dress nice.”

I choke on a gasp.

Severed, the ribbons fall away.

I feel the loss of them at my spine.

They flutter down my back, come spilling down my sides.

Before they have even hit the floor, he tugs again. One cut, two cuts—and the final third cut has the corset falling away.

A loose breath is tugged from me.

My breasts fall into their natural place, not held up by the constricting bodice anymore.

“You chose the ugliest gown I have ever seen you wear,” he says and steps back. “One I doubt is your style.”

I don’t move. I don’t think I’m meant to.

Silent, I follow him in the mirror as he runs me over.

The chemise is all that sticks to me, now. The skirt of the dress is sliding down my body at the most glacial pace I can stand. Slow, so slow, it shifts over my hips. Stockings catch on the fabric, then start to slip down my body with the weight of the dress.

Daxeel watches it a while.

But his patience cracks. He snatches out for the back of the skirt, all rumpled and layered at the swell of my backside.

He brings the knife with him.

My body jerks with the tugs and pulls of the blade.

He cuts it away.