Page 41 of Coercion

“You can’t fucking have her.” Eleri continues, jabbing me in the back. “She’s not in any fit state to actually consent.”

My anger spikes, something inside me rages and before I can register that I’m doing it, I’ve flipped the table over, sending all the contents across the room as I yell, “I know that. Why do you think I’ve been staying at the townhouse?”

She pulls a face, looking at me like I’m utter trash. “Oh I get it. You’ve been so busy trying to get a hold of yourself you forgot what all this is about. That at the very centre of this is an twenty one year old girl.”

“I haven’t forgotten her. I haven’t stopped thinking about her.”

“Because you want to fuck her, right?” She glares at me.

“Eleri…”

“No.” She says, shaking her head. “You’re a grown man. A decent man. At least I thought you were. So you’re going to go back to your home, back to your child-bride and put her needs above yours.”

“She’s not a child.” I snarl, as a vision of her more than perfect body flashes in my mind. No child looks like that. Christ, it would be so much easier if she was a child, then I wouldn’t want her.

“As far as you’re concerned she’s off limits.”

I wince because those words should have the complete opposite effect of what they do. Eleri is turning my wife even more into forbidden fruit. Making her a great, untouchable prize.

“I’m going.” I say, picking up my things.

“And keep your damn cock in your pants.” Eleri shouts as I walk out the door.

Ruby

It’s been another long day. After Eleri left, the house felt so quiet, as if the whole place is waiting dormant for its master’s return.

I’ve been languishing in the sun room, staring out the window, watching two tiny birds flitter about and yet, I don’t dare go out there. Preston told me to stay in the house and I know he’ll know if I take even one step over the threshold.

But it’s not the fear of punishment that makes me obedient. I want him to check, to see, to realise that I am being good now, that I’m doing what he asks, and perhaps then he will come home and reward me with his time, with his presence.

I let out a snort.

It feels like a pipe dream now. Preston will return when it suits him. It’s what my father did. How he managed my mother, though truth be told I think some days she managed him. The pair of them were tempestuous at best and you learnt very quickly how to read the signs.

The minute the air changed, the minute one of them pulled a certain face you got up, you got out, you fled the house if you could and left them to their carnage. And that’s what it was. Both of them would fight it out. Would act like every argument was a battle to win the war. It wasn’t a healthy environment. It certainly wasn’t the sort you’d chose to grow up in and yet in so many ways we were happy, as strange as that sounds. My parents doted on me and my brother. They made sure we had the best of everything and with the diamond business, that was never much of an issue.

And then Levi came and stole it all.

Stole all my joy. All my family. And pitched my life into darkness.

I sigh, rubbing my eyes with my palms, I’m sick of my mind keep going over the same shit again and again. What is in the past is just that; the past. I don’t know why I keep spiralling, I don’t know why I keep focusing on it. I want to move on, to forget. If this is my new life then I want to make it work and forget the shit that came before it.

When I drop my hands I realise with a jolt that I’m not alone, that someone is stood in the doorway, watching me.

My eyes widen as I take him in. He’s wearing a crisp white shirt, a dark tailored suit that clearly costs more than most people’s annual wage, and his hair is slicked back in a way that makes him look roguish.

“Preston.” I more whisper than say his name.

He tilts his head, smiling at me in a way that is so disarming. “You’re wearing my shirt.”

I glance down as my cheeks heat. “I, I didn’t have anything else to put on.”

He frowns shaking his head slightly.Is he mad that I’ve taken his things again? That I’ve just helped myself?

“I should have thought of that.” He murmurs. “Levi was meant to send over your belongings but they’re still yet to arrive.”

“My belongings?” I repeat. I didn’t have anything bar a few measly things that I’m not sure I’d miss. Would he be so brazen as to send that here, to show Preston how shit my life was?