“Please, come in,” he purred and I did so reluctantly. I closed the door behind me and struggled along the long table. The person who invented high heels (with all certainty, a man) should burn in hell. I can’t say that I hadn’t been curious how it was to walk in shoes like these, but now that I had done it, I would rather run barefoot. The sound of the heels echoed through the massive room as I slowly got closer and closer to where he sat.

 

“Sit,” he said and motioned for me to sit down on the first chair con the long side of the table, the one closest to his right side. I hesitated for a while before I did as he said, cursing myself,with all the dirty words my mind could bring at the moment, for being so obedient.

 

“I bet you’re hungry,” he said, his voice still in the same purring tone that seemed more dangerous than all his other tone of voices. It made me get alert and I immediately got more aware of him, where his hands and eyes were.

 

Fortunately, his hands were on the table, seeming to have no urge to move towards me.

 

Unfortunately, his eyes were glued at my face.

 

“No,” I lied and glared at him with poisonous eyes, trying to make him look away. Instead of doing so, he just laughed. A cold and hard laugh that made shivers travel up my arms and continue to spread through my entire body. I wanted to run away, back to the safety and emptiness of my new room, no matter how cute it was.

 

I remained still.

 

“Of course you are,” he continued, ignoring my declining. “I’ve prepared a meal for you.”

 

And by I, he of course meant someone else.

 

His hand moved towards me as he spoke and I flinched away automatically. He grinned.

 

“I’m not hungry,” I said and looked away from him and to the door where I had just come in minutes ago. I tried to calculate how long it would take for me to run over there and escape out. I would probably trip on those God forsaken heels and fall down. But what if I sneakily took them off first? Surely I could outrun him if I was barefoot? I was quite the runner actually. It was a necessity when being constantly chased.

 

My heart sank slowly in my chest as realization hit me. What would happen if I did make it? He knew the house far better than I did, so it wouldn’t be that hard to find me if I hid, and he would probably catch me sooner or later.

 

Again, he ignored my comment and rang a bell which made the doors behind him open. I saw Maria, Penelope and two other women step inside, each of them carrying two plates in each hand. They put down the food along the table and I stared at it. I hadn’t seen this kind of food in forever, if I had ever done it.

 

Rich bastard.

 

Ignoring my rumbling stomach I tore my gaze away from the plates and looked to the side, trying to think of something, anything, to distract myself. I hardly noticed the others leave the room until the door slammed behind them.

 

“Eat please,” his voice purred. “It would be disrespectful to Maria and the others who cooked all this for you, if you didn’t.”

 

My head whipped towards him and I spoke before I had a chance to think about what was coming out of my mouth. “What do you know about disrespect? What do you even know about respect?!” I snapped and immediately regretted it badly. That was probably the worst move I could’ve done in a situation like this. I could see his eyes darken and I swallowed, analyzing every movement he did.

 

Stand your ground! Duncan’s voice echoed in my head, giving me strength from the inside. I braced myself for whatever was coming, straightening up and meeting his gaze, but Dougie just sat there, looking at me and calming down for ever second that went by.

 

“Eat,” he said again, this time more as an order than a proposal, really.

 

“No,” I said and crossed my arms across my chest.” I’m not hungry.”

 

“EAT,” he screamed.

 

“I. SAID. I’M NOT HUNGRY!” I screamed back at him and before I had a chance to react, his palm connected with my cheek and the sound bounced around on the walls. I stared down at the floor with tears in my eyes, ashamed that they were there. I shouldn’t be crying, I was so tired of it.

 

Without really thinking, I stood up hastily, which made the chair fall down on the floor, and marched towards the exit whilst discretely wiping away the tears from my eyes, ruining the make-up completely.

 

A grip around my wrist and a jerk made me stumbled backwards and I was turned towards Dougie who had caught up with me quite easily. He looked furious and he flicked his hand that held my wrist and threw me at the table, knocking more chairs away. He took a hard grip around my throat and pushed me down on the table. As his face got closer to mine, I could see how his eyes glowered. I tried to compose the fear in my own eyes, but the panic rushed around when I realized that I couldn’t breathe.

 

His face inches from mine and a snarl erupted deeply from his throat. I tried to swallow.

 

“Will you just eat the damn food?” he growled.

 

I met his eyes. The fires inside them hadn’t died, it still burned wildly but I wasn’t sure it was only anger anymore.

 

“No,” I coked out and I felt the grip around my throat tighten. I tried to push him away with my hands but he easily grabbed them with his free one and pinned them both down above me.

 

“Why not?”

 

“I said I’m not hungry, which means I’m not hungry,” I wheezed, struggling to get the words out at all. It was hard when the grip didn’t loosen but instead only tightened more and more until I was sure I was going to die. It was a scary feeling, having the air slowly squeezed out from ones lungs without any chance to refill them. But suddenly the pressure disappeared and the air could stream down into my lungs effortlessly again.

 

“Why don’t you just save yourself a lot of this and just do as I say?” he continued to growl, his hand still holding a firm grip around my wrists, pinning me down and disabling my ability to move.

 

“I was raise differently than you,” I hissed. “I wasn’t taught to be a heartless twat and I don’t take orders from men, or anyone that doesn’t treat me with the same respect they demand from me.”

 

He just looked at me, his eyes still angry.

 

“You talk about disrespect, but do you even know the meaning of the word, or are you simply too dumb to understand it, Dougie?” I spat out his name with disgust. The anger thrilled me to continue but the fear of the constantly building fury made me think twice and instead, I closed my mouth and made a tight line out of my lips, looking away in the process.

 

His face got closer to mine and his free hand forced me to look at him. I chose to stare back at him stubbornly instead of giving up and prove myself weak. I could feel my heart racing again. The adrenaline and fright mixed together with confusion and hatred. But there was something else there too, something I really shouldn’t be feeling right now.

 

Excitement.

 

His nose touched min and I started to get aware of the fact that he was lying on top of me, his weight being the force that pinned me down to the table. Slowly, panic started to rise again. What would happen now? Had I crossed the line and pissed him off so much that he was thinking of some sort of punishment for me now? That was the most probable reason why he was so quiet. I mean, I hated men and all that, but if someone had talked to me the way I just had, I would’ve probably gotten angry too.

 

I tried to press my head away from him, but he just kept coming closer and I started to imagine all kinds of horrible scenarios of what he would do to me now. His lips got closer and soon they were only an inch away from my own trembling ones. This was it, now everything would turn bad…or worse. He would rape me. He would beat me unconscious. He would kill me.

 

Just as our lips were about to touch, and I’m not too sure of how I felt about it, my emotions had blurred together in a giant mash, the big door opened and a blonde man sauntered inside, stopping abruptly when he saw the scenery before him.

 

“Am I interrupting something?” he said with the slightest of lisp.

 

Dougie looked at me, then at the blonde and then back at me, before he straightened up and smoothed down the shirt he wore. I scrambled up on my feet again, my whole body trembling with fright and all kinds of emotions.

 

“Not at all, Collin,” Dougie said casually and looked at me. “Leave,” he said in a hiss, and this time I didn’t hesitate to obey him. I hurried out of the room, refusing to look at the other man as I passed him. As soon as I was in the safety on the other side of the door that closed behind me, I kicked of my shoes and started sprinting towards my room, the thick feeling in my throat building up but not spilling before I reached my room.

 

As soon as the bedroom door closed I sank down alongside it and curled up to a ball, crying violently.