Page 35 of Coveted

“Too bad.”

She doesn’t actually have a say in whether I watch over her. It’s already happening, and this conversation is more of a courtesy.

Before she can protest, I continue to the other reason I asked her here.

“Are you ready to kneel for me?”

Sadie’s eyes turn to slits. “What is wrong with you?”

“Several key things, I’d say. Answer my question.”

“Kneel for you?” she asks. “Why would I, especially when you just admitted to stalking me?”

“Because you have to.”

“Says who though?”

Her disgusted reaction only encourages me, sadly for her. I want to fuck the revulsion right out of her.

“Benedict Darkbloom and the other founders,” I say. “I claimed your pennant at the Run. Therefore you must kneel and obey one order I give you.”

“It doesn’t count though,” she says. “There was a murder.”

“I caught you fair and square. Rules are rules.”

“Not a chance.”

I sweep my gaze over her body. “Kneel.”

“I refuse,” she says.

“You can’t refuse.”

She sniffs. “Watch me.”

I lean closer. “Oh, I intend to. I’ll watch you try very hard to convince yourself you don’t enjoy obeying my command. I’m going to make you beg me to take things further.”

That shuts her up.

Sadie’s cheeks redden and she looks away, as if she can’t believe she came here.

But she doesn’t know me yet. She doesn’t know I’d say or do fucking anything to get her worked up. I’ve waited a long time to play with her like this.

I take aim at her greatest insecurity. The one she thinks she’s so good at hiding.

“You want to belong somewhere,” I say. “You feel all alone in the world.”

I pause, giving her a chance to say no.

She doesn’t, because we both know it’s true.

I continue. “You could belong here, with us. Ask your roommates if they kneeled. They did it, they obeyed. Because they know what it means to be part of something private and special. Are you going to stay on the outside? Does that feel safe to you? Because I promise, it’s safer on the inside. Far more fun too.”

Sadie gives a tiny shake of her head. “I’ll never belong here. Not truly.”

I frown. She’s so wrong.

She would belong anywhere she wants, because she possesses rare, coveted gifts no amount of money can buy: