Chapter 68

I don’t hear anything about the missing clothes until the next morning, when Archer bursts into my room and heads straight for the closet. He throws open the door and shuffles through the hangers.

I’m barely out of bed, still in my pajamas. My hair is a mess. I only just brushed my teeth.

Archer turns toward me, his face twisted up in rage. “So what Wyatt said is true. I had to see it for myself to believe it.”

I want to blame Wyatt for this, and I certainly do to an extent. But the full truth of it is that I did sell some of the clothes all on my own. For money. And I meant to keep it from them.

“I had more than I needed,” I say.

“These clothes weren’t yours to give away.”

“They were a gift. From you.”

“Not a gift. A uniform. You were responsible for the care of the items, not to fucking get rid of them!” He throws his hand up in anger. “You’re a goddamn gold-digger. I should have fucking known.”

“This isn’t about money,” I snap, to defend myself.

He takes a threatening step toward me. “So you didn’t sell the clothes?”

“I mean…” I totally did. I don’t want to admit it. He sees through me anyway.

“You are always lying to me,” he growls.

“I didn’t do it for the money. I had more than I needed, so it made the most sense to get rid of some of them. I don’t see why this is such a big deal.”

My answer only seems to set him off more.

“You have no idea what you’ve done here. Surely you haven’t forgotten that your clothes carry the Hayes crest? And now you’ve just handed those out to who? The highest bidder?”

When I took the clothes to the thrift store, to trade them for moment, the attendant’s eyes did go large looking at them. I assumed at the time that was because the clothes were so high quality. I didn’t forget about the crests, exactly, but I didn’t consider their value either.

“You have no fucking grasp of the damage this could do to my family. Your ignorant little mind can’t comprehend the level of shit you’ve just made for us all.”

I don’t understand, no, and though I want to argue, to defend myself, I’m starting to understand that some of Archer’s anger, in this instance is justified. Although he doesn’t have to insult me so thoroughly, the jerk.

Because of his dickwad attitude, I can’t bring myself to say sorry either. If someone had explained to me… or if they wouldn’t constantly try to dictate every aspect of my life at every moment, maybe I could have asked…

“I hope you feel like shit for what you’ve done.”

I lower my chin. I do feel bad, despite myself. I only wanted a bit of money for myself, not to create some kind of dramatic incident. Though, again, his jerkishness is truly unwarranted.

“No,” Archer snaps. He closes the distance between us, places his hand on the side of my face, and physically turns me to look up at him. “That’s not good enough. You don’t get to just hang your head and be done with it. You’ve fucked up bad this time, and you need to be taught a lesson.”

I swallow hard. Taught a lesson? Gods help me with whatever he has in mind. Would he strap me to his bench? Would he smack my ass until my skin turns red? Would he tie me up and tease me?

My nipples turn to pebbles, remembering the last gentle brush he gave.

“You’ve needed a good punishment for some time,” Archer says, voice low and breathy. “And I’m finally going to give it to you.” His fingers curled around the hair behind my ear and he gave a sharp tug. “Do you think you can handle it?”

I don’t truly understand what he means but I would rather eat glass than back down.

“Do your worst,” I grumble. “I can handle anything you can do.”

Fire sparks hot and fierce in his gaze. He grips my hair tighter, enough to tilt my head to one side. He leans forward, his breath warm on my exposed ear.

“Tonight, I will come for you. Be ready.”

At once, he releases me and I stumble without his steadying presence.

“Tonight,” he says again at the door, without looking back. It’s both a threat and a promise.

I’m equal parts excited and dreadful. My mind is cautious. I’ve seen him give punishments before. By nature of the actions, it shouldn’t feel good. But that girl had cried out in pleasure. With sex, logic doesn’t always seem to play into things.

My body speaks a different truth, one much more shameful. Already the promise of Archer’s attention has my skin tingling and my pussy wet. He could shove me over his bench right now and I’d probably go for it.

My body is apparently an Archer-slut, even if the rest of me wants to play it a bit safer.

Well, tonight it won’t be entirely up to me. Whatever his punishment is, I’ll endure it. I’ll show him I won’t be broken so easily.

And maybe I would find out why that other girl thought Archer smacking her ass was so enjoyable.

The thoughts stay with me for most of the day. So much so, I nearly forget to go to the bank to get some money for Tide. To stay on schedule with Neil, this side trip makes me a few minutes late for class. Fortunately, the professor doesn’t do much more than give me an annoyed side-eye.

We have one five minute break in our three hour class. Tide uses the first 30 seconds to track me down.

“Chloe, please, I’m begging you.”

I knew he would start on me again, so I prepared. After Archer’s verbal lashing this morning, I knew I didn’t want the money I had made to go to nothing. If I can use it here, now, to save Tide’s life, then I would do so.

“Don’t beg me anymore. Here.” I take the money out of my bag. At the bank, I asked them to place it into a discrete envelope. I pass that to him now.

Tide’s eyes go wide. A smile blooms across his lips. “Thank you!” he says. “Thank you so much!”

He skips all the way back to his desk, where he opens the envelope and begins counting. Odd. Does he not trust me? Why would I short change him here and now?

I brush it off. Maybe rich people are cheap and untrustworthy. I won’t be offended over Tide not taking any chances with his life.

As class starts again, I face forward. I feel good about what I’ve done. I have saved someone’s life. From here, maybe he can turn it around for himself and help his family get out of whatever hole they’ve dug for themselves.

If someone had given me that much money when I needed it, maybe everything would be different for me now. I suppose it is pointless to speculate.

For now, I just want to ride the high of this good deed, and put off thinking about Archer’s punishment for as long as physically possible.

Still, his words creep into my mind, typically when I least suspect it.

Tonight, I will come for you. Be ready.

And I shiver.