Page 68 of Prohibited

Ryan stayed silent, watching. Suddenly, she felt self-conscious. Stupid.

“I–” She swallowed the lump in her throat, still twisting her hands. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. “I want you to know that I’m sorry. If I could take it back, I would. I know that I can’t. But I would. I’d trade places with him if it meant that you had your brother back.” She took a breath and huffed it out. “I know that’s nonsense.There’s no going back. I just– I’m sorry. I don’t blame you for being angry with me. For wanting to k-kill me. For doing what you did.”

God, now she was just babbling. She wanted him to say something, do something, even if it meant that he screamed at her and berated her for her stupidity.

But he did nothing. Said nothing.

The silence was so heavy, it made her eardrums throb.

“I, um–” she turned away from him. “I want to help you. Get Walter. For what he did. I don’t know how much help I can be, but I want to help you.” Her voice dropped. “I’ve done wrong. But he’s… he’s done evil.”

A creak and then the sound of footsteps startled her.

The full weight of his beauty hit her like a hammer in the chest as he walked toward her. It pressed down on her, rooting her to the spot. She forgot to breathe. The look on his face was enough to nearly kill her. Grief, anger, and maybe even remorse flickering through his expression, though he was clearly trying to control himself.

She opened her mouth to say something to him, but without warning, he bent at the waist, threw his shoulder against her hip and stood up again with her hanging down the back of his body before she could even register her surprise.

“He- Wh- Ryan!” Evie pressed her hands against his lower back, trying to gain enough purchase to get upright enough to see where she was being taken, though this was quite difficult because her short hair was falling down around her eyes. “I’m not a sack of vegetables!” she said.

He ignored her. Gritting her teeth, she began to slap at his back.

“I’d advise you to stop that,” he rumbled.

“Or what?” she said, hand raised to deliver another blow. “You’ll spank me?”

She kicked her legs and tried to shimmy free, but his hands grabbed her by the backs of the thighs and locked them into a vice-like grip.

The sudden explosion of pain on her backside caught her by surprise and she let out a small wail of pain.

“How dare–”

“That’s a spanking,” he said as he took the stairs one at a time. “What I do to you if you don’t stop thrashing like a fish will not be a spanking.”

She swallowed hard, but ceased her assault.

“Where are you taking me?” she said, swiveling her head around. It seemed an awful lot like they were going to her bedroom. A fact that made her stomach do a very awkward flip flop, hanging over his shoulder as she was.

He didn’t answer. They reached the landing and went to the door of the room she had been given by the housekeeper the night before. Down at the other end of the hall, through her curtain of short hair, she saw Lindsay watching them, propped up on his elbow with a distinct look of disapproval on his face.

She almost said, “Help me!” But what could Lindsay possibly do, injured as he was? Instead, she dug both of her elbows into Ryan’s back and gritted her teeth together.

Suddenly, she was tumbling backwards, and with a very undignified grunt, she landed on the soft duvet cover of her bed. Though she was quick to swipe her hair out of her eyes and scramble to her feet, Ryan was already at the door again, closing it behind him.

“Wh- What are you–”

“Don’t cause a fuss,” he said. Beautiful mouth pressed into a firm line, he gave her a stern, cold look. “The staff will not let you out and they don’t deserve to be bothered by a bunch of hollering from you.”

“Wait!” she said, her heart surging into her throat. Fear was overcoming her suddenly. The caged animal inside of her was suddenly mad to escape. She rushed toward him. “You’re not locking me in here?”

“I’ll let you out when I come back.” He looked away and resumed closing the door.

Not to be deterred, she grabbed the door and tried to pull it open. “But what about Lindsay?”

“He’ll be looked after.” He looked at her again, a look that sent a shiver down her spine. Whether it was a good or a bad thing was unclear. “Let go of the door. Wouldn’t want to take your fingers off.”

“You wouldn’t–”

“It wouldn’t be the worst thing to send one of them to your husband.” Ryan smiled at her, a cold smile that felt like a knife in her ribcage. “Alex wanted to, but I told him we should refrain from cutting bits off of you. For now.”