Lacybourne Manor (Ghosts and Reincarnation #3)(59)
“What part is giving you trouble?” she asked Flower with an overbright, shaky smile.
* * * * *
She arrived home nearly an hour later even though the drive from work was twenty minutes. She could, of course, lie and say that it took her that long to get home; Colin had no idea where she worked. But Sibyl couldn’t lie, she’d already lied to Colin once and if they kept stacking up she knew she’d get them messed up and get caught in one of them one day.
She pushed open the door to her house, feelings of dread seeping through her body.
Colin was standing in the living room staring out the back window, emanating rage even though he didn’t move a muscle.
He had a drink in his hand. Gin and tonic. Once she knew that was his preference, she made certain she stocked it in her house, just like she made certain she had Diet Coke and rum when her sister came around, good Scotch when her father was there and margarita mix and tequila for her mother.
The minute she entered the cottage, he turned around.
“Where the hell have you been?” he demanded.
“I told you, Colin, I was at work,” she replied softly.
He processed this and she could tell by the muscle leaping in his jaw that he did not like it one bit. Then he put his glass on a table and started toward her.
“Your phone is off,” he informed her.
“Yes, I… well, I had to turn it off.”
She really wished she was a good liar. It would certainly help in this situation.
“Why is that?” His voice sounded curious, curious and cold and very, very menacing.
He’d reached her and when he did, his hand came up to curl around the side of her neck. This could have been a loverly gesture but, at that moment, it was most definitely not.
“I was in the middle of something urgent and –” she started, his eyes turned to stone and immediately she stopped speaking.
“Did you forget the rules?” he asked in a quiet, scary tone.
No, she didn’t, though she had been harbouring some, small, lingering hope that he had, until that moment.
She shook her head. “Colin, I –”
“Be quiet,” he ordered softly, dangerously and thus she felt a tremor slide through her and instantly ceased speaking.
She was already in enough trouble; she was not stupid enough to throw fuel on what appeared to be a rather blazing fire.
He looked away from her, lost in thought, lost in angry thought. Then his eyes focussed on something and he smiled a wicked smile.
Sibyl, in a panic, looked behind her but all she saw was the dining area. She longed to say something, even tell him why, share a piece of herself, maybe he’d understand. But she didn’t want to speak, didn’t want to make him any angrier than he already was.
Colin angry, she’d already learned, was a very bad thing.
He put pressure on her neck with his hand, bringing her toward him and as he did this, he tilted her face up with his thumb on her jaw.
Then his head descended but he didn’t kiss her.
Instead, with his lips against hers, he said, “I’ve been trying to think of a suitable punishment for you breaking the rules. I paid fifty thousand pounds for this privilege, Sibyl. If you were an employee of mine, I’d sack you.”
“Okay,” she agreed shakily and perhaps a little foolishly. “Maybe you should sack me.”
“Then you’d have to pay back the fifty thousand pounds.”
Her eyes rounded in alarm. She’d already “anonymously” donated it to the Community Centre for the minibus.
He watched her expression closely.
“I didn’t think so.” His voice was smooth as silk but not in a good way.
“What are you going to do?” she asked, her voice so far from silky it was ludicrous.
His arm closed around her as his other hand caressed her cheek using the backs of his fingers. She felt a shudder go through her as he drew her against his hard body.
Once his arm was tight around her waist, her body pressed firmly against his, his lips still against hers and his eyes heavy-lidded, he said, “I’m going to f**k you on the dining room table.”
She jerked her head back, shock, fear, anger and hurt all at once coursing through her.
“No!” she cried.
“Oh yes,” he returned smoothly.
“No!” she repeated and started to struggle against him.
She couldn’t believe this, he wouldn’t be that cruel.
“Stop struggling,” he commanded.
“Colin, you can’t do this! You promised.”
“I can, I will and you’re going to let me. In fact, you’re going to beg me to do it in the end. I’ll see to that.”
This was a promise, a promise she was pretty certain he could keep and she felt panic and despair sear through her body.
“Colin, don’t do this!” she pleaded, feeling every bit of the years of Mags’s gently-bred empowerment of her girls flying out the window. “Please, don’t do this.”
“Maybe you should try tears, Sibyl. They won’t work but it might be amusing,” he taunted in an ugly voice.
Sibyl glared at him and she hated him in that moment and, in so doing, she felt fury rage through her system. She completely forgot her vow never to lose her temper again and she didn’t even consider counting to ten.