Trapped by Them novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Tied to Tonight

Tobias came in from his shift at eleven, still in scrubs, and found the four envelopes on Lachlan's kitchen table.

He stopped in the doorway.

"Where did you get those?"

"Your mother brought them to my door," I said. "She never mailed them."

His face went through three things in a row, and none of them were anger.

"She kept them?"

"In her sewing box. She says she's sorry, and she wants to say it to you herself."

He crossed the room and put his palm over the top envelope without lifting it.

"I'll read them to you," he said. "After Tuesday. I can't tonight. If I start I won't be any use tomorrow."

"After Tuesday," I agreed.

Lachlan came to stand behind me and set his hands on my shoulders.

"Tomorrow we walk into that room with nothing left to hide," he said. "Tonight is only ours."

His thumbs moved slowly along the base of my neck.

"Tonight," he said, "I'm the one who decides what happens."

I turned and looked up at him.

"Are you?"

"You'll do what I tell you, Larissa."

"I will." My pulse was going. "Yes."

He took my hand and led me upstairs, and Tobias followed us.

In the bedroom Lachlan told me to take off everything, and I did.

He told Tobias to sit in the armchair by the window.

Tobias sat.

"Watch her," Lachlan said. "Don't touch yet."

Then he took off his tie and held it up.

"Hands," he said.

I held out my wrists, and he wound the silk twice around them and knotted it, not tight.

He lifted my arms and hooked the knot over the bedpost.

I stood stretched on my toes with my back to the wood.

"Try to pull your hands free," he said.

I tugged against the silk and my breath caught. "I can't."

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