Chapter 18: Mirror

"Stand here," I said.

The hallway of my apartment had a tall mirror on the wall.

An old one in a dark wooden frame, from a dress shop that had closed.

Thursday morning light came through the window at the end of the hall and lay across the floor in a long square.

Priya stood in it in nothing but her glasses.

"You want me to wear these?"

"Yes. I want you to see every second."

She stood in front of the mirror, barefoot on the boards, with her hands at her sides.

I stood behind her, fully dressed, in my black blazer with the sleeves rolled, and my silver rings on.

In the glass we looked like a photograph of two people from two different worlds.

The naked small bride and the tall one in black who owned her.

"Look at yourself," I said.

"I am."

"No. Look."

She lifted her chin.

She had marks on her.

A faint purple bloom on her collarbone, the shape of my mouth, and two thumbprints on her hip.

A pink ring around her left wrist from the belt.

"That's what you look like when you're loved properly," I said.

"I look wrecked."

"You look right."

I put my hands on her shoulders and ran them down her arms, slowly, then around to her stomach.

I pulled her back against me, so that she felt my rings and my buttons and the heat of my body through the wool.

Her head dropped back to my shoulder.

"Eyes open."

She opened them.

I slid one hand up to her breast and one down between her thighs.

She was already slick, from the morning, and from the way I had spoken to her.

I dragged two fingers through her, and she breathed in sharply, and in the mirror I watched my hand work between her legs.

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Ex Hired Me to Ruin Her Sister's Wedding from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.