The Hidden Route Picked the Friend novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: On His Knees
She shot the bolt behind them and set the chair under the handle.
Sevrin stood in the middle of her room with roof grime on his knees and the bell still ringing in his ears.
He was already reaching for his coat.
"Leave it," Briony said.
His hand stopped.
"You have until first light.
I'm not letting you spend it dressing."
She lit one candle.
She set it on the nightstand where it threw a small gold circle on the floor beside the bed.
"On your knees," she said.
"There."
He went down at once.
He knelt in the gold circle, bare to the waist, with his trousers still on and his hands loose at his sides.
"Hands behind your back."
He crossed his wrists at the small of his back.
"Don't move them.
Not for anything.
Not until I say."
"Yes."
"Say it properly."
"I won't move my hands until you say."
"Good."
She sat on the edge of the bed in her torn nightgown, with her bare feet a yard from his knees.
She looked at him for a long time.
She had never stared at anyone so freely.
He bore it.
His chest rose and fell, his jaw held tight, and a slow flush crept from his collarbones up to his scarred eyebrow.
"I'm going to undress," Briony said.
"You're going to watch.
You're not going to touch me, and you're not going to speak, unless it's my name."
His throat moved.
"Yes."
She stood.
She took hold of the hem of her nightgown with both hands and drew it up, an inch at a time.
Her knees.
Her thighs, pale in the candlelight.
She stopped just where the cotton would have shown him everything, and let it fall again.
His breath hissed.
"Briony."
"Good.
That's allowed."
She tried again.
This time she lifted it all the way, over her hips, her waist, her ribs, until it caught beneath her breasts.
She held it there.
She was twenty-two, soft and round and freckled, and she turned slowly on the spot for him, so he could see it all.
Then she dropped the gown over her head and let it fall at his knees.
Her skin prickled in the cool air.
His eyes were so dark they looked black.
She heard him swallow.
"Look at you," she murmured.
"You're shaking."
"Yes."
"You're twenty-eight years old.
You've killed men who thought they were safe in their beds.
And you're kneeling on my floor, shaking."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Hidden Route Picked the Friend are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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