Saint was waiting for me at the dining table with two large black buckets sitting on top of it. His hands were clasped behind his back and his gaze was sub-zero.
“This bucket contains five bags of penne pasta and five bags of fusilli. You will separate all the straight penne from the curly fusilli. Begin.” He smirked as he walked away to join the others and I looked into the bucket of pasta with a huff. I glanced over at the Night Keepers then grabbed the two buckets, heading over to sit down in front of the couch where Kyan was sleeping and placing them on the floor before me.
Saint glanced my way, his lips parting to speak but I got there first. “You didn’t say where I had to do it.”
He pursed his lips, but said nothing, lifting a book about Beethoven off the arm of the chair and starting to read.
I worked my way through the pasta and after a while, I separated each by touch alone as I watched Blake’s game.
“Zombie on the roof above you,” I called and his character looked up and blew its head off.
“Thanks, Tate.” Blake shot me a wink and I grinned.
We soon fell into a rhythm of me watching his back and I got lost in the story of the game. When I finally finished sorting the pasta, I grabbed a controller and joined in. I felt Saint observing me from time to time, but he didn’t intervene and I relaxed as I enjoyed the free time, working as a team with Blake to destroy zombies.
Kyan groaned in his sleep and started muttering, “You can’t tape a screwdriver to your dick and use it to stab people…that’s no way to treat your tools.”
I snorted a laugh and Blake and Saint joined in, a single moment of peace uniting us for a second before we returned to what we were doing.
Eventually, Saint placed his book on the coffee table and stood up. “Enough, come upstairs. It’s time for your final punishment.”
I sighed and Blake threw his head back with a groan. “Don’t take my teammate, asshole. She’s suffered enough.”
“She has suffered enough when I say she has suffered enough,” Saint said, his eyes glittering and making me curious and freaked out about what he had in mind.
He held out a hand to me and I took it, letting him pull me upright, but his fingers only tightened around mine as he towed me toward the stairs. My anger at him had admittedly ebbed away a little, but I wasn’t going to let him know that I was quietly hoping my final punishment might be of the spanking variety. Internally, I was already on my knees pulling my panties down, but that bitch needed to get off the floor and weld her legs shut.
We reached his room and I was annoyed to find it as tidy as everywhere else in The Temple. His open closet door showed me that the space inside had been cleared out of his ruined clothes and the wallpaper had been replaced along with a new mirror. Hell, he works fast. Or his people do. Did Rebecca do all of this?
I looked to the rafters, hunting down the TP I’d thrown up there, but it was all gone. Gah. Does he have the BFG working for him now for fuck’s sake?
Saint cupped my cheek and I stilled at his cool touch, his eyes boring into mine. “You have impressed me today. And I don’t say those words lightly. Are you going to continue to impress me?”
“If I do, will you give me a letter?” I asked, bitterness entering my tone.
He nodded. “Any letter of your choosing.”
“Okay,” I agreed with a heavy sigh. I really did want my letters back, even if I had to jump through hoops to get them. I would have done anything to save them before, so now I had the opportunity, I was going to have to grab onto it with both hands even if it was bullshit. “What do you want me to do?”
“You have two choices,” he mused, skimming his fingers down to my throat and brushing them over my racing pulse. “You can scrub every inch of my bathroom floor with a toothbrush or…you can allow me to put something in your ass.”
I spluttered a non-response somewhere between a laugh and a gasp. “What?” I managed to force out.
He shrugged, but his eyes glinted with amusement and I stood there with my mouth hanging open as he waited for me to pick the bathroom.
“You’re not joking?” I confirmed, my heart thumping madly in my chest.
“I don’t joke about matters of the ass,” he deadpanned, but his eyes said he was finding this hilarious as he watched me squirm and blush. “The toothbrush then?”
He turned, heading to the bathroom and I didn’t know when or why or how I decided it, but I blurted, “No,” and he fell still, glancing over his shoulder at me with confusion marring his features.
“No?” he questioned and I lifted my chin, standing my ground.
“No,” I reaffirmed lightly, then tossed my hair over my shoulder as casual as shit. “I’ll take the ass thing.” What the fuck am I saying?? What even is the ass thing????
It was his turn to look shocked and I fought back a laugh as
