Chapter 5
Chapter 5
CRASH!
The shattering of a water glass interrupted Dominic’s unfinished declaration.
Mia jumped from his embrace like a startled rabbit.
“Ari, you’re awake!” She rushed to the bedside, tears appearing on command. “How do you feel? Does it hurt? This is all my fault…”
Ariana’s pale lips twisted into a cold smile. “Your presence offends my eyes. How could I possibly feel better?”
Mia’s tears instantly fell harder, her shoulders trembling as if she’d suffered the greatest injustice imaginable.
She bit her lip, casting one last glance at Dominic before running out.
Dominic instinctively moved to follow, then forcibly stopped himself.
He turned to Ariana, his voice low. “Miss Reeves, the situation was chaotic, and I reacted without thinking…”
Ariana remained silent, turning her head to stare out the window.
She didn’t want to hear it.
For three full days, Dominic stood guard outside her hospital room like the dutiful bodyguard he was, but she never spoke another word to him.
Until the day she was discharged.
Walking on her still–healing leg, Ariana went straight to the study.
She pulled open a mahogany drawer and removed a gleaming black leather whip-
This was the Reeves family’s traditional instrument of discipline. One lash could split skin to the bone.
“Tell Dominic to come here,” she instructed the housekeeper.
When Dominic entered the room, Ariana was methodically polishing the whip.
Sunlight streamed through the floor–to–ceiling windows, casting shadows beneath her eyelashes.
“Dominic Reed, you are my bodyguard, yet you failed to protect me,” she said, meeting his eyes. “I’m going to punish you. Any objections?”
Dominic stood motionless, his pupils contracting almost imperceptibly.
Ariana caught it clearly.
Chapter 5
This North Shore heir probably never imagined that one day someone would dare discipline him like a servant.
Of course he was the legendary Dominic Reed, heir to an empire. People normally fell over themselves to please him. Who would dare touch him?
Yet now, she intended to whip him?
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