Jonathan practically purred.
Correction: he wanted to punch Jonathan in the fucking throat .
“Come along,” Jonathan chirped, threading a finger through a
ring on Bran’s wrist cuff before tugging him to one of the doors at the
back of the room. Did he even wantto know what lay behind those
doors? What could possibly be so awful that Jonathan had felt the
need to hide it, even from this place?
No, he decided, right around the second Jonathan took the
choice out of his hands.
But then the light went on beyond the door, and Bran’s thrashing
heart settled, more or less. Just a bathroom. A really, reallynice
bathroom, actually: marble sink and vanity, marble tiles, massive heat
lamp, ful -length mirror. Bright white, all of it, even the curtain on
the curved shower rod.
Nothing freaky here at al , it seemed.
“Sit,” Jonathan said, indicating the bare toilet lid. Bran eyed it for
a second, testicles creeping up into his belly at the mere thought of all
that chilly porcelain. He half-expected Jonathan to force him when
he didn’t move, but instead Jonathan merely said, “That’s three.”
Huh? “Three what?”
“You’ve forgotten about the demerits you’ve earned already? And
that makes four, by the way. Third for hesitating, fourth for speaking
out of turn.”
Well, fuck.Apparently all he had to do was breathe and he’d rack
up another demerit. He stifled a sigh and sank down on the toilet lid,
and holy shit it was every bit as cold as it’d looked.
Jonathan opened the medicine cabinet and drew out an electric
razor. As he flicked it on, Bran realized it had a hair clipper at the
end. His gut immediately tightened. “Wait, you didn’t say anything
about—” Shit. He clapped a hand over his mouth, cursing his flapping
tongue.
“Good effort, but that’s five. And I gave you every opportunity to
set limits when we negotiated our contract.”
“But you never said—”
“Six—”
“Oh, come on! ”
“Seven. I can keep doing this all night. I like hurting you,
remember?”
Bran scowled. Fucking pervert.
“Going to behave now?”
Bran gritted his teeth, but nodded. Then he remembered he
needed to answer out loudand said, “Yes, Jonathan,” before the sick
fuck could make it eight.
Jonathan smiled and patted him on the head. “Good boy.”
Oh, fuck the throat. Bran wanted to punch him in the fucking
nuts .But of course he didn’t—three million dol ars, after al—and
Jonathan grabbed a good handful of his hair and started shaving. Bran
watched the first clump of ginger curls float to the floor, wondering
what he’d gotten himself into, why he was letting anyone treat him
like this, if all the money in the world was worth it. If he’d wanted
to be bossed around, he would’ve joined the army. At least they’d let
him keep his clothes on while they sheared him like a fucking sheep.
The back of his head grew cold as more tufts of hair fell around his
shoulders.
“You should consider yourself lucky,” Jonathan half-shouted over
the buzz of the clippers. “I normally shave my boys right down to the
scalp on their first day, but I must admit a certain fondness for your
hair.” Yeah, if you shave it all off, what will you grab, you fucker?
Jonathan finished the back and then shaved down both sides.
He paused to change the cutting guard before shaving the rest, and
much less hair seemed to drift into Bran’s lap when he ran the new
guard through the top. When Jonathan turned off the clippers, Bran
reached up to feel what he’d done, but Jonathan knocked his hands
away. “Stand up and take a look.”
At first Bran hardly recognized himself. He hadn’t worn his hair
this short since middle school, when the girls had started trying to
touch it, never mind that it hadn’t been the girls he’d been interested
in. He ran his hand up the close-cropped hair at the back, then ruffled
the couple inches Jonathan had left up top, gentle curls
Megan McDonald
Jay Stringer
Abby Clements
Nicholas Rhea
Gary Whitta
Lisa Jewell
Bonnie Jo. Campbell
Crystal Smith
Marisa Carroll
Jacob Rosenberg