"Humiliate you?" My eyes burned red as my palm cracked across his face. "Do you even know the meaning of the word?"
Bertram clearly hadn't expected that kind of reaction. His expression froze.
I seized the stunned silence and walked out without looking back. Another second in that place and I swore it would shave years off my life.
But the man recovered fast. He caught up to me at the corner.
His eyes were dark and dangerous. He seized my arms and pinned me against the wall, every word dropping from his lips like shards of ice. "Prudence, what the hell is wrong with you?"
His grip hurt enough to make me wince.
Before I could speak, my gaze caught something on his neck. A flush of red just above his collar.
A fresh kiss mark. It drove into my eyes like a thousand blades.
The cheap perfume clinging to him was unmistakably Alexis's. I thrashed harder.
"Don't touch me. You're filthy."
The words were barely out before I regretted them.
Bertram's already cold expression turned black as ink, radiating the kind of chill that cut through skin and settled in bone.
After a beat, he looked at me and let out a derisive laugh. "You want to talk to me about filthy, Prudence?"