Sold To The Untouchable Alpha novel Chapter 21

[Arissa’s POV]

An insistent knocking drew me from my nightmare-filled sleep, urging me to get my ass out of bed and go greet whoever was there. Groaning, I pried my eyes open to find that, based on the tilt of the sunlight that lit my room, it was close to noon.

Cursing, I got out of bed and let out a yawn. How Ivan had managed to convince me to go along with this ridiculous outing was beyond me. I had absolutely no interest in looking into the face of my tormentor or even his father. However, here we were and I was about to have to play victim to his crazy head maid’s turning me into a proper lady.

As I stood debating whether or not I should actually open the door, the knocking grew louder. It seemed that Christine was getting impatient, and if I wanted any chance of her being kind to me, I would need to go ahead and let her in.

Grumbling to myself, I moved out of my room and into the living room. When I finally opened the door to allow Christine to enter, her face was stiff and a clear annoyance shone in her eyes. Shit, she was definitely going to make me pay.

"About time you answered." She snapped, shoving past me. "I’ve been knocking for almost five minutes."

"It wasn’t five minutes." I sighed, shutting the door and following her towards my room. "It was two or three at most."

Whirling around, she fixed her angry gaze on me and let her eyes sweep up and down my body, clearly calculating just how much work she was going to have to do.

Feeling self-conscious, I wrapped my arms around myself in hopes that it would hide me.

"You’ve never bothered to properly maintain yourself, have you?" Christine asked, stepping forward and grabbing the hem of my shirt.

Maintain myself? How the hell was I supposed to maintain myself when I was constantly fighting for survival and being treated as nothing more than a slave? Was she not aware of my background, or did she just not care?

"Kind of hard to do in a killing camp." I hissed. "Sorry that fighting to stay alive trumped proper hygiene."

For a moment, she stared at me as if debating whether or not I was telling the truth. After a while, her face softened ever so slightly, and she let out a sigh.

"Come, you’re going to need a shower before anything."

I didn’t exactly know how to react to the sudden kindness that radiated in her tone. Was she now going to pity me because I revealed a bit of my history? In a way, I hoped she didn’t. I didn’t need anyone’s sympathy, nor did I want it. Yeah, my past sucked and most wouldn’t even be able to begin to fathom what I went through, but it made me stronger and it happened. There was no changing that. So I didn’t have the habit of dwelling.

"Take your clothes off while I run some water." Christine commanded, snapping me out of my head. "There is no time to waste."

"Will it really take over five hours for you to get me ready?" I asked, feeling a sense of foreboding beginning to make its way through me. "I just need to put on a nice dress and do my hair, right?"