Caroline|COMPLETED(L.T)

T H R E E

Dinner was just as uncomfortable as Caroline expected. She was sitting with her eyes staring down at her plate and her hand hovering over it, picking at her food. She was sitting in the middle chair and her feet didn't touch the floor, making her feel smaller than she actually was. She could sense the tension building at the fact that she wasn't eating, but she wouldn't dare to look up at him. She did look over at him, though. He was texting somebody, but she didn't care enough to see who it was. She wouldn't have known them anyway. When she looked back down at her plate, she kind of felt bad. He cooked baked barbecue chicken, baked potatoes with cheese, and a variety of sautéed vegetables on the side. The only thing she really touched was her apple juice and her vegetables.Even then, she still had a full plate of food.

From the side of her, she heard his fork hit the plate and she tensed up a little bit, waiting for him to yell at her.

"I did not cook for nothing," he scolded, his eyes burning down at her. "Eat."

She wanted to tell him she wasn't hungry, but she didn't muster up enough courage to do that. Instead, she stayed quiet, still picking at her food.

"Eat," he repeated, turning his body towards her.

"I'm not hungry, sir -"

"I can starve you if I want to," he said irately, his face inching closer to hers. "Do you want that, girl?"

"N-No," she replied.

"Then eat. While you do that, I explain the rules."

"Rules?"

"Fucking eat!"

His fist hit the table hard and she jumped, dropping her fork and nearly knocking over her glass. She lifted her hand slowly and she grabbed her fork again, sticking it into the vegetables. Her hand shook a little as she lifted the fork to her lips, parting them to take the food into her mouth. The savory flavor of sweet and sour sauce and a little bit of lemon coated her tongue and she chewed slowly, enjoying the taste just a bit.

"Good girl," he cooed, running his thumb over her cheek. Naturally, she moved away from him, and only irritating him even more.

"Well," he sighed, standing up out of his chair. "Let us get to the rules, yes?"

Caroline nodded and he hummed a happy tune, his hands slapping against his thighs.

"Rule one," he said, walking around to the countertop across from the island. "I will no tolerate laziness. If I ask you to do one thing, you do it. Two things, you do it. No matter how many. You get that?"

Caroline nodded as she continued to eat, her eyes following his hands as they swung back and forth. She wasn't a lazy person to begin with, so the first rule wasn't that bad.

"Rule two," he said. "What I want from you, you will give to me. Does not matter what it is."

"What do you mean?" She asked, frowning at him.

"What you think I mean, girl?" He chuckled, a small grin playing along his lips. That was the same question he asked earlier with the same kind of answer she didn't want to hear.

"You mean... like sex?"

"Of course," he scoffed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You think I was not going to do nothing with you?"

"But," she started, looking away from him briefly. "I haven't... I haven't done that before."

"Life is for trying new things," he sighed, running his hands over his face. "That will be one of them."