For a while, all I do is stare at him. I want him to know how much it hurts for him to take what’s mine. How much I wish I could see them again. But I know he won’t allow me to. Even if he said he would, it was all a lie to make me cooperate and come along with him.
Everything that comes out of his mouth is a ploy to get me under his control.
It’s all he wants … all he’ll ever need.
Me. My body. My every waking thought.
Maybe I should just give it to him. After all, I already fled once, and he found me anyway. Nothing would stop him from trying to find me again and again. He’d never quit chasing me. I’m his ultimate goal, his only desire. Claim me, and the world is his.
Maybe if I do what he wants, he’ll be nicer. More gentle. More loving and sweet. More like he wishes he could be … like Deion was for me.
Jealousy seeps out through his eyes and into mine. But we both know it’s pointless.
The relationship I had with Deion was platonic, and I never had any sexual feelings toward him. Not in the way I do when Easton touches me. That shiver that rolls over my spine when he whispers into my ear. The clenching in my pussy the moment he gives me the command to kneel.
It’s as if my brain shuts off. All my body wants to do is obey even though my heart hates him with every inch of my guts. And that won’t ever change as long as he won’t.
Still, I sink to the floor and glare up at him, waiting for his next wish.
“Good girl … So compliant. You finally realize there’s no point in defying me,” he growls, licking his top lip. “Stay there.”
He walks out the door, and I wonder where he’s gone when he comes back carrying a box.
“I had this prepared while you were missing … for the day you would come back.” A smug grin lights up his face. “Guess today’s your lucky day.”
He shuts the door behind him before taking off the lid and throwing the box away. In his hands, he holds a collar with a heart symbol on it and a chain attached to it.
My pupils dilate. “Is that—?”
“A collar for a filthy pet,” he says, biting his lip.
Oh, my God.
“But—”
A devilish smirk appears on his face. “You didn’t think I’d let you get off that easily, did you?”
He approaches me with the collar and goes to one knee as he wraps it around my neck and locks it into place before I can even raise a finger.
He tips up my chin. “Don’t fight it.”
Then he gets up, holding the chain. I’m like a dog on a leash … and the dirty grin on his face makes me want to bite his face.
My nostrils flare. “How long does this thing stay on?”
“As long as I want it to,” he replies. “As long as it takes for you to learn your lesson.”
“What lesson?”
“That you don’t get to turn away from me. That you don’t run away from a man like me. That you don’t go and fall for another man’s charms.” There’s a hint of betrayal glimmering in his eyes.
“So this is about Deion, after all,” I muse, folding my arms.
“It doesn’t matter who it is. Any man who’s not me is not right for you.”
Oh, Lord.
“Don’t roll your eyes at me, Charlotte,” he growls, and he tugs the chain so hard I’m on the floor, catching myself with both hands.
“You’re still jealous even though I told you nothing happened,” I retort.
“You gave away your heart to someone else,” he hisses.
I stare at the floor and my hands, which tremble under my weight. I can say it’s not true, but that would be a lie. Deion did capture my heart but not in the way he thinks.
“Deion was a friend. My only friend. A friend I needed more than anything else at the time. And I’m grateful he was there to support me at a time when no one else would. Without asking questions. Without asking for anything in return.”
Pain mars his face. “I could’ve given you everything you wanted, anything, and you didn’t even need to ask,” he says. “Now stop talking and spread your legs.”
He flicks the chain, and it reverberates against my skin. I lift my lip and show him my fangs, but he’s not impressed.
“Charlotte, I’ll keep this on you forever if need be.”
That’s a warning I don’t want to ignore.
After a few seconds, I part my legs. I doubt it’ll please him enough to take off the chain, but I don’t want this debasing collar around my neck forever.
He cocks his head as his eyes travel down toward my pussy. I’m still wearing leggings, but I feel naked.
“Crawl.” He tugs the chain until I fall to my knees again. Then he waits, and so do I. His finger curls, and he beckons me. “To me.”
My legs drag forward as though they’re made of steel. He never once takes his eyes off me as I reach his feet, but I refuse to allow this humiliation to get to me.
He smiles. “Good … Now take off your pants. Leave the shirt. I like seeing your tits this way.” The added groan makes my pussy clench.
After all this time, his words still affect me like nothing else. Whenever I’m with him, it’s as though my body isn’t mine anymore.
I do what he asks and slip out of my leggings and panties with ease. Then I sit back down on my knees and wait. His eyes glint with passion and rage with lust, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t turn me on.
“Such a beautiful girl,” he murmurs, tipping up my chin. He leans over and presses the softest of kisses onto my lips, dizzying me. My brain turns foggy and full of emotions I can’t describe and don’t want to understand. But I have to. For the sake of my sanity, I have to know why I’m so attracted to this man who keeps taking things from me that I don’t want to give away.
“My girl.”
How he says the word my makes goose bumps scatter on my skin.
“And I will adorn that finger with a new ring, but first, you need to learn a lesson,” he muses.
“You keep mentioning this lesson. Why?” I mutter.
“You should treasure what I give you.” He cups my face. “Because even though you think you might not need it, you know you do.”
He pulls me up to a standing position with both the chain and his fingers underneath my chin. I stand before him with pride and unrelenting fierceness as he takes off his tie. Grabbing my arms, he twists me around and locks my wrists behind my back to secure the tie.
He walks me toward the bed and sits down, then pulls me right across his lap.
His hand circles my ass as he hums. “You know this was coming … Tell me.”
“Yes,” I murmur.
Of course, I know. He’s Easton Van Buren, a man who loves savage debauchery and degrading sex … but only with me.
A sudden smack to my ass has me squealing, but Easton tugs on the chain and shushes me.
“Don’t make a sound. You don’t want Jill to come in and see you like this, do you?”
“No,” I reply.
He spanks me again, this time on the other cheek, and I bite my tongue to stop the sounds from spilling out.
“Better, princess,” he growls, his cock pushing into my belly. “But not enough.”
Every spank flows through my body like ripples in the water. Every time his hand lands on my skin, my pussy vibrates with a need I didn’t know I had, and I want to cry out in both agony and bliss. His cock hardens and pokes me with every smack. Pleasure and pain are mixing, each smack he gives adding more sensations until I no longer separate the two. And I moan out loud when the final blow lands right between my two cheeks.
My skin stings as he slides his hand all over my ass and back again, as if he’s savoring the feel.
“Hmm. Finally …”
“What?” I murmur.
“You moaned,” he groans.
I blush in response. I don’t want to, but my body does.
I’m not in control. I never was. And when his hand circles and circles all the way down to my pussy, my mouth wants to open and beg for more.
No, I can’t. I can’t give in.
“Hmm …” He groans as his finger dives between my slit. “I know you want me to. You’re already wet.”
I don’t want to believe it even though I know in my heart it’s true.
“This is who you are, Charlotte. And where you belong …” He slides along my folds as though it’s no big deal, but my breathing is ragged, and my resolve is fading fast. “You’re a girl who loves to be fucked by a dirty man like me. Admit it, and this’ll all be over soon.”
I try to shake my head, but my body refuses to comply. “Why? Why don’t you take me and use me and get it over with?”
He tugs the chain. “Because I want this to be your choice … your own submission,” he growls. “I want you to beg.”
I refuse. Even though my body aches and pleads for me to do it, I can’t. Not yet. Not fucking yet. Or it’ll all have been for nothing.
“I won’t,” I mutter.
He chuckles. “Sooner or later, you’ll break.”
He spanks me again, and I gasp and clench my legs together.
His finger is still there, hovering over my pussy as though it’s a threat. A taunt that he won’t make me climax if I don’t give him what he wants.
Fuck.
“Why? Do you hate me that much?” I mewl.
“No, but I want you to know I’m unhappy with your choices.”
Another whack sends me soaring into the next plane.
“We haven’t even talked about your escape. You not only stole my key and notebook …” he growls.
Smack.
This one harder than any of the others.
“But you also deleted the footage of our night together in my office. The footage that belonged to me.”
Smack!
His hand lands on my already red-hot skin, and my mind goes into delirium. “Are you sorry for what you did?” he murmurs.
“Yes,” I mutter.
WHACK!
Each blow is harder than the one before. My back arches as he hisses, “Say it like you mean it.”
“I’m sorry,” I repeat. “I just didn’t want you to use it …”
He grabs a fistful of my hair, and growls, “I decide what I do with my cameras and my footage. And if I want to use it to jerk off or to send it to someone in private, I will do just that. Understand?”
I nod a few times even though the gravity of his words don’t fully settle. He could send photos and videos of my naked body to anyone he wants, but I wonder if he would. After all, he doesn’t like to share. Maybe it’s only a threat to make me comply.
I hope so or else I’m fucked.
