Page 40 of Vicious

“No!” I say, horrified at the mere prospect. “I don’t want to meet your other disgusting friends. The doctor was bad enough.”

“That’s what I thought. So I guess it’s just you and me.” Chase gets off the bed and walks over to one of the walls with all the torture implements.

My stomach drops with the dread that starts to fill me. He runs his hand over the handles of the various tools and stops at one with multiple tails.

Chase lifts this one off the hook and runs his hand over it. “This was one of the first floggers I purchased. The leather must be fairly worn in by now.” He smiles in my direction. “But don’t worry, I take good care of my toys. I clean them and care for them properly.”

I shudder. The whip he’d used last time had been less frightening in appearance, with a single tail instead of all of these. “Yeah? How many women have you used it on?” I retort, not sharing his smile.

“Quite a few. But not any since I found you, Ah-May.” Chase does a test swing with the flogger. The shirt he’s wearing is tight enough that I can see his arm muscles bulging as he does.

“Are you kidding me?” I ask in disbelief. “You’ve been refraining from doing this sort of thing because you were that convinced I was a sure thing?” There’s no way. It makes zero sense to me.

Chase lowers his arm and stalks toward me. “Was I wrong? I have you now, don’t I?” He stops in front of me, reaching out to stroke my jaw. “It was only a matter of time before I caught you.”

“Against my will,” I stress. “You didn’t catch me like I’m a fish, or a mermaid, or whatever your fantasies are.” I get up from the chair, backing away from him—for all that I know there’s really nowhere to go. Even though he never refastened the chain to the collar around my throat after the last time he took me out to the rec room, this room is only so large.

“Are fish usually willing to be caught?” Chase asks, amused. “I think they’d rather not be in the net.”

He closes the distance between us, and I back away until I’m up against the wall. He boxes me in with his arms, and I’m reminded of the first time we met, when he’d done exactly this.

Chase leans in closer, his smile against my lips. “But you enjoy being caught. Don’t worry. You can struggle and fight, and I’ll pin you down every time.”

“I don’t want to be pinned down,” I say breathlessly, squirming. But damn it, I find myself enjoying the warmth of his body, the close proximity, the way he has me trapped so easily.

Why, I don’t think I’ll ever know—and how he knows me better than I know myself is beyond me as well.

“I should probably tie you down to the bed,” Chase says as he runs the handle of the flogger down my side, making me tremble even more. “Face down, arms and legs bound, and no matter how much you struggle, you can’t escape the bite of the leather. But the more you struggle, the more you’ll feel it. You’ll know just how much you belong to me, and that nothing you do will take the pain from you.”

My mouth goes dry as he describes exactly what he wants to do to me, and my squirming becomes something different. I don’t want it, but my body has decided that what he’s describing is alluring—sexy, even.

What the fuck is wrong with me?

I shake my head wordlessly, not trusting myself to speak.

Chase kisses the tip of my nose before pulling back. “Let’s do that. On the bed, Ah-May. Face down. And take those PJs off.”

I swallow hard, managing after a moment to whisper, “No. I’m… I’m not doing that. We’re not doing this. You’ll… you’ll have to…”

Yeah, right. Like telling him he’ll have to make me is going to change the outcome.

Still, I’m not going to just give in to this.

I can’t.

Chase’s expression turns dark. “Oh, you’re definitely doing it.” He grabs my wrist and starts dragging me those few feet to the bed.

I struggle against him, but he only grasps my wrist more firmly, tightening his grip until he’s grinding the fragile bones against each other. “Ouch!” I cry out, even though it’s a sensation that goes straight to my core. The thought of what he just said makes it ten times worse because… because…

It sounds so damn good. But I can’t admit that to him. I can’t even really admit it to myself.

Chase drags me onto the bed, and I struggle against him. I don’t know why I suddenly need to stop this from happening. I’ve been so obedient the past week, doing what he asked because of the gifts he’s getting me, but I don’t want to know what that flogger is going to feel like against my skin.

I don’t want to know if I’m going to like it as much as he seems to think I will.

“Let go!” I shout, kicking wildly. I manage to catch him in the side, and he grunts in pain. That isn’t enough to loosen his hold on me though, and when he manages to enclose the first of the manacles around my wrist, I know I’ve already lost.

“We’re going to have so much fun, Ah-May,” Chase promises.

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