Page 58 of Twisted Magic

To his credit, Jadren regarded her somberly, no sarcasm, no taunting. He leaned in to kiss her, lingeringly, opening the bond between them so she’d feel his love and intense regard, his hand cupping her breast almost reverently. “I love you, Seliah,” he murmured to her. “I admire you more than any person I’ve ever known. I love your ardent sexuality, how abandoned you are, how passionate. I want to break every taboo there is with you.”

Now there was an offer. She wanted that, too. Dropping her gaze, unable to look him in the eye for this, she whispered, “I liked it when you spanked me.”

She didn’t imagine the quiver that ran through him. “I liked it, too,” he answered, dropping a hand to run it over her bottom. “And?”

“I want that but more. Harder. I want…”

“Yes?” His whisper vibrated with intensity.

“I want you to keep going. Until I cry.” She looked up at him, hesitant, unable to bear not knowing how he received this. He watched her with no judgment, black gaze fixed on her. Only the two of them. “And I liked when you made me kneel, for the bonding ceremony, even though I said I didn’t then.”

“That was different,” he replied, sounding as if he completely understood.

“Yes.” She nodded unnecessarily. “It was. But I want that. Make me cry, and kneel, and… like that.”

“I can work with that,” he answered quietly. “You can tell me to stop any time, you know that, right?”

She nodded again, then shook her head and blew out a breath. Never had she been so aroused. And tense as a fraying rope. Both longing for what would happen and a bit afraid of it. Breaking taboos. “I want to be able to tell you to stop and for you to ignore me. I want to fight you and have you laugh, the way you do when you’re being cruel, and… do things to me anyway.”

He nodded along, reflecting her gesture. “Are you sure?”

Was she? “Yes.”

“Then I need a way to know if you stop being sure. A code word. Or phrase.”

She considered. “How about ‘green slime’?”

Cracking a smile, he shook his head. “Funny.”

“Told you.”

“Then green slime it is.” He sobered. “Are you ready?”

Eep. All right, here they went, stepping off the cliff. “Yes.”

“Then let’s proceed with your punishment,” he told her, his tone altering, going hard and demanding. Turning his back on her, he strode to a stool perched by a workbench and sat on it, one heel on a rung and the other on the floor. He patted his upraised knee. “It’s time for your spanking, Seliah. Come here.”

Shivering with arousal and trepidation, she slowly went to him. She hadn’t expected to be so complicit in this happening, that he would make her willingly go to him. Reaching him, she bent over that upraised knee, uncertain how he wanted her.

“You can do better than that,” he instructed coldly, with that exact edge of cruelty that had always excited her in him. “All the way over, ass high in the air.”

She had to go up on tiptoe to do it, and drop her head toward the floor. It wasn’t like on the bed, not at all comfortable. Instead, she felt precarious, out of control, unsure what to do with her hands. “I don’t think—”

“Don’t think,” he ordered crisply, a heavy hand settling on her upper back, pressing her down more to drape her weight more fully over her lap. She reached for the floor with her toes, barely able to scrabble for purchase. “You do as you’re told. Now, pull up your skirts.”

It took a moment for his instruction to penetrate, the blood already going to her head, the vulnerable position making her feel already frantic. And now he wanted her to pull up her dress? It didn’t matter that he’d seen her naked bottom any number of times. This was different and she shuddered, wondering at herself that she’d asked for this.

“Seliah…” he drawled warningly, delivering a sharp smack to her upraised bottom, making her gasp and already tears spring to her eyes. She hadn’t cried at all before, it had been too stirringly sexy, but this… This was too much.

And yet, with shaking hands, she obeyed, scrunching up the layers of skirts until they bunched around her waist, the air cool on her bare legs and bottom.

“Pull down the panties. I want to see your naked ass.” He waited while she fumbled, face burning, and tugged down the barely there lingerie, having to lift her hips and kick a little to get them off and down her thighs a bit. “That’s enough,” he told her, caressing the curve of her bottom, sliding his fingers down the crack of it and into her dripping sex, making her squirm. “Oh,” he breathed. “Such a naughty, randy little thing you are. Enjoying this so very much, aren’t you? Well, you won’t be so frisky in a moment.”

Withdrawing his fingers—she couldn’t help moaning in protest—he brought his hand down hard. Much harder than ever before. And it hurt far worse than she’d anticipated, stealing her breath. Before she could recover, he spanked her again. And again. And again. The stinging slaps rained down on her upraised bottom in a relentless rain of pain. She flailed, kicking her feet, her fingertips reaching for the floor, but he held her in place over the fulcrum of his knee with easy strength. She sobbed for breath. Increasingly frantic, clenching and writhing to escape the blows, her skin growing hot and sensitive, so each slap burned more.

A knot grew hard and tight inside her and she fought against that, too, against all that had gone wrong in her life, the unfairness, injustice, pain, and horror she’d witnessed. And all the times she’d held on, that she’d battled to keep her head above water—the insanity, the changes in her that made no sense, the changes in Gabriel and their lives turned upside-down, her parents’ confusion and despair, so much of it her fault, though she didn’t understand how or why, Jadren leaving her, her being torn from him—she’d powered through, refusing to yield to fail, to crumble under the pressure. Until now… when she could let go.

All at once, that tightness, that death grip she’d maintained on her self-control convulsed.

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