Page 13 of The Puppetmaster

She trails off again, sighing and allowing herself a moment of weakness, her shoulders slumping before she straightens her posture to conclude the narration.

“Let’s just put it this way,” she says. “I have been denied the opportunity to shine, several times actually. And I’m just... I’m just tired of it.”

Her answer is too vague for me to completely understand her gist, but it gives me something to work with.

“You’re tired of trying?” I probe.

She shakes her head. “It’s not that. It’s more of a conscious decision to put a hold on it for a while.”

“So, this is really a black and white thing for you?”

She raises an eyebrow questioningly.

“The responsibility,” I clarify. “You either want all, or nothing.”

Her head moves from one side to the other in a subtle motion, as if she were literally weighing my words in different areas of her mind. Eventually, a smile tugs at the corner of her mouth and she nods.

“Yes, I think you could say that.”

As soon as she responds, a sinister smile appears on my face, an expression that she obviously knows how to read. Neither one of us has to say it out loud because the understanding is there, lingering between us in ominous silence.

Her shoulders tense slightly, expectation beaming across her face.

She waits. And she knows.

I have just come up with her first punishment.

Chapter 8

Raad

Resistance has its time and place—and Alena seems to understand that just fine.

She listens intently as I reveal her punishment, speaking in a calm but binding voice. I want her to lower her gaze and walk up to the stage, where she is to sit down on her heels, with her back turned to the room, her hands on her thighs, palms upward, her eyes remaining glued to the ground. She’s forbidden to speak, forbidden to look up, forbidden to scan her environment, no matter what happens around her. She’s to sit there and wait until I come to get her, and she will not move until she hears my voice next to her ear.

“Do you understand?”

My question is met with an instant nod from her, but no words. She presses her lips together, processing the command. It’s as simple as it is hard, and I know that. She may consider this a test for me to see how compliant she is, but that’s not what this is about.

“Answer me,” I urge. “Do you understand?”

“Yes, Master.”

“I’m not your Master yet,” I correct her. “Sir will suffice for now.”

Her eyes twitch with a hint of annoyance, but she’s smart enough to keep it to herself. I can sense the defiance in the way her body reacts. I can see the urge to roll her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh, and it is followed by a remark I never want to hear. “Fine.”

All of that is seething within my beautiful Alena, and that’s a good thing. But she fights it back for now, her chest heaving seductively as she takes a deep breath to respond in the manner I deign appropriate.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good girl,” I praise her. “Go.”

She suggests another nod and springs up from her seat, as if to push herself before she thinks about it too much. Her eyes seek mine for one last moment before they trail down to the floor, her shoulders hunching slightly when she turns around and walks away from me toward the stage.

My eyes are glued to her pretty backside, and she’s aware of that. It shows in every single motion, the way she subtly sways her hips while walking, the way she pauses when she reaches the velvet rope, unsure whether she’s allowed to touch it. I shift in my seat as I watch her ponder what the correct decision is. Eventually she decides not to open the rope, but finds a way to slip through beneath it, hollowing her back as she does, teasing me with the most beautiful view of her firm ass.

What a naughty little minx.

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