Page 52 of Sin & Sapphire

Together.

I wanted them together. I shouldn’t. I couldn’t. Before I could shove the thought out of my head, I came, my entire body seizing as I bent forward with the force of my pleasure, curling around my hand as I rode it through the aftershocks, unable to wipe the picture of being shared from my mind.

I leaned back and let the wall fully support my weight as my chest heaved and I recovered from my orgasm, trembling and shocked, appalled at the fantasy I’d concocted.

My eyes flicked to the door of the bathroom, where Valentin still stood, partially concealed by the frosted glass, but no less present for it.

He’d watched, but he hadn’t reacted.

Painfully embarrassed at the show I’d put on for a man who didn’t want me, I quickly rinsed before poking my head out and looking for a towel.

Valentin watched me with eyes black as night, his expression unreadable.

“Is there a towel?” I asked, then immediately corrected myself. “May I please have a towel,maître?”

He spun on his heel and disappeared from the door before returning a moment later. I dried myself inside the shower, then wrapped it around me.

“No,” he said, his voice gravely as I stepped out. “Misbehaving sluts don’t get to cover up.”

His fingers drifted to the edge of the towel and tugged. When my own tightened, holding it up, he frowned. “You wanted my attention, and now you have it. Drop the towel.”

Panic rushed through me. What had I done?

He tugged once more, sharply, and the towel fell to the floor, revealing my curves.

Valentin turned on his heel before I could take in his expression, leaving me to stare at the interplay of his muscles beneath his fitted suit, terrified of what I’d find when I followed.

“Come,” he snapped. “Now.”

Shitshitshitshitshit.

When I didn’t move, he turned around, his face utterly blank. “Sluts who misbehave earn their punishment.”

“Is that part of my training?” I sneered before I could stop myself.

Valentin’s lips tilted into a cruel smile that didn’t meet his eyes. “Keep breaking the rules, princess,” he said, his tongue darting out and drawing my eye. Need, uninhibited and unsatisfied, despite my earlier shenanigans, shot straight to my core.

Silently, determined not to give him further ammunition to use against me, I approached, my body suspended between terror and arousal, my nerves jangling wildly.

“Good girl,” he murmured when I joined him beside the bed, and my shoulders relaxed a hair. Maybe I’d survive this. I flushed at the memory of the spanking he’d given me in Monaco, and then again before I ate, and I knew that even if I did survive this, I wouldn’t do it fully whole.

“Bend over the bed,” he ordered, “feet shoulder width apart.”

I took a deep shuddering breath, then another, anticipation tangling with terror in my gut, then bent over the bed as instructed, placing my hands on the cover.

“All the way down, hands behind your back.”

Slowly, I followed Valentin’s instructions, until my cheek and chest rested on the bed and my hands nervously gripped each other at the small of my back.

“Magnifique,” he murmured, so quietly I was sure I wasn’t supposed to hear it.

Warm fingers traced over my skin, sending shivers through me.

“You don’t have to punish me,” I said. “I’ll behave.” When Valentin’s soft movements halted, I realized my mistake. “I’ll behave,maître.” Shit, I spoke without being spoken to.

He hummed, ignoring the error, but I was sure he’d make me pay for it later on.

“I’m going to warm you up with twenty strokes. No need to count.”

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