Page 184 of Daddy, Sir

God, she was so in over her head.

“Nothing quite so dramatic, little siren,” he said with a quiet chuckle. “You know that device Diego was strapped to earlier? The two metal bars set up in an X formation?”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“That’s called a St. Andrew’s cross. I’m going to hook your wrists to it, like Diego, and we’re going to play with a few of the floggers I have in my play bag.”

“Right. Right.” He’d told her all this, explained it in detail over dinner. “Got it.”

Slowing to a stop in the middle of the floor, he turned to grip her chin between his fingers. Why that simple gesture calmed her racing heart almost immediately, she had no idea. But she didn’t hate it. “What’s your safeword if you get overwhelmed and need a break?”

“Yellow.” He’d also grilled that into her over dinner. Green for go, yellow to slow down, red to stop completely.

“And what color are you right now?”

“Green.” Just a very nervous shade of green. What would that be? Chartreuse?

The grip on her chin tightened, sending a wave of excitement and fear coursing through her veins. “And you’ll tell me if that changes.”

Not a question. An order. One she might have been tempted to defy if he hadn’t also drummed the importance of her safewords into her. And if she wasn’t so damn nervous about taking things to the next level. “Yes, Daddy. I’ll tell you.”

His expression softened, though not quite enough to call it a smile. “Good girl.” Lifting his head, he looked around the room, and now it was a smile that graced his devastatingly handsome face. The smile of a wolf who’d just located its prey, and it sent another of those lovely little thrills through her veins. “There’s a free platform over to our left. I’m going to get my bag and get set up there. I want you to use the bathroom and then come straight back to the platform. Say ‘Yes, Daddy’ if you understand.”

“I don’t need to use the bathroom.” And it was more than a little embarrassing to be told to do so like a child.

“Did any part of what I just said sound like a suggestion, Francesca?”

Steel rippled beneath his words, telling her she was pushing her luck. And while she was tempted to do so, just to see what happened, she had enough self-preservation not to do so when she was so clearly out of her depth. “No, not really.”

“Then do as you’re told.”

“Ugh,fine. But I really don’t need to go.”

“Francesca.” A warning, one that had her ass instinctively clenching in defense. Which reminded her rather uncomfortably of the plug lodged there.

“I’m going, I’m going, sheesh.”

But just as she was turning to leave and ‘do as she’d been told’, a hand clamped around her throat, pulling her back against the solid wall of muscles that was his body. “Is that how you answer me, little girl?” he growled in her ear.

A whimper rose in her throat, but she managed to swallow it down. “No, Daddy.”

“When I give you an order, what is theappropriateresponse?”

Fear, hot, primal and all-encompassing flooded her body. This giant of a man had her pinned against him, his huge hand around her throat. She’d always been small, but never in her life had she felt so… breakable. “Yes, Daddy.”

“Much better. The next time you forget, you will forfeit your right to come tonight. Am I making myself clear?”

“Yes, Daddy.”

“Good girl. You may go.”

As soon as he released her, she hurried off toward the large signs at the back of the club indicating the bathrooms. In the brightly lit room, she stared at her reflection, taking in her too-wide, too-bright eyes. Her bottom lip trembled as she raised a hand to her neck, brushing her fingers over where his collar had dug into her skin when he’d gripped her.

He could kill her if he wanted to. It would take nothing for a man of his size to simply crush her windpipe. To end her, without a second thought.

And yeah, that scared her. Fucking terrified her, if she was being honest. But more than that…

Itarousedher.

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