Page 41 of Cruel Master

Gaven turned and crowded me closer to the wall. Over his shoulder, my attention caught on a particular Dom, showing off for the onlookers. The man, though obviously well-muscled, had several scars lingering across his bare chest and back. They whitened against his otherwise tanned skin, rippling with the movements as he reared back and struck the woman he had tied against the wall.

She was a larger woman anchored with ropes, her hands tied above her head as a dark-haired man at her back took a nine-tailed whip to her spine. She cried out when he struck her again, her body shaking with the blow. A moment later, though, a low moan reverberated from her throat, letting everyone know she wasn’t just in pain. She found pleasure in the sensation as well.

Gaven’s fingers found my chin and directed my eyes back to him. “See something you like?” he asked. His low voice rumbled through my ears as he bent his head close to mine.

I swallowed against a suddenly dry throat. Whips and kinks aside, he could absolutely talk me straight into an orgasm with that silky, deep voice of his. Despite the fact that I’d been forced to be in his space for the last several days, somehow, now that I was out of his home and surrounded by others, I realized just how close we were.

His body heat practically burned into me where he leaned close. It’d been so long since I’d been in his presence. Five long, lonely years. Somehow, I was reminded of that now that we were in front of something that appeared so brutal. We’d only known each other a short time. Hell, we’d only been married for a single night before I’d left him and gone on the run, yet somehow, he’d become quite a big part of my past. The greater piece of my motivation to run from Jackie hadn’t been what she’d done to our father but what she’d threatened to do to him. My father was gone, and there was no changing that fact, but Gaven didn’t have to suffer just because of Jackie’s hatred for me.

I shook my head, unintentionally dislodging his grip. Gaven’s hand moved downward instead, and this time his palm touched my throat. My breathing hitched and the sole of my attention slammed into his face.

“There we go,” Gaven said. “Keep your eyes on me, love. Now, answer my question. Do you see something you like?”

“It looks painful,” I replied.

“Pain is in the eye of the beholder,” he said. “Everyone’s tolerance is different.”

I swallowed beneath the grasp of his hand. Though he was careful, his grip still pressed the necklace around my neck harder into my flesh. “You never answered my question,” I switched topics. “What do you want from me, Master?”

“I want what I was promised,” Gaven said, his gaze darkening the longer he stared at me. “I want my wife. On her knees. On her back. Legs splayed. I want her to give me everything. Her very soul as well as her submission.”

The hand around my throat constricted as he spoke. The tips of his fingers squeezed the sides of my neck, causing me to shiver. How the hell could he have such mastery over my body without even trying? It wasn’t fair.

“I don’t like pain,” I reminded him. “If that’s the kind of—”

He interrupted my words with a low, rumbling chuckle. “Oh, baby,” he said, shaking his head, “if you think you don’t like pain, then you don’t know yourself. You don’t like pain, you fucking love it.”

My lips parted and irritation flashed through me. “No, I don’t—”

His hand clamped down harder on my throat, cutting me off. Blood rushed through my veins as he tightened, squeezing impossibly hard until the world began to fade—black encroaching on the edges of my vision. I gasped for breath, and my hands came up, locking against his forearm.

“Do you remember how I took your virginity, Angel?” he whispered against the side of my face. “How I wrapped my tie around your throat and tied your legs open for my fist? How I fucked you with my hand, adding finger after finger until your tight, virgin little pussy took it all?”

I tried to shake my head, but his grip was too much. I couldn’t breathe. Yet, below, I felt the stirring of my insides as my pussy gushed with wetness. Heated humiliation burned through my flesh, lighting me up from the inside. I closed my eyes against his expression.

“No, no, no,” Gaven tsked at me. “Open your eyes, Angel. Look at me when I’m talking to you.”

Choking, still unable to breathe, my lashes lifted and my gaze met his. He smiled. Smugly. Wickedly. The way a cruel master would. “There she is,” he said. “My pretty little bride. My lying little slut.”

Shame. Humiliation. Degradation. I felt it all.

His chest brushed against my breasts as they were plumped up between us. His free hand trailed over my body, running up my side until he lifted one in his palm. More darkness spread into me. His hand relaxed, releasing me briefly—just enough for me to gulp down a breath of air—before tightening all over again. A strained whimper emerged as he pressed his thumb over one hardened nipple.

“You look at the people in this club like they’re monsters,” he said, his voice quiet. “Because you see me as a monster, and though I am—there’s no denying that—the truth is that these people aren’t nearly as wicked as you see them. Look over my shoulder at the man whipping his submissive.”

His grip eased enough for me to breathe. I sucked down breath after breath and adjusted my eyes, refocusing over his shoulder as he’d told me to. “I don’t want to be whipped,” I snapped, coughing slightly.

Gaven’s low laugh was enticing. Fuck him, but it was sexy. “That’s not why I asked you to look, love,” he said. “If you’ll look closer—she’s not being whipped bloody. In fact, her Dominant is taking quite good care of her.”

The two of us were slightly towards the back, but still close enough to see everything with an unobstructed view.

“Do you see the way she shakes and trembles?” he prompted. I hesitated, cutting my eyes to his and then back before nodding. The warmth of his body against mine was driving me close to the edge of sanity.

“The lines on her back are red—slightly raised, but her Dominant is obviously well versed in the art of whipping. Her skin hasn’t been split open at all. The marks he puts on her tonight won’t scar. They won’t even last. They’ll make her sore, and they might even bruise—but that pain will only be a reminder of how she gave herself to her Master and he gave her what she needed. Shetrustshim. Implicitly.”

Now, my attention was squarely on the man holding me captive. “And that’s what you want from me?” I asked. “My trust?”

People wanted companionship. They wanted safety. Not Gaven Belmonte. He wanted control. He wanted mastery over everyone and everything; I was no different. I had to remind myself of that. The brief night we’d been married was so long ago now. I’d been young and stupid and resigned to my fate. Now, I had a taste of freedom—limited, though it was since it was always with the knowledge that I had to stay a step ahead of my sister—but I’d grown accustomed to it, nonetheless.

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