Page 87 of Cursed

Fear coursed through me as my eyes drifted down to the belt he flexed between his hands.

“What are you going to do with that?”

“Don’t you think you deserve some punishment for making me wait so long to have you?” he asked.

The question was delivered in such an innocent tone that if the situation were any different, I would have laughed.

But it wasn’t, and I couldn’t.

“I—”

“I know, sister,” he said as he sauntered toward the bed. “No one has ever punished you like this before.” Perhaps never at all.” He paused and reached out to trail his fingertips down my shoulder. “The Sages never punished you at the Academy, did they?”

I shook my head. “N— No.”

“Of course not. You were their little pet, weren’t you? A pet with pale magic that they took pity on.”

Anger boiled in my chest, and the magic I’d stolen from his brothers surged forward, but I gripped the coverlet tightly to keep myself under control. “No,” I said through gritted teeth. “I just wasn’t an asshole.”

Bastian laughed, but the sound was dark and didn’t echo. “I definitely was,” he said wryly and then he pushed at my shoulder with the folded leather belt. “Turn over. On your hands and knees like a good little witch.”

I took a breath and then did as I was told.

As I braced my forearms on the bed, Bastian took a shuddering breath and I was sure he’d hoped I hadn’t heard it.

He wanted me just as badly as his brothers, and that was what I needed—his distraction.

If this humiliation was the price of the final stage of my quest, then so be it.

I flinched as he laid his belt down on the bed beside me.

A promise and a threat.

Bastian’s fingertips touched the smooth curve of my ass and I sucked in a quick breath at the gentleness of his touch.How long would it last?

“Gods— you are just… exquisite,” he breathed.

His palm was cold against my skin, but his touch made something inside me twist.

I wanted him, too.

He kneaded my ass, squeezing tight, and I let out a little gasp that made him chuckle as his hand moved lower.

His thumb slid along my slit and teased across my entrance as he spread my tender flesh and then dipped one finger inside.

I bit down on my lip and tried not to push back against him.

“Youareeager,” he murmured.

Damn him.

“Virginal little witch,” he continued as he pushed another finger inside. “We broke you of that, didn’t we?”

I swallowed a moan.

I was wet…

And yes… I was eager.

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