Page 49 of Sadist

You, Theo.How had I gotten to this point?

“Talk to me, Octavia.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Sweets….”

“What’s the point?” I demanded venomously.

She tilted her head. “Feeling a touch brattish, are we?”

I glared at her mulishly, and she let out a soft, huffing laugh.

“Get up.” She stood, the grip on my neck making me go with her as she steered me toward her gym area. Snatching a hanging skipping rope off one of the other machines, she released me, only to grab my hands and tie them efficiently with the rope.

“Gym bondage?” I asked dryly. “Original.”

“Oh, Sweetheart,” she crooned. “Keep going. Please.”

She wanted a reaction, and I wasn’t going to give her one. She wasn’t going to see the turmoil I was in. I wasn’t going to let her see my desperate need for her to take it back. For her to not be so flippant aboutnever fucking seeing me againafter finding out how soiled my soul was, when it cut deeper than she could know. She could do whatever the hell her sadistic black heart wanted, and she was going to get nothing. She was the same as everyone else. The tags around my neck clinked together as she hefted the other end of the skipping rope over the pull-up beam above us and yanked it tight, my arms stretching above my head.

“You done?” she asked, wrapping it around her fist and leaning in close.

“Are you?” I retorted, keeping every bit of emotion from my voice to hide the agony of my double meaning.

A slow smile spread across her lips, and she hauled against the rope again, my body stretching upward as she tied off the skipping rope…and then disappeared behind me. There was a rending sound, and the T-shirt I was wearing loosened and then fell off altogether as she made a few swift cuts with a flip knife. A second later, the shredded remains of the shirt were over my eyes as she blindfolded me.

I stiffened at the sudden dark, but her warm hand flattened over my stomach, her low voice in my ear making gooseflesh rise all over my body.

“Stay with me, Sweets,” she whispered. “Do you want to know my favorite interrogation tactic?”

Fuck her.

“I bet you’re going to tell me,” I said obstinately through clenched teeth.

There was a low laugh, and then I couldn’t feel her there. I strained my ears to hear her moving around, but the woman was so damnsilent.

One heartbeat. Two.

My body tensed as the silence crept in.

Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. I counted every beat, each one a little faster than the last.

“Theo.” My voice wavered, and a moment later her hand brushed my rear.

“I’m here,” she murmured, pressing a kiss to my shoulder. “The answer, my Sweet, is fear.” Her voice dropped low to the ground as she gripped my ankle and fastened something around it. There was a clank, and then she gripped the other, doing the same. “Fear breaks down barriers that even pain cannot…so weare going to play at the edge of yours while you tell me what’s going on in that pretty head of yours,” she continued. A click, and my legs widened, my feet slipping against the concrete. Another click, wider. Another click, and I had to shift my weight, my body stretching up as my stance widened with every click of whatever she had attached to my ankles. “Darkness is your fear. So, we are going to play in it together.”

One more click, and I was spread wide.

“Beautiful,” she murmured, her voice coming up closer again. “You look good enough to eat.” Her hand stroked up my inner thigh, and I jumped, the bar holding my ankles clanking against concrete. “Now, Octavia. tell me why you’reangrythat I’m letting you go,” she murmured, her breath disturbing the hair next to my ear.

Fuck.

18

THEO

The sight of Octavia stretched out and tied, a spreader bar holding her in place for me, was the most delicious sight of my life. Her attitude had flown through a range of emotions, then landed solidly on anger. It was in every line of her body. In the cadence of her voice. It drowned out the voices of her memories that had risen the moment I told her that I was letting her go. Small, dark spaces were where her demons lurked. I didn’t want her back there with them, but I wanted her compliant…vulnerable to me on the edge of the panic that threatened to drag her down, because the hope that was curling in my chest was threatening to send me to my knees.

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