Page 58 of The Dancer and the Masks (Their Obsession 1)

I’ve never experienced such wicked pleasure from such a tortured man.

He’s ruined me.

Pulling down the hem of my dress so that it covers me back up, he grabs his mask, hiding the fury of his expression. I’m left confused, exhausted from the rush, angry at giving myself over to him so easily. I can’t even say he stole my orgasm, because he didn’t.

I gave it up.

“Get up. We’re late for dinner.”

“What’s going on?” I ask brokenly, twisted by the lingering sensation of his tongue on me, of the confusing feelings. I still hate him. I still want to kill him. Yet he’s just given me the most intense orgasm of my life. I’m dripping for him.

“Do as I say! Get the fuck up!” he snaps, tugging on the leash so that I’m forced to stand and follow him or risk getting my neck snapped. I stumble, my muscles trembling, my heart pounding, my pulse soaring. I swipe at the tears, hoping to God my mask is still in place.

“Jakub…?” Even to my own ears my voice sounds weak.

“Don’t call me by my name. I am your Master, not your lover or your friend. From this moment on that is who I am to you. Nothing more, nothing less. You are stillNothing.”

He’s cruel. Cruel for wrapping his dead dog’s collar around my neck.

Cruel for refusing to call me by my name.

Cruel for giving me the biggest rush of my life.

Here I am collared and leashed andpantinglike a dog, like a bitch in heat.

My legs suddenly feel heavy, my heart plummets, I can barely put one foot in front of the other as I stumble forward, trying to keep up.

“If you can’t walk,crawl,” he says spitefully, a twisted smile pulling up his lips.

Heplannedthis.

This is another trick, another manipulation. I’m a stupid, stupid fool.

I shake off the self-disgust and replace it with hate. It sprouts new shoots, it grows in size, tripling and quadrupling the longer he stares with that cold kind of emptiness instead of the heat he’d lied with before.

Arsehole.

“I willnevercrawl. Never!” I grind out, my spine snapping straight, my jaw gritting with new-found disgust.

“Good, because the moment you stop fighting is the moment this ends. Understand?”

“Completely.” This was a test and I failed. I gave in to a lie.

When we reach the bedroom door he hesitates, grabbing something resting on a chest-of-drawers. “Put this on.”

“Put what on?” I ask, fighting the sudden desire to claw at him, tofightjust like he wants me to do. I’m wound up, bound, and raging now that I’ve blinked back the fog ofhisspell. Beast might refer to me as a witch because of my visions. I might have been chained to The Weeping Tree where witches were hung, but right now, at this moment,he’sthe spellcaster. He’s the one who deserves to hang for what he’s done.

“This,” he says, offering me the item.

I take it from him, confused at first. It looks like amawashithat sumo wrestlers wear, except this is made of soft leather rather than traditional silk or cotton and it has a wider section of leather making up the crotch area. It also has a lock...Oh, my God. “This is a—” I begin.

He smirks, eyeing me as I hold onto the offending item. “—chastity belt.”

“You bastard...” I hiss, my voice trailing off as I turn it over in my hands, the silver lock that fixes the crotch section to the belt, glints in the candlelight.

“If you want to protect yourself from any more intrusion then I suggest you wear it. My brothers might pretend they’re patient men, but I know otherwise.”

I scoff, he’s no more patient than they are given what he’s just done, he’sworse. “Pot, kettle, comes to mind.”

“What, you think because I’ve tasted you, I can’t control myself? Don’t flatter yourself, Nothing. I’ve had better, tasted better, fucked better. I’m doing this for Leon and Konrad. They’ve waited a long time for you. If they indulge in what they truly want from you too soon then they will lose their focus. We have a big function coming up soon, and I need their heads in the game, not focused on a bit of pussy, howeverpretty,” he says, spitting that word out like it offends him. “Put it on!”

Despite his harsh words, the ugliness of the item and what it represents, I can’t help but feel a tiny sense of relief. Wearing this will afford me some protection no matter how barbaric the idea of one is. It will buy me some more time. Time to gather myself, make a plan.

“Who has the key?”

“I do, of course,” Jakub replies as he pulls out a silver chain wrapped around his neck, a small key hanging from it. “If you want to remain unsullied, then I suggest you obey my every instruction from this moment on or unlocking this belt to piss and shit won’t be the only time I’ll be freeing your pretty little pussy.”

My heart sinks to the bottomless ocean of my soul. It settles next to the promise I made myself earlier. Iwillkill him.

I will kill them all.

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