Page 146 of Ashes of Sin and Stardust

“Well,nowthey’re organized by color, so it should be even easier for you to find them than before.”

“How is the color... Never mind. Did you actually read any of the book you picked out?”

“Yeah, I read the first chapter.”

“How? You were talking the whole time you were reading.”

She pointed to her brain and wiggled her eyebrows. “I’m super-powered. Annoying, but super-powered. Ooh, let’s check your video.”

“Not during dinner,” I said, and removed her phone from her hands and set it aside. “No phones during dinner.”

“Ugh. Fine. Is that a rule?”

“Yes. Rule six, no phones during mealtime.”

She sighed dramatically and flicked a sage leaf away from her meal. “I suppose that’s a fair rule.”

After dinner, I supervised while she cleaned, and then we returned to my office while I had her put all the books back the way they’d been before. She teased me the whole time about how I sucked at organizing books and my way was stupid, and I warned her that her twenty spankings were going to turn into quite a larger number if she kept it up. She smirked and wiggled her ass, jumping out of the way when I tried to grab her. The little bug was fast when she was focused.

When she finally finished fixing my library, I let her check the video. To my complete shock and absolute horror, she’d gained significantly higher than the aforementioned number of likes. She laughed and cackled at me as I conceded that I would indeed make an appointment with an optometrist sometime next week, because I had agreed after all.

Then I pulled her over my lap and spanked her ass until her giggles turned to moans, reminding her that I didn’t need to win a bet to spank her, because she wasmine, and I could spank her whenever I damn well pleased.

On Sunday, we stayedhome and rested. I tried to keep her occupied, but I learned very quickly that Alice wasn’t kidding when she said she needed to stay busy. I sat on the couch and attempted to relax while watching Howl’s Moving Castle, but she teased me endlessly about watching “nerdy kids shows” and being boring.

“Alice, I work sixty hours a week and today is my only day off for the next month. I am entitled to my show of choice. Do you even knowhowto relax?”

“No!” She flopped down on the couch beside me, dramatically collapsing in my lap. “I can relax when you give me the attention I deserve!”

“Ijustspanked you yesterday.”

“Yeah well, that wasyesterday. Besides, I don’t have any marks, so it doesn’t count!”

So I gagged her and tied her to the coffee table. Once she was silenced with a ball gag, I worked an intricate design of knots down her back and around her chest. I bound her legs so she was kneeling over the coffee table, and her arms so they were crossed behind her back. Then when she was completely incapacitated and unable to move or squirm at all, I poured myself a double shot of my favorite whiskey, set it on her lower back, and finished my fucking episode in peace.

When I finally untied her, not only had she drooled all over the ground, but she was a complete mess between her legs. “What am I going to do about you,” I murmured in her ear as I massaged her shoulders and her legs, letting my fingers fall into the indents in her skin left from the rope.

“Whatever you fucking want,” she sighed, her eyes closed. She surrendered to my hands on her, and I could see that look of wonder and appreciation I craved when she finally opened her eyes and met my gaze.

“How am I doing on brat code?”

“You’re learning really fast. I’m so impressed.” She laid her head against my chest, and I tightened my arms around her. “Can I have some ice cream?”

“Before dinner?”

“Fordinner.”

“Absolutely not. But you can have some afterwards.”

“Can we have chicken nuggets?”

“I think I can make that happen.”

The next few days continuedas the previous ones had. I did indeed make an eye appointment, and Alice made her videos, helped around the house, and ran errands for me during the week. In the evenings, I made dinner and she attempted to test my patience in every way she could. Her mood swings took some getting used to, and she was easily distracted, but I could tell she was trying.

Even though she was frustrating, annoying, and extremely needy regarding my attention and my reassurance, I found myself excited to see her when I got home. I was working through some ideas of a scene I wanted to do with her, and I’d brought up a few ideas that she seemed to really like.

Then, around one o’clock in the morning on Wednesday, she started screaming, and I couldn’t wake her up. She screamed and cried and shook, her eyes squeezed closed. She called out her safeword several times, and when I tried to hold her, she thrashed and kicked and pushed me away. She ended up almost falling out of the bed.

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