Page 254 of Ashes of Sin and Stardust

Idon’t know why Iwas always surprised when her moderately good behavior turned south.

My confession of attachment to Alice had the opposite of the intended effect. That, combined with the sugar withdrawals, she went on a total fucking rampage.

On top of calling me as many snotty names as possible and apparently forgetting the word “Sir” was even in her vocabulary, I caught her eating candy in her room one afternoon. She had a stash of bite-sized, individually-wrapped Milky-Way Midnights in a bag under her bed, and was hunched over it, shoving them down her throat like Smeagol.

I put a ball gag in her mouth, and then made her unwrap and flush each piece of candy down the toilet, reminding her that today was the last day she would enjoy processed sugar for the next month. She cried and stamped her feet the whole time, looking like a feral squirrel that had just lost its stash of nuts.

“You don’t understand,” she sobbed when I finally removed the gag. She wiped the mess of drool from her mouth and glared at me. “Ineedsugar! I have a headache! I’m mad! I’m angry! I’m in pain!I’m dying!”

“You’re notdying. You’re going through withdrawals,” I said. “I’ll work from home the next few days and help you out with that, baby.”

“I’m not your baby!” She grabbed the ball gag from the desk and hurled it across the room. A few hundred lines of “I will respect Sir’s things” and the temporary confiscation of her telescope put an end to that nonsense.

The next day, while working from home, I heard her digging through the kitchen cabinets trying to find a sweet treat she could sneak while she thought I was on a conference call. I caught her with a spoon in the sugar canister. Since apparently I couldn’t trust her naughty little hands, I made her wear the chastity belt and cuffs nonstop. Clipping her cuffs to the metal hardware on the side of the belt forced her hands to stay completely useless and by her side. I tied her up, put a blindfold on her, and set her earphones in her ears, forcing her to listen to an audiobook until I had time to deal with her.

She wasn’t awful all the time, only about three quarters of the time. When she was busy and focused on her work, her intense focus and sharp wit were enjoyable and impressive. But then I’d praise her or thank her, and she’d say something bratty in response.

Then there was the day she’d refused to do her chores. Or rather, she claimed to “forget” while sitting on the couch next to the basket of laundry she was supposed to be folding, scrolling on her phone, refusing to meet my eye and wearing her “I’m a bad bitch and don’t give a fuck” expression.

So I tossed her over my shoulder and threw her in the shower, clothes and all, and forced her to stay under the cold water for about five minutes. She was a sight to behold with her makeup running down her face, shivering and shuddering under the cold, glaring at me with chattering teeth, trying her best not to swallow her tears and not give me what I wanted.

A few forced orgasms with the cold jet of water right on her sensitive little button, and I finally dragged those tears and screams out of her.

“Now. You better get your attitude in check, or those are the last orgasms you’re going to get for five days. And I swear to God I will edge the living hell out of you. You won’t even be able to see straight you’ll be so fucking denied.”

Her teeth chattered. “I hate you.”

“I’m sure you do... now go change andfinish your damn chores.”

Four days into this bullshit, it was starting to wear on me. I wasn’t going to do a scene with her while she was being so objectively bad, because that would just reinforce her behavior. When I explained that to her, she shrugged and said, “guess you’re stuck with this shit then.”

Tonight, she was picking at her dinner, angrily refusing to eat the stir-fry I’d made because it had bell peppers in it. “You’re not getting anything else,” I said.

“I want pizza.”

“And I want you to eat your dinner.”

“I hate peppers!”

“Peppers aresweet, Alice. They’re some of the sweetest vegetables that exist. They’re the candy version of vegetables. And they’re cooked in a sweet sauce. You’re just being ornery. I’m over it. Eat your fucking dinner or I’m tying you to the chair until you clear your plate.”

She stopped whining and swallowed a few of them, making a nasty face and pretending to gag.

Oh, I can make you gag, sweetheart. “Watch you mouth.”

“You watch it, I can’t see it from here.”

I set my fork down. I caught the quickest little pissed off smirk on her face before she met my eye, challenge in her gaze.

“Why the hell are you being like this,” I asked softly. “Do you hate me that much?”

“I feel like shit, Reuben!” she pushed her plate away. “I literally feel like I’m going to explode, and my body is on fire! I have a headache that won’t go away, and I can’t take more than two Advil because I’m the size of a fucking child!”

“So this is about the sugar, then? Alice, I know it’s hard, but you eat way too much sugar. You can’t even taste how sweet your dinner is because you eat chocolate and lollipops all day. I have to force you to eat lunch on a daily basis because you eat sugar instead. This isn’t because I want to make you miserable. This is because Icareabout you.”

She rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath.

“What?”

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