Page 22 of Siren

Ariella

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“You can’t be serious!”Ariella stepped back from Bastian as he ripped his thick, leather belt from the loops of his trousers. The back of her legs hit the radiator, preventing her from getting any further away from him.

“This was your decision.” He stepped to her, cupping her elbow in his hand.

Tears threatened as every muscle in her ass clenched, begging her to tell him everything, to save herself the pain of that belt he had in his hand. Damn her stupid pride. Why hadn’t she just told him the truth?

“Bastian, you can’t, you just can’t!” She struggled to free her arm, but his vice grip wouldn’t loosen.

“Looks to me like he can,” Garrick said, still lounging on her bed.

“You’re not going to stop him? You’re just going to let him do this?” She snapped at Garrick. His eyes instantly darkened at the rise in her voice.

“Let him? Hell, Princess, I might just help him if you don’t lower your voice.” He swung his legs over the side of the bed and pressed his hands into his knees, giving her his full attention.

Bastian pulled her to the armchair tucked into the corner of the room, only a few feet from the bed.

“You’ve had this coming for a long time,” he said, running his hand up from her elbow to her shoulder and pushing her long hair from her face.

“Bastian, you can’t hate me this much,” she turned slightly to look at him, expecting to see his face full of rage and disgust. Instead, she found a stern expression.

“I don’t hate you at all,” he said flatly. “If I hated you, I wouldn’t be wasting my time. Now, bend over and press your hands into the seat of the chair.” He nodded toward the spot.

She swallowed, staring at the chair. Spanking wasn’t completely foreign to her; she’d read a romance novel once where the hero spanked the heroine. It didn’t seem so bad. Hell, it was actually sort of romantic. She could get through this. A few smacks and she’d be done.

She licked at her dry lips and bent over at the waist, pressing her palms into the cool leather of the cushion.

The belt tapped softly against her ass.

“These need to go,” Bastian announced.

“Why?” She looked up over her shoulder at him. She couldn’t remember if the hero had made the girl in the book take her pants off or not. Is that really how it’s done?

“Because I said so.” Bastian raised an eyebrow. “It’s the theme tonight. What I say goes. Now take them down.”

She pinched her lips together to keep herself from smarting off. Her fingers shook as she slid them beneath the elastic band of her pink gingham pajama shorts. The cool air of the hotel room brushed against her skin as she shoved the shorts down to her knees.

Maybe she should have just told him what he wanted to know. Why did she always have to be so damn stubborn?

“Panties too.” Bastian snapped the elastic of her white cotton bikini panties.

She shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. Garrick was there. He’d see her naked ass. Bastian would see it! No, she wasn’t doing it.

“All right. Fine.” Bastian grabbed her panties and shoved them down to her ankles, along with her shorts. “Now they aren’t in the way.”

“Please,” she whispered. “Don’t –”

Her words were cut off by the first lash landing across her ass. She screamed out, both in pain and shock that it had landed. He’d given no warning. The blow had pushed her forward because she hadn’t been ready for it.

When the second stripe landed, she managed to swallow back her cry of pain. Fisting her hands, she tensed her jaw, taking the next lash with only a grunt. But the fourth lash hit lower, on the underside of her cheeks, and a white-hot pain burst across her body.

“Wait!” She screamed after the next strike came right away. He didn’t heed her and brought the belt down again. “Hold on!” She yelled and swung her arm back, trying to catch the belt. Her pinkie was hit with the edge of the belt instead.

“Fuck.” He grabbed her hand and twisted her torso to lift her hand for his inspection. He inspected the pain-tingled finger and brought his eyes to her face, now much darker than before.

“You’re going too fast. It hurts,” she said softly.

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