Page 67 of Spark

I groaned, wincing back my irritation. I’d known this was going to happen. On a deep breath, I stood from my chair and took the two short steps toward him. Grabbing my arm, he swiftly pulled me over his lap and hauled my dress up, exposing my bare ass. I didn’t even fight him. Just gritted my teeth and dug my fingernails into the rug below as my hair fell over my face and onto the floor.

“I was lenient with you yesterday, practically rewarding you for your disregard for my rules. And now, when I’ve granted you more freedom against my better judgment, you prove me right and defy me.”

“It was three minutes!” I shouted in my defense.

The first strike was quick, the pain of his palm spreading over my cheek and causing me to gasp.

“I don’t care!” he roared down at me, and I immediately flinched, the sound of his angry raised voice absolutely terrifying. “You know what is expected of you. Deviate and I will be there to put you back in line. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, Darren,” I murmured. My monster had returned.

Do not cry. Don’t you dare fucking cry.

“Count.”

His hand came down again, and the burn on my cheek matched the burn in my throat from holding back my tears.

“One,” I mumbled, the cheeks on my face burning with just as much humiliation as the ones raised over his lap.

His hand came down, over and over again, the humiliation searing into my ass as he beat me back into submission. When he was done with his ten and my ass thoroughly reddened, he yanked me back up to straddle him over the chair. My hands laid limp at my sides while Darren glared up at my face. I knew it was red from hanging nearly upside down bent over his knees and though my eyes were wet, not a single tear had dropped.

“Now kiss me,” he ordered.

On instinct to obey his command, I licked my lips and bent down slightly to give him what he wanted without a second thought. He’d trained me so well. The moment our lips touched, his hands gripped my hips, holding me still as he took what he wanted while I combatted with my own aggression. My hands shifted from my sides to find themselves clutching his massive shoulders, deepening the kiss and pulling him closer.

Instead of lingering on the spanking he just gave me, the one that left my insides dripping with heat and my mind solid with degradation, I dove deep into the memories of last night. His tenderness, affection, and the undivided attention he gave to my body was enough to make me forget all the horrible things he’d done to me… but only because I allowed myself to forget. Even though he could create such pain and shower me with such cruelty, he was still capable of kindness, a world of promised pleasure at his fingertips if I obeyed him. I wanted to see more of it. I’d grown accustomed to his possessive primal glare, but I wanted to find the adoration I saw in his eyes last night.

On a growl, he broke the kiss, lifted me up, and knocked everything off the table with one sweep of his arm. Slamming me down where his empty plate had just been, he replaced his absent meal with my body, shoving my dress up and ripping my thong from my hips. Forcing my legs apart, Darren thrust his tongue into my already slick pussy and devoured me like I was the goddamn main course. All fucks aside, I moaned in ecstasy, relishing the soft wet strokes of his masterful tongue over my clit. Fuck, I could barely breathe; it felt so good.

Gasping, moaning, my body shuddered with such pleasure, and I came before I even knew I was ready. The orgasm ruptured through me like an atomic bomb, electrifying every nerve in my body, blood rushing so fast my head spun. Before I even had a chance to calm down from the high, Darren was already inside me, and I jerked from the force of his initial thrust. I was still sore from the night before, but I didn’t care. I felt alive. With each thrust of Darren’s cock, my burning ass rubbed against the table, allowing the pain to give me a new type of sensation, and fuck if I didn’t want more of it.

My hands curled around Darren’s biceps, attempting to hold myself still, but his hands immediately pulled them away, pinning both my wrists at either side of my head. He rammed into me with the force of a madman, over and over again, forcing the second orgasm to flutter into something that couldn’t be anything less than magic. Darren groaned in his own release, shooting hot jets of his cum inside me while my core milked him for every drop. Battling for breath and with Darren hunched over me, his nose rubbing into my neck, I focused on making the world spinning around me come to a standstill. I tested his restraint on my wrists, pushing up just a centimeter, but he would not give.

His nose traced up the side of my ear, slowly tickling me before he finally drawled, “Tell me what I want to hear.”

I took in a sharp breath. “I belong to you.”

“Good girl,” he approved and pulled himself from me.

Fuck, that was a hell of a dinner.

25

Trust

That night, I gave Darren back his watch, and he presented me with one of my own. A white gold diamond encrusted Rolex to match my cuffs as if they were part of a set. Half the size of Darren’s and much lighter, the face was Mother of Pearl, and even the hands had diamonds on them. It was fucking gorgeous, but I’d easily tarnish it within a week.

I was not allowed outside today, but if I could demonstrate my ability to tell time and switch my “activities” every hour, then I’d be granted access to the woods tomorrow, and Darren would accompany me this one time so he could determine if he was comfortable with me being out there alone. I swear it was as if I was a fragile child in his eyes. A helpless child who could shoot guns, ride superbikes at high speeds, and beat the shit out of his guards. Yep, helpless child right here. I rolled my eyes at the thought but didn’t argue with him. If it meant a moment away from the chaos that was my life, then I would compromise.

It was beyond difficult and annoying trying to find something new to do every hour. I ate, worked out, showered, and made myself look pretty, played pool, had lunch, watched half a movie, read, painted (begrudgingly), and then went back to my room to build myself a house of cards until dinner.

I was bored out of my fucking skull, yet at times, I just wanted to sit on my chaise or balcony to simply watch the world go by. I had a feeling one of the reasons Darren didn’t want me sitting around was so I wouldn’t be afforded the opportunity to sulk and drift back into negative thinking. In a way, he was right, but I would be plotting more than sulking.

Observation was my strong suit; attention to detail was crucial as a legal assistant, but I’d perfected it long ago when I was still training for my black belt. And now, trapped here, I’d use it to my advantage. I’d study the rotation of the guards, their shifts, the German Shepherds who followed certain guards on leashes, and the assault rifles they used. The FN SCAR was becoming increasingly popular among the military for an assault rifle, yet Darren’s men seemed to have plenty to go around; some were even equipped with damn grenade launchers. It was like they were all prepared to go to war on the estate at any time. I wondered who was supplying Darren with such high-quality firearms, if he had a deal with someone or if he simply manufactured them himself.

Building the house of cards on my little white desk gave me the opportunity to appear focused on something as mundane as stacking cards on top of each other, but I was really building something else entirely—assumptions.

Assuming Darren relied on others to supply his kingdom with weapons, there was a chance that supply could run dry should the right connection become severed. He’d no longer have access to such steel protection, at least not illegally. And I also assumed his supply of ammunition ran the same way, potentially by the same supplier.

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