Page 122 of Lies like Rubies, Part Two (Savage Jewels)

I folded my arms under my face, waiting for their next command.

The clink of a belt behind me filled me with trepidation. I’d hoped for a sexier punishment than being whipped with a belt, and tensed as Dante caressed my bare ass.

“Dante,” I whispered, not quite knowing what to say.

“Sir,” Nick corrected, running his fingers through my hair, soothing me. “What’s your safeword, baby?”

“Strawberry,” I answered.

“Do you need to use it?”

When I didn’t answer right away, his grip tightened, yanking on my hair until tears leaked from my eyes.

“Use your words, slut. Do you need to use your safeword?”

“No,” I whispered.

“You’re beautiful, you know that? So trusting, so willing to let us do whatever we want to you,” Nick continued, stroking my face as I trembled, waiting for the crack of Dante’s belt.

Lorenzo sat on the couch at my head. “It broke my heart when you killed him by yourself, broke my heart that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me the plan. Sofia, if you’d told us, we could have helped you.”

Nick crouched beside me, wiping away the tear that streaked down my face. “We’re not mad anymore, baby. But you can’t do that again.”

Dante grunted from behind me.

“Okay, Dante’s still mad, but he’ll forgive you, right?”

The hot caress of his hand across the curves of my ass lit all of my senses on fire. “Yes. But she’s still going to take her punishment like the good slut I know she is, isn’t that right, kitten?”

I nodded my head frantically, need and fear shooting through me in equal quantities.

When leather whistled through the air, landing on my ass with acrack!I cried out, surprised at how much it hurt.

“Easy, baby,” Nick said, stroking over my cheek with his thumb.

“That’s my good girl,” Dante said softly. He trailed his fingers over the burning stripe, sending a whimper of pain skittering out of me, despite myself.

“Are you sorry you saved your daughter and your mother?”Dante asked.

“No.”

The belt cracked through the air again, agony slicing through me as it landed on my ass.

“Are you sorry you killed Accardi?”

“No.”

“Are you sorry you did it without telling us?”

“No.”

I screamed when the belt hit me again, the pain too much, the emotions pouring through me breaking my soul into pieces I didn’t know I’d be able to put back together again.

Dante slapped the inside of my thigh, bringing me back to the present. “You have a safeword, slut. If you need it, use it. Otherwise, be still.”

The belt cracked through the air again.

“Are you sorry you scared the shit out of us?” Dante continued.

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