Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 64704 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64704 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
The punishment never came. “Get dinner on the table,” he said finally. “I’m hungry, and I’m sure you are too.”
Shocked, I looked up and stared at him. He smiled stiffly at me. “Our play might get a little rough, Daisy, but I would never hit you. Next time something like this happens, don’t cringe from me.”
Spinning on his heels, he stalked to the table. I pulled the food out of the oven, a chicken dinner in a red wine sauce, and hurriedly served him. This time, after I poured him his glass of wine, I brazenly poured myself one as well.
Dinner was tense. We ate in silence for a few minutes before he narrowed his eyes. “Roll up your sleeves,” he suddenly demanded.
My fork hovered above my plate before I dropped it and slowly rolled up the gauzy fabric. I knew he was staring at the bruises. Was he happy that he’d marked me?
“Does it hurt?” he asked in a low voice.
“Do you want it to?”
“The truth, Daisy. What I want is the truth. Does it hurt?”
“Not as much as it did this morning,” I answered honestly. Self-conscious, I rubbed them. “The bruising will probably be gone tomorrow.” Unless you cuff me again tonight. The words were on the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t stay them. The truth was that I didn’t mind the bruising all that much. I certainly hadn’t minded the cuffs. As much as my hands had ached to touch him, to hold him, there was something erotic about being helpless under him.
“Are you sore?”
I could tell that he wasn’t talking about my wrists anymore. I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to say, and simply gave him the truth. “Yes, but it doesn’t bother me like I thought it would.”
He arched an eyebrow. “You thought it would bother you?”
Immediately, I picked up my wine glass and drank deeply from it, not really wanting to talk about this with him. He waited patiently for me to gather my bearings. “I just thought it might hurt more.”
It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth. I held my breath, waiting for him to ask me to elaborate, but he didn’t. “You enjoyed it. I know you did.”
“I did,” I echoed. “I liked having you inside me. Master.”
There was a spark of something in his eye when I called him Master, but I couldn’t tell if it was pleasure or disappointment. “Tell me the truth, Daisy,” he said finally. “Are you happy about this arrangement?”
I honestly didn’t know how to answer him. In some respects, he was my hero. I had no place to live, and now there was a roof over my head, three meals a day, and a chance to walk away with some financial security. In other respects, it was a nightmare. I couldn’t even being to unravel the tangle of emotions inside me, and wasn’t entirely sure that I was going to like the woman I might turn into at the end of this.
Part of me had a feeling that if I told him that any of this made me unhappy or that I wanted out, he’d rip up the contract himself. That he’d even make sure not to cast me out empty handed. There was a strange soft side to Brick Langston that I hadn’t expected.
But leaving our contract wouldn’t make me happy either. I wanted to see this through, wanted to explore everything that he offered me. “Yes,” I finally whispered. “I am happy.”
“Good,” he grunted. “Finish your dinner.”
Glowing with pleasure that had nothing to do with sex, I relaxed. These next few weeks might be the best thing that had ever happened to me. For the longest time, I’d been burdened with taking care of other people. Maybe it was time to let someone, even a stranger, take care of me.
Chapter Sixteen
Brick
I wanted to take Daisy to bed. I’d spent all day at the office thinking of her, replaying every little sound she’d made last night, trying to recapture just how her skin had felt against mine, but her physical pain was evident with every step that she took. I was enormously unhappy to see the bruises on her wrist, and her awkward gait was all too telling.
She needed the night off, and as much as the desire to have her filled with every inch of me consumed my thoughts, I let her rest instead. It afforded me the opportunity to go over some work that I’d otherwise neglected at the office today.
After dinner, Daisy changed into a pair of boxers and a t-shirt. I would have preferred to see her in the expensive lingerie, but she curled her legs up under her as she turned on the television in the living room, and I could see the happiness on her face.