Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 57296 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57296 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
“Helena says she’ll make contact with Heather soon. The drones are in place. Belkonov’s allies took the bait, according to surveillance—they came to look at the fire and the Guard’s rolling them up now.”
I breathed a little easier. The Guard’s drones, kept out until now by Ivan’s security measures, meant that I would have eyes on me at all times, ready to assist with the maintenance of the bold move we had made.
Also, a frightened but terribly excited voice said in my head, they’ll keep Ivan from getting carried away with the birch, maybe?
But my special forces warriors had left, and my master was looking down at me in my fur coat as if he intended to peel my luxurious hide and eat me—or at least teach me not to think of myself as Mistress when my master was present.
He didn’t say anything: he reached out his hand and took mine in it, and led me away to his bedroom, the enormous chamber with the massive four-poster bed that looked straight out of a Russian fairytale.
Ivan closed the door behind us, and locked it. By the time he turned back to me, I had fallen to my knees.
“The wand is in my pocket, Gospodin,” I told him, my voice quavering a little. I wondered how I could possibly have thought of myself as a mistress, though five minutes hadn’t passed since the odious Pyotr had called me that.
“Do I need the wand, Heather?” he asked me, his voice very soft.
I lowered my eyes to his shiny black shoe tops.
“Take off that coat,” he said.
I shook my head, not sure what the refusal even referred to—or if it even meant anything at all. At the same time, though, I shrugged the fur coat from my shoulders so that I knelt on the thick Persian carpet, naked in front of the man who still owned me, who would always own me.
“I’m going to whip you very hard, girl,” he said, his voice brutal, but also thick with desire. “Despite your new position as my partner—because of it, really—you need to learn your true place.”
I felt my forehead crease hard with shame and need. A little sob rose from my throat with my words of compliance.
“Yes, Gospodin,” I whispered.
“Look at me, slut,” he said.
I gave another sob as I raised my eyes. The mistress part of me that lingered ever so faintly in my mind resisted, but the resistance made the need surge even more urgently between my thighs, at the degrading word and the cruel tone.
Ivan’s face seemed to glow. I had expected a harsh expression, a look full of menace. Instead I saw eyes filled with love. When he spoke again, the edge had departed from his words.
“You may think,” he said, his soft voice taking away much of the threat in his meaning, “that you can call yourself mistress in my house as often as you want, because from now on your submission will take place behind closed doors. I want to assure you that if you want your sweet bottom to be a place you can rest comfortably on, you’re very much mistaken.”
“Yes, Gospodin,” I said softly. I had my hands at my sides and I started to worry I might forget myself and try to touch my pussy, so forcefully did Ivan’s words arouse me there.
“So I’m going to whip you very hard for all the liberties you’ve taken so far.”
I swallowed very hard.
“Yes, Gospodin,” I breathed, scarcely able to keep my eyes locked with his. My whole body had started to tremble.
“But not tonight,” Ivan said.
My lips parted but no sound came out.
“Get up,” he said.
I froze in place, trying to figure out what my master meant. I had felt so certain he would punish me, here and now, with the greatest severity.
“Do I need the wand after all?” Ivan asked, his eyebrows going up on his forehead. “Must I use the birch tonight?”
“No, Gospodin,” I said, scrambling to my feet.
“Get on the bed,” he ordered. “On your knees. Bottom to me, face down, at the edge.”
My heart pounded as I obeyed. I looked over my shoulder at him, without really knowing why I would violate the rules I had learned and obeyed for so long with such a backward glance—except that I felt desperate to keep looking at his beloved face, even when it threatened stern chastisement.
“Do you think I’m not punishing you, girl?” he asked, as if he could read my mind. I watched him suppress a smile, and my heart filled with affection. “Put your eyes where they belong.”
I turned back toward the huge bed with its beautiful crimson coverlet, my face feeling nearly as crimson at the wave of need that had swept through my lower body and made my nipples tingle at the hard edge in Ivan’s tone. I clambered up onto the mattress and assumed the submissive position, very conscious that Ivan’s towering height would put his rigid manhood right where I needed it most.