Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 59044 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59044 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
I didn’t notice the straps until he was reaching for them.
They weren’t the same as the ones in the living room.
These were softer and stretchier, allowing for movement. This was evidenced by how he pulled them toward me, and slid one onto my wrist before removing the old cuff.
“Get on the bed,” he demanded.
And I did, the restraint making my arm go up.
He secured my other wrist before moving toward my feet, and I tested them, glad to find I could pull my arms down near my shoulders without too much discomfort.
But with my ankles bound, I couldn’t do more than turn halfway onto my side, and even that made the material rub against my skin.
So I stayed on my back as Julian moved to the foot of the bed.
Then he gave me what some part of me had been craving back in the living room.
His attention.
His dark gaze roamed over my bare body, and I had to press my thighs more tightly together to ease the ache at the intensity I saw in his eyes as they moved back to my face.
“You’re beautiful, pet,” he said, and the words made that shiver move through me again. “And you are going to learn to only need to hear that from me,” he said. “Instead of countless strangers.”
With that, he turned to walk toward the door, flicking off the light, before coming back to bed, climbing in, and seeming to fall right to sleep.
I, however, was awake for a long time.
Looking at him.
Thinking.
Grumbling at my restraints.
Before, finally, when Julian’s hand moved out and landed on my thigh, I drifted off to a deep, dreamless sleep.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Julian
Even I’d been surprised by how well she submitted.
For a girl who’d gotten everything her way for what seemed like her entire life, stripping away her control had been easier than I’d anticipated.
That said, it was because of something I’d suspected almost from the beginning.
Because she needed it.
Because she’d been running and hiding from everything real. Because she’d been stuffing herself full of experiences and alcohol, and external validation, so that she never truly had to sit with her feelings and realize how empty she felt.
I had to show that to her.
I knew when I’d stripped her then left her, that something had cracked in her world, in her psyche.
This was a woman who based her entire worth around the opinions of people who were inconsequential in her life.
She performed for them.
Their words in response to that show became the sustenance she lived off of.
It was toxic.
It was empty.
And it hurt her when I didn’t give her it.
When I’d forced her to face what she thought of as my rejection. Then handle the emotions that brought up.
She needed to learn to release all that bullshit.
Once she stopped fighting me, I could show her how to fill back up.
One step at a time, though.
And I was enjoying the taming stage, so I was in no rush to move past it.
Just because she’d let me restrain her with almost no objection didn’t mean she wasn’t going to find that spoiled, bratty side of herself again. Especially as the punishment dragged on.
It was going to get more unpleasant for her before it got better.
I climbed out of bed where she was still sleeping, letting Hugh out, then feeding him before setting up a dog walker to give him some enrichment while I worked with his mom for a while.
Finished with that, I made my way back into the room, stopping for a moment while she was still sleeping to let my gaze move over her.
She really was beautiful.
Perfect.
It was a crime that she let strangers decide that for her.
Naked for me, I couldn’t help but feel my cock stiffen as I watched her chest rise and fall, her round tits lifting and falling, her rosy nipples slightly pointed from the chill of the room.
Her legs had fallen open slightly at the knees, giving me a view of her perfect fucking pussy, too.
That was the hardest part of this stage.
Not burying my face, fingers, and cock there, feeling her walls tighten, hearing her beg and cry for release.
But she hadn’t earned that yet.
I moved around the room, gathering my clothes for the day, and by the time I finished, she was stirring.
“Morning, pet,” I murmured, moving over toward her side of the bed, and releasing her ankles. Then wrists.
“Ow,” she grumbled as she pulled her arms down by her sides.
“Come here,” I said, reaching for her, and was pleased when she immediately folded forward toward me.
My arms lifted, hands sinking into her shoulders, and rubbing at the aching muscles there.
Punishments were important.
So was showing her that I cared.
“I have to—“ she started.
“Hugh already went out and ate. And is on a walk with a dog walker,” I told her.
“Oh,” she said, head lolling forward against my shoulder as my fingers found a sore spot, and started to loosen the knot.