Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 58412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
“Shouldn’t it be a public scene? Given she already made a public scene?”
The speaker is a man with glittering green eyes and a vicious expression. He is looking at me the way a wolf looks at a wounded rabbit. Everybody here reminds me of a beast one way or another. I can’t help the comparisons.
“Maybe later,” Marcus says.
I let Marcus escort me out of the main lobby, away from the eyes of those who want to see me whipped. I am suddenly thoroughly intimidated by the notion of being a public spectacle. I know how they treat their submissives here. They can be brutal and cruel and maybe even worse.
Again, we pass through the area I have come to mentally refer to as the antechamber of pain. There are three girls being punished, their wails and squeals suddenly audible as we open what must be a soundproof door.
One man stands over all three of them. They are lined up side-by-side on their hands and knees, their naked bottoms held up high for a lash that is being viciously applied across each of them.
“I wonder what they did?” I mutter the question under my breath even as I move away from them to the other side of Marcus.
“They could have done anything. Or nothing,” he says. “It doesn’t matter. It is their business.”
“If it was their business, they’d be doing it privately. This is at least a little my business.”
“Are you not in enough trouble?”
“I don’t know. How much trouble am I in? Ow!”
I squeal as Marcus slaps my ass hard.
“A lot,” he says. “I’ve tried to deal with you, but I have the feeling dealing with you is going to be a long-term commitment.”
“Oh yeah?” I rub my butt, which is stinging like crazy. It doesn’t take much to reignite the pain he seeded earlier. My rear is a hypersensitive place these days.
I’m feeling a little cocky, mostly because he hasn’t hung me out to dry like the wolves and snakes wanted. He’s taking me to a private room, to do private things. I’m sure he has other reasons to be here as well. This is a place where rich and corrupt people break the law and connect with one another.
Marcus leads me into one of the suites. As he does, he replies with what could be a throwaway comment.
“You’re very much a high-maintenance pet,” he says. “But I like a challenge.”
Something in those words hits me deep in my gut. Of course, I’ve never been abducted by a billionaire before, but relationship dynamics are relationship dynamics. They don’t actually change all that much between couplings—which seems counterintuitive.
I always thought if I was taken prisoner by a very rich man who chipped me and treated me like a fucktoy, the general vibe would be quite different from, say, my college boyfriend who I used to smoke weed with and bang when I was supposed to be in class. But there are some eerie similarities. Not between the men, of course, but inside of me.
I’m suddenly afraid that I’m going to be too much trouble for him—which makes no sense. I am literally his captive. I can’t be too much.
Marcus’ fingers slide beneath my chin. He tips my face up to his and gives me a quizzical look under those thick, dark brows.
“What is it? Why did your mood just change?”
“Nothing.”
“Charlie, I will take the cane out of that stand, and I will give you twelve of the very best if you do not tell me what you are thinking this instant,” he says. “I want to know your truth always.”
His threat overcomes my resistance instantly because I know he’ll do it.
“When you called me a challenge,” I admit. “That’s what they all say, until they realize it’s not once or twice that they have to deal with me. I’m an ongoing problem.”
“Yes,” he says. “I can imagine you would be.”
He doesn’t seem nearly as put off as I’d imagined he would be. But I guess he’s surprised me a few times now. Most very rich men have a lot of ego, and most men with ego hate looking like anything other than entirely in control.
“Don’t worry, pet,” he says. “As long as you’re honest with me, you have nothing to worry about. Ever. I’ll punish you, but I will forgive you. The only thing I won’t forgive is dishonesty.”
I gulp and nod. Unfortunately for me, a certain amount of dishonesty is unavoidable. I can’t exactly tell him that I’m going to discover his dirtiest secrets and expose them. What I plan to do makes whatever Adeline did seem like nothing.
I change the subject quickly. “Are you angry at me because of what they were saying?”
“No. I knew they’d talk. They love to talk.”
“Then why do you still hang out with them?”