Chapter 10
“ R urik.” It’s a plea for mercy he’s incapable of granting.
He shot that man right between the eyes and barely blinked while doing it. While I spiraled after, he’d remained calm, collected. It was like it didn’t faze him in the least.
Because it hadn’t.
Because this man is a killer.
“If you haven’t chosen by the time I reach you, I’m getting the rope from my bag.” He takes one step in my direction.
“Please.” I retreat toward the couch, my mind spinning but my body already accepting what’s to come.
He takes another step, sending my heart into a frenzy.
“Almost there, Mira.” He cocks his head to the side.
One more step, and he’ll be on top of me, but he’s not rushing. It’s like he wants me to make the right choice here.
And at the last second, I do.
Hurrying, I move to the side of the black leather couch and stand at the arm. Tears already burn my eyes, because I know what he expects. He wants me to bend over. He wants me to submit to this barbaric act.
Closing my eyes, as though I can ignore my own actions, I crawl over the arm of the couch, pressing my forearms and cheek into the cool leather cushion.
His jeans brush against my bare legs as he comes to stand behind me. The couch creaks when he leans over my body, blanketing me with his own.
Slowly, he runs his hand up the back of my neck until his fingers sink into my hair. Fisting it at the roots, he pulls me back so I’m looking up at him, but upside down.
His cheek presses against mine. The masculine scent of him wraps around me. He’s just come out of the shower, but he’s all leather and testosterone.
“See. You can be a good girl. Now push those boxers off and kick them away. Bad girls get the belt on a bare ass.” He keeps his hand in my hair, but lifts off of me, moving to the side.
Reaching down, I shove the elastic of the boxers over my hips, popping the safety pin off. With his hand still stuffed in my hair, it makes it hard to push the material past my knees, so I have to wiggle my legs until they fall to my ankles and I’m able to kick them away.
“Good.” Rurik lays the belt over the small of my back and rests his bear claw of a hand on my ass.
Electricity zips up my body with his touch. I really need to get it together. This man is about to spank me like some errant child who didn’t eat her vegetables. This isn’t the time for my body to act like he’s stroking my innermost desires.
“You were a bad girl, yes?” His accent, which is usually too light to notice much, thickens with his question.
Assuming he’s asking a rhetorical question, I remain silent. He responds by smacking my ass hard with his hand, jolting me forward half an inch.
“Yes!” I blurt out, and he goes back to rubbing away the heat, his hand spread.
“How were you bad; tell me.” He continues the circular motion, like he’s warming up the skin to be able to take whatever horrible thing he’s got in store for me.
My face ignites. It was better last time, when he just went all Neanderthal and spanked me. This time he expects participation.
“I didn’t stay in the car when you told me to.” I had good reason but adding that will only make things worse.
“And because you didn’t?” He pats my ass, each one getting a little firmer than the one before it.
“You had to kill that guy.” I clench my eyes, wanting the memory of it to vanish.
Nothing beats the horror of watching Nico be killed, but that came too damn close. And the fact that I’ve witnessed two murders should be a sign I need to reevaluate my life decisions.
“No.” He smacks my ass hard.
And then again.
And again.
Pain builds until I’m wiggling beneath the smacks. He hasn’t even picked up the belt yet, and it’s almost too much to bear.
“Because you didn’t listen, you put yourself in danger,” he says after another dozen or more smacks and is back to rubbing.
“That’s why you’re mad?” I ask, a little shocked.
The belt jangles as he picks it up, dragging the leather across my already tender ass.
“You need to learn to obey. I can’t keep you safe if you don’t.”
Before I can argue, or question, or even understand what he’s saying, the belt crashes across my ass cheeks, sending a shot of white-hot pain straight through my body.
I arch my back in response to the sharpness, but it doesn’t stop him. He still has me by the hair, holding me steady while he delivers another blow, and another.
No matter how I wiggle, he makes contact with my ass each time. Each stroke of the leather bites into my skin like a hundred hornets.
“Okay! Okay!” I try to swing back to block my ass from being split in half, but he just moves his aim to the top of my thighs.
It’s worse .
So much worse.
I pull my hand back and use it to slap at the couch cushion.
“I’ll listen! I’ll stay where you say!” I would promise him the moon and the man inside if he would just stop spanking me.
He delivers another hard blow that lands across both cheeks and has me howling like the worst adaptation of teen wolf.
The belt hits the floor with a clamor and his hand is back on my ass rubbing in the heat the leather left behind. Tears fall from my cheeks onto the cushion, and I wipe them away with the back of my hand before he sees them.
“Do you know what your ass looks like now?” His sultry voice almost makes up for the inferno he’s lit on my ass.
Almost.
Because his voice ignites an entirely different flame. One that burns so deep inside, it can’t be touched.
“Not really.” I try to turn my head, to look at the back of the couch instead of his thigh that’s in my view, but he clenches my hair tighter.
“It’s red, like a cherry ready to be plucked from the tree. And here.” He pauses to press into a particularly tender spot. “A dark line runs from here to here.”
He drags the tip of his finger across my ass, painfully showing me where a welt is forming from the edge of his damn belt.
“And here.” He slides his hand between my thighs, finding the worst kept secret in the world. My soaking wet pussy. “Is where the truth of you lies.”
“It’s just a physical response,” I mutter, but even I know a bullshit answer when I hear it.
It’s not just wet, it’s soaked and the moment his fingertip brushes across my lips I arch my back, practically begging him for more.
He dips his finger inside, slowly sinking into my pussy until his knuckles press against me. With a simple curl of his finger, I melt into a puddle of arousal.
He lets out a low growl of approval as he drags his finger back out, bringing it in front of my face. It’s practically dripping with the evidence of my arousal.
“You’re soaked.” He crouches down beside me, where I can see him as he sticks his finger into his mouth. Rolling it over his tongue first, then pulls it back out.
This is how I die.
Watching this man, who is too beautiful for comprehension, suck my pussy juice from his fucking fingers. It’s going to make me explode.
“Mira.” He brushes the back of his knuckles along my cheekbone. “I’m taking you to bed.”
My eyes flicker to the clock on the mantel over the fireplace. It’s only half past seven. But when I meet his gaze again, I realize he’s not talking about sleep.
“You have to tell me no right now if you don’t want that.” His voice sounds strained, like he’s not used to giving this option and it’s hurting him to do it .
“You’d take no for an answer?” I push up onto my elbows.
He nods. “I would.”
“Because you just spanked me, and you feel guilty about it?”
A ghost of a grin touches his lips.
“You deserved every lash of the belt.” He pauses a moment. “I’m giving you this one chance because once I have you, I’m not letting go.”
“So you might not take the no later, if I decide I don’t want that?” Testing the boundaries has gotten me nothing but trouble in my life, yet I continue to do it.
He presses his forehead against mine, inhaling deeply as though he’s trying to gain some resemblance of control.
“Once I have you. You’re mine.” It’s clear cut and hot as hell.
He knows exactly what to say to get a woman’s motor running.
Dirty talk has never been my thing, but I’ve never been with a man like Rurik. The man exudes confidence and alpha vibes.
The silence stretches out between us until it’s almost a third party in the room.
He groans. “You didn’t say no.”
In the next moment, he drags me from the couch. I’m barely on my feet before he hoists me over his shoulder, providing my bare, sore ass with another hard smack as he carries me through the cabin .
“Rurik!” I’m tossed onto a bed, where I bounce twice before settling.
He stands at the edge of the bed, his chest rising and falling with deep breaths and his nostrils flaring as he continues to stare down at me. I scramble to the top of the bed, feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the predatory look in his eyes.
“Take off the shirt,” he orders.
His hands pump at his sides, like he’s trying not to dive onto the bed and rip it off for himself.
Slowly, I grab the hem of his shirt and pull it up over my torso, dropping it to the floor once it’s off.
Now that he sees me. All of me, what little confidence I pretended to have rolls away and I cover my chest with my arms.
But I should have known he wouldn’t allow that.
It’s not that I’m embarrassed about my small breasts; it’s only if I see any sort of disappointment in his eyes, I’m going to want to kill him.
The bed dips when he climbs on, making his way toward me like a lion stalking his prey. His eyes are wild with urgency.
He pulls my arms away and looks down at my nakedness.
A low, guttural grown escapes from deep in his chest as he licks his lips.
“Fucking gorgeous.” He moans it, like it’s not the compliment it’s meant to be, but yet another strike against me.
But his eyes, the way they roam over my body, devouring me with just a look, warms my skin. It spreads deeper within until I’m no longer trying to cower away from his eyes.
I grow bolder, rolling my shoulders back and lifting my chin.
He blankets me with his body as he kisses me.