Endgame

Chapter 27 Aurora

AURORA

Punishments can take on many forms.

Corporal. Emotional. Sexual.

The first two types, I suffered under my parents’ hands. Most days, it would be simply because I was alive.

Everett’s punishments are different.

Since he claimed me as his, he’s been isolating me. Put a butt plug in me. A collar around my neck.

He’s fucked my pussy and my throat over and over.

There have been plenty of moments when he’s also been cold, detached.

The man thrives on my tears.

He knows what’s best for me.

And me, I’ve learned to expect him. I cherish this intense, unhinged man.

I look forward to his punishments.

Specifically, the one he promised me before he left. It sounded like a punishment I would love. A punishment that would ground me after this long, harrowing day.

Not because of the sinister tone laced in his voice when he said it.

It was what came before that.

I care about you.

I missed you.

I can’t stop wanting you.

I was wrong.

Though…he said those things a while ago, before he left. He hasn’t been back since.

I know he’ll be back, physically and emotionally. He won’t ignore me again like he did over the past week.

The when is what’s eating at me.

I pace the floor of our bedroom, arms hugging my waist.

I’m swallowed up in Everett’s T-shirt, enveloped by the scent of him. Of his soap that I used to wash myself.

The desire to belong not just to anyone, but to him, is wild.

My heart beats for him. My body feels incomplete when he’s gone.

A part of me is missing.

Back and forth. Back and forth. I’ve worn a path into the floor by now.

Impatience takes over, and I stalk over to the door. Doesn’t matter that it’s locked. I’ll scream to be let out. I’ll drive every one of his staff out of their minds until I’m freed to look for Everett.

My lips part.

I fill my lungs with air, ready to use them, and then the lock clicks.

Dumbfounded and painfully hopeful, I stare at the door handle.

The wise thing to do would be to step back. Wait for the person behind the door to push it in.

Fuck being wise. I launch at the handle and wrench the door open myself.

I had no idea how much I missed him until this moment. Everett’s hand wraps around my throat, where my collar usually is.

“Wife.”

I’m floating. I’m feeling. Everything. I feel everything at once. Every nerve ending comes to life beneath his touch.

I figured he’d be back, but now that he is, I can admit to myself that a small part of me feared he wouldn’t. I’ve grown used to disappointment. To being unlovable.

Tears brim in my eyes, and I blink them away.

Everett is here.

With him in the same room, I can finally breathe. I can let myself want.

I want him. His hands. His mouth. His cock.

I want my husband. “You’re back.”

“I am.” He steps forward, forcing me to retreat. His gaze is full of need. His lips have thinned into a fine line. “I told you I would.”

The door closes behind him. His attention is on me the entire time, never leaving me as he prowls deeper into the room. I have no choice but to follow.

I don’t want another choice.

The desire to submit to him, to be his, I’m consumed by it. Can hardly breathe. Can hardly concentrate.

The room fades around us.

There’s only his presence, his heat.

A storm of emotions batter my ribs. Love, hatred, lust.

Betrayal, though, it isn’t there.

“Yes, you did.” He’s keeping secrets from me, but he never lied. Not to me. “Husband.”

“You, on the other hand. You were too close to the door when I unlocked it.” His lips stretch into a deviant smirk when the backs of my legs meet the bed. “Where exactly did you think you were going?”

Chin dipped, I stare up at him and flutter my lashes. It always gets him hard, this shy look I’m giving him. “I was going to search for you.”

My knees buckle at the sound of his throaty groan. He kisses me, long and hard, before pulling back.

“You had your doubts. I understand.” With his free hand, he reaches beneath his shirt I’m wearing. He splays his hand on my stomach, where my skin prickles for him. It’s his way of showing me just how much he owns me. “You’ll see soon that …”

His fingers slide lower, beneath my panties. I grab his arm for balance when he pushes his middle finger into my pussy.

“Christ, you’re drenched.” His words are crude, his touch devoted. As he rubs me, I’m seeing stars, gasping for air. “Is that for me?”

“Yes,” I whimper, grinding on his finger. Trying to ride it like it’s his cock. I can’t stand how much I want it.

“Such a whore for your husband.” His face stays blank, but his fingers curl and stroke with intent.

He wants me.

“I am. You were saying that I’ll see something.” My voice is breath. Barely a sound. “See what?”

“You’ll see that you can count on me.” Everett pulls his finger out, using my wetness against me. Slow, gentle, circular caresses over my clit. That tease of a touch isn’t nearly enough. “That you can trust that I’ll always be there for you.”

“But you weren’t.” Though I have a sneaking suspicion, I still ask, “Where were you?”

Questioning him about anything is dangerous. He’s in a mood. A dark, sensual one. He has my life in his literal hands, squeezing my throat without mercy.

I don’t back down. “Why weren’t you here, punishing me?”

“Another man laid his hands on you, Aurora.” Black pushes out the gray of his eyes. “He hit you.”

The fact that he says another man and not your father doesn’t go unnoticed.

He gets it, I think. That though these monsters brought me up, I’m nothing like them.

He might’ve had doubts before. They aren’t there anymore. Vanished.

I see it in his eyes. They aren’t shuttered.

He’s opened the blinds for me.

I’ve never felt this kind of all-consuming warmth in my life.

This is what homecoming means.

“And?” I press closer to him, aching for more. Begging for him, with my thighs clenched and my hands on his neck.

“No one touches my wife.” One pull, and my panties are torn. Clutched in his large hand, where I can see them. “No one looks at you the wrong way and gets away with it.”

My husband is a depraved, untethered man. He proves it by batting one of my hands off his neck and pressing my panties to his nose. Inhaling the scent of my pussy into his lungs.

“Now be a good fucking girl.” The feral glare he gives me as he pockets my panties sends ice racing up my spine. “Take your punishment.”

“I was already punished.” I twist my head as much as his grip on my throat permits, giving him a closer view of my bruised cheek.

Begging him, in my own way, to take that pain away and replace it with his.

A low, ominous grumble reverberates in his chest. His nostrils flare.

He’s possessive. More than he’s ever been.

This is what I’ve needed. His anger wrapping around me like a warm blanket. A million shields.

His love, I’m swathed in it.

His hand around my throat isn’t there to hurt me.

All of Everett is here to love me.

“Aurora, why am I punishing you?” The speed and ease with which he rearranges his features are alarming. Hot one second, cold the next.

I truly am lost. Have no idea what to expect from him. I went looking for this. I don’t regret finding him.

“Tell me.”

“I stole your photo.” If I sound guilty, it’s because I am. And I’m hot. So hot. “And I got curious about the girl.”

“He might’ve punished you for your curiosity. I would never.” Everett’s thumb is demanding as it rubs my throat. His fingers are ruthless as he shoves them into my sex, all three of them at once. “Our library room rule? It doesn’t apply to you anymore.”

He’s stretching me. Making me squirm in pain. I don’t care about his words as much as I care about surviving this sting, the pressure that’s building inside of me.

“Enough, please.”

“Keep it up, princess.” A fourth finger follows. He’s pushing me past my limit, as desperate for me as I am for him. “Keep being in denial while you’re wet for me. While you take my hand like the good wife you are. I fucking love it.”

I cry with relief. From the effect his degrading words have on my heart. How he makes everything better by being ruthless and mean.

I growl, “I don’t like this at all,” so he’ll hurt me some more.

Hunger flashes in his eyes when he sees how I’m into him and his dirty games.

“Your cunt is sucking me in, begging for more, and this is what you have to say to me?” He thrusts his fingers deeper, harder.

“I would’ve punished you for it…except hearing I hate you from your lips is such a turn on.

So go on. Tell me you hate me again. Let me hear that filthy lie from my filthy wife. ”

“I hate it. I hate you,” I lie, even when my nipples graze the soft fabric of my shirt. My collar is off my throat, but electricity pulses through me anyway because of how much I’m into this. “I do.”

What I get from him is a mocking scoff.

And a thumb on my clit, stroking me.

He drags his fingers over that—fuck, fuck, fuck—spot inside me, and I explode. Pleasure takes root at the base of my spine, shooting up to the back of my neck. My toes curl. Legs weak.

My hands seek his chest. His comfort. His strength.

In his silence, in his presence, he offers it to me.

His strength and himself.

“Good girl.” Everett’s wringing every wave of this orgasm out of me. “That’s my girl.”

He doesn’t let up, and oh—oh, heat builds up in me again. I’m more than leaning on him. I’m holding on to him.

But I’m not the only one.

His possessive grip on my throat. On my heart. Everett is holding on to me just as much.

“Aurora.” At the sharp command, my gaze snaps to him. “I was wrong about everything, princess.”

He squeezes my throat tighter.

The lack of air, his expert fingers, Everett himself.

I’ve died and gone to heaven.

In his twisted, fierce way, he loves me.

The revelation sends me into another powerful, painful orgasm. I come so hard my vision blurs around the edges.

“Now that you know all of this, tell me, why am I punishing you?” His voice calls me back from the depths. “Answer me.”

He doesn’t stop stroking me even though I came. Twice.