14. Cassidy
This is how animals get run over. My body can’t decide between flight or fight, so it plays possum instead. Ethan’s intense, brooding stare is part of it, but there’s something else too.
Run, Cassidy! Run!
My breath catches in my throat. Not fear…anticipation.
Every neuron in my brain is screaming at me to race out the door while I still can, but morbid curiosity keeps my bare feet rooted where I stand.
Screw survival.
Self-preservation…what’s that?
Instead of doing the intelligent thing—the logical thing—I’m waiting to see if Master Remington is indeed going to use that belt… or if he’s just bluffing.
One look at his face gives me my answer.
He’s dead fucking serious.
He snaps the belt between his hands, the crack so loud that I let out an involuntary gasp.
And just like that, I realize what an idiot I am. This guy could do anything to me, and no one would know. I’m at his mercy, and from the look on his face, there’s not a lot of that to go around. And if this is how upset he gets when I snuck into his room…what the hell is he going to do when he finds out I lied to him?
Unless I come clean.
God, that thought terrifies me almost as much as the sight of him standing there with that belt in his hands.
Almost…
“Stop. Please. I…I can explain.”
I hold out my hand, pleading silently until I can wrangle my tongue into action.
He slows down, but he doesn’t stop.
“I…haven’t been entirely up front with you. My—my name is Cassidy.”
Ethan narrows his eyes and snaps the belt again. A shudder courses through me at the sound.
“Think I don’t know you’ve been lying to me?” He speaks carefully, as if he’s trying not to yell, but he doesn’t give me a chance to answer him. “Actually, I applaud your commitment. None of Myles’s usual girls would have stuck to the bit as stubbornly as you did.”
Who the hell is Myles? I thought Janice was the person he was dealing with at Shimmer and Shine?
Oh God, I’m so fucked.
“I don’t know what you mean about ‘a bit’, but it’s true. I’m not a maid. At least, not yet.”
“Not yet?”
He lets out a muted growl.
It’s fucking terrifying.
I want to admit to everything, but he’s just getting angrier and angrier. I can’t bring myself to think what he’ll say—or do—if he discovers I’m here undercover to investigate him like some modern-day Nancy Drew.
Not while he’s holding a fucking belt.
So I chicken out like the coward I am.
“It was her idea. Olivia’s!” I blurt out, clutching my coat in a tight bundle against my chest. I’m all too aware of just how little clothing I’m wearing, how terribly exposed I am. “She was supposed to be training me today, but she was pissed off because she wasn’t getting paid more for the extra work. And I wasn’t supposed to be paid at all.”
He’s stopped moving now, and I’m taking that as a good sign.
“So…she suggested I come here alone. She’d get some time off, and we’d split her wages so neither of us would go home empty-handed.”
“I appreciate your ingenuity, Cassidy, but I never needed a convoluted story to step into a scene.”
“Story?” It comes out with a bark of a laugh. “It’s the truth!” Partially, anyway. Was he an acting coach or something before he retired? All his talk about committing to the bit, and scenes and stuff?
I’m so fucking confused.
I wave a hand like I’m washing a window. “And I have no idea what ‘scene’ you’re talking about?—”
I cut off when he snaps the belt. “Turn around and bend over.”
Oh, God. I saw the white-capped waves, but I went for a swim anyway. Now I’ve been swept into the ocean. And that ocean is the formidable Ethan Remington… who’s apparently quite serious about disciplining me in the most corporal sense of the word.
I lick my suddenly dry lips. “Look, Mr. Remington, there’s no need for?—”
“This is happening.” That sadistic smile is back on his lips when he adds, “One way or the other.”
He rips my coat out of my hands. Snatches the blanket from my shoulders.
There’s a wild light in his eyes. Something savage and raw that makes a dull heat flicker deep inside me.
I grab his wrist as he wraps his fingers around my upper arm, but I’m not strong enough to pull him off.
“You’re only making this worse for yourself.”
His smell drifts into my nose, and my body tenses, my pussy tingling in response to his pulse thrumming under my fingertips.
“I—”
“Five.”
I glare up at him. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Four.”
His fingers tighten. There’s no pulling free. He’s locked onto me with frightening strength.
“Three.”
I swallow hard, refusing to give in, refusing to look away. “You can’t do this.”
“Two,” he murmurs.
My heart kicks against my ribs like it’s trying to break free. Maybe it can sense the hellfire that’s about to rain down.
He steps closer, until there’s no space between us. The hard ridge of his cock digs into my lower belly.
“Last chance, Cassidy.”
“Fuck you, Sir.”
We stare at each other for a beat before he whips me around. He herds me forward in a rush and then shoves me down on the edge of the bed. My hands barely have time to shoot out, catching me just before I face-plant the mattress.
He rips up the hem of my nightie, growls, and then yanks down my leggings like they’ve done him some personal injustice.
I don’t even have time to brace myself before he lands the first blow.
Pain blossoms bright and furious on my ass cheek.
“Fuck!”
Even though I knew what was coming, I’m so shocked, I can’t even scream.
Crack!
I fall forward, but Ethan grabs my leggings where they’re gathered mid-thigh and wrenches back my hips, forcing my ass to plump out.
Crack!
“Ow!” I yelp, pulling against the grip he has on my leggings, but he just twists the fabric tighter, holding me in place.
“Hurts, doesn’t it, toy?”
Toy? Toy?
Crack!
“Fuck!” White-hot agony sears through me. Tears spring into my eyes as I claw against the sheets. I squeeze my eyes shut as he lands another blow, but they just pop open a minute later.
The pain is ferocious. It makes my ass cheeks coruscate with fire.
And then there’s the ache. It starts in my tortured ass and digs deeper and deeper, settling inside my core.
“Please!” The word shoots out of me in a rush. “Please stop! You’ve made your point! I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have?—”
Another blow cuts me off.
“Mr. Remington, please!” I might have been able to block out the pain for a moment or two, but now it’s back… and it’s worse than before.
I try to keep an ounce of dignity, but it’s impossible. I’m wriggling my hips, desperate to break out of his grip. My ass feels like someone poured lava over it.
“Please, stop!” In my furious attempts to break free, I push back into him. The moment his cock touches my tender ass, I hurriedly buck forward again.
I don’t know if it’s my incessant begging, or that brief contact, but that’s when Ethan releases me. I drag myself onto all fours, scrambling away before flipping onto my back so I’m ready to defend myself.
He stares at me, his erection so blatant through his towel that I’m convinced he’s about to follow me onto the bed and shove his cock into me before I can get my breath back.
I won’t stop him.
I might even welcome it, if it’ll bring some relief from the pain strobing through my backside.
And fuck it, if that doesn’t enrage me.
“That all you got?” I grate out hoarsely, swiping a hand over my eyes to dry my tears. “I thought you’d have a gym installed in this big fucking mansion of yours.” I sniff loudly. “Or are you too busy to work out, Sir?”
His eyes rove over my face, but I can’t tell a thing from his stony expression. No one would think this man had just been belting me with a foot-long erection springing from his lap.
“Get dressed.”