Chapter 23
CHAPTER 23
ICE
S ilver raised her arm to point at the door behind Beckett. He had no idea what lay behind that door, but seeing as how they were in the middle of a kink club, he had no doubts the contents would prove very useful for the discussion he needed to have with his naughty babygirl.
“I’m going to let you go now, Silver. If you say one word before I give you permission to, I can promise you won’t like the outcome. Tap my hand twice if you understand.”
Two hesitant taps landed on the top of his hand, so he slowly pulled it away from her mouth. Luckily for both of them, she remained quiet, though the glare she shot him over her shoulder spoke volumes.
“Beckett, would you join us, please?” Ice asked, gesturing to the door behind him.
Surprise had Beckett’s brows raising, but if he had any reservations about Ice’s request, he didn’t voice it. “Sure.”
Beckett turned and opened the door, stepping aside for Ice and Silver to pass. And for a moment, when they stepped inside, Ice forgot all about the punishment he was supposed to be devising for his naughty little Silver.
The room was set up like a medieval torture chamber, with actual stone walls and iron lighting fixtures hanging from the ceilings designed to look as though they held real candles instead of lightbulbs. All of the furniture, from the high-backed chair with attached restraints, to the St. Andrew’s cross and the giant bed positioned at the far end of the room, were made with gleaming wood and thick black iron. The bed itself was a king-sized four-poster behemoth, complete with a cage beneath the bed where a naughty little pup could easily curl up and sleep at their Master’s command.
Another time, he might have enjoyed slipping a collar around Silver’s throat and having her crawl naked into that cage, but tonight was about getting to the bottom of her behavior. Now that the fear for her safety had subsided, he was left with a riot of emotions inside him that needed to be dealt with before he could decide what her punishment should be.
“Sit.” He pointed to the chair in the middle of the room, the one that would have looked almost like a throne if it hadn’t been for the thick leather bands placed strategically around the chair.
Head high, Silver swept past him and plopped her ass down onto the hard wood, arms crossed over her chest as she glared up at him, defiance etched into every inch of her gorgeous face.
Behind him, the door shut quietly, followed by the soft snick of the lock clicking into place. He was aware of Beckett taking a stance off to the side, a silent sentry, but for now it was the woman in front of him who held all of his attention.
“All right, little girl. Daddy has some questions for you. And unless you want to learn firsthand how uncomfortable that chair is with lines on your ass and a plug in your naughty little hole, you will answer me honestly and respectfully. Are we clear?”
Her lip pulled back in a sneer. “‘Honestly’, I can do. We might have a problem with ‘respectfully’.”
“Fine by me. I’m in a mood to make sure you leave here a very sore, very sorry little subbie, so by all means, please, give me a reason.”
For the first time, a hint of fear flashed in her eyes as they went round. And those deep, dark parts of him, those places that feasted on her tears and pain crowed in triumph.
“Whatever. Ask away.”
He was tempted to make good on his threat, but the more rational parts of him recognized that she must have been hurting something fierce to pull the kind of shit she’d pulled tonight, so he gave her a little leeway.
But just a little. For now.
“You said I was an asshole earlier. Care to explain?”
Now it was pure anger flashing in her eyes. “Don’t pull that shit with me, Elias. You know damn well what you did.”
“If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking. And consider this your first and last warning, little girl. Watch your tone or you will not be sitting comfortably any time soon.”
“Ugh!” She threw her hands up in the air, exasperation and fury practically vibrating off her as she smacked them back down on the wooden arms of the chair. “I don’t see why I’m in so much trouble anyway! I told you I was coming to the club. It’s not like I snuck out like a rebellious teenager or something. You knew exactly where I was, you just didn’t care.”
It was the hurt in her voice as much as the words themselves that were like daggers in his chest. Stepping forward, he lowered to his knees in front of her so they were more eye-level with each other. “Baby. How could you ever think I wouldn’t care about where you are, or who you’re with?”
Tears shimmered on her lashes. “You ignored me all day. I could tell you were mad about something, but you wouldn’t talk to me. You shut me out. You promised I’d never have to guess if you were upset with me and you lied .”
“Silver, baby, I wasn’t mad. I was working.” Okay, well, that was only about half the truth. He’d buried himself in work because he’d gotten sick of wallowing in his feelings over letting her go when they returned to California.
Twisting around, he looked over his shoulder at Beckett. “Give us a few minutes?”
“Of course. I’ll be outside if you need me.”
He waited for the door to shut again behind Beckett before turning back to his babygirl. His sweet, more-fragile-than-she-let-on babygirl. “You didn’t do anything to upset me, baby. Let’s get that out of the way right now. Whatever… vibes you were getting from me this morning, I was never mad.”
“Upset, then. You were something . I could feel it.”
“Yeah. Yeah, baby, I was. Mostly I was feeling sorry for myself because it hit me hard last night that I’m going to have to let you go soon.” He let out a hoarse, bitter laugh. “And I’m pretty fucking sure it’s gonna kill me to do that.”
Everything about her softened, though she still looked uncertain. And it was that uncertainty, knowing that he’d given her a reason to doubt him for even a second, that tore at him. “I’m sorry. I know my coming to Charleston complicated things.”
“What I feel for you has always been complicated, baby. That’s for me to figure out. I’ll be okay.”
For a moment, she looked like she wanted to argue. But then she just sighed and it was as if all the fight left her with that one gesture. “All right. Just… promise me we’re okay? You weren’t pissed at me for some reason you’re keeping to yourself until you decide to spring it on me out of nowhere when I’m having a perfectly lovely day?”
Oh, baby. I’m so fucking sorry I didn’t protect you from him. “I promise.”
Her bottom lip disappeared between her perfect white teeth as worry filled her dark eyes. “You’re mad now.”
“Oh yeah,” he said with a chuckle. “Less mad than I was when I got here, which is good news for you. But still plenty mad.”
“Because you don’t trust me.”
Her voice was flat, but emotion still rolled off her in waves, making his chest ache for her. “It has nothing to do with trusting you, baby. I know I don’t have any claim to you. But I also know if you wanted to play with someone else, you’d be honest about it. I never for one second thought you were sneaking around behind my back.”
“Then why are you so angry?”
“Because you could have been hurt, Silver. You went off with a man you don’t know, and you were about to lock yourself in a room with him, alone. Killian being who he is makes it even worse, but I would be pissed to find out you’d put yourself in that kind of situation regardless of who it was with.”
She rolled her eyes, looking every bit the sulky teenager she claimed she wasn’t. “He’s a vetted member of the club and he was really nice.”
“Yeah, and if you’d wanted to play with him in the pit, that would be one thing. But going up to a room with him, alone? Seriously, Silver, I know you know better than that. Did you do any of your own vetting? Did you even talk to him at all?”
“We talked plenty, and I made it crystal clear that I wasn’t interested in playing tonight.” She sighed softly, her shoulders slumping forward. “But…”
“But?” he prompted, putting a hint of steel behind the word.
“I did sorta hope you’d find out. And that it would make you jealous. That was really, really shitty of me, and I’m sorry.”
“Because you were mad at me?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re right. That was really shitty.” He had to harden his heart against the tears sparkling on her lashes. Regardless of what else happened between them, he was determined this would be the last time they had this conversation. “You made assumptions about how I was acting instead of asking me, and then you used those assumptions as justification to do something to try and hurt me.”
“It sounds even worse when you lay it all out like that,” she whispered.
“I’m sorry I hurt you, baby. But I’m not at all okay with being manipulated. Especially when that manipulation ends with me punching a mob boss in the face.”
Sniffling softly, she offered up an apologetic smile. “If it helps, I didn’t know he was a mob boss at the time.”
“No, that doesn’t help at all. It’s just another reminder that you didn’t know anything about him.”
“I’m really, really sorry, Ice.”
The genuine remorse in her voice was his undoing. “I know, baby. I forgive you.”
“Really?”
“Of course I do. That doesn’t mean you aren’t going to be a very sorry little girl by the time we leave here tonight.”
A hint of mischief sparkled in her eyes. “What if I told you it was really fucking hot to watch you punch someone in the face for me? Even if you do look like you just rolled out of bed.”
“Barely had time to put a shirt on before Beckett’s driver got to the house. Which reminds me, did you ask to borrow my car?”
Twin flags of pink color slashed across her cheeks. “No, Daddy.”
“Naughty girl. We’ll add that to what you have coming.”
If she thought her pout was helping her case, she couldn’t have been more wrong. All it did was make him want to put her on her knees so he could watch her wrap those full lips around his cock. “When I fuck up, I really fuck up.”
“You never were one to do things by halves. Come on. You’ll feel better once your punishment is over.” Rising, he held out a hand and helped her to her feet. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you going?”
“To get Beckett.” He grinned, letting it turn a little mean. “I owe him a thank you for tipping me off about your new friend.”
Fear and arousal filled her eyes as she let out a loud groan. “Fuck.”
Silver
Body humming with that delicious mix of need and fear Ice so easily stirred within her, she forced herself to stay in place as he crossed the room to open the door. She was too far away to hear exactly what their hushed conversation entailed, but the wicked gleam in Beckett’s eye when he joined them in the room did not bode well for her. At all.
“Beckett, would you mind checking that cabinet in the corner and seeing what kind of toys our hosts have left us to play with?” Eyes locked on her, Ice crossed the room as he issued the instruction, his mouth curving upward as he stopped in front of her, forcing her to tilt her head back to look him in the eye. “Preferably something to keep my babygirl where we put her, if they have it.”
Rope? Restraints? There was no doubt plenty of both to be found in a room like this.
Pinching her chin, Ice nudged her head even further back. “You look adorable tonight, by the way,” he murmured, running his thumb just below her bottom lip. “If you hadn’t been such a naughty girl, we could have had some fun with this outfit.”
Need, hot and achy pulsed between her thighs. Knowing she had a very painful punishment coming didn’t seem to matter to her pussy. “Sorry, Daddy.”
“That’s okay, baby. You’ll more than make it up to me by the time we’re through.”