TWENTY-TWO #2
The lights were off.
I stopped, my eyes narrowing.
Until they landed on her.
She stood by the window, her nude silhouette caught in the soft blue and orange glow of the city lights. Her back was to me, her short black bob just brushing the nape of her neck, her buttocks highlighted in the low neon.
She turned her head slowly, her bare shoulder catching the shadows.
The Venetian mask hid most of her face. But her eyes – they burned through me. Even behind the mask her gaze was ravenous, pulling at every feral instinct I’d saved just for her.
Maybe she needed it as much as I did: pain that meant something. Pain that she chose, not one forced upon her.
Thoughts wouldn’t form. My body responded like I was wired to her, my blood pumping so hot I thought I might explode.
Her body was smooth, her curves a feast laid out just for me.
My mind snagged on the last time she’d chained me.
Yes, I liked it.
But no, I did not allow it.
She’d crossed the line again. In Obsidian, when I’d told her no – and she had still wrapped those thighs around me, dragging me in like she owned the right to decide.
I reached for the lock behind me. The click was loud enough to be final.
I said nothing.
She angled her head slightly.
It took every effort not to tear into her in that moment.
‘Come here.’ The command cut through the silence, and I could feel the tremors of my restraint coursing through me.
She hesitated out of instinct. A prey animal aware the air had shifted. Still, she obeyed, walking towards me with a slowness that made each step a silent offering. Her small, round breasts swayed with every tantalising shift of her hips.
She stopped just short of touching me, breath shallow, eyes unreadable behind the mask and the brown contacts.
‘Kneel.’
I watched her descend, her eyes never breaking contact with mine.
‘Do you remember what you did last time?’ I kept my voice low, even.
She swallowed, the motion reminding me how she’d savoured my release the first time she had a taste. My dick was already in full readiness for a repeat of that.
‘Yes,’ she murmured.
‘You chained me.’
A flush crept up her chest.
‘Without my permission.’ I crouched in front of her, gripping her jaw in one hand. Her head tipped up. ‘And you disobeyed last time, too. That wasn’t play. That was theft.’
Her chest stopped moving as she held her breath, her eyes wide, searching for something in the gleam of my mask.
‘You took control without earning it. That means you owe me something.’ My grip tightened slightly until I felt the pulse screaming beneath my palm. ‘You owe me retribution.’
Leaning in, I allowed her to feel the weight of the words before they landed. ‘And tonight, you’ll pay every second of it back.’
I paused. We stared at each other. Then I asked, ‘Green?’
And held my breath.
I wasn’t sure if seconds or an eternity had passed until she inclined her head.
Her lips parted to say something, but I moved my hand over her lips.
‘No speaking unless I ask you a direct question. Nod if you understand.’
She did.
Fucking gorgeous.
I stood. ‘On the bed. Face down. Legs spread.’
She moved instantly, the submission itself an ache I didn’t deserve but was going to claim anyway. She climbed onto the mattress gracefully, every motion a vow that she still trusted the creature standing behind her.
Her spine bowed into a perfect arch, hips tilting back in invitation, thighs parting inch by delicious inch until she was open for me – all dewy pink and temptation carved in flesh.
Vulnerable.
Waiting, trembling, desperate for whatever darkness I chose to unleash.
I stayed where I was. Watching and drinking in the hypnotic slopes of her backside, the faint quiver running through her thighs as anticipation tightened in her muscles.
My gaze crawled lower, devouring the wet sheen between them as she shifted, the delicate folds parting like a secret displayed for my eyes alone.
A sound tore out of my chest, part groan, part confession, because none of this felt fair. It was too much. I shouldn’t be allowed this view, this trust.
This willing sacrifice.
But she always knew I’d let her take anything from me. Even this cruelty I hated needing.
I hung back deliberately. She needed to feel my gaze like a touch – to understand that the punishment had already begun. Not with leather or command, but with the monster who was already devouring her from across the room.
Retrieving the flogger and cuffs from the duffel, I moved like a man performing a rite.
Retribution wasn’t just discipline. It was a way of putting things back where they belonged.
I walked to the bed, eyeing the headboard’s design. The artful scatter of holes across it nearly made me smile as I shackled her wrists to it. Then the leather slithered through my fingers letting the slow sound carry across the room.
Her spine stiffened, a gasp hovered, but she stayed open for me.
‘I won’t have your release,’ I said, testing the chains with my fingers. ‘You forgot who you belong to. And I’m going to remind you.’
She stayed silent, but her exhale trembled, and that tremble caught in me too.