Chapter 15
ALEX
After a breakfast of cereal and two overripe bananas the next morning, Rafe told me to get cleaned up. “Wear a skirt, no panties.” His kiss fractured clear thought, and my core flooded with desire. I stared at him like a dumbass as he left and closed the door behind him.
I used the bathroom first, taking a hot shower and tempting myself with the idea of sliding my fingers between my legs.
Last night replayed in my mind like a dirty fantasy, but every moment had been real.
Before I gave in to temptation, I shut off the water and stepped out with steam rising off my skin.
Last thing I wanted was to provoke him, so I followed his orders and dressed in a longer skirt to protect my legs from the cold.
I was feeling good, the confrontation of yesterday diminished by our free-fall into bed last night.
Still riding that wave, I was not prepared for the sight that greeted me in the living room.
He sat on the couch dangling the same type of cuffs I’d used on Jax yesterday. Maybe even the same set.
I skidded to a stop, alarmed. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“You stole my gun and left the boat. You could’ve killed me when it went off in your tantrum.” He rose slowly and came toward me, cuffs gripped in his hands. “I’m not letting that slide.”
“What are you gonna do?”
“Punish your ass when we get back. What else do you think I’m gonna do?”
Guess the honeymoon was over. “This is ridiculous.” I retreated another step, heading toward the other end of the sofa. “What if I don’t wanna go back?”
His mouth veered up in a lopsided, know-it-all-smirk. “You didn’t have permission to leave the boat, and you sure as fuck didn’t have my okay to take my gun and go all badass chick on Jax with it.” He gestured toward my hands. “Consequences, sweetheart. Turn the fuck around.”
“No way!” I zipped to the other side of the couch.
“Get over here now.”
Oh, he was pissed. The thin line of his lips captivated me, the gravelly timbre of his voice. Something primal in me responded, as it always did when he took that tone. Shit, I was wet already, and he hadn’t laid a finger on me.
“You want me over there?” I taunted, pointing to where he stood, primed to move in an instant.
“Stupid question, babe.” He held up the cuffs and dangled them with a smug grin.
I stepped right, but so did he. “What do I get in return?”
“A sore ass?”
I gnawed on my lip to hide a moan, but I figured he saw right through me. This felt a bit like a game; one we both knew the plays to. I knew he was going to punish me, and he knew I wasn’t putting up a real fight.
But I did want something.
“Fine, I’ll give you my hands if you promise me something.”
“I don’t negotiate, sweetheart. You’re gonna give me your hands anyway.”
“Please,” I begged, my fingers slowly undoing the first two buttons of my top. I slipped a hand inside and fondled my left breast.
“You’re fucking pushing it, Alex.” He sauntered closer, his fingers flexing around the metal shackles. He wanted my wrists locked in them badly—I could tell by the twitch in his jaw and the heat in his eyes. “What do you want?”
“Answers,” I said.
He tilted his head. “Answers?”
“Yeah.” I withdrew my hand from my shirt and gestured between us. “You know, where you actually talk to me?”
He rounded the sofa, careful to keep his steps light and easy, preying on me as if I were a skittish animal.
“I’ll give you two questions after you’re done taking your punishment.”
“Two questions?” I raised an indignant brow. “Is that all my surrender is worth to you?”
“Three questions,” he bit out through clenched teeth.
“Four.” I retreated a couple of inches.
“Three. That’s my final offer.”
There was no offer. If I said yes, if I said no…he’d still have my hands in those cuffs and my ass in his truck headed back to the boat. I could fight him. I could run.
But I didn’t want to. Running from Rafe Mason seemed counter-intuitive.
The heavy weight of reality pressed on my chest, leaving no space for light-hearted fun.
Not when my insanity held me captive. Rafe would let me go if I put up a good enough fight.
I knew he would. For all the black desires and demons he battled, his conscience ruled the better part of him, or he wouldn’t have left me six months ago.
My eyes burned with helplessness, and I turned my face away, hating how he witnessed my weakness.
His soft footfalls grew closer, and warm fingertips slid along my arms, over my hideous scars.
With no effort at all, he turned me and locked my wrists in place at the small of my back.
Whirling me around again, he tried to get my attention, but I refused to look at him.
The brush of his fingers on my chin demanded I meet his gaze.
“Are you scared of the water? Do you need me to drug you?”
It wasn’t a threat. He was asking out of genuine concern, and in some fucked-up way, that only made me love him more. I was a prisoner of my traitorous heart. The damn bloody organ didn’t know what was good for me. “I’ll manage.”
“Okay, let’s get this over with.” He grabbed me by the shoulder and ushered me into the morning chill.
“Three questions,” I reminded him as he locked the front door behind us.
We descended the steps, careful not to slip on ice, and made our way to his red truck.
I wondered what my neighbors would think if they peeked between their curtains and saw Rafe herding me down the street with my hands cuffed at my back.
But my street was quiet with most of the driveways empty and the drapes closed. Typical for a Monday morning.
He opened the passenger side, helped me slide onto the seat, and strapped me in the confines of the safety belt. I wasn’t sure why he’d felt the need to cuff my hands at all—it wasn’t like I was going to fight him.
Not really.
He had to know that.
“Three questions,” he said, brushing a stray curl from my eyes. “Whatever you want to know, I’ll tell you the truth, I promise.”
But my pain would come first, and considering Jax’s vow that he’d be present when Rafe dished out punishment, probably my degradation as well. I blinked several times but ultimately let the tears fall. I didn’t want to piss him off more by breaking yet another rule.
“Jax is going to be there for this, isn’t he?”
He caught a teardrop on his thumb and dipped it between his lips. “You threatened to shoot him,” was all he said before shutting the door.
Answer enough. He started the ignition, and I watched with growing dread as my house faded in the distance. At some point, I dozed off, my head lopsided on my neck and resting against the cool glass. By the time he silenced the engine, my shoulders were on fire from being restrained.
He helped me from the rig and circled behind me. “Close your eyes,” he said, shuttering my vision with his hands. Slowly, he pushed us forward, and the instant we stepped onto the dock and it swayed, my stomach took a nosedive.
“Rafe!”
“I’ve got you,” he said, tightening his hold.
“Almost there.” We shuffled a few more feet, our shoes gliding over the slick dock.
With a steady hand, he helped me onto the boat.
The whole time, I kept my eyes sealed shut.
We descended the stairs, and only then did I open them to find Jax waiting in the galley with his arms crossed.
Rafe gestured for me to sit down, and when Jax saw my cuffed hands, he grinned. At least he had the grace not to say anything about it.
He passed Rafe a small bag. “Instructions are in there.”
“I won’t even ask how you got your hands on this.”
“I know people. Contraceptives are easy as fuck to get when you’ve got contacts in the sex trade.”
“Yeah, I don’t need the reminder of your underground contacts, but thanks.”
“No problem.”
“Everything ready?”
“You bet it is.” Jax flexed his hands, eyes raking over me, and not in a lascivious way, but in an I’m gonna make you pay way.
“Rafe, what are you gonna—”
He placed two fingers over my lips. “You don’t talk.
You follow orders. If you need to cry or scream, I’m fine with that.
But not a word until I say so.” He removed his fingers and leaned down, close enough that his breath fanned over my trembling lips.
“When we’re done, I’ll give you your three questions. ”
I couldn’t help but wonder if he was pissed because I’d disobeyed him, or because I’d talked him into giving me the fucking truth after he finished taking his pleasure from my pain and humiliation.
I wanted to ask, wanted to beg him to tell me what they planned to do, but he wasn’t messing around now.
He meant every word. Somehow, I knew he was going to hurt me beyond anything I’d ever experienced.
This punishment would transcend all others.
I bit my lip to keep from opening my damn mouth. He was being gentle with me, but an undercurrent of anger flowed into the room, coming off him and Jax.
I’d made a colossal mistake by running.
“Go into the bedroom and bend over the end of the bed. Don’t move, no matter how much time passes.”
Swallowing hard with a loud gulp, I rose and dragged my reluctant feet into the bedroom. I bent over the mattress and winced from the deep ache in my shoulders. And I waited.
Eventually, they made their presence known.
Rafe set the bag Jax had given him on the dresser, then he moved behind me and kicked my feet apart.
He released my hands from the metal cuffs and bound them together with rope.
Lifting my arms behind me, he tethered my wrists to the anchor in the ceiling.
I let out a screech of pain through gritted teeth.
Jax removed my shoes and tied down my ankles to the rings in the floor.
I couldn’t close my legs. I couldn’t lift my shoulders off the bed because doing so hurt too much.
They had me spread and helpless. Just like they wanted me.
My pulse skittered at my throat, increasing until it blasted my chest with pain.
No way out.
“You’re fucking stubborn and reckless,” Rafe said, lifting my skirt, trailing his hands up my exposed bare bottom.
He tucked the material around my hips and under my belly.
I shivered as he gripped my ass with unforgiving fingers.
“I won’t stand for it.” He returned to the dresser and picked up a bowl. “What if Zach had been waiting?”
A rhetorical question since I wasn’t allowed to speak, but hell if I didn’t want to ask what was in that bowl.
“You put yourself at risk by leaving Jax’s protection.
You put all of us at risk by taking my gun.
Now you’re gonna pay for it.” Water sloshed, and a few seconds later, something hard and cold pressed against my rectum.
He hadn’t lubed me first. Oh God. The pressure increased, and I clenched my teeth to keep from opening my mouth.
The smooth object passed the point of burning, giving me a reprieve, and I breathed through my nose in intense relief.
Soft footsteps retreated, and I sensed him watching me, his gaze burning a wave of heat over my backside.
If he ran his finger up my slit, he’d find it embarrassingly wet.
Shit, I might be dripping all over the floor, for all I knew, since my thighs had been forced wide open.
Whatever he’d inserted grew warm, giving me a feeling of fullness that hurt and aroused. But then the sensation amped hotter…hotter still.
It fucking scorched.
“Take it out!” I screamed, clenching my bottom, but that only made the burn intolerable.
Rafe removed his belt from a drawer, looped it in a fist…then he fucking offered it to Jax. “Unless you’d rather use your hand. Either is fine with me.”
“No! Please, Rafe—” My voice cut out on a sob.
“I’ll use my hand,” Jax said.
Rafe leaned against the dresser, arms crossed, right in my direct line of view. “He’s gonna spank you ten times, babe, and if you say another fucking word, I’ll make it double.”
Oh god, my rectum blazed—was the most intense pain I’d experienced in my life.
The sting of Jax’s hand wouldn’t compare.
At the thought of Jax touching me, shame as hot and as swift flushed my skin.
My traitorous pussy throbbed in tandem with the agony.
I couldn’t control my body, and I wanted to now, more than ever.
Pain is pleasure.
My body was whacked.
“What’d you put in there?” I demanded, despite Rafe’s gag order.
Rafe closed the distance, bent over, and swept his tongue over my cheek. “Ginger,” he said, voice raw with arousal. “If you can’t be quiet and take your punishment, I will gag you.” When he returned to his spot in front of the dresser, the bulge in his pants had grown even bigger.
“Give her twenty, whenever you’re ready,” he told Jax with a wave of his hand.
I wasn’t ready.
Jax brought his hand down, and I bit on my lip hard until I tasted blood, but I still couldn’t keep from clenching the muscles in my ass.
“Ahhh!” The more I cried out, the harder Jax spanked me.
And the wetter I became.
Rafe inched the waistband of his sweats lower, taking his time, his fingers moving in slow motion…
at least, they seemed to. I became obsessed with that torturous slide of material, my concentration stuck on what lay beyond.
The strikes receded in my mind. My world narrowed to Rafe’s cock as he whipped it out and pumped a determined fist up and down his smooth shaft.
“Eyes up here.”
I raised my gaze to his. Holy shit. His eyes were the greenest of green, turned deep from arousal.
Suddenly, I didn’t care that I was sprawled out for Jax to beat.
Suddenly…the retribution he took from my skin made sense.
I’d pointed a gun at him, left him handcuffed, and had taken off like a brat.
Didn’t matter how fucked up my logic was.
If watching another man punish me made Rafe look at me like that, then it was worth it.
The burn in my ass subsided during the last couple of minutes though my skin tingled from where Jax’s palm landed over and over again. Eventually, the swats ceased, and Rafe carefully removed the ginger. I let out a noisy sigh of relief.
It was over. Except…
Was Rafe snickering?
“You’d better brace yourself.” Footsteps sounded, water sloshed again…
Oh no.
He inched another piece into my tender hole, and I started whimpering as I realized what I was in for. I questioned my earlier assessment as I waited for the burn to once again ignite. It wasn’t over at all—Rafe was just warming up.