Chapter 11
Warm water sluiced over my head, spraying from the multiple shower heads, and dripped off my nose, running over my breasts before sliding down my spread legs.
Facing the shower wall, thighs open to my husband’s questing hands, and arms over my head with my palms flat against the tile, I bit my lip as he washed me… and coaxed me to arousal.
But my mind replayed his vile use of that anal rod. He’d punished my ass slowly, first inching the thing in, allowing my anus to stretch and burn around the intrusion for a few minutes before he removed it.
Then he’d insert it again.
He must have penetrated me with that rod a dozen times—as many times as it took to lose a whole hour or more to his sick punishment of my hole.
“I’m proud of you,” he said, his fingers moving between my thighs.
“I’m pissed at you,” I bit back. Even as I sassed him, uncaring of the consequences at this point, my legs betrayed me and opened wider to accommodate his touch.
I didn’t know whether to lash out in anger, sob from the despair fisting my heart, or come all over his teasing fingers.
Leaning my forehead against the wall, I pushed my ass toward him, an invitation to touch me deeper.
“How do you do this to me?”
“Do what, baby?”
“Make me want to come after everything you just did.”
“It’s a talent of mine,” he said, finally slipping his fingers inside me.
“I’m still pissed at you, Master.”
“That’s okay. You’re entitled to your emotions, Kayla. I put your ass through the wringer.”
“I’m scared to look at it.”
In response, he brushed his fingers over my stinging backside. “Your ass is gorgeous. I was careful not to draw too much blood, but you really won’t be able to sit for a couple of days. I wasn’t kidding about that.”
“Can I speak freely, Master?” The last thing I wanted was to push too hard and earn an additional punishment.
“You may.”
His gentle manner was my undoing. I plummeted in a brutal mood swing more powerful than his strikes, and a sob wrenched from my soul. “How can you love me and hurt me like this? How? I don’t understand.”
“I told you a long time ago that I’m a bastard. But I’m your bastard, Kayla. And I do love you. I love you more fiercely than the burn in your ass right now, with so much loyalty that I’d gladly kill anyone who hurt you.”
“But you hurt me.”
“And I’m the only one who ever will.” He thrust his fingers in a steady rhythm, propelling me to that glorious edge I craved. Oh, how I needed to jump off right now.
I moaned and groaned, my hands balled into fists against the tile. “Master, please.”
“Please, what?” He blew a warm breath over my bottom, and I liked that he was on his haunches behind me, practically worshipping the handiwork of his sadism while simultaneously gifting me pleasure.
“Can I come, Master?”
“You may not.”
“Grrr!” Bumping my forehead on the tile, I gritted my teeth to keep from slinging hateful words at him.
“You’re still being punished. You don’t get to come during a punishment. You know that.”
Still being punished…
A flash of Katherine on her knees, her slutty mouth inches from his cock, sprang to mind, causing my body to go rigid. But recalling his words truly iced my heart.
If you ever touch another man again, I’ll not only fuck her, but I’ll do it in front of you.
I hadn’t betrayed him, but a hug could be construed as touching another man. “Are you going to…?” Suddenly, vomit burned my throat.
“Spit it out, Kayla. Whatever it is, don’t hold back. That’s what got you in trouble in the first place.”
“Are you going to use Katherine against me?” Closing my eyes, I failed to breathe as I waited for his answer. But he was quiet, leaving me close to panicking. “Please, Master. I need to know.”
“You don’t have to worry about Katherine. When I made the threat, I was so angry that I thought I could do it. But fuck, Kayla, I don’t think I could ever touch another woman. You’re it for me.”
The breath I’d been holding whooshed from me in a torrent of relief. “You’re it for me too. I need you to know that.”
His lack of response worried me. He stopped caressing between my legs, but still, he didn’t say anything.
“Gage, I mean it. Please know that.”
“You don’t have any feelings for him?”
“Not like I used to.” Gage had purged my love for Ian the instant he’d sentenced me to that cage. “Honestly, after I got over the shock of seeing him, I was more worried about how you’d react.”
He rose behind me, pressing his erection against my sore ass, and gripped my hair in an uncompromising fist. “Swear to me that he means nothing.”
“He means nothing.”
Gage pulled on my hair, angling my head so he could claim my mouth. The spray from the shower misted over our faces, wetting our lips as we came together in an open-mouthed kiss that sucked the will right out of my bones.
I whimpered against his lips, needing more…so much more.
He inched back with a groan. “I want in your ass so badly right now.”
My breath hitched, and I turned horrified eyes on him. I could not, for the fucking life of me, comprehend taking his cock right now. Not with the way my ass burned.
“Relax, baby,” he whispered, brushing his mouth over mine again. “I know you’re in pain, so I’ll settle for your mouth instead.” He let out a breath that shivered against my well-kissed lips. “On your knees.”
His command, spoken soft and low yet full of authority, shot straight to my pussy. I turned around and kneeled before him, then eagerly accepted his cock into my mouth. He pushed his hands into my hair, brushing the wet strands from my eyes.
“Baby, look at me.”
God, he was beautiful. Dark hair drenched, blue eyes more startling than usual—I was helpless against this man, especially when he gave in to the speck of tenderness hiding inside his sadistic soul.
Instead of grabbing my hair and ramming his cock down my throat, like he normally would, he combed his fingers through my hair as he slipped in and out of my mouth.
Intense heat flared between my thighs, and I whimpered around his shaft, tongue massaging the softness of his head.
Propping an arm against the tile, he groaned deep in his throat as he gazed down at me in wonder. “Don’t stop doing that with your tongue. It feels unbelievable.” His mouth flattened into a determined line. “You’re being such a good girl. Fuck, I want to make you come into next year.”
But he wouldn’t. Gage had many sides to him, but he rarely wavered on punishment, and holding my orgasm at bay was part of it.
I sucked him to release, accepting every last drop, and despite the desire blazing between my thighs, I felt mostly…content. We finished washing up, then he towel-dried my skin, paying careful attention to his favorite areas before instructing me to bend over the counter.
“I love marking you like this.” He opened a tube of cream and squirted a dollop into his palm.
“Your ass was made for me.” As he gently rubbed the soothing balm into my skin, I wondered how he’d managed to coach me through fear, then anger before molding me into a content pile of skin and bones, subservient to his wants and needs, and pliant in his hands.
I had no answers and no chance to mull over his sorcery-like mojo any longer. He scooped me up in his arms and carried me upstairs to our bedroom, winding a path through the darkness to our bed. He set me on my feet before turning down the covers.
“Grab your ankles.”
I did so without question. He probed my pussy, gliding his devious fingers through the evidence of just how fundamentally screwed my body was. And even in the darkness, his face cast in shadow from my bent over position, I knew he was pleased.
He’d punished my ass to his liking and had nearly brought me to orgasm enough times to leave me drenched around his fingers.
Gage Channing’s work for the day was done.
His self-satisfied sigh confirmed it as he pulled me into bed beside him, yanking my stinging ass snug against his thighs.
And though he didn’t voice the words, his long sigh told me all I needed to know.
That night, I fell asleep wrapped in his forgiveness and love.