19. Dimitri
19
DIMITRI
I 'm not in control. Not even a little. I should walk. Turn away. She's safe. She's good. As good as she can possibly be with two dead bodies in the room. I can see it in her eyes: she's not as easily scared as most women would be in her shoes. There's no hysteria, no terrified shrieks.
I can leave it at that. Honestly, I should have just let her bodyguards handle the rest. I shouldn't be here right now. Not when she's almost just been raped before my eyes—as well as those of hundreds of followers.
But the thing is, she's the one who put herself in this situation, and I want her to understand how unacceptable it is.
I've let this play out, but I knew, I just knew that Ruby Red would put her in danger eventually, given the way she runs it. If she wanted to be seen, she should have come to one of the many clubs where she could have done so safely. She should have come to me. Instead, she hired losers off the street without so much as a background check.
"Well, you wanted my attention, didn't you?" I hear myself say, my voice too low. Too quiet."You have it."
I watch her swallow, casually pushing the body off the bed, where it falls with a hollow sound, leaving a red trail on the sheet.
"What was your first message again?" I pretend to think. "Wish you were here, was it? Here I am."
"Dimitri…"
"Yes, Willow?"
She looks at me like one watches a predator in the vicinity, with apprehension. Because she's one hell of a smart girl.
"Thank you," she croaks. "For the security. Without them, without you…"
"Please, finishes that sentence. Tell me what would have happened if I wasn't having you watched."
But she doesn't.
"You would have been raped. Taken against your will right here. And you know what they would have done after? There are two choices, really. One of them is you ending up as cold as they are. The second choice is worse. Do you even know what it is?"
She thinks she does, by the way her eyes go down, and her cheeks flush with shame. I have to rob her of that delusion.
"The other is lovely Tom here—his name is Don, by the way. Maybe check IDs next time you plan to lock yourself with two strangers twice as big as you—would have knocked you out, dragged you out of here, and dropped you off with some of his pals downtown. You'd be shot up with drugs, until you're so out of it you don't remember you own name, and don't even notice the many ways they all use you. And only then would he have killed you. You'd be one of the many names of the news. Twenty, pretty, smart, and gone."
"I don't…" She swallows back a sob. "I didn't think."
"That much is clear, petal." I don't think I'm a cruel man, as such, but I need her to understand quite clearly that what happened tonight can never happen again. "I am going to punish you now. Do you know why?"
She blinks up at me, shocked.
"Because you put yourself in danger. It's selfish. You're not allowed to risk your life without thinking of the people who would be hurt by your recklessness. And as you quite clearly aren't capable of that on your own, I will have to show you that actions have consequences."
"You're not my father."She's found her backbone.
"You don't have one of those, hence the laundry list of daddy issues you're clearly dealing with."
She moves to stand, which gives me the opportunity to take her arm and twist it behind her back, with ease. "What did you plan to do here, hm?" I wonder out loud. "Face me? Fight me? You have no power. You're vulnerable. Weak ."
I draw my hand back and slap her ass on the last word.
She yelps.
It's not the first time I've done it to her. But last time, I barely touched her. Certainly not on her bare skin.
Now, I bend her to the mattress, holding her down with my knee, and lower her panties with my free hand, before slapping that ass again.
"If you're not counting out loud, they don't count as part of your punishment, petal," I grit between my teeth, with another resounding slap.
"One!" she screams.
"Good girl." I run my hand over the sensitive, fast-reddening skin of her plump ass, allowing myself to look at it for the first time.
Fuck, I'm so, so hard .
But this isn't about satisfying myself. This is a lesson.
"If someone had bothered to spank you then, maybe you wouldn't need it now, huh?"
"Fuck you!" she squeals.
I slap her harder, in the exact same spot I hit moments ago, and she winces, her body arching both toward and away from my touch.
I can see wetness coat her legs, and moans escape those lips between the sniffles, and the counts.
She counts to ten like a good girl. I reward her with a caress. Only after we get to ten do I remove my knee from her back.
Willow twists around, tears on her lashes, her lips parted, and those eyes full of desire, hooded, demanding more.
Fuck this.
It was always going to be a matter of time. When, not how it would happen. Given a choice, I wouldn't have picked this seedy hotel, with cold bodies in the room and blood on the bed, but she made my control snap, and there's no going back.
I slip my hand between those creamy thighs, sinking into her drenched tightness.
"Is that what you wanted, petal?" I growl.
She throws her head back, gasping.
"When you told me you wanted me to join you. Is that what you were imagining?"
"Please!" she breathes.
"Do you believe begging was going to help today? Nothing you could have said, nothing you would have screamed mattered."
I don't think she understands the gravity of the situation, and I'm still seeing red. Spotting a gag among the handful of sex toys littered over the soiled bed, I snatch it, and secure it around her mouth.
"Especially since you had the foresight to bring this for strangers ."
It's only when I say the word, that I understand just what's behind my fury.
The fact that she chose strangers to share this part of herself, rather than someone safe.
Rather than me.
Holy fuck.
I'm jealous.
I didn't think it was possible for someone like me. Not only because I can have whoever I want, whenever I want, but because I love sharing my lovers. Showing them off. Letting the world see them, and understand that I am the one making them writhe with desire. I'm the one letting them ride their cocks. Sharing someone is the ultimate proof of control—the understanding that I can tell them to ride someone else's cock, and they would for me, is the most trusting, intimate thing I can have.
But I am jealous of anyone who Willow chose, because over the last two years, it hasn't been me.
Even this. I am taking. She's not giving herself to me.
That's the only reason why I let go, my hand twitching, dying to take .
Not like this.
It's strange to see that she's still fully dressed, except for the panties dangling down her knees. She's a mess, makeup all over her face, blonde wig askew, and she's never been more gorgeous to me.
I unclasp the gag, and step back.
"Gather your things. I'm taking you somewhere."