Chapter 16
Sixteen
They spent the whole day within inches of each other, at restaurants, coffee shops, clothing stores, by a lake, and finally back in the house.
He waited for it to start to wear on him, but it didn’t.
He was just as insane at the end of the night as he’d been at the beginning of the day.
He had no idea if Kate’s craziness was lifting.
Since his Lord Byron speech, he’d steered clear of the topic.
At ten o’clock while he was watching a basketball game, she brought him a fine point Sharpie.
“It’s a commercial. Will you help me with something?”
“Yeah, baby. What?”
“Will you write on my ankle?”
“Write on your ankle?”
“Yes, so I can see how it looks. I want a tattoo of what you said. The thought of not having you feels like death.”
He flung the pen away from him. It hit the wall and bounced off.
“You’re not getting a tattoo, especially not one that says that.”
“Please?”
“No way.”
“It’s the greatest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”
“That you think so proves you need to take more English classes.”
She laughed, but shook her head and retrieved the marker. “It proves you’re amazing.”
“Do not write that on your ankle.”
“I’m not.”
The basketball game started, and he was half watching it and half watching her. She uncapped the marker and began writing on her left forearm. He lurched off the couch and she bolted. He chased her.
He caught her in the bedroom and flung her onto the bed. He yanked the marker from her hand, but not before she’d scrawled half a heart on his bicep. He raised her forearm. She’d only managed to write The Thought in fancy script before he came after her.
He restrained her face down on the bed in her clothes. He put a ball gag in her mouth and a blindfold over her eyes. He waited for it to dawn on her that this was not a sex game. She struggled for several moments, then settled, but still tried to talk around the gag.
“If you’re trying to ask what’s going on, I think you know. There’s no sex. It’s a punishment.”
She started to struggle again.
“Stop moving. If you make the marks on your wrists worse, I’ll double the time you have to stay like that.”
She stilled.
After a few minutes, she made a questioning sound.
“I’m still here. I’ll never leave you alone in restraints.”
He let another ten minutes go by then released her.
She sat up and smoothed her hair down, looking adorable and flustered and sexy as hell.
“We never finished our conversation today,” he said.
“There’s nothing broken about you, Kate.
Your body is going to get used to mine, and when it does I’ll fuck you as many times a day as I want.
I’m taking it slow because I’m not some green kid who can’t control himself.
Keeping you healthy and safe is my responsibility, but I also do it out of self interest. I want to make use of that body, and if I damage it I can’t.
Calm down and be patient. When I’m ready to do something to you, I’ll make you ready, too.
That includes fucking your ass. A guy with a small cock can get away with stretching a girl’s ring with a couple fingers and then going for it.
To take me that way is a whole different story.
I know what you really want to know is do I want you as much as those other masters want their pets and slaves.
The answer is no. I want you more. But being reckless with your body isn’t the way I prove it to you.
You need me to be in control for both of us, because you sure can’t be trusted to protect yourself. ”
“I’m sorry I keep panicking.”
“You don’t need to apologize to me for that. I like it.”
“You told me to calm down and be patient.”
“That was for you. Not me.”
“I don’t understand. Aren’t you getting tired of my being such a mess?”
“No, I love it when you’re a mess. How can you even ask that?” he said, pulling off his shirt and unzipping his jeans. “Strip. Let’s go to bed.”