Chapter 22 #2
I have to hold back a smile. I have broken this man in a thousand different ways, and because he is about to live out dominant Mommy fantasies he did not know he had, he could not be more grateful.
I leave England in triumph. I almost wish the others were there to experience the moment. They’ll have to trust me when I tell them the good news.
I return to the bunker less than six hours later, where I find my family waiting for me. Ella throws herself into my arms immediately, apparently thrilled to see me. I remember once when she knelt for me and crawled for me. This is better. This is a true expression of deep affection.
“You left,” she sniffs, disapproving.
“Yes, baby. I left,” I say, wrapping her in my arms and embracing her tightly. “But I am back now, and we never have to worry about Mr. Red again.”
“Did you kill him?”
“He has been neutralized,” I say. “It’s taken care of. We can return home safely.”
She grins broadly. Leo comes out of his bedroom about then, and starts making suggestions that sound more like demands. The fact that I have been overseas dealing with an existential threat barely seems to come into it.
“I want a new house for Ella,” Leo says. “I want a new start for all of us. I think there should be a wing for her and the babies, when they come, and private wings for the three of us.”
“You’ve put some thought into this.”
“I had the plans drafted,” he says. “Thought is for dreamers.”
Just as I am about to agree, the little dog, Ethel, wakes up from a nap and howls at the top of its lungs. The sound makes my blood go cold.
“Where did the dog come from?”
Ella looks guilty.
“Ella. Where did the dog come from?”
“I got her delivered,” she says.
“When?”
“Does it matter?” Her face is a perfect mask of guilt.
“Yes, baby. It matters.” I speak softly. “Before, or after I left?”
“After, obviously.”
“How?”
She looks at me. “Um. I went out and I got some candy and I called the house and I got them to send the dog to…”
“Oh, my god, don’t make it worse by lying!” Luke exclaims. “He probably already knows what happened.”
She blushes bright red, and I know that what has happened here is nothing I would approve of. Luke’s belief in me as a sort of omnipresent entity is very gratifying though, and in this case, useful. I fold my arms over my chest and wait for Ella’s now inevitable confession.
“When we went to take Leo to the doctor, I went to the house and stole the dog back and someone got hit in the face with the door, but they deserved it, and you don’t have to worry about lecturing me about it because Luke and Leo haven’t stopped talking about it.”
She can’t meet my gaze, and for good reason. She knows what kind of trouble she will be in now. The painful kind.
“Leo, Luke, take the dog for a walk,” I say. “I need to deal with my wife to be.”
She swallows hard and backs away from me a step. For once, Luke and Leo do not argue with me. They take the dog and they leave. All three of them have expressions on their faces as they go that indicate they are glad not to be suffering what Ella is about to endure.
I have become even more myself of late. I have killed those who wronged me, I have outwitted those who wished to hunt me, I have bested my enemies. I am master of my domain, and my bride will not be an exception.
“Please don’t be angry at me,” she says in pleading tones that will do nothing to earn her clemency.
“I’m not angry at you. Not in the usual way. This won’t be about anger. This will be about you learning a lesson you have to learn in order to be happy. I am going to marry you,” I tell her.
What a difference between this girl and the woman I left Eric with. Ella is strong. She is a survivor. She has made her way in a world that sought to break her over and over. She was never bred or raised to be in control. But she keeps striving for rebellion.
I have just ensured our safety by ensuring my dominion over Mr. Red, but I am not done yet. I have a further incarnation to embody.
Leo may have become more sensual. Luke may have matured emotionally. I have become even more what I always was. A man to be feared, and a man to be obeyed.
Ella
I knew I was going to be in trouble, but for some reason I really thought that I could talk my way out of it.
I’ve never really been in very deep trouble with Aiden.
Not even when he found me in New Zealand.
This has a different feeling. Something in the very pit of my stomach is telling me I am going to be terribly regretful.
He’s looking at me with an intensity that makes me tingle.
I’m scared. His brown eyes are light, almost lit with that internal fire that is so particular to him.
Sometimes I really do not understand how all these men were biologically made by the same people.
Aiden is the most singular of all of them.
He is elegant again, and he is powerful. Every movement he makes is self-possessed. I can’t move. I am caught in his gaze.
He is my master.
The thought pops into my head unbidden, a truth.
“I’m sorry,” I whimper. “I’m sorry. I just wanted my dog. And…”
“Shhh,” he says, reaching for me. He takes me by the hand and he leads me deeper into the bunker, into his room. The only room I never slept in, I think.
He shuts and locks the door behind me.
“Take your clothes off,” he says.
I don’t want to, but I do, because I sense that some obedience now will earn me favor when I start to bargain later. I remove my dress and stand in my underwear for a moment, before his expression indicates I should be removing that too.
“Do I need to tell you that having disobeyed and gone out on your own after we were all almost killed, and after you were shown remarkable clemency for your earlier escapades, is an unforgivable mistake that will only be remedied by the strictest correction?”
He’s talking like an eighteenth-century earl, but I am not going to point that out right now. He can sound how he likes. I just want him to be nice to me.
“What I am going to do to you is going to hurt,” he says. “But you need it. It has to happen so you have a reference point for what will happen if you ever disobey me again. This is a dangerous world, and I can only keep you safe if you do as you are told. Do you understand me?”
“I understand, but…”
“No buts,” he says. “I will not tolerate deviance from my orders. I will try my best not to be an unfair dictator, but I am the one in charge. You will answer to me. You will be my bride.”
“Weird proposal,” I mutter nervously. “I just wanted to see her…”
Arguing with him only makes his expression close more. He is looking at me with self-control and complete determination.
Aiden
“I gave you an order, and I will be obeyed. Always, in all things. I know the soft words of my brothers have led you to believe there is no need for you to do as you are told, that you have escaped tyranny. But you haven’t, sweet thing.
And you never will. You belong to me as much as you have ever belonged to anyone. More. Really.”
I sit down on the bed, draw her over my legs, and start the punishment with a spanking. At first it is a simple hand warming, not terribly hard. I want this to go on for a long time. I want her to remember the heat for days, if not weeks from now.
Best to teach the lesson well, then to have to teach it over and over again.
“I did you a disservice the first time you ran,” I say. “I should have hunted you ruthlessly and ravaged you to the point you could not think, let alone speak.”
“That is what you did!”
“Did I? I did not do it enough,” I comment, continuing to spank as her beautiful ass turns from a pink hue to something much more red.
“I’m sorry! Well, I’m not sorry,” she says, making things immediately worse for herself in that inimitable way she has.
“You’re not sorry?” I ask the question in restrained tones. If she had any sense of self-preservation she would take that statement back immediately. But given that she is being punished for a lack of that same quality, I am not hopeful she will recant.
And she does not.
“I’m sorry I made you upset,” she says. “But I’m not sorry I went and got Ethel. She should have been brought with us in the first place. Animals are people too!”
“I am not going to get into an argument about the relative worthiness of various life forms,” I tell her. “What I can say is that there is not a creature, human or not, on this planet, who matters as much to me as you do. Remember that.”
I slide her from my lap and leave her bent over the side of the bed. This punishment is going to be nothing short of apocalyptic. I want her to know that putting herself at risk in any way is completely unacceptable.
She tries to rise, perhaps to argue, but I am not going to let that happen. There are times to talk, and this is not one of them.
“Down,” I say firmly, pushing her back into place. “No more words. Only tears.”
“Holy shit,” I hear her mutter into the bedding.
A dark smile crosses my face, and I become aware of the fact that I am very much enjoying this. When I first realized she had rebelled I was so focused on the need to correct her that I did not acknowledge what a gift she had given me.
I make a show of taking off my belt. She is peeking behind her, even though she shouldn’t. I let her do it. I allow her to see me standing over her with my expression severe, and my belt off, looped around my hand.
She whimpers and turns away, and I start lashing her until that pink skin turns bright red in thick stripes. Punishing Ella is one of the greatest joys of my life.
She starts to wriggle, of course. Staying still is not easy.
The pain of the belt is working through her flesh, making her cringe and crawl away.
She wants to escape, but she is not trying nearly as hard as she could.
Some part of my sweet bride to be knows to stay, and to take each of the strokes I want to give to her.