Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
NATASHA
T he plane leveled, making me tense as the flight attendant returned to his seat near the galley. I wasn’t looking forward to the whipping Lachlan promised me, but I was interested in seeing if he’d go through with it.
Even when I was trapped in his kennel, he’d never given me more than a pop or two with a riding crop, which I hadn’t appreciated as much as I should have. He could have done so much worse. My father certainly had.
Maybe my change of heart had more to do with reviewing all the files Daniel had on Ronan Doherty, which far surpassed mine, and less to do with my six weeks of humiliation at Lachlan’s hands.
After my first day in the kennel, I’d have said he and Ronan were the same, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Unlike Ronan, Lachlan wasn’t driven by greed and sadistic cruelty. Grief and helpless anger made him do what he did to me, and when he finally learned the truth…
Well, let’s just say I was pretty sure I knew how he felt.
After all, I’d done the same thing—with a much larger body count.
I had to admit to some soul-searching though.
It wasn’t right to spend so much time blaming him for my problems. Purposely hurting him, both financially with the millions in donations I’d strongarmed him into, or emotionally with the numerous elderly pets I’d forced him to accept so he could watch them die, was cruel, and I’d spent well over six weeks at it.
It took a very special person to rescue an aged shelter animal, knowing they’d leave too soon.
And damn him, Lachlan hadn’t missed a beat—even for Marmite, the neglected pony who bit everyone who got close to him.
I’d managed to keep the little shit for less than a month before the bruises from his bites started matching what my father used to leave on me.
At least I got his overgrown hooves dealt with, along with a bath and grooming.
And naturally, because both of them were little shits, he decided Lachlan was his best friend, even going so far as to allow Lachlan to groom him without requiring sedation.
I’d always wished for a pony. If I was ever in a position to get another, it would be a sweet draft horse from one of the many rescues Teresa, my vet, kept sending me—not a Shetland pony risen to plague the earth from the lowest circles of hell.
If he hadn’t started chasing me with his teeth bared, I’d have kept Marmite despite his evil temper. I didn’t even want to think about Orc, the truly unfortunate-looking poodle whose name matched his disposition. Yeah, according to Teresa, Lachlan got along with that little Uruk Hai reject too.
Yeah, I was a touch jealous, but honestly, I was happy to get Marmite and Orc into a loving home—even if it wasn’t with me.
Oh well. At least Dante and Angel liked me. Well, Angel liked Dante. She tolerated me as long as I obeyed her demands for treats, cuddles, and catnip.
After unbuckling his seatbelt, he stood and gazed down at me, his gorgeous blue eyes betraying not the slightest hint of emotion, just as Daniel and I had been trying to teach him.
Heh. I’d spent six weeks learning to be a slave, so he got to spend the same amount of time learning to be a Master. Seemed fair, right?
“Crawl to the bedroom,” he ordered softly. “You may not speak.”
I unbuckled my seatbelt and sank to my knees, then crawled obediently, listening for the soft sound of his footsteps as he followed me. He slid the door shut behind us, and I heard a soft click. Although I didn’t look, I assumed he was locking us in.
Keeping to my slave persona, I rested my weight on my heels and put my hands in position on my spread thighs while I waited for his next instruction. My core clenched and wetness trickled from my exposed sex as the expensive wool of his trousers brushed against my back.
Instead of touching me, he went to his suitcase and retrieved a short whip with a curled lash that ended in a point. I winced inwardly, remembering the dragon tail from my time in his kennel. He hadn’t used it often, but it stung like a bitch. Worse, it didn’t leave much in the way of marks.
“Red,” I said, “or whatever you want for a safeword.”
“Slaves don’t get safewords.” His lips quirked into a faint smile as he drew the lash through his fingers. “But it’s cute that you think you would.”
“Okay.” Refusing to think about why his reply turned me on so much, I breathed through the need gathering strength in my belly. “Let’s call it a timeout for technical difficulties. The dragon tail doesn’t leave marks like we need. Do you have something else?”
Still smiling, he shook his head. “No. The dragon tail is perfect for my purposes. Now, stand up and bend over the bed. Toes pointed in, please.”
Despite knowing whatever Lachlan planned would hurt, I erupted into a full-body hot flash as I stood and lowered my torso to the bed.
Gently, he nudged my feet apart, exposing my soaking pussy to the cool breeze from the air vents.
As he’d asked, I moved my feet until my toes were the way he wanted, knowing the position wouldn’t allow me to clench my muscles against the pain.
With a quiet hiss, the first blow fell, leaving a stripe that burned like all the fires of the sun across the lower curve of my ass. I bit back a yelp and tried not to move as the second and third fell in quick succession.
“Good girl for staying quiet,” Lachlan murmured. Without waiting for me to reply, he delivered several more blows, dividing them between my ass cheeks and upper thighs.
My legs quivered and I locked my knees before I collapsed to the bed. Fuck. Lachlan must have been holding back when I was in his kennel, because…damn.
Maybe he was right. I couldn’t imagine not having marks from that nasty whip. Tears of pain welled, scorching my eyes as I blinked them back, although I wondered if he wanted to see them.
After all, my father wouldn’t have stopped until I was screaming.
But Lachlan wasn’t my father. And even more inexplicably, the panic attack I’d expected never showed up. Instead, the heat in my core grew.
Deciding to take a chance, I let the tears fall, along with a quiet whimper I hoped he didn’t hear.
To my shock, he dropped the whip next to me on the bed, then caressed my ass, his touch both soothing and agonizing.
“There’s my very good girl.”
* * *
LACHLAN
My cock surged at the sight of her tears, but I forced myself to attend to her instead of taking advantage of the silky, wet promise of her exposed core.
Aftercare wasn’t a Master-approved activity, but I had a better idea that would make both of us happy and give her even more protection from Ronan.
Leaving her sprawled on the bed, I went into the restroom and dampened a cloth with cold water. She hissed out a protest, but didn’t move when I laid the cold compress on her ass.
“For the next thirty minutes, we’re going to discuss what I want to happen. You may move and speak freely during that time, after which you will rest until we land.”
She quirked a brow at me, then positioned herself on her side facing me. “Well, the dragon tail hurt like a bitch, so you’ll be happy about that, but I’m still not convinced it will leave marks like we want Ronan to see.”
“Seeing you control yourself through the pain so well was hot as fuck.” I sat next to her and repositioned her body until her head was in my lap, then stroked her side, enjoying the feel of her silky skin. “I do like giving you pain, but only because I suspect you enjoy it.”
“Not going there, asshole.”
“Are you sure?” I eased my hand between her legs and lifted it to reveal wetness on my fingertips. Under her irritable gaze, I licked her juices away and smirked when she rolled her eyes. “This is what I really like, and I would never yuck your yum.”
“Still not going there.” She tried to sit up, but I held her still until she gave up and whispered a soft curse. “But fine. What’s your brilliant idea?”
“I need to know something first.”
“Okay, shoot.”
I resisted the urge to laugh at her word choice. “Do you know if Ronan saw you before we got married the first time?”
“Probably, but I tried to make myself scarce whenever he came around.” She grimaced, then added, “I liked my body, but I think I got fat in the hope he would lose interest.”
“I miss all of those luscious curves,” I murmured. “So succulent and soft, and perfect.”
Blushing, she sat up and moved to sit next to me. “Thanks, I think, but if I’m going to keep squeezing my ass through the air duct on my obstacle course, it’s going to be Ella’s version of the Keto diet from hell and four hours of personal training a day until I retire.”
“A terrible loss,” I murmured as I curled my arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “From what I remember, and what we saw in the video Ella showed us, he likes to have things no one else does.”
“You think he would have wanted me, regardless of my appearance, just because my father told him no?”
“Possibly.” I shrugged, then added, “I haven’t seen him in years, but it fits what I remember of his personality.”
“Excuse me.” She scrambled from the bed and dug into her suitcase for a laptop. “I might have some evidence to corroborate that.”
She scanned through a directory of files, then opened a photo with typed notes at the bottom of the image.
“These girls are twins and were stolen from a market in Pyongyang when they were fifteen. Between the statistically low incidence of twins in Asian populations, and the fact that he had to go into North Korea to get them?—”
“You think I’m right.”
“For slavers, those girls are priceless, so pretty sure you are.” She closed her laptop and set it aside. “Where are you going with this?”
I took her hand and kissed her fingertips, making her bite back a gasp. “I have something just as unique, and just as priceless as those North Korean girls.”
Laughing, she shook her head. “Damn, that’s cheesy as fuck.”
“You’ll be my odalisque.” I pinched her chin, forcing her to look at me.
“Trained, fed, and groomed to my specifications to be my perfect companion. No marks shall ever mar your stunning body because I refuse to have my view spoiled. No one touches what belongs to me, and you will be dressed so that everyone will wish they could see you.”
She blinked and her eyes dilated. As if shaking off her arousal, she pulled away and straightened. “Congratulations. You passed Master 101. Do you think Ronan will go for it?”
“You will be the one thing he cannot have,” I murmured. “Not for any price. He won’t be able to resist the challenge I’ll present, but it will require one tiny thing from you.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
“You have to pretend you love me enough to die for me.”
It seemed only fair, since I loved her enough to sacrifice myself for her safety. Unfortunately, she wouldn’t believe me if I told her that.
She burst out laughing, then got up to get clean clothes from her suitcase. After hurriedly dressing in black leggings and a T-shirt which read, “My favorite season is the fall of the patriarchy,” she said, “I don’t wish you dead anymore, but that’s pushing it, Lachlan.”
I tugged her hand, encouraging her to sit next to me once more. “Think about it. After I tell Ronan that you killed a man to save my life, and are now my devoted bodyguard with benefits, he’ll be foaming at the mouth to get you alone.”
“And then I can get stabby, and…” To my shock, she threw her arms around me and kissed my cheek. “Best idea ever.”
For a split second, she was the joyous twenty-two-year-old woman she should have been allowed to be, but too soon, her brown eyes went flat and cold.
“Ronan is already dead. He just doesn’t know it yet.”