He released her, but straightened out of her reach. Gripping her upper arms, he sat her up on the bed.
She looked at him, confused. “What’s wrong?”
Rather than answering, he opened his bedside stand and withdrew a…a mini-flogger with seven inch falls.
Oh no. Sure, the tiny flogger looked all innocuous, but it didn’t feel so innocent on tender bits…like a pussy.
“What’s that for? Am I being punished?” she protested.
“Before everything can flow smoothly, we have some clearing away to do—think of it like a blockage in a riverbed.” He handed her the flogger and rolled his right sleeve up past his elbow before holding his arm toward her, forearm bared.
“What are you doing?” She pulled back.
“Since I’m not going to let you anywhere near my cock with a flogger, I want you to hit my arm. You will continue until you’ve given me a nice set of welts.”
Her heart dropped right into her stomach, and not in a good way. “No.” No, no, no. “M-Master, I can’t.”
“You can and will. Hopefully, next time, I’ll hear the words you aren’t saying. Or you will trust me enough to say them. I failed you as your Master,” he said gravely.
“You didn’t,” she whispered.
In answer, he tapped his forearm. “Now, please.”
Her first attempt barely stroked his skin and earned her an unyielding look.
Her second wasn’t much better.
His lips curved slightly. “We’ll continue this all night, if need be, pet.”
The sense of his strength wrapping around her made her eyes fill. “I love you, Master.”
“I know, kitten.” He glanced at his arm and lifted his eyebrows.
She hit him. At the cruel sound of the strands slapping skin, she cringed.
“Harder.”
So to get it over, she did three more as forcefully as she could.
“More—just like that.”
By the time she’d struck him another three times, she was crying.
“Go on.”
Her eyes were blinded by tears, but nothing could shut out the slap of the strands against skin.
Finally, finally, he caught her wrist and tugged the flogger from her hand. His strong arms enfolded her as he pulled her to his rock-hard chest.
She turned into him, burying her face against his shoulder, crying so violently she almost couldn’t breathe. She’d hit him; hurt him.
“All done. You did well, little one.” He was wrapped around her, his cheek on her head, rocking her gently. Making her world right again.
Never, never make me do that again. And yet, even as she soaked his shirt with her tears, she realized her anger at how he’d listened to the doctor instead of her had dissolved.
Slowly, her crying eased into shuddering breaths.
He kissed the top of her head and straightened. But when he finger combed her hair out of her wet face, she saw the horrible red welts running up his forearm and started to cry again.
“Poor pet.” He pulled her back into his arms. After a minute, she noticed he was laughing…and fondling her breast.
She pushed him back. “Z!”
An eyebrow rose—unaccompanied by a smile.
She sputtered. “I mean, “Master, you-you—”
“That does sound nice. I think I’ll forego gagging you, so you may beg me freely.”
“Beg? For what?”
“For mercy. It’s your turn to be punished, kitten.”
Oh God, he was fully in Dom-space. Under his gray gaze, a dark desire seeped into her blood, and her nipples spiked into throbbing peaks.
His hands were merciless as he flattened her on her back and secured her wrists to the headboard. He positioned a cushion under her hips and bound her knees widely apart, using the mid-bed straps. Close to the end of the bed, her pussy was tilted up…and open. Air touched her folds, emphasizing how damp she was.
As if to point that out, he bent and circled a finger around her entrance and over her clit, which still hummed from her orgasm.
“Nice and aroused. Unfortunately, being wet will make your punishment worse, I’m afraid,” he said in a serious tone.
“Punishment—there?” Using that damn flogger? “You wouldn’t.”
The set of his jaw said her protests would be ignored. He picked up the short leather flogger. “Jessica, look at me.” The caress in his deeply resonant voice overlaid a steely edge.
Her gaze lifted to his.
“I love you, my spitfire. I love you enough to give you the sex you want—and the control you need.”
And with that, he flicked the strands hard over the inside of her left leg and the right.