Page 36

Slowly, he runs his hand up the back of my neck until his fingers sink into my hair. Fisting it at the roots, he pulls me back so I’m looking up at him, but upside down.

His cheek presses against mine. The masculine scent of him wraps around me. He’s just come out of the shower, but he’s all leather and testosterone.

“See. You can be a good girl. Now push those boxers off and kick them away. Bad girls get the belt on a bare ass.” He keeps his hand in my hair, but lifts off of me, moving to the side.

Reaching down, I shove the elastic of the boxers over my hips, popping the safety pin off. With his hand still stuffed in my hair, it makes it hard to push the material past my knees,so I have to wiggle my legs until they fall to my ankles and I’m able to kick them away.

“Good.” Rurik lays the belt over the small of my back and rests his bear claw of a hand on my ass.

Electricity zips up my body with his touch. I really need to get it together. This man is about to spank me like some errant child who didn’t eat her vegetables. This isn’t the time for my body to act like he’s stroking my innermost desires.

“You were a bad girl, yes?” His accent, which is usually too light to notice much, thickens with his question.

Assuming he’s asking a rhetorical question, I remain silent. He responds by smacking my ass hard with his hand, jolting me forward half an inch.

“Yes!” I blurt out, and he goes back to rubbing away the heat, his hand spread.

“How were you bad; tell me.” He continues the circular motion, like he’s warming up the skin to be able to take whatever horrible thing he’s got in store for me.

My face ignites. It was better last time, when he just went all Neanderthal and spanked me. This time he expects participation.

“I didn’t stay in the car when you told me to.” I had good reason but adding that will only make things worse.

“And because you didn’t?” He pats my ass, each one getting a little firmer than the one before it.

“You had to kill that guy.” I clench my eyes, wanting the memory of it to vanish.

Nothing beats the horror of watching Nico be killed, but that came too damn close. And the fact that I’ve witnessedtwo murders should be a sign I need to reevaluate my life decisions.

“No.” He smacks my ass hard.

And then again.

And again.

Pain builds until I’m wiggling beneath the smacks. He hasn’t even picked up the belt yet, and it’s almost too much to bear.

“Because you didn’t listen, you put yourself in danger,” he says after another dozen or more smacks and is back to rubbing.

“That’s why you’re mad?” I ask, a little shocked.

The belt jangles as he picks it up, dragging the leather across my already tender ass.

“You need to learn to obey. I can’t keep you safe if you don’t.”

Before I can argue, or question, or even understand what he’s saying, the belt crashes across my ass cheeks, sending a shot of white-hot pain straight through my body.

I arch my back in response to the sharpness, but it doesn’t stop him. He still has me by the hair, holding me steady while he delivers another blow, and another.

No matter how I wiggle, he makes contact with my ass each time. Each stroke of the leather bites into my skin like a hundred hornets.

“Okay! Okay!” I try to swing back to block my ass from being split in half, but he just moves his aim to the top of my thighs.

It’s worse.

So much worse.

I pull my hand back and use it to slap at the couch cushion.