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“You can beg all you want.” His finger slid through my wetness, dragging it to my clit, and I groaned. “I’m not giving you more until you tell me why pain does this to you.”

“It’s not just the pain. It’s…” I clenched my teeth, despising myself for being so weak as I moved against his finger. “It’s the loss of control. It’s knowing you’ll take care of me, even if it’s all on your terms. The pain…is a painkiller.”

Inserting a finger inside me, he brushed his lips at the small of my back, and his need for me puffed out in hot breaths that moistened my skin. He slipped another finger in, eliciting a moan, and increased the tempo. My hips bucked recklessly, my cries escalating with each forceful plunder. I arched my back, on the verge of convulsing around his fingers.

Abruptly, he stepped back, and the cruel bite of his belt stole my breath. I gasped, air suspended in my lungs, legs trembling. I closed my thighs again, and he blasted the leather even harder on my ass.

“Wide open, sweetheart.”

The endearment hit the most vulnerable part of my being, and I cried out something unintelligible. Holy hell, I was burning.

“More?” he asked, his voice a low growl.

“More,” I groaned.

Crack!

I wailed louder with each lashing, and something inside me finally broke free. He hit me until my eyes willingly bled the pain from my soul, until I could breathe again without the pressure crushing my heart.

“That’s it, baby. Just let it out.”

He placed the belt on the bed then gathered my wrists in his huge hand. He caged me with his body, his chest rubbing my skin, the heat of his thighs irritating my stinging ass. He wound my hair around a fist and tilted my face toward his. And he just kissed me. Long and slow, with the kind of patience I didn’t share because the throb between my legs was the most unbearable type of pain possible.

“I need you,” I said.

He jerked my head back, pulling tight on my scalp. “Every time you self-destruct, I’m gonna make you ache here.” He let go of my hair and slid his hand between my thighs to cup me. “I’ll make damn sure you hurt here until you’re out of your fucking mind.”

“Please…”

“You willneverpull the bullshit you just did again, do you understand me?”

All I could manage was a whimper.

“I expect an answer.”

“Yes.”

He kissed me again, his moan of desire lost on our tongues. “You have no idea how badly I want to fuck you right now.” He let go of my wrists and stood back. “Turn over.”

I flopped to my back, a pulse of excitement zapping straight to my core.

“Remember this, Alex. When you punish yourself, you punish me too. I want inside you so fucking much right now, but it’s not happening.” His words washed over me like a tidal wave of disappointment I should have seen coming.

“Why?”

His gaze fell to the bandage hiding the ugliness on my abdomen, and my skin blazed with renewed shame. “Spread your legs.”

I parted my thighs, my breath catching, and sensed him reeling me in.

Her legs parted before my eyes like an unwrapped present. She was in the perfect position; round ass, still red from my belt, practically kissing the edge of the mattress, and her thighs unabashedly spread wide, pussy glistening in tempting beauty. She sprawled there—opening her heart, body, soul—with her hair fanning her face in a sea of dark curls. I dropped to my knees and lapped up her juices, sucked her swollen clit into my mouth, prepared to lick her until she moaned like a slut.

She panted, holding it in, but I wasn’t about to let her. She was going to wail my name, writhe against my tongue, and beg until she couldn’t beg anymore.

Fucking hell, I was lost.

I dipped my fingers inside her and flicked my tongue over her clit in a way I knew would drive her mad. She bucked, ass rising several inches off the bed, and I smiled against her cunt. She let out a shrieking plea, but I rose to my feet before she had the chance to tip over the edge. Leaning over her, I grabbed my belt, thighs pressing into the mattress, and the heat of her skin seared through me. I stared into her eyes—two green orbs that held so much trust—and my hands trembled.

“You know I’d never hurt you, right?”