Page 39

“That was just the warmup, little girl,” he warned.

Oh.

Fuck.

CHAPTER 13

Nikolai

She was still trembling.

Bent over the marble, cheek pressed against the cool countertop, breath coming in soft, ragged gasps. Every little broken sound and breathless moan, each one more intoxicating than the last, made my dick throb.

I hadn’t meant for it to go this far, but the moment she stopped fighting—not out of weakness, but because something in hergave way—I knew she needed this.

Not just the spanking. Not just the punishment. She needed to be stripped of the armor she wore like a second skin—all sass and deflection and glittering control—and taught what it felt like to surrender.

And, God, did she.

She gave me her defiance at first. Every lie, every sharp little jab, every twist of her mouth meant to provoke me.

And then?

She gave me everything else.

Her breath. Her body. Hersounds.

Those fucking sounds…

I didn’t want to ever stop hearing them.

The little whimper when my fingers traced the heated skin I’d marked. The way her voice caught when I warned her what bad girls get. And when she tipped over the edge—unrestrained, vulnerable, and perfect—it undid something in me. Now, with her body still quivering beneath my hands, I didn’t feel smug. I felt something deeper. Darker. Possessive.

Maybe even enchanted.

Her skin was flushed, lashes still wet, mouth parted like she’d forgotten how to speak. I knew—without question—she had never given herself to anyone like this before. Not really.

She wouldn’t admit it, probably not ever. She would fight again tomorrow, or maybe even in ten minutes.

Right now, though, she was mine and I wasn’t letting her go.

I traced my fingers gently over her spine, soothing her, grounding her. Maybe it wasmewho needed grounding, though, because she just unraveled for me in a way that felt final. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to see her again and not wantthis. Her, laid out. Open. Humming with the memory of my hands. Of my discipline. Of a releaseIforced from her beautiful body.

I pressed a kiss to the back of her shoulder, tender and soft.

“Now that you’ve caught your breath, naughty girl, it’s time I finished the punishment I came here to give you.”

She gasped, but she didn’t fight.

I took my fingers and twirled them in the folds of her pussy, thoroughly coating them in her arousal. She was slick and hot, and she quivered as the pads of my fingers glanced against her clit.

I pulled away and her hips pushed back toward me, seeking me out, wanting me to continue.

“Soaked and needy,” I chided. “A little discipline andthis bare little pussy is dripping wet for me.”

“It’s not,” she argued, her voice thick with the reluctant arousal that she was desperately trying to hide.

I grabbed her hip and pulled her back, my fingers still slippery, and she let out a soft moan when I glided the tips inside of her.I pulled them back out and gripped the back of her head by her hair with my other hand before I pulled her up from the counter. She gasped in pained arousal, and I turned her head to face me before I forced my wet fingers in between her lips.