Page 122 of Caught in the Crossfire

I held up a hand, and she stopped. “Strip.”

Her eyes glinted, and her jaw clenched.

“Now, Leona.”

“Is this humiliation?”

My voice softened. “No,ifunanya’m.”

“Then…”

Not for the first time, being around Leona made complicated and difficult emotions surge within me. I couldn’t explain; I could barelythink. I only knew that she had been exposed, and it triggered this desperate need. My heart raced, and my fingers flexed.

I took a breath, trying to slow myself down. “Before we do this, we will have boundaries. You will understand what’s happening. Then you will agree, and we will continue, or you won’t, and this will stop.”

Her blush trailed all the way down her neck to disappear under her shirt, but her gaze locked on mine. “Okay.”

“I’m going to spank you.”

Her eyes widened. “Spank me?”

“Ten times,” I continued. “While you think about your behavior tonight.”

“What behavior?” Her chin lifted in defiance again. It sparked thatneedinside me. “I did nothing wrong.”

She knew exactly what she had done wrong. “You have earned this punishment for two reasons.”

“Which are?”

“One, you lost control over yourself with our enemy. You lashed out at Volpe multiple times, giving him the emotional upper hand. We may have left with a deal that benefited us, but you were distracted. Reckless.”

“So this is about Max?” she countered.

“No, that is precisely my point. You need to face the consequences of yourownactions. It has nothing to do with him, and everything to do with your lack of control. Queens cultivate control. Over themselves and others. You belong to us. You are ours. I will remind you of that.”

“And the second reason?”

“You put yourself in a vulnerable position and exposed yourself to risk. It doesn’t matter if you fucked Caspian, or any of us, it is unacceptable. If Volpe would have seen or heard you?—”

Ryu grunted. “I’d fucking kill him.”

I would have fucking killed him.

“Poor choices result in poor consequences.”

She regarded me cooly for a moment before she pulled her shirt over her head. My eyes trailed over her black lacy bra, and my heartbeat pulsed in my neck. I shifted forward on the couch, feeling my erection bite into the seam of my trousers.

“You seem like the one lacking control,” she shot back.

“Yes,” I whispered. She was entirely right. I was fraying at the edges, strung out like an addict denied a fix. “I’m calling this a punishment, but it’s for you, and it’s for me. We both need this.”

After a moment of quiet, her thumbs looped into her waistband, and she slowly, torturously, dragged down her pants before she stepped out of them. Then she exhaled through her nose. “Fine.”

“There will be rules.”

“Okay.”

“Ten times, Leona. You cannot move, you cannot touch me. If you wish to stop, say you want to stop. Do you agree?”