Page 41 of Ceremony of Lust
She hits the water again in frustration and grunts. “Fine! I want to buy some new . . . underwear.” I chuckle, which causes her to splash me. “I don’t feel like a woman in plain cotton.”
“Then you should let me do the shopping,” I suggest with a waggle of my brows, which only earns me an annoyed grunt.
“Have you ever been to another country?” she asks, changing the subject.
“Yes,” I tell her matter-of-factly. “My parents took us to Europe once. Right before I turned eighteen.”
“How come you can see the world, and I must stay locked away in Ripley?”
My hand brushes against her cheek. “I will gladly show you the world, Yael. When the time is right.”
What I can’t tell her is once I’m free of the Elders, once my debt is truly paid and I’m no longer at their beck and call, we will have so much freedom. The penthouse is the safest place, the only place they cannot touch her. I imagine the longer I keep her in this gilded cage, the more she’ll push back and fight me.
“And when will that be?” she asks with a purposeful flutter of her lashes.
“When I tell you.” I press my finger down onto her lip, and she playfully nips it. “How do you feel?”
“Fine. A little sore.”
I stand, letting the water drip down my body, and Yael’s eyes travel upward. One day soon, I will teach her to please me. Her mouth will be trained to accept all of me, and I’ll claim every forbidden spot of her body.
She opens her mouth, and I can tell she has a hundred questions on the tip of her tongue. Finally, she asks, “Was it okay?”
“For your first time, it went perfectly,” I assure her. “Time to get out.”
I reach toward her and help her to her feet, making sure she doesn’t slip against the slick surface of the tub. I step out first, then grab a towel and hold it out for her. When she gets out, I wrap it and my arms around her, placing a soft kiss on her temple.
“I’m sorry, but I have to catch up on work. I wasn’t expecting to be gone for three days, and I have a company to run. Do you think you can entertain yourself for a little while?”
She opens her mouth to yawn and then smiles sweetly. “Of course I can.”
Yael follows me into the bedroom, and I pull on a T-shirt and a pair of jeans. Her suitcases are still in the trunk of my car, but it doesn’t matter. She helps herself to a T-shirt from one of my drawers. It’s much too big and hangs well below her ass, but she looks beautiful.
“I’ll try not to be too long,” I tell her before heading to my office.
It takes me a few hard hours of responding to emails, sending out invoices, and tracking down information for clients before I can call it a day. When I check in on Yael, she’s curled up on the bed, the duvet pulled to her chin and her dark hair spread out over the pillow like melted chocolate.
While I was away, I pressed the Elders for a timeline. What would I have to do to finally have my debt to them repaid? They responded with a monumental task. Most people would listen to their final request and give up but not me. She’s the reason I’ll do whatever it takes to finally break the ties binding me to them.
I pull my cell phone from my pocket and type out a message:MARRIAGE CONSUMMATED.
The reply is almost instant:PROOF?
I run a hand through my hair. Proof? What the fuck? I spot the faintest trickle of blood on the duvet and snap a picture, sending it off with a reply:THERE’S YOUR PROOF.
Now that my marriage is officially legitimized by the powers that be, I can focus on other things. Like making sure my wife experiences more than one orgasm at a time and teaching her pretty little mouth to say absolutely filthy words.
23
Yael
The next morning,Zev’s side of the bed is empty, and at first, I panic, thinking he left again. But then I smell coffee and bacon and flop back against the bed, knowing I’m not alone.
A few minutes later, the bedroom door opens wide, and my husband appears, wearing nothing but a smile as he carries a tray of food.
“Breakfast in bed,” I ask with a raise of my brows.
“I have a lot to make up for,” he says, settling the tray on the bed before crawling in beside me.