Page 31 of Forbidden Sins

The hair stands on the back of my neck as I’m dragged up to the post, and I fight the urge to sneeze.

The air is thick with dust motes, the tickling of it against my nose almost as torturous as whatever pain Antony might have in store for me.

The entire space is creepy as fuck, as the other two men light up battery-powered lanterns that cast long shadows through the space.

It feels like the kind of place you’d drag someone off to in order to torture them, which is no real consolation for me.

Hanging on one wall, I can see chains, whips, and a variety of implements that I don’t really want to think about the purpose of.

I lick my bloodied lip as one of the men gets a length of chain and starts to bind me to the post, dragging my hands up above my head as the other one starts to cut my shirt off.

“If you want me to strip, you just have to ask me politely, gentlemen,” I manage to quip as a hunting knife scores through my shirt. “Maybe offer me a drink first?—”

The man cutting through my shirt backhands me again, hard, though not quite with the same force as the first. “Shut the fuck up,” he growls, stripping the ragged fabric away until I’m bare from the waist up. “Are we taking the rest off?”

The other man, the one locking the chains above my head, shrugs. “Guess it depends on if the boss wants him to die with his balls attached or without ‘em.”

Shit . I hadn’t really considered that. When I imagined dying over all of this, it was a quick bullet to the head.

A clean, dignified way to die for love. My cock, which had been more than interested in everything that’s came before this, shrivels against my balls as I consider what might come next.

And I still come to the same conclusion—that except for the fact that it means leaving Estella without protection, it was all fucking worth it.

I’d suffer anything if it meant getting to touch her again. I just don’t want her to suffer, too.

“Take the rest off.” Antony’s voice cuts through the barn, and the men both shrug.

“Well, there’s your answer,” one of them mutters. “Sure thing, boss,” he says, louder, and the two men start to strip me from the waist down, until I’m naked against the post. A wind blows through the barn, chillier than it should be for summer, and I clench my jaw to keep from shivering.

Antony moves to stand in my line of sight, his gaze sweeping over me dispassionately as he slides his suit jacket off.

He hands it to one of the men, who lays it carefully over a stall door as Antony rolls up the sleeves of his crisp, dark red button-down.

“I didn’t choose the color expecting to spill blood tonight,” he says, seeing my gaze flick to his shirt. “But providence, I suppose.”

He looks me over once more. “I wondered what my daughter saw in you. Superficial attraction, perhaps. She’s young and innocent.

I didn’t think you would be a temptation to her, but it seems that you’ve sullied her.

” Antony’s jaw clenches. “Infected her pure, innocent mind with your filthy desires.” He nods to the two men.

“Get his wrists higher,” he orders. “Make sure he feels it.”

I’m not sure what he means until a moment later, when one of the men tugs at the chain connected to my wrists.

Something slides upward, and I feel my body stretched to follow it, until my feet are barely touching the stable floor.

My body weight pulls uncomfortably at my shoulders, and I can tell that before very long, this is going to hurt badly.

Antony walks to the other wall, perusing the items there for a moment before selecting a thick leather strap. He folds it slowly, looking at me before turning his gaze to the three men. “Guard the doors,” he says calmly. “If anyone comes up here, don’t allow them in.”

They nod, two retreating to one side and one to the other. Antony approaches me, his expression contemplative. He circles me, slowly, slapping the leather against his palm as he does.

“You know,” he begins, as if we’re having a conversation over drinks, rather than my being trussed up naked in his stable.

“I liked you when we first met, Sebastian. I thought you were trustworthy. Loyal. Efficient. You had the look of a man who does what it takes to get the job done. I thought I needed a man like that to look out for my daughter. I thought you had all the qualities that I value in one of my men.”

He slaps the leather against his hand again, circling to stand in front of me.

“I even considered your future, if Estella’s husband-to-be wanted to choose a different bodyguard for her.

I considered moving you up, giving you a promotion.

Brick’s second, maybe, to take over for him when he retires.

Something better, even, if you continued to prove yourself. ”

He circles again, and I grit my teeth. The anticipation of what might happen is becoming worse than the pain itself—although not having felt the pain yet, I consider that it’s possible I could be wrong about that.

“And then—” Antony stops, facing me once more. “Then you betrayed me, Sebastian, in an unthinkable fashion.” His voice hardens, each word like a chip of ice as he speaks. “You thought that because you protected my daughter, that made her yours in some way. But you couldn’t have been more wrong.”

His wrist flicks out, and I don’t know where the leather is going to land until it strikes directly between my legs.

Blinding pain shoots through my body, spreading through every part of me, and I think I hear a tooth crack when I bite down to avoid screaming.

Another strike, the leather connecting with my balls and the soft, vulnerable flesh of my cock for a second time, and this time I howl with pain. I can’t fucking help it.

“My daughter is not for you,” Antony snarls. “She is a Gallo . An innocent, virginal bride for a man that I choose, a man worthy of ascending to the position that I now hold. Not her fucking security detail!”

He lashes me again, this time across my abdomen. My stomach muscles flex, and I groan as the crack of leather fills the air, pain blooming through my body.

“She’s twenty-one,” Antony snarls, striking me again in the chest. “Too young to know her own mind, so you made it up for her. You sullied her. Damaged her. Who knows what would have fucking happened if I hadn’t shown up?—”

I smile at him, a rictus of pain on my face. “One of those blood-sucking billionaires you have lined up to marry her wouldn’t have been her first, I can tell you that.”

The satisfaction of the look on his face is followed by a blow to my balls so hard that I’m unsure if I’ll ever have the use of them again—not that it probably matters. I’m not going to live past tonight.

“I trusted you,” Antony hisses, lashing out at me again, the leather cutting across my side. “And you used that trust to seduce my innocent daughter.”

Another strike, and another, cutting into my flesh, muscles flexing to absorb the blows as Antony whips my chest and side and abs, down to my thighs and up again in hard, merciless strikes.

I’m panting by the time he pauses, both of us drenched in sweat, and I meet his eyes, my jaw clenched against the pain.

All I am is pain, now. It’s all I can remember, and it’s only been a few minutes.

“She chose me,” I gasp, never breaking eye contact for a second. “I didn’t… seduce her. She chose me.”

Antony’s gaze hardens. The blows come faster, one after another, raining down until I can feel blood trickling from a dozen wounds or more.

My vision narrows, and it’s a struggle to remain conscious.

I consider, as another blow falls, whether or not I should simply give in—let myself slip away into blissful darkness.

But I’ll never wake up again, if I do. I want to look Antony in the eye when he kills me, and that alone keeps me from letting go.

Antony’s voice cuts through the daze, and I open my eyes, focusing on him. “I should kill you,” he bites out viciously. “I should take off pieces of you until you bleed out on this fucking floor. But do you know what I think is worse?”

I swallow hard, trying to find a retort, but nothing comes. I just look at him, refusing to pass out. Refusing to give in.

“I think sending you back to her side is worse,” he hisses, leaning in. “I think making you watch while she chooses another man, marries another man, wakes up the next morning after fucking another man, is worse. So listen carefully, Sebastian, because I’m only going to say this once.”

He leans up, grabbing my jaw with one hand.

“You will never touch her again,” he growls.

“You will never look at her in any way that isn’t the respectful fucking way you should look at your boss’s daughter.

And if you do, if you so much as breathe in a way that I find offensive, I will drag you back out here, cut off a piece of you, beat you to a pulp, and send you back to her again. Do you understand me?”

I suck in a breath, but I can’t seem to find the words to respond. Antony strikes again, the leather hitting me across the kidneys in a way that makes my vision blur and my body sag, my weight dragging on my shoulders.

“I asked if you fucking understood me!”

“Yes,” I manage to rasp, my voice hoarse and croaking. Antony strikes me again.

“Yes, what ?”

“Yes, sir,” I manage, and he steps back, surveying me for a long moment before motioning to the guards.

“Beat him until he’s unconscious,” Antony orders. “Then bring him back up to his room and leave him there.”

“Yes, sir,” they respond, quickly, and Antony grabs his jacket, giving me one more long look.

“Don’t forget what I told you, boy,” he growls before pivoting on his heel and striding from the stable. The three men circle me as the door closes behind him, and when the first punch strikes my ribs, I know it’s not going to be long before I pass out.

When the darkness comes, this time, I give in.

And it’s fucking blissful.