Page 83 of Kneeling for Them

“You can go without.”I can’t help my smirk.

Sebastian

We hurry Ella into my penthouse.I can’t help but remember the last time she was here, when Trina had surprised us both.

Now, there’s another surprise—a black cat that darts straight at her.

“I didn’t know you had a cat,” she exclaims, bending over to scratch Schrödinger behind his ears.

“I didn’t,” I say.“This is who I brought back with me from Mirarosa.”

“Does he have a name?”she asks.

“I’ve been calling him Schrödinger.”

He rubs against her legs, purring like a fucking motor.

Of course he’s going to prefer her to me.I don’t even mind when she bends down, scoops him up, and he settles immediately against her shoulder, because the smile she sends me is so brilliant and happy, it makes everything brighter.

“That’s a terrible name,” Ella says, laughing.“I kind of love it.”

King clears his throat.“Bedroom, baby girl.Now.”

She sends him a look of trepidation and then looks at me.“Where’s the bedroom?”

I point toward the hall.

She starts walking slowly, likely taunting Kingston on purpose.With a growl, he lifts her over his shoulder so her head dangles on one side of him, her legs on the other.“Daddy!”she yelps.“No!”

He just chuckles and slaps her ass.

I walk ahead of them and hold the door open, closing it before the cat can follow us in.Schrödinger doesn’t get to come into the bedroom.I can only imagine the way he’d consider a flogger his personal toy.His paper fetish is bad enough.

Kingston dumps Ella on the bed and says, “Take off your clothes.”

While she stands up and strips, I pull two floggers from my dresser, both of them with thin leather tails.They’ll sting after a while, but they won’t abrade Ella’s skin too much.I don’t want to hurt her bad for what I am sure is her first time with a flogger.I hand one to King and keep the other.

“Is it going to hurt a lot?”Ella asks in a soft voice.

Kingston tucks the flogger under his arm and takes her face in his hands.Staring into her eyes, he says, “I want you to know, little one, that you aren’t getting punished for what that asshole did.”

“I know,” she says quietly.

“Tell me why I’m holding this flogger, then.”

“Because I should’ve told you what had happened to me.”

I walk around her, touching her shoulders, the nape of her neck, the delicate shell of her ear.I missed this girl so fucking much, I can’t stand it.And the fact she was in danger, while I was out of town and not responding to her texts?It guts me.

“Tell us in detail what happened to you, if you’re ready,” I say.

She takes a deep breath.“It happened really fast.He grabbed me, took me into a dark alley.Pushed me against the wall and…I think he wanted to rape me.He covered my mouth so I couldn’t scream.I—I stomped on his foot, pushed him away, kicked him in the balls.Then I ran for the street.Rick came out of the Kitty Cat.He called the police, but I didn’t want to file a report.I didn’t get a good look at the guy, anyway.So Rick called a ride for me.And I could have called Kingston, but I didn’t want you to change your plans to go to the coast in the morning.”Her eyes fill with tears.“I missed Sebastian.”

Now I feel like absolute hell.

Kingston drops the flogger and it thuds to the floor.“Bedtime.No punishments for you tonight, baby girl.”

She shakes her head.“But I want this.You can’t just tease me with those floggers and then not give it to me.”