Page 82 of Survival

“I just don’t want to forget myself,” I whispered, fightingback tears. “Please ... you’ve already taken away so much. Please,don’t take this from me, too.”

He was silent fora long time, his big chest rising up and down as he considered mywords. I felt my fingers grip his t-shirt as I hoped like hell hewould find it in his heart to let me have something. Just one thingof myself that I could keep.

“I have a feeling if I say no,” he began, “that you’ll turninto a depressed little mouse and I simply can’t have that. I enjoyyour fire far too much.”

“Is that a yes?” I peaked inexcitement.

“It’s a conditional yes,” he said. "If you want to continuetraining, I expect a huge improvement in your behavior. Is thatclear?”

“Thank you, Darren. I promise you won't regretit.”

Actually, hewould. Eventually.

“You are still not allowed in my training room. That has not,nor will it ever, change.”

“Okay.” I nodded against him.

“You realize I’m still going to punish you for breaking thatnail, though, right?”

A heavy breath ofdepression escaped my lungs as I sankintomyself. “Do you really have to?” Iwhined.

“Yes,” he said seriously. “Because now I have to schedulethose Russians to come back and fix what you broke much earlierthan they're supposed to.”

“Honestly, you should just let me do my own nails. Contrary topopular belief, I’m not completely helpless when it comes tomanicures, you know.”

“Really?” he said amused. “And here I thought you didn’t havea single girly bone in your body.”

“Yeah, well, my mom saw to that.”

“Well, that’s a relief.”

We laid there fora little while longer before I started to get hungry again, and Iheard Darren's stomach rumble with mine.

“All right, come on. Let’s head back,” he said getting up andhelping me out of the hammock. “But first,” he said pointing at alarge tree. “Bend over and put your hands on thetree.”

My heartthumpedinmy throat as Ilooked back at him and then the tree, confused and scared as Iwatch him pull his belt from the loops of hisjeans.

“Oh, God, Darren, please no. My ass can’ttakeanymore,” Ipleaded, backing away as I glared at the belt in his hand. Icouldn’t take any more contact against my ass. I could barely sitas it was.

“You should have thought of that before you broke more of myrules,” he stated calmly.

“But it was an accident!” I pleaded further, sounding sopathetic.

“One more word and your five will turn into ten. Now, move.”He pointed at the tree.

I almost startedto cry. This was fucking humiliating and my stomach boiled withfear and rage as I bent over and hugged the tree as if my lifedepended on it.

Darren came overto me and pulled my dress up, exposing my bare ass, and grazed hispalms over my already bruised skin. “I don’t need to tell you tocount because it should be routine for younow.”

And then he foldedhis belt and smacked it hardonmy ass. I gasped out loud as the pain searedintomy tender flesh. There was no fucking wayI would be sitting down well into next week.

“One,” I gasped.

But instead ofanother smack, he massaged the globes of my ass first beforedelivering another slice through the air and landing on my othercheek. I felt my legs buckle and I held on to the stupid tree evenharder.

“Two.”

Anothermassageandthen another strike, thistimelanding on the top of my ass. Themassagingdidn’t evenhelp that much, just redistributed the heat through myfucked-upskin. My asswas burning all over again.