Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77998 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77998 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
I sigh. “You must not do something so dangerous again,” I say. “If you do, you could—”
But the next second, the boy is torn from my grasp and shoved into Salvatore’s guard’s arms. “Take him away. Put him to bed. I’ll deal with him tomorrow.” The slash of his scowl and dangerous eyes turn on me. “I’ll deal with you now.”
Well that went well.
My cheeks flame with embarrassment as he drags me back to our room. The door slams. We don’t say a word. I open my mouth to protest, but he tosses a palm into the air to stop me.
Okay, so, he needs a minute. Whatever.
“Robe. Off.” He spits the words out as if they’re poison. “Strip.”
No way.
“You want sex now? No!” I’m so angry at him, I reach out to shove him, but he quickly grasps my wrists and twists my arms back. It doesn’t hurt, but I can’t get out of his grip either. I growl in frustration, so angry I could spit. I don’t care if he punishes me. I don’t care if he retaliates. He doesn’t get to belittle me like that and then get all heavy-handed with me.
“Fine, then,” he grates. “Have it your way.”
Overpowering me is laughably easy for him. All he has to do is hold me in one of his arms that are as big as tree trunks and restrain me while he yanks the robe’s belt with the other. I push and shove and protest, but it’s useless. The robe falls to the floor like discarded wrapping paper, and there’s nothing now that keeps me from him but the tee. I hardly process what’s going on until I find myself over his lap, my legs restrained under one of his, my hands pinned to the small of my back.
“If you ever fucking saunter around like this in front of my men again, I will chain you to my bed naked for a fucking week,” he snarls before his palm slams against my ass in the hardest spank he’s ever given me. My legs flail and my back arches. It hurts so much I’m in shock, my mouth open in a frozen scream while he strikes me again. “You will dress in clothes.” He punctuates every word with another hard spank. “You will never walk around half naked.” Another searing spank followed by another, and another. The tee covers my ass but does nothing to shield me from the pain of his palm.
“Am. I. Clear?” Every word underscored by another hard spank.
“Yeeesss,” I wail, submerged in pain and mortification. “Fine, yes, yes!”
“Good,” he grinds out, satisfied with himself. “That was your punishment for walking around indecently. Now we’ll address your disrespect in front of my men.”
“Sal-va-tor-e!” I scream as he lifts the tee and bares my ass to him. Again, his palm falls heavily and again, he lectures the hell out of me.
“I’ve made it clear who I am and what I expect,” he says, laying down one hard swat after another all over my ass and the tops of my thighs. I squirm and fight and try to get away, but his leg over mine pins me in place. I whimper and close my eyes as he continues. “You may never disrespect me like that. You come to me and you talk to me, but I have authority over you and my men and I will not have you undermining my authority.”
On and on the spanking goes until my skin’s aflame, on and on the lecture goes. “Do you understand me?”
“No!” I scream. I don’t care what he does to me at this point. “I will not allow you to abuse a child, I don’t care if you beat me or divorce me or leave me on the street!” I’m crying now, squirming on his lap. If I’m having children with this man, he needs to understand right now when and where I’ll fight him.
That gives him plenty of reasons to continue spanking me, hard.
I keep pleading my case even though I don’t really think it’s working.
“You and I will have children together if it’s meant to be, and I won’t be with a man who abuses children!”
The barrage of hard slaps suddenly halts. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” I say on a sob. “I won’t agree to this. I won’t agree to backing off.” A fresh torrent of tears begins. I lived under the roof of a man just like him. While my mother couldn’t stop my father, I won’t do the same. “You’re a monster and I hate you!”
“Is that right?” he asks in a slow, almost disbelieving tone. “You believe I was going to hurt the child, so you took it upon your altruistic self to save him?”
I don’t respond, because there’s a warning tone to his voice that gives me pause.