Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 54931 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54931 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
I shake, hands refusing to move. “You won’t look, will you?” I ask.
“We don’t have long,” he says. “The guard will start to suspect soon.”
I steel myself. What do I have to lose, anyway? I’m in a place no one has ever heard of, alone in a dark room with a gorgeous Prince who shouldn’t exist, and in the span of a few hours I’ve gone from having dinner with my family to contemplating letting a jaw-droppingly hot stranger spank my bare ass with a leather paddle in the dungeon of a palace. It’s hard to think straight, and feeling his hips against my ass admittedly has heat blossoming between my legs, not to mention the places it’s making my mind wander to.
I reach back with one hand, hiking up my dress until it’s bunched above my waist and my ass is on not-so-proud display for him.
“Panties too,” he says.
I reach for them, but his hand grips my wrist. “I was kidding about the panties,” he says with a hint of laughter in his voice. “I can work around them.”
I’m too mortified to speak, so I slap my hand back against the wall and press my forehead into the stone, wishing I could pop right through the wall and run away from here without ever looking back.
The paddle whips across my ass with a healthy popping sound. I jump a little, but more from surprise than from the pain, which is mild at best. There’s a faint tingling and a slight burning from where he hit me, but it’s nowhere near what I imagined. I steal a look backward and find him breathing heavily now, much more heavily than when he had me mirror his calm breaths. His eyes are on my ass and there’s something in his expression I can’t puzzle out, but he brings the paddle back and slaps it across the other side of my ass, this time a little harder.
“Oh!” I gasp. The pain this time enough to make me jump, sending a red flash of heat from my ass all the way up my spine. I still feel the tingling circle of contact moments after he pulls the paddle away, and as the embers of the stinging die out, I’m surprised to find the faint heat I felt between my legs is now like a fire, and a flurry of confusing thoughts are tearing through my mind. Dirty thoughts, and not about my husband-to-be, but about Roark.
Those are crazy thoughts though. Dangerous thoughts, and I do my best to silence them before they have a chance to take hold.
“You’ll need to make it sound more painful than that,” says Roark, “Or my brother may think I went easy on you and finish the job himself.”
He brings the paddle down again, just barely missing the spot from before. I jump a little, but the pain barely registers now. All I can think about is the way his command over me is driving my body wild. I think about how completely and totally I’m in his power, and about how much power he has in this moment, and every instinct in my body is crying out to touch him.
6
Roark
I watch the faint circle of red rise up just beside the hem of her panties, loving the way goosebumps rise on her smooth ass. With every blow, I feel the darkness within me recede. With every gasp from her beautifully plump lips, I feel myself stepping more and more into control. But no blood has been shed. No men lie bleeding at my feet. And if the growing patch of moisture on Elizabeth’s panties are any indication, It’s safe to say no harm has even been done here.
I bring my arm back to swing again, but realize I don’t need to. The darkness has retreated farther into me than I’ve ever known it to, and for the first time in years I feel at peace. I feel calm, collected, and even hopeful.
“That,” I say, barely catching my breath. “That should be enough.”
She stands, giving me one last cock-stiffening view of her ass and those white panties before she pulls her dress down. She turns her large, innocent green eyes up at me, lips slightly parted. “What happens now?” she asks.
I clench my teeth together because I know the truth. Elizabeth must marry my brother, and I have no choice but to send her back to her room where she will wait until he summons her tomorrow. Unless I can think of an alternative that doesn’t end with the city in flames. “Now? Our time together is over. You go back to your room, and back to my brother.”
She opens her mouth like she’s about to say something but closes it, lowering her eyes and turning her back to me.