Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 58226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 291(@200wpm)___ 233(@250wpm)___ 194(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 291(@200wpm)___ 233(@250wpm)___ 194(@300wpm)
“Put. Me. Down.”
My timing brings us right to the foot of the cave.
Oops.
“Is that how we’re going to play this, princess?” he says.
I clear my throat. “I’m not playing!” But I am, and I shouldn’t be. I should mean what I say. I don’t know what’s come over me.
Still holding me to his chest, he falls to the ground of the cave and kneels on one knee. I cringe when he yanks the snake and tosses it behind him.
Gah.
I start to second guess my choices here.
“Okay, so maybe you should just let me go—ahh!”
I squeal when he flips me over and places me over his bent knee. My hands flail, my legs scissor, but he holds me in place with one arm. My heart races because I’ve never been spanked, and I’m not so sure why I’m doing this.
“Put me down!” I scream, because I feel like I should protest, that I shouldn’t just lie over his knee and let him discipline me.
Without a word, he whacks his palm on my ass. It hurts a lot more than I expect, and my breath leaves me in one fell swoop. I’m gasping for air when he spanks me again, his huge palm as heavy as a paddle. I must’ve been crazy to want to see what this was like.
“Okay!” I protest. “Okay, alright!”
But he’s unaffected by my words.
“This what you need, Harper?” he asks. He lands another slap, then another, building a fire on my ass unlike anything I’ve ever felt. I throw a futile hand back to try to stop him, but he effortlessly cuffs my wrist and pins it to my lower back, adjusts me over his knee, and continues the relentless assault on my ass like he’s been waiting for this moment.
“You wanted to see I meant what I said, didn’t you?” he asks with another smack.
I don’t respond, because he’s right.
“Has this cleared things up for you?”
“Hmmph!”
My dignity might be bruised, but my body vibrates with pleasure. It confuses me.
“Put me down.”
He gives me another good spank.
“That demand is what got you here in the first place.”
Oh, right. Dammit.
“Cy!” My belly hurts pressed up against his knee, and my cheeks flame. “I’m not a child!”
“Didn’t say you were,” he says before he gives me another hard smack that goes straight to my core. My pulse races and it hurts. It really, truly hurts, though every stroke of his palm makes me want more. There’s something beyond this pain, though I don’t know what that might be.
“You’ll do what I say, Harper. You’ll eat what I give you. You’ll keep yourself safe while under my watch, or your ass will pay the price.”
“Okay, alright, yes,” I tell him. “Please?”
He gives me one more smack before lifting me off his knee. Spinning me around, he cradles me in the crook of his arm. His eyes are narrowed, his brows furrowed as he looks searchingly at me, as if trying to determine if I’ve learned my lesson. A delicious shiver runs through me.
“Much better,” he rumbles approvingly, which makes me suddenly want to hide. I’m too raw, too exposed, and so fucking turned on. I can’t bring myself to look at him, so I bury my face on his chest. The little dark, curly hair on his bare chest tickles my nose. I place my hand palm down on him as if to steady myself. I don’t know what I want right now, but it isn’t this. I don’t want to cuddle. I’m sort of angry and wildly turned on and confused as fuck.
He holds me there tentatively at first, then squeezes me to him and kisses my forehead. The rough feel of his whiskers and gentle touch of his lips evoke unexpected emotion. I swallow hard, not knowing why I’m so raw and vulnerable right now.
Gently placing me on the ground of the cave, he leaves me rubbing my sore ass, gets to his feet, then walks toward the fire.
“It’s gone,” he says grimly.
“What is?”
“The rest of the meat I cooked. Gone.” He turns to look at me with his hands clenched into fists, white-knuckled and betraying the fury he barely holds at bay. “It might feel like we’re alone here, but we’re not.” I pity that lone man that crosses him now. I saw how he lopped off the head of the snake. I saw him end the life of the man who tried to rape me. Whether it’s time spent on this island or something more, Cy is wild and untamed, and I don’t know what he’s capable of.
When he stalks to the foot of the cave, the setting sun illuminates the muscles in his body, taut and glistening with a fine sheen of perspiration. He throws his head back and howls into the night.
“Where are you? Come at me, motherfucker! You’re not getting us. You’re not getting her.”