Protecting it All: Dark Romantic Suspense (Punishment Pit Book 6)

by Livia Grant

  "Master Markus," she said.

  "Rachel."

  Silence.

  He prodded her. "What can I do for you, honey?"

  She shuffled her feet nervously, acting exactly like the four-year-old little girl she loved her husband to treat her as. "Well, I was... a naughty girl... and Daddy said I can't have any ice cream, but I really want ice cream."

  "Sorry, kiddo, but you have to listen to your daddy and you know it," Markus said.

  "I know, but there is only one way I can have ice cream and, well... only you can help."

  Markus was curious and before he could ask, she held out her smartphone. He took it and read the text message on the screen.

  Text from Derek:

  'You know the rules. You missed your nap today. You've earned a naughty-girl spanking. No ice cream until your punishment is over.'

  It took a few seconds for it to sink in. Markus looked up see her pleading eyes. "I see. And does your daddy know you're asking for my help?" he said.

  "Yes, Sir."

  He had known Derek and Rachel their entire relationship, yet this request would put them into new territory. Markus mulled over the implications, glancing first at his wife having fun in the kitchen, and then Aiden and Josh before he made his decision.

  He put on his 'Dom mask' before answering strictly. "To the corner with you. Nose tight, and pull those panties down so we can all get a look at that naughty bottom of yours."

  Rachel was an exhibitionist. His stern command had her skipping off to the corner, happy with the turn of events. As Markus reached for his own cell phone, he could see both Aiden and Josh shifting uncomfortably in their seats, their eyes focused on the sexy scene before them.

  Derek answered on the third ring. "Hey there. I was wondering if you'd call."

  "Master Markus reporting in. Are you asking me to do what I think you are?"

  "If you don't mind, yeah. I can see I'm gonna be gone longer than I thought, and Rach needs her bottom warmed good each night before bed. It centers her. She could stand to be diapered and bottled tonight, too, but that might be asking too much."

  Now Markus's cock was growing thick. "You think?" he choked out. "Listen, you just worry about bringing Davenport down so life can go back to normal around here, okay? Master Markus will take care of your baby tonight."

  "Thanks, man," Derek said.

  "No problem. Let Lukus know things are going good here at the loft."

  "Will do." The call dropped.

  Markus's eyes connected with his beautiful wife's as she carried the tray full of bowls of ice cream over to the great room, placing it in the center of the coffee table. Tiffany delivered bowls to her brother and Josh, while Bri came in with one big bowl for her and Markus to share. She plopped down into his lap, snuggling in close.

  "I missed you, Sir." Her lips nibbled at his neck, bringing his cock to full attention.

  "I missed you more, sweetheart. It also seems Rachel is missing Derek." He pulled away a few inches so he could look into her eyes as he asked, "How would you feel about me delivering a punishment to her tonight for Master Derek?"

  He could see her surprise, but was relieved to discover there was no jealousy there. "Would she be able to eat ice cream then?"

  "Apparently."

  "Then, sure. As long as I get to watch." Bri's own pupils were dilating as she obviously contemplated watching her friend being punished. She glanced over at Rachel in the corner, her bottom pushed out enticingly.

  Markus couldn't help but chuckle. "Some friend you are. You look absolutely excited to see her get her ass lit up."

  She grinned back. "Hey, I'm a masochist. I can't help it."

  Brianna might be taking the strange request in her stride, but Tiffany was scandalized. "You're fucking kidding me! You wouldn't dare."

  Markus grinned back. "Oh, little girl, your fiancé has already given me carte blanche to punish you any way I see fit when you are in my care. I'd watch that mouth. I happen to know how your Dom handles that potty mouth of yours."

  Tiffany's eyes grew wide with surprise before she quickly looked back down to take a sudden deep interest in her bowl of ice cream.

  Markus called out. "Rachel, turn around." When she did, he saw the first sign of fear in her eyes. "Leave your panties around your knees and go back to the bedroom to get your punishment hairbrush. Bring it to me."

  For the briefest of seconds, Markus wondered if she would back out, deciding she didn't need ice cream after all, but she eventually shuffled off in the direction of the bedroom, returning a few moments later with the well-worn, heavy wooden paddle brush.

  When she stopped in front of him, she slowly held out the implement.

  "Thank you. Brianna, I need your help."

  Markus looked up into his wife's eyes. He could tell she thought she was going to be paddled, too. "Come over to the left side of my chair and kneel. You're going to hold Rachel's hands still as she gets her bottom roasted," he said. He almost grinned when he saw the disappointment on his little masochist's face. In that moment, he knew he'd be borrowing Derek's hairbrush in the privacy of their own room later that evening. He would enjoy having Brianna wiggling over his lap before sinking his cock deep inside her.

  Rachel gracefully draped herself across his lap, her toes unable to touch the floor, her body angled so she hung across the puffy armrest of the plush chair, her hands reaching out to grasp Brianna's. Markus knew she had to be able to feel his erection poking her tummy, but it couldn't be helped. The whole scene was sexually charged.

  Before starting, he looked across at Aiden and Josh. Both men wore stern, unreadable looks on their face. He decided the polite thing to do might be to give them an out.

  "Knowing how you boys feel about this kind of thing, you might want to go in the other room for a while."

  Aiden forced his eyes over to meet his sister's before turning back to the spectacle about to unfold. It seemed he had to choke out his answer. "We're good."

  Satisfied they knew what they were getting into, Markus began. He normally warmed up Brianna's ass before lighting into her with a heavy implement, wanting to keep down any bruising. He felt it would go too far to use his bare hand on Rachel, so he started the punishment with a dozen slow, almost sensual strokes, spread evenly across her rounded bottom. He tried not to notice how nicely her skin pinked up.

  He took a break after the warm-up to look up at his wife. She was watching intently. He wanted some assurance from her that she was okay with him punishing another man's wife, so he raised his eyebrows. He was rewarded with a slight nod of her head, followed by a shy smile.

  Damn, I love her so much.

  He had a sudden need to be inside his wife's hot pussy, and knew that just one butt-blistering hair-brushing stood in the way of making that happen. He pulled his arm back and began the spanking in earnest. Unlike during his warm up, the next few dozen strokes to Rachel's bare globes were strong, meant to leave an impression on the spankee. Based on her wiggling and eventual moaning, he knew his message was getting through. He continued without a break until he heard her start to cry, knowing that was the release that women like Brianna and Rachel needed. He may not understand the why, but he knew it to be true.

  By the time he had finished, Rachel's ass and tender sit-spots were cherry red. She had tried several times to reach back to protect her bottom, but Brianna had taken her job seriously, holding her friend in place until her punishment was over.

  For the first minute after the spanking ended, the only sound in the great room was the sniffling whimpers of a chastised Rachel. Brianna had started stroking her hair to calm her, eliciting a deep sigh that told Markus he'd done his job well.

  He helped Rachel to her feet where she stood, shuffling, before him, covering her bald pussy with her hands self-consciously. He had witnessed Derek punishing her often enough to know what she expected. He held out the back of the hairbrush and she leaned down to give her tormentor a kiss.

&nb
sp; "Okay, little girl. You can go with Bri and Tiffany to get your ice cream now."

  Rachel leaned down with a bright smile on her face, hugging him tightly. "Thank you so much, Master Markus!" And off she skipped, her panties still around her thighs, happy as a lark.

  Markus finished barking his orders. "Rachel, you'll sleep in Master Lukus's bed with Tiffany tonight. Take your ice cream bowls back and I'll be there to tuck you girls in soon." Turning to his wife, who was still kneeling next to his chair, he added, "Bri, you know how I want you waiting for me."

  The lust in her eyes had him wanting to jump to his feet and follow her that instant. "Yes, Sir. Don't be too long." She looked as if she might self-combust as she pushed to her feet to skip off to the bedroom with her friends.

  After the men were alone, Markus looked back at Aiden, who had sat quietly throughout the punishment. The cop shifted uncomfortably before admitting, "Well, fuck, that was hot as hell."

  Markus agreed. "You got that right. If you'll excuse me boys, I'm off to have my wife take care of this hard-on. Help yourselves to the couch or the other guest room."

  Chapter Six

  Hannah

  Hannah stopped long enough to fill the meter with enough cash to cover parking for a few hours. She couldn't shake the feeling of being watched, and wondered if she was being paranoid. Jake's Corvette was nowhere to be seen, but as she watched the cars driving past Bloomer's Florist, she was sure she caught sight of that cute guy named Dylan who'd been hanging around the Four Seasons bar the last few weeks.

  Her initial impression of him had been that he was a good guy, but she'd since been reminded she had zero ability to judge people; and since almost every man she had ever interacted with on a personal level had hurt her in one way or another, she wasn't yet ready to give Dylan the benefit of the doubt. The fact that he'd shown up around the same time she'd met Jake Davenport was working against him. She wouldn't put it past Jake to have hired Dylan to keep tabs on her.

  The bell on the door dinged her arrival at the small florist shop she worked at five days a week. Her best friend Mia was behind the counter, taking an order from one of their regular customers. Hannah went to the back to get started on their many orders. It was prom and wedding season, and they thankfully had more work than they knew what to do with.

  Several minutes later, Mia's voice caught Hannah's attention from the doorway. "I called Lucy again yesterday. I told her to get her ass home and help. It's not fair that you get stuck working so hard when, technically, Lucy should be pulling her weight around here."

  This was an old argument for the best friends. "I told you, I don't mind. God knows, you've helped me so much by letting me bring Connor into the shop and giving me a job when I had no experience as a florist," Hannah said.

  "It doesn't matter. She's been goofing around down in LA trying to get famous for long enough. Her classes are out now. She should be home this summer to help out around here."

  "What did she say when you called?" Hannah continued unboxing their shipment of roses.

  "You don't want to know. I got her attention, though, when I told her I wasn't sending her any more money. If she wants cash, she can come home and work for it like the rest of us."

  Hannah was about to tell Mia again that they didn't need Lucy's help since, technically, Lucy was no help at all even when she was there, but she pushed the words down, knowing Mia would need her younger sister's help if Hannah decided she needed to leave town because of Jake Davenport.

  They were back in the front of the flower shop when Hannah heard the incoming text on her phone. The words on her screen made her knees start shaking.

  Text from Jake:

  'You can't hide, Hannah. You agreed to do a job for me and I expect you at work tonight.'

  With her trembling fingers she replied:

  'Not a chance. Find someone else.'

  Several minutes passed, and she thought he might have finally given up pressuring her to change her mind. She wouldn't be that lucky.

  Text from Jake:

  'Will pick you up at 9 pm. No is not an option.'

  Hannah didn't realize she was crying until the tears spilled down onto her phone. She was out of time. She'd either need to let Jake use her, putting her in danger, or she needed to pack up and leave before nine that night. She looked around the flower shop she'd worked in for the last two years. She was going to miss it and Mia very much, but she needed to think of Connor. She was all he had.

  Dylan

  "Let's go back to that last photo. Who's that guy with Davenport?"

  Dylan listened while his boss, Lukus, ran another meeting of his employees working on the Davenport case.

  Cameron, their tech guru, answered over the speakerphone. He was the only one still investigating from Chicago. "His name is Mohammed Khezal and, as best I can tell, he's Davenport's number two at Strictly Disciplined. He's there daily, and we've seen him giving more than a few women rides to and from work."

  "Any being forced to go?" Derek inquired.

  "Not that we've seen. I think the websites are a dead end. There's nothing going on there illegal that I've been able to find," Cam said.

  Dylan's blood pressure was rising just listening. They'd been over this all before, and he couldn't keep his mouth shut. "This is so fucked up. These guys are hurting those women. Open your damn eyes."

  Lukus shot him a dirty look as his brother Derek stepped between them. "Listen, I know you don't approve, but it's all about consent. The women are giving it. That means it's a dead end."

  "He's brainwashing them. They don't know what they're doing." Dylan couldn't believe anyone would voluntarily let someone whip or paddle them until they were bruised or bleeding, like was happening nightly on the websites.

  Derek stepped closer, talking more softly, as if to try and keep the conversation between the two of them. "I know you don't think it's possible, but there are a lot of women who get into the whole D/s scene. Your sister-in-law is one of them. Are you accusing me of brainwashing Rachel?"

  Dylan didn't miss the defensiveness on his brother's face as they met eye to eye. They may have been the same height, but Derek had fifty pounds of muscles on Dylan. He made an intimidating roadblock. Glancing around the room at Lukus and Zach, Dylan knew he was outnumbered.

  Still, he wasn't backing down. "I know you love Rachel, but I don't understand how you can justify disciplining her. This is the twenty-first century. I don't get why she doesn't hate you for hitting her." Dylan tried again.

  "Listen, you twerp, I know what the year is. If you'd open your ears you'd know that I'd cut my right arm off before I hit Rachel. I spank her. Discipline her. And we do what we do because it's what makes Rachel feel safe and protected. It's what she wants; what she needs. But the only way it works is because she consents to it all. Just like Tiffany consents to Lukus, and Brianna to Markus. And if the women working in the warehouse have consented, then it's a dead end. We've interviewed a dozen of them and they are all happy with their job and the money they're making."

  "What about Hannah? She's not happy. She's not consenting."

  Lukus had obviously been listening in on the brothers' conversation because he injected questions. "What about Hannah? You've had a hard-on for her for weeks. Explain it to me. Why do you think she's different?"

  "For starters, she seems scared to death of Davenport, and she refuses to go anywhere with him since she went to his house just once. I haven't seen her going to the warehouse, so his interest in her is different. He's not after her to be in front of a camera."

  Cameron piped in over the phone. "I've watched all of the footage from the security cameras at the warehouse, and Dylan's right. Davenport has never taken her there. Dylan's photos of the two of them together are different. For starters, Davenport has no shortage of women. We've seen him out with at least six different women just in the weeks we've been on his ass. He doesn't need to chase anyone, yet he's clearly pursuing this woman, who is having no p
art of going anywhere with him."

  Lukus looked thoughtful. "That is odd. He has women throwing themselves at him and if it was just sex he was after, he's got a whole warehouse full of sex workers. Why seek out an innocent outsider?"

  Derek probed, "What do we know about her?"

  They could hear Cameron typing as he dug into Hannah's background. "Well, we know she works full-time at Bloomer's Florist and part-time at the Four Seasons, bar-tending a few nights a week. It looks like she got her California driver's license about two years ago. Had an Ohio license before that. She was registered at Ohio State University for one semester a few years ago and then dropped off the grid for a while until she showed up here in California. Wait..."

  They waited for several minutes while Cameron's fingers flew across the keyboard. Dylan held his breath, anxious to learn more about Hannah's past in hopes it would help him understand how to better help her now. The techie's surprised whistle wasn't a good sign.

  "Shit. Looks like she's had one hell of a time of it. Her old man is in prison serving a forty-year sentence for kidnapping and sex trafficking. He got caught red-handed with a half-dozen young women, several under age, locked up in a building he owned. Says he pimped them out to his friends and business associates. There's a picture of Hannah and someone that looks like it could be her older sister in the article from about three years ago that covers the sentencing. The article says they both testified against their father. Well shit, that sucks."

  Dylan was filled with fury. It was bad enough a stranger like Jake Davenport was fucking with Hannah, but how messed up it must be to have a father who abused women. He prayed she had been spared, but even as he thought it, he knew the chances were slim that Hannah had escaped unscathed, having lived with someone like that as a child. His blood started to boil to a new level.

  "Hey, here's something new. This might be the link we're looking for. Looks like she recently got her associate's degree from the local community college; the same college Jake recently did a big project with, donating security electronics to the technology department in exchange for a big tax break."