I stare in confusion for a moment, wondering why Logan hasn’t already cut off circulation. I realize a second later what he’s saying. He’s asking me. He’s asking if I want Ronnie to die or if I want him to live.
I look to my mom, and to my surprise, she shrugs. I try to think through the pain throbbing in my hands and feet. I try to look past what I want right now. Revenge. Justice. Pain. I force myself to look past that and focus on what I can live with. I don’t think I could live with myself if I knew I had the power to save his life and I let him die.
“He’ll go to jail,” I say. “That’s enough.”
Logan holds my gaze for long enough to tell me he would rather kill Ronnie, but he disappears into the kitchen and I hear the sound of fabric tearing. Maybe he’s ripping a kitchen towel or something to tie off the leg. Either way, it’s over. We’ll call the police, they’ll take Ronnie away, and I’ll finally be able to focus on putting the pieces of my life back together. Except I won’t be doing it alone this time.
Epilogue
Logan
Four Months Later
I lean against the far wall, watching Emmaline fuss over the boxes that have been ready for shipment all day. She kneels down brushes off a strand of fabric that fell on one box.
“Careful,” I say. “Get the boxes too perfect and our customers won’t even open them.”
She smirks ruefully at me, but doesn’t stop moving carefully through the stack of boxes for the tenth time. “Yeah, well… I just haven’t ever shipped products to a real store before. It was always just individual sales or a few people with online stores. This is a big deal.”
I move to her, sliding my hands over her shoulders and working some of the stiffness from them. “You have nothing to worry about,” I say into her ear. “You deserve this. You fucking deserve every bit of it. You deserve to have the world eating out of your hand.”
She laughs. “Does that mean you would be eating out of my hand too? Because I could get used to that.”
I grin, squeezing her a little tighter and forcing her head toward me. “The only thing I’ll be eating out is that perfect pussy of yours.”
“Ahem!” Scarlett half-yells.
Emmaline jumps a little, clearly forgetting Scarlett was still working quietly on her laptop. I admit to forgetting too, but something about talking dirty to her in front of others has always been a turn on for me. The world needs to know she’s mine. Let them overhear.
“Sorry,” says Emmaline. “He didn’t mean what it sounded like he meant.”
Scarlett looks up, giving Emmaline a dry expression. “You don’t own a cat, so don’t even try to tell me…”
Emmaline gives up, hiding her hands in her face.
“I meant exactly what I said,” I say, biting my lip.
Emmaline groans and Scarlett laughs.
“I think I’ll work from outside for a little while. Just uh, let me know when it’s safe to come back inside.”
Emmaline keeps hiding her face until Scarlett leaves. She looks up finally and tries to swat at my shoulder. I grab her wrist, locking eyes with her. “Careful, Kitten. I have you right where I want you now.”
I move into her, pushing her back until I have her pinned to the wall with my body. She looks up at me, licking her lips. “We have to get this order ready.”
“It was ready the second time you checked it, Emmaline. It’s perfect. You’re perfect.”
She starts to breathe more heavily, blinking and looking down. “I don’t think I can have sex with Scarlett right outside, if that’s what you’re trying for.’
“Who said anything about sex?” I ask. I force her legs around my waist, turning her and setting her ass down on a table. I work my fingers under the waistband of her pants and panties. “I said I would eat that pussy, and I follow through on my promises.”
I wait just long enough to see the faintest hint of a smile touch her lips. I rip her pants down and take a second to admire her.
“Your pussy is so fucking sexy,” I growl, lips so close to her that they brush the skin of her mound as I speak.
She writhes against me. “Scarlett is right outside…” she says softly.
“So you may want to avoid moaning too loudly this time.”
Emmaline’s glare melts away as soon as my tongue flicks out across her slit, circling and plunging inside her. She squeezes her soft thighs around my head, using her heels to push my face farther into her, begging me for more. I give her what she wants and more. She bucks against me, grinding herself into my face in her desperation for friction, for more.
Soon she’s moaning so loud Scarlett could easily hear if she’s right outside. I plunge two fingers inside her and finger fuck her while I work her clit with my tongue. It puts her over the edge. Her pussy clamps down on my fingers and her body shakes. She lets out a strangled cry, clapping a hand to her mouth to stifle the sound.
I straighten, grinning as I lean forward and make her kiss me hard while she still shakes with orgasm. Making her taste herself has my cock hard as a rock, but I can’t give her everything she wants all at once. That would ruin the fun. She’ll have to wait for tonight to get the rest.
She clears her throat, hopping down and sliding her pants back up.
I step outside and see Scarlett sitting on the bench a little ways down from the office. “It’s safe now.”
She looks up. “You’re sure?”
I laugh. “Yeah. Positive.”
Scarlett and Emmaline spend the next hour working on ideas for the design of their newest piece of clothing. I’m perfectly content to watch. The last four months have given me a lot to think about, and I feel like I’m still trying to wrap my head around it all.
My company is gone. As expected, Dean threatened to leak thousands of client’s personal information if I didn’t step down. I made a show of putting up a fight so he wouldn’t be too suspicious, but ultimately handed the company over to him. I had enough time to liquidize my assets and walk away with more than enough money to be comfortable for a few thousand lifetimes. He took over the helm of a ship he didn’t know was sinking.
Two months ago, my trap sprang fully. Dean was first slapped with tax evasion charges when the IRS caught wind from my anonymous tip, and then the real charges came of insider trading. Last week he was sentenced to twenty years in federal prison. The company is now publicly run by a committee. They’ve since offered my position back to me, but I declined. I have other plans now.
I’m mentoring Emmaline. I’ve been teaching her everything I know about business, and she’s the fastest learner I’ve ever seen. I haven’t given her a cent. Everything she has done for her business has been on her own. Two months ago she was earning enough from her sales to quit working at Club Crave. Now she only goes with me as a patron of the club, not an employee. And we make full use of the facility.
The boxes stacked up are for several major retailers. She managed to land shelf-space at some of the biggest stores in the country, and is planning to upgrade her office space soon and start hiring more employees to meet the contracts. I’ve never seen her so happy. It helps that Ronnie got put away for a long time for attempted murder on my PI and a slew of other charges. It turns out his rampage that night didn’t start outside Emmaline’s house. He left a drunken trail of carnage about four miles long and was caught on several security cameras.
I just have one more surprise for Emmaline, but she’ll have to wait a little longer for it.
Emmaline
Logan’s arm is possessively splayed across my back as we walk inside Clothes for Crawlers. It has been a dream of mine to have my products sold in a store like this for so long. I’ve thought so many times about what it would be like to walk through a big name store and see my products hanging on display, watching person after person admire my work. I just never imagined the tall, dark, and sinfully handsome man at my side.
I never would have imagined losing his company could revitalize him so much. Loga
n has been anything but idle since. His fresh start has brought about such a wonderful change in him. While I wouldn’t have called him brooding and depressed before, there was always a slight darkness around him. He doesn’t like to talk about himself much, but I think he had reached the top and had nothing left to strive for. I even think he’s glad that he was forced to start over.
The best part is he has been working with me as a business partner. He doesn’t give me money, but he has taken me under his wing and started teaching me everything he knows about growing a business from the ground up. And he’s a damn good teacher.
I was able to quit working at Club Crave two months ago after the business started really moving in full swing. Our sex life wasn’t magically perfect after the time he took me blindfolded up the hiking trail, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Logan’s creativity. He never seems to run out of ways to chip away at the wall of resistance the years have built up around my sexuality. We’ve also been able to enjoy his play room again, and our newfound trust has helped me to enjoy whatever he’s in the mood for, whether it’s light bondage or the paddle.
I also gave Scarlett a raise, which she was ecstatic about. Her outfits have become even cuter, and she’s starting to talk about opening her own dance business some day. I love that she’s looking at her own future outside of my company. I’ll miss her like hell if she leaves, but I want her to find her own niche too. If graphic design isn’t doing it for her, then I don’t want her stuck in it.
We quickly find the display with my products. Monthly milestone onesies from “I can walk!” to “I can sit up!”. Each onesie features what I hope will someday be our recognizable trademark: the cute cartoony elephant Scarlett designed. Each onesie shows him doing the milestone, whether it’s walking, sitting up, or celebrating his first Christmas. I feel my eyes welling with tears as I lean into Logan and look at the display.
Logan squeezes my shoulder and steps toward the clothes, picking up a little boy’s outfit for “I used the potty!”.
He turns toward me and makes a confused face. “I didn’t realize you included gifts inside the clothes.”
I scrunch my forehead. “What?”
He motions to the pocket on the front of the onesie. My heart stops when I see the circular outline. The small, circular outline.
“Yeah,” he says, smirking and falling to one knee. He reaches in the pocket and pulls it out. “Look at this thing. You’d have to really be head over heels in fucking love with someone to give this to them. You’d have to want to marry them.”
“You would…” I say, voice barely a whisper. The tears that threatened to fall when I saw the display are falling now for a completely different reason.
“Will you marry me, Emmaline?” asks Logan.
I don’t notice the small crowd forming around us. I don’t notice the way my heart is about to explode from overwork. I only see him. I see not just the drop-dead gorgeous man staring up at me, but the patient, thoughtful man who has been willing to work through my problems with me. I see the man who realized I didn’t need his money, who understood me so completely that he never needed to even ask. I see my soulmate. The only man I ever want to be with. Now and forever.
“I do. God. I do,” I say.
He slides the ring over my finger and I notice it for the first time. If I had any breath in my lungs, the sight of the ring would take it away. It’s not so big it’s gaudy, even though Logan could afford a ring like that. It’s elegant and in exactly the style I would have chosen with an almost antique flair to it. He stands, pulling me in for a kiss and then embracing me, just as blind as I am to the applauding crowd around us.
I couldn’t hope for anything more, except maybe a baby of my own to wear the onesies his mommy designed. I smirk into Logan’s shoulder. He may think he has complete control, but I have a feeling I’ll be able to convince him to try for a baby.
Copyright © 2016 by Penelope Bloom
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Punished Page 16