by Rebel Wild
“Stand,” he demands and I obey. “Do I need to remind you of who I am?”
“No, sir, I’m well aware.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” He barks at me, getting up, rounding his desk to stand in front of me.
“Nothing bad, sir, just the opposite.”
“You just won’t give that shit up, will you? Your ideas of me are extremely warped.”
“No, sir, they aren’t.”
“And if I was to drag your ass to the playroom, tie you up, beat you, and then fuck you without giving a damn, would you still hold me in such high regard?”
“Yes, sir.”
I yelp when he lifts me and slams my butt down on his desk.
“You don’t know me. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
“I know better than you think… sir.” My feet feel the floor beneath me again and I steady myself, pressing against his stronghold until he eventually lets me go and I’m standing on my own again. “Even if you did all those things to me, it wouldn’t change what I know to be true. You’d just be proving to yourself that you’re the monster you want me to believe you are. I won’t believe it. And in all the times I’ve been with you, you have never once ‘fucked me’ and certainly not without giving a damn… sir.”
He looks at me like he’s never seen me before. His eyes dance in rage, wonder, and if I’m not mistaken, lust. If I could, I’d be looking at myself the same way, minus the lust. I don’t know what’s come over me. Maybe I’m just upset, maybe I just don’t care anymore, but I can’t seem to stop the words that are coming out of my mouth. As determined as he is to make me see the bad in him, I’m equally determined to make him see the good.
“If I haven’t been fucking you than what the fuck do you think we’ve been doing?”
“I don’t know but it doesn’t feel like you’re just fucking me when you do it to me… sir.”
“Stop adding sir like it’s a goddamn afterthought,” he yells. “I am your sir.”
“Yes, sir,” I tell him quickly, not even realizing I was doing that. “You are my sir. But you’re still the same guy who used to wear those ugly blue suits and let me hang out in his office eating veggie burgers even though you hated them. The same guy who never once responded to the way I’d flirt with you, and I know you knew that’s what I was doing. You’re still the guy who waited until I was ready to have sex, even though I’d already agreed to let you do what you wanted to me. You’re not a monster and you will never convince me you are.”
“Then I have grossly misled you. I am a monster and you’re nothing more than an inexperienced submissive that I want to torture and fuck. I wanted to torture and fuck you back then, that’s why I let you come around. And believe me, fucking is all we’ve been doing, Miss Warren.”
“Does it make you feel better when you hurt me? Saying mean things because I see the good in you. Why do you care so much that I see it? Why do you want to punish me for it?”
“If I wanted to punish you, believe me, I damn well would. I’m trying to open your eyes to the reality of who I am, not your little girl warped fairy-tale ideals of me.”
“I’m not a little girl. I’m a full-grown woman, but I guess that’s a problem for you now. And hey, here’s a thought, maybe your perception of yourself is what’s warped, ever think of that?” I quickly cover my mouth to try to stop more words from slipping out. “Sir… I—”
“Go to your room before you see a side of me that you are ill-prepared to deal with.”
I pretend to be unmoved by his threat, trying not to let him intimidate me and proving himself right, but he gives me a look so cold that it freezes the room. Everything in me is screaming to run away from him, from whoever this person is he’s just become. I give in to my instincts and move past him making a run for it. I make it to the door but it won’t open. He’s behind me, holding it closed with the palm of his hand. While I am still trying to pry it open, he’s trying to turn me around with his other hand, but I won’t budge. I’m dead set on getting out of here and running away from him. Letting go of the door, he grabs hold of both my shoulders and spins me around to face him.
“Never run from me like that again,” he says to me. I can hear the anguish in his voice.
“But you said for me to go.” I’m still struggling to be free of his grasp so that I can leave.
“I know,” he whispers. “I was angry and it got the better of me for a moment. Forgive me for frightening you.”
I shake my head so vigorously that my hair falls wildly in my face.
“I don’t get you,” I tell him. “I don’t understand you at all.”
“You do understand me, more than anyone I’ve known. I’m the one having trouble understanding myself.” I stop struggling at his words. “Look at me,” he says, brushing the hair out of my face. I open my eyes, but I refuse to look at him.
“You want me to see you as a monster,” I tell him, still expecting to see the cold person I was running from. “You want me to see lies.”
“Look at me,” he tells me again.
“No,” I tell him. “You want me to see bad in everything. You want to change the way I feel about you. You want to change me.”
“Never. I just want you to stop making me feel this way.” I look in his eyes to see him calm and in control once again.
“How am I making you feel?”
“You make me want to be better than I am.”
“Why is that a bad thing?”
“It’s not. It’s just an impossible goal.” He exhales and his warm breath blows on my face. It has a light scent of whiskey that actually smells good. He cups my chin, staring at me. “When did you become so damn defiant?”
“I don’t know. Long day, I guess.” I shrug it off and he raises an eyebrow at me. “Sir,” I add as my eyes widen at him, remembering my submissive self.
“Oh, too fucking late for that,” he says as he lifts me and sets me back over on top of his desk again. He hikes up my wrap-around dress and tugs off my panties. “I’m obviously about to do whatever the hell it is I do to you, Miss Warren, as all of this shit has surprisingly turned me on,” he warns me. “If you don’t want me to do whatever the hell it is I do to you that’s definitely not fucking when I do it to you, I suggest you safeword.”
I bite my lip to keep from giggling at him teasing me with my words, but it escapes my lips anyway.
“Yes, sir,” I tell him and he growls at me. He leans me back on his large desk, rids himself of his clothes, and climbs on top of me. I gasp in surprise when he enters me in one swift motion. “Oh, God,” I moan at the feel of him so full inside me it’s painfully good. I throw my head back trying to stave off my orgasm that is rapidly building.
“Look at me,” he says and my eyes meet his. “Never change.”
“Yes, sir.” I moan. “I need to come.”
“Come with me,” he says, and I cry when we find our release together.
I try to walk when we’re done, really, I do, it’s not just because I like it when he carries me, but he does carry me up to my room and places me on my bed.
“It almost worked, didn’t it, convincing you I was a monster?”
“Not a chance,” I tell him. “You intimidating me doesn’t make you a monster. I suppose it makes for a really good Dom.”
Thank God he’s gone easy on me all this time, if that’s the man I’d have to face in the playroom.
“How did these get here?” I ask him about my books that are sitting on my desk. I know I left them in the library at school. I remember that Joanna woman who disappeared after she got me to the hospital. “The woman that approached me, how did she get to me so fast? How did she even know me?”
“She’s been there since the first day.”
“Why?”
“I still need to be able to protect
you, even when I can’t physically do it myself.”
“And I suppose that protection included reporting everything back to you.”
“Of course. How else would I be able to protect you?” What ticked him off all makes sense. I’m sure me spending the day with Matt didn’t look good on that report. “You’re mine, Miss Warren,” he reminds me in all his Dom glory. “I protect what’s mine.”
“I’m glad she was there today,” I tell him. “Even if the circumstances are a bit peculiar, but I’d prefer Joe to be with me.”
“The hell with Joe,” he spits out. “He’s engaged to Bree, you realize?”
My mouth flies open in shock that he would suggest I would be interested in his brother, but I quickly close it. I shake my head in disbelief at the wide range of emotions this man goes from in any given second to the next. It must be exhausting for him to experience them all. No wonder he’s always so uptight. Well, as his submissive, it is my job to relieve his tension.
“Maybe I need a reminder of who I belong to, sir,” I tell him, playfully. Hoping he doesn’t take offense to it.
My face gives way to apprehension when that eyebrow of his goes up. He pulls at my dress, leaving me naked as I have long since lost my bra and panties in his office. He gathers my hair roughly behind me in his hand and pulls it until I am looking up at him. His mouth is on mine, devouring me.
“Who do these lips and mouth belong to?” He demands to know.
“You, sir.” I pant.
I squeal when he throws me on my bed and rams himself into me. He is pumping me so hard that the bed is violently shaking. I fear it may collapse.
“Who… does… your… body… belong… to, Foxy?” He grunts each word while shoving himself deeper inside me.
“You,” I whisper. I’m almost breathless. I realize it’s not the bed that’s shaking, it’s me. “Only you, Daddy, I belong to only you.”
“Mmm, my sweet, feisty, little Foxy, come for me.”
“Oh, God,” I scream as every cell in my body obeys him and I come so hard I pass out.
I collapse on my bed, sated as I’ve never been before in my life. Fuck, that girl is going to be the death of me and I’m going to welcome it when it comes. I’ve never been so turned on by such blatant defiance. Even when I thought she was a spoiled brat, talking back to her father, I was never turned on by that side of her before.
The look on her face when I scared her and when she ran away from me is one I’ll do everything in my power to make sure I never put there again. Having her that afraid of me nearly ripped out my… my what? My heart?
Fuck! What the fuck is she doing to me?
I don’t remember falling asleep, but I am jarred awake by the sound of a pounding on my bedroom door. I pull it open, shocked to see Sydney. She stands only for an instant before her knees give way and she falls to the floor, no longer having the door to hold her up.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, bending down to assist her. “Are you hurt?”
Brianna and Joe, having also heard the banging, come running to investigate and I stand to address them. I want them ready to assist her once I figure out what’s wrong. When they reach us, all they see is Sydney falling apart at my feet. It’s nothing like a submissive positioning, but they wouldn’t know that.
“What the hell, Tristan?”
Joe takes one look at us and I can see his imagination going wild. I’m sure he suspects that I’ve done something to her, and I have to rewind the night’s events in my head to double-check as I bend down again to help her. I’m sure she was fine when I left her.
What could have possibly happened in the few hours I left her alone safe in her bed sleeping that has resulted in her being this way?
Chapter Twenty-Four
“What the hell happened?” Joe demands an answer from me.
“That’s what I’m trying to find out,” I spit back at him as I attend to Sydney. “What’s wrong?” I ask her again. The Dom in me is retreating to the deep recesses of my mind at the sight of her lying crumpled on the floor. Looking her over, she doesn’t seem hurt, so I touch her back. She responds by reaching up and putting her arms around my neck. “Okay,” I say, holding her. “It’s okay.”
“I don’t believe this,” Joe says, looking at her, debating on if he should get in between us or not. His phone ringing stops him. “It’s not a good time,” he says, answering it. “Yeah, he’s in the middle of something. He can’t come to the phone. Yeah, she’s right here. Okay. Okay. Hold on.”
Sydney starts to shiver, so I pick her up and carry her to my bed, pulling my thick blankets over her suddenly too small frame, in hopes of warming her up.
“Sydney, talk to me. Let me help you,” I tell her. She shakes her head, unable to speak.
“Mom’s on the phone,” Joe says to me.
“I’ll call her back.”
“Yeah, I tried that, but she won’t listen. She says it’s important. Either talk to her now or she’s coming over here.”
“Sydney, I’ll be right back,” I tell her, taking Joe’s phone. I caress her hair to will her to calm down, but it has little effect.
“Brianna, will you stay with her?”
“Yes, go,” she says, taking my place at the bedside.
“Mom, now isn’t a good time.”
“I know, but this couldn’t wait. I was at a meeting with the hospital board of directors and something told me to go and check on Mr. Warren. How is Sydney doing?”
“Not good,” I answer. “I can’t get a word out of her. What’s happened?” Of course, this has something to do with her father. Why else would she be in hysterics?
“Tristan, he’s gone.”
“Are you sure? What happened?”
“From what I was able to get out of the nurse in charge, there was a complication that developed after the surgery.” Jesus Christ. “Sydney,” she says, her voice breaking. “The poor thing, I know exactly how she feels.”
“She’s beside herself with grief, Mom. I don’t know how to help her.”
“The only thing you can do is be there for her. They’re going to be very difficult days ahead for her, and she’s going to need your support.”
“C’mon, Mom, you know I’m no good at this. I couldn’t even help you when Dad died. I checked out.”
“That’s not true. You helped me immensely. You still do. You are good with Sydney, Tristan. I saw it when you were together. She knows your heart, just show it to her a little more. I know how difficult that is for you, but I know you can rise to the challenge and do it.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Your best is always enough. In the meantime, have your brother run down to the drugstore and get her something to help her sleep. Melatonin or a little Benadryl might work. At some point, she’ll exhaust herself and she’s going to need help to rest. Call me if you need anything, no matter the hour.”
“I will. Thanks, Mom.”
I’m on my way back to Sydney when I see Brianna rush out of the room to the kitchen, so I follow her.
“What’s wrong?” I ask her as she rushes around.
“She asked for tea,” she tells me, pouring hot water in a teacup. “Joe’s sitting with her now.”
Thank fuck she is at least talking to them. She’s always been good at opening up to the two of them. Perhaps they are what she needs. I hate that’s the case and I hate myself even more for being the selfish, possessive prick that I am for wanting to be the one that can somehow console her, but it’s not about me right now.
“Maybe she’ll feel better with you and Joe.”
“We’re not who she wants. She could have easily knocked on our door, but she ran to you. It’s you she needs right now. Go to her.”
I nod as I take the tea from her and head to my room back to Sydney.
“Joe, can
you go get her something to help her sleep, but nothing too strong.”
“Sure thing,” he says before turning back to her. “Take care, Sydney.”
“Thank you, Joe,” she tells him.
“Sydney,” I say as I sit beside her once we’re alone. I place the serving tray next to the bed and she sits up to fix it.
“I don’t even know why I asked for this,” she says. “I hate tea, but Daddy used to drink it every night before he went to bed. Tea to sleep and coffee to wake up.” She laughs. She looks void and detached from everything that’s going on around her as she dips the teabag in the water. “I’m sorry I’m so much trouble, sir.”
“No trouble at all. How are you feeling?”
“Like I’m having a nightmare I can’t wake up from.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Who told you?”
“My mother went to check up on him and they told her.”
“He died hating me.”
Her voice is barely a whisper, as if she’s talking to herself and not to me.
“That’s not true,” I answer regardless.
She looks at me, her lower lip trembles, and her eyes pool with tears. She abandons her tea and balls herself up again in bed as her tears finally fall. I rush to the door, pull it open, and yell for Brianna. I’ve never seen her move so fast.
“Under her pillow, there’s a stuffed rabbit,” I explain to her. “She needs it.”
“I’ll get it.”
I remember she was holding it the first time I saw her crying in her bed. I take the scruffy old rabbit from Brianna and lay it on the pillow next to Sydney. She quickly grabs for it, holding it close. She looks so vulnerable. I can’t help but want to comfort her. Before my mind can talk me out of it, my body is climbing into bed behind her.
“Let me hold you?” I ask her.
She uncurls herself just enough for me to slip an arm around her. She scoots toward me until her back is pressed into my chest. She takes hold of my hand, pulling it under her cheek to lay her head on it as she holds me and her rabbit, adorned with two of my handkerchiefs, close to her.