by Joanna Blake
And I never crumbled. Not in combat. Not in the harshest circumstances. But this was different. I’d nearly lost her.
If I had been one minute later . . .
I shook it off, trying to banish the images of Kelly being tortured. Or worse. Kelly being gone, all because she was too pigheaded to ask me to take her to a damn wedding!
I clenched my teeth, willing myself to be calm. I scanned the area, then opened her door and unlocked her seatbelt. I took her arm and guided her to the house.
Once we were inside, I took her shoulders and forced her to focus on me.
“Kelly.”
She looked at me, tears in her eyes.
“You have to obey me now.”
“Was he really going to . . .”
“Yes.”
“But why?”
I ran my hand through my hair.
“Because of me. Because you know Mase. Because he wants to hurt us.”
“He seemed so nice.”
“He is the devil, Kelly. He is pure evil.”
It hit her then. What had almost happened. What I’d been trying to avoid all this time.
“He would have—oh, Cain. Oh, my God.”
“I know, baby girl. I know.”
I pulled her against my chest, holding her tightly. My anger was gone. I was just worried about her. I knew how scared she must be. If it was only half of what I was feeling, it was unbearable. I heard the rumble of motorcycles outside. Good. Backup was here.
“I need you to hold it together just a little while longer, okay?”
She nodded, but she wasn’t really paying attention. She was thinking about the park. About him.
About what he would have done to her.
Her breathing was coming fast and hard now.
“You can never do that again, Kelly. Promise me.”
“I didn’t think . . . how did he find me, Cain?”
“He must have been watching the house. Followed you.”
I watched her throat as she swallowed convulsively, tears starting to fall. She wasn’t listening. She was zoning out.
“Listen to me!” She looked at me, snapping out of her hysterics. “He will never stop now. Not now that you’ve seen his face.”
Her face paled. I hated to scare her, but she had to take this seriously. She had to know.
“But I’m never going to stop either.” I made a promise. A promise I meant to keep. “I will find him.”
She looked up at me, her little face shining with trust and hope.
“And I will end him.”
Chapter Thirty
Kelly
“Had enough?”
I nodded, snuggling against Cain’s side. We were on the couch and I was wrapped in a super-soft fleece blanket. It was like a sweatshirt, but for your whole body.
My brother had left a few hours ago, bringing a big shopping bag full of God only knew what. And a team of FBI agents. I’d helped them do a sketch of the guy, which Con said made it almost worth it. Cain had told him to get the hell out of his house after that.
Things had been pretty tense.
Now we were watching TV. Or I was. Cain was busy texting people on his phone. He was also feeding me lots.
He shifted in his seat, taking the bowl of veggie puffs off his lap and setting it on the coffee table. I sighed. This was nice. I was still freaked out, of course, but he was helping me forget it. I felt so safe with him. Especially because he was spoiling me rotten.
Cain was being nice.
Too nice.
He hadn’t even yelled at me. I knew he wanted to. He was angry with me. Scared too. But he hadn’t said more than few words about it. Not since we came in and that whole bit about ‘obeying him.’ I would have laughed in his face if I wasn’t so damn scared.
I was still scared, but I was determined not to think about it.
“Hot cocoa?”
I shook my head, my hand wandering to his lap. I had something else soothing and distracting in mind. He inhaled sharply and cast me a stern glance.
“None of that tonight, Miss.”
I groaned and pouted.
“Why not?”
“Because. You need to go to bed.”
“Only if you come with me,” I said suggestively.
“I have too much to do.”
“Like what?”
“You know what, baby girl.”
He shook his head and leaned back. I thought he would push me away but instead, he tugged me against his side. I snuggled against him again.
I watched the TV, ignoring the fact that Cain was ignoring me for his phone. He inhaled sharply.
“We got some footage.”
I peeked at his phone.
“What?”
“Footage from a security camera. Real blurry. But we can see him.”
My eyes got wide. I was grateful he actually told me anything. This sounded like good news.
Maybe they would actually catch the bastard.
“I need to step out for a second.”
I nodded sleepily.
“Okay.”
“I will be right back.”
“Okay.”
“I just need to do one thing first . . .”
He got really close to me. I sighed and closed my eyes, certain he was about to kiss me.
SNAP
I stared in confusion at my ankle. He’d put something on there. It was . . . a shackle? With a long chain attached to it?
“What the fuck, Cain?”
He smirked at me and ruffled my hair.
“It should be long enough for you to reach the bathroom. I’ll be right outside.”
Then he was gone.
Chapter Thirty-One
Cain
Kelly was snoozing on the couch when I got back inside. I stood there and watched her for a few minutes. She looked so sweet, so innocent. Like a child.
A child who had given me the worst scare of my life that afternoon.
A child who had to be taught a lesson.
A child who was going to be thoroughly punished over the next few days.
I unlocked her ankle and carried her to the bedroom, where another set of shackles waited for her. I clipped her ankle into the new set and then opened the drawer to see the other shackles I had.
These particular shackles were not from Connor. These I had bought for a different purpose. I had been planning on tying Kelly up for a long time. Once she’d responded so well to the spanking, I had decided to stock up on supplies. I had lots of interesting things I wanted to try with her. But not now. I closed the drawer.
Tomorrow.
The one I had just put on her dainty little ankle allowed enough lead for her to get to the master bathroom and that was about it. I stripped down to my shorts and pulled Kelly’s clothes off. Thankfully, she’d been wearing her dress so I hadn’t had to unshackle her again.
Her brother had dropped off her luggage and the shackles with barely a word to me. I knew he didn’t like what I was about to do to his precious sister. But he also knew I didn’t have a choice. Otherwise, he never would have supplied me with so much chain.
I smoothed my hand down over Kelly’s skin, and she mumbled, turning to lie on her side. I almost laughed. She must really trust me. We’d learned fast in the Corps that you could only sleep that deeply around guys you trusted. Especially out in the field.
Well, this was pretty much comparable to war for her. She was a sweet little thing who’d never been under siege before. A sweet little impetuous thing who was going to have to be punished, even though I just wanted to take her to bed and lose myself in her.
Stay hard, Cain. She nearly got her cute little self killed, remember?
Not just killed.
Tortured. Maimed. Cut up.
I closed my eyes, close to tears at the thought. I never fucking cried. But just the thought of losing her was enough to make my eyes suspiciously moist.
So, yeah, I didn’t have a choice. I had to punis
h her. To make sure she’d never do something stupid like that again. Because I didn’t think I would survive it if anything actually happened to her.
I climbed into bed and pulled Kelly against me. Then I pulled the covers over us both. I stared at the ceiling for a long time, just holding her. I pressed a kiss to her forehead.
Tomorrow was going to be a hard day.
For both of us.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Kelly
“I promise, I will never sneak off without telling you where I am.”
“Try again.”
“I will never sneak off without telling you and your team where I am.”
“Good. Next.”
“Please, Cain . . .”
He snapped the crop on the bed near my quivering body.
“Next!”
I moaned and forced myself to try and think. Cain had never raised his voice to me before. I had known he was upset with me. I just hadn’t realized how upset.
Cain was very, very upset. The most upset he could be. The upsetest.
That’s not a real word, Kelly. Focus.
“I will never go anywhere without an escort again.”
“Not quite. Pay attention, Princess.”
“I will . . . never go anywhere without an escort whom I recognize and know the name of.”
He cocked an eyebrow at me, the crop poised above my pussy. He wasn’t going to beat me with it. Not there, anyway. He was going to do something better if I got it right.
He was going to reward me.
“Never again.”
“Good girl.”
The crop came down softly and stroked my pussy from top to bottom. Once. Twice. Three times.
I rocked my hips against it, but too soon, it was gone.
I’d learned a few things today already. One, I was on permanent lockdown. Two, I was going to be thoroughly punished. And three, Cain was a kinky bastard.
(And four, I kinda liked it.)
“Please, Cain!”
“No. Now tell me again.”
“Why are you doing this?”
I was covered in sweat, spread-eagled on his bed, with my wrists and ankles handcuffed to the frame with black leather cuffs.
“You know why.”
“Because I belong to you and I nearly got myself killed.”
“Very good.”
“I meant the leather and the . . . other things.”
I was staring at the crop.
He smiled sensuously at me.
“I had to do something while I was waiting for it to be safe to be with you. I had so much time to plan what to do with you. It turns out, my imagination was even filthier than I ever knew.”
“You did this . . . with other girls?”
He shook his head slowly.
“No. I never wanted to.”
“You only wanted to . . . with me?”
“Just thinking about you got my mind working. Planning. So while I was waiting, I did some . . . shopping.”
I stared wide-eyed as he walked to the armoire across the room and opened the door. There were . . . things inside. Not clothes. A rack and shelves with toys on it. Whips and chains and what looked like . . . vibrators. Some other things that looked like giant rhinestones, but they had a cylindrical shape to them. They looked like . . . big wine stoppers. But I had a very bad feeling that they weren’t for wine.
“I wasn’t going to show any of this to you until after we were married. But you’ve presented me with the perfect opportunity.” He smiled coldly. “Pleasure and pain. Pleasure for me, and pain for you.”
I gulped audibly.
“So, you’ve never done any of this before.”
“No. But I did a lot of research.”
“You never wanted to do it before?”
He smiled, fingering something that looked like tiny clamps inside the cabinet.
“You bring out the dark side in me, Princess.”
“Do you need . . . that stuff? To get off with me.”
“Definitely not.”
“Oh.”
“I was thinking more for . . . special occasions. Like this.”
“When I’m bad?”
I hated the wheedling little girl sound in my voice. But I’d been on the edge for hours. And I knew now that this was only the beginning.
Cain was really mad.
And he was really enjoying this.
“Yes, baby girl. For when you are bad.” He smiled evilly and sat on the bed. “But I have a feeling that’s going to be pretty often.”
“Oh.”
He ran his hand over my body, his eyes exploring me hungrily.
“So pretty . . . so naughty. Now, let’s begin again.”
He used the crop to explore my body while asking the same questions again. He briefly skimmed my nipples and my pussy and then avoided them, only giving them a cursory touch when I answered the questions right. It was hard to concentrate.
I made a lot of mistakes.
After another hour, he clucked his tongue and said it was time.
“Time for what?”
I was so horny, I thought I might explode. But the last few times, I had gotten the answers perfectly right. I was hoping this meant I would get my reward. Him.
His cock, to be specific.
I wanted his dick so badly I would have done anything to get it. Literally anything. Crawled over broken glass, like Bruce Willis in Die Hard. I wanted that dick!
I had a feeling I was not gonna get it.
“Time to turn you over.”
He unchained me and told me to hold still until he told me what to do. I practically held my breath as he went over to the cabinet and got something out.
“Very good, little girl. Now get on your hands and knees.”
I whimpered a little bit as I got into position. I heard his indrawn breath.
“God, you look beautiful like this. Naked and begging for me.”
I mewled when his finger sank into my folds. But then he pulled it away again. I felt him pushing something slippery against my bottom.
“Hold still!”
I whined wordlessly, wanting to know what he was doing. But I knew better than to ask. Asking questions was okay, but asking too much would extend my punishment. Especially when he was busy concentrating on something, like he was now.
I was a fast learner when Cain was my teacher.
I gasped as something small and hard was pushed into my bottom. I wiggled, not sure if I liked the sensation.
“This will make it easier for me to fuck your tight little ass, eventually.”
“What?”
He smacked my ass with his bare hand.
“Quiet!”
I felt him settle behind me. Then my prayers were answered. Cain guided his thick, hard cock to my pussy and slowly pushed his way inside.
“Tell me when you get close.”
I moaned as he started fucking me. Slow and long and deep. I was so close already that it took only a few minutes for me to feel that orgasm hovering.
“I’m close.”
Cain pulled out.
“Good girl. I knew that. I just wanted to see if you would tell me the truth.”
I whimpered pitifully, feeling empty. My pussy ached for a hard pounding. After a minute, Cain entered me again.
“Don’t come. You haven’t earned that privilege yet.”
I was ready to cry, I wanted to come so bad. Was he really going to keep me from coming? He’s been teasing my body for hours now. It wasn’t fair!
“Please . . .”
“No.”
He smacked my ass for emphasis. Then he pulled out. I felt so empty while he made me wait. Then he pushed inside me again.
“Fuck. I’m going to come.”
I felt his cock expand inside me, and it tipped me over the edge. I started to come. But he pulled out, leaving my pussy spasming on nothing. It was completely unsatisfying. If anything, I was even hornier now!
I heard
him groan and felt his seed fall onto my skin. Cain had come. I had . . . almost come. Almost was definitely not good enough! I lowered my forehead to the mattress and cried.
The bed shifted as Cain got up and went to the bathroom. I felt him come into the room behind me.
“You can lie down.”
I lay on my side, watching him. He must have rinsed off really quickly. He had a towel wrapped around his waist. I wanted to lick the water droplets off his smooth stomach.
“Cain . . .”
“Here. Drink this.”
He handed me a bottle of water.
“Do you need to use the restroom?”
I shook my head.
“Good. Then let’s begin again.”
“Please . . . I can’t.”
He locked my ankle back into the cuff.
“You know what I can’t? I can’t lose you. I can’t not know that you are safe.”
He locked my wrist into another cuff.
“I can’t go through that again.”
I grabbed his arm, tears welling in my eyes.
“I’m so sorry, Cain. I am so sorry.”
I threw myself into his arms. He caught me and held me. Then I felt him sag against me.
“Kelly . . .”
His voice was raw. I realized he was crying. I was crying too.
“I’m so, so sorry. Please forgive me.”
“I do forgive you.” His hand was in my hair, rumpling it. He pressed a kiss into the top of my head. “I just want to make sure you will never forget.”
“I won’t.”
“Okay.” He nodded and pulled back. “Okay.”
I sighed with relief as he uncuffed me.
“Let’s get you cleaned up.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Cain
“That’s it, baby girl.”
“Can I? Please?”
Kelly was leaning against the shower wall while I fingered her from behind. Her slick juices ran down my wrist. I was hard again and ready to fuck her again, let myself lose control this time.