by Measha Stone
“So that’s a no?”
“I think you’re trying to provoke me into giving you a spanking. I think it’s been too many weeks since your ass has been on fire.”
She wouldn’t deny it. Nor would she agree.
“Tonight, I’ll meet you in our room at ten o’clock. And you remember how I expect you to be when I meet you?”
The growling sound of his voice softened the fluttering in her body.
“Naked and on my knees,” she whispered.
“Yes.” He kissed her, a short, hard kiss and released her. “Are you calm enough to do this? Are you sure?”
He studied her with the same concern as he had when she told him why she wanted to meet with her father. What she wanted to ask him.
“Yes, Ash. I’m ready.” It was mostly true. But not entirely. How could anyone be ready to face their father for the last time.
As he led her down the steps, her heart hammered against her ribs, shaking her stomach and giving her the very real impression she was going to lose her lunch in the stairwell.
The air chilled as they made their way down the spiral staircase. A part of her expected a medieval se up, so when all she found was more of the same, as the other floors she was a little surprised.
Ash grabbed her hand as she stepped off the stairs, and he walked her down the hallway again. A shorter hallway, with several doors on each side, each with small viewing windows at the top.
“Is this where you would have put me if I hadn’t—I mean when my father,,,”
Ash stopped in front of a room. “You never would have been kept down here.” He pulled a set of keys from his pocket and unlocked the door. “He’s in here. Do you want me to go with you?” It sounded rhetorical, but she answered anyway.
“I can handle this.”
“Do you want me in there?” he asked with more force.
“Can you keep quiet?” she asked.
“Probably not. If he hurts you—”
“He won’t. He can’t. I mean, he did, but not now.” She surveyed the entrance. “Okay, you can come in, but please let me handle it.”
He nodded and pushed the door open.
Her father stood facing them, probably anticipating whatever was coming through the doorway when he heard the keys from outside. He hadn’t shaved, and a fuzzy gray beard had taken over his face. The short haircut he normally sported had grown out a bit over the past few weeks, giving him an even older appearance. He hadn’t lost weight, though, she noticed immediately. He was clean and had a healthy glow about him.
“Ellie!” Her father grinned.
There was a chill in the air. Crisper than in the hall, but her father didn’t seem to notice. His arms were outstretched, welcoming her to hug him.
She stood several steps away from him, arms wrapped around her middle.
“What’s wrong?” her father asked, dropping his arms to his sides and moving his gaze to Ash briefly before moving them back to her. “What has he told you? Where have you been?” His voice darkened with each question, until finally the accusation came through. “You’ve been living upstairs while you let your father rot down here.”
“You don’t look like you’ve rotted much.” She raised her chin. All the years she’d tried to help him, to cover his debt, she couldn’t remember a single time he’d thanked her.
“He let me shower today.”
Ellie reached back and touched Ash’s hand when she felt him starting to tense behind her. Her father was lying. She could see the signs now, much clearer than months ago.
She took a long moment to survey the room. Comfortable. Nothing like the cell in a dungeon she pictured him sitting in. Concrete walls, but a rug covered the floor, and a bed was pushed against the wall in the corner. There was even a small dinette set and a couch.
“I came to say goodbye.” Though she tried to keep herself from shaking, the tremor came through her voice.
“Ellie. No,” Her father took a step toward her but stopped with a glance over her shoulder at Ash.
“For years, I took care of you. When mom got sick, when she was too sick to help at the coffeehouse, when she died.” Her stomach twisted at the memory. A long-ago faded image of her mother in the hospital.
“But I can’t anymore. I won’t.”
“Ellie, we’re family. We take care of each other,” he repeated the mantra he’d quoted over the years of her sacrifices made for him.
“No. I took care of you. When you couldn’t make rent, I got a second job. When you owed Jose more than we had in the bank, I sold a piece of Mom’s jewelry. You never took care of me.”
“That’s not true!”
“How many art fairs in high school did you forget to come to because you had a poker game you had to be at? Or parent teacher conferences you didn’t attend because you had spent the night at the casino and weren’t awake in time?” She clenched her hands to keep them from shaking, but nothing could stop her insides from quaking. Every moment of her childhood he’d failed her pushed forward in her mind.
“I was doing my best. When your mother died, it was so hard,” he said. No emotion laced his words. It was as though he’d given himself, and her, the same excuse for so long, it just fell out of his mouth without thought or meaning.
“Yeah, Dad. It was hard. For both of us. But you didn’t face it, you just buried yourself in your gambling. I was twelve! By the time I was in high school, I was working night shifts at the coffeehouse, and taking extra jobs on the days we were closed to make ends meet.”
“Don’t be so dramatic. I was taking care of you. I was putting a roof over your head.”
“My head?” She yelled the words, anger replaced the hurt she’d felt moments before. He didn’t see it. After all the years, after the last month, he still didn’t see how his actions hurt her.
“We almost lost the roof over my head three times because of your gambling.” She took a deep breath, feeling the tears burn her eyes but not caring to wipe them away. “You sold me, Dad. You knew I’d come here to save you, and I did. Like an idiot, I came and protected you one more time. But, you knew I would. You were betting on it.”
Ash moved closer. The heat of his body behind her gave her the strength to push on.
“You know, I always thought you wouldn’t sell the coffeehouse because it was Mom’s big dream. That’s what you told me. You told me she had put everything into the place and selling it would be like cutting her out of our hearts.”
She stepped over to him.
“I found the papers, Dad.” Calling him that felt heavy. He didn’t deserve the title. “You never sold it because mom put the coffeehouse in my name. You were executor until I was eighteen, and then it turned over to me. You didn’t sell it because you weren’t able to. She knew what you would do. She knew you’d sell it or gamble it away.”
“Your mother was looking out for you, but that’s not—”
“She was getting ready to divorce you when she got sick!” A hard sob grabbed her. Reading the divorce filing had been like sticking a knife directly through her heart. “She wanted out. She was going to take me away from you, and you would have been alone. No one to save you anymore. But she got sick and didn’t go forward with it.”
Her father’s face contorted with a rage she’d not witnessed in her life.
“The coffeehouse was as much mine as it was hers. She had no right to do that.” He clenched his jaw, his eyes darkening.
“No. It wasn’t. Mom bought it before you two met.”
Ellie dragged the back of her hand across her wet cheeks. The ache in her chest swelled when her father, the man who was supposed to be her protector and provider, stared at her blankly. But what else was there to say? She already knew everything, and he had nothing to offer in his defense.
“Ellie.” His voice softened again, the same tone he used when he was about to let her down again. “We have to figure out what comes next, here. You can’t think to stay with him. He’ll keep me locked
up forever, or kill me.”
“You didn’t think he was all that bad when you decided to exchange me for your debt.”
“I-I was finding a way to pay him, I just needed some time.”
“And you found the time by selling me to him, and then you got Marcus Komisky involved. Your solution to was to sell me to him in order to pay off Ash. Do you have any idea how crazy that is?” Her voice rose.
Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself. This was the end of her worry, of her heartache over her father’s carelessness, his thoughtlessness. She was finally putting herself first. She was taking care of herself and putting him away from here, where he couldn’t hurt her again.
“I’m selling the coffeehouse. A condo has been purchased for you. Your things have already been moved there. There’s a bank account in your name that will have a small allowance deposited every month.”
“An allowance? How much?” her father asked, not giving Ash glance, or a word. But what had she really expected from him than more greed? Maybe she wanted him to beg her forgiveness and plead with her not to walk out on him. But she wouldn’t get those things from him.
She stepped back, feeling Ash’s hands on her shoulders.
“I never want to hear from you again. If you run out of money, don’t come asking for more. There won’t be any. If you run up a debt you can’t pay, I won’t help.”
Her jaw ached, but she kept talking.
“When I first met Ash, I called him a beast. He seemed cruel and heartless. But I was wrong. You’re the monster. You’re the one with no heart or soul. And I’m done with you.” Not wanting to hear any reply he might conjure up, she turned on her heel and left the room.
“If you contact her, I will kill you. Make no mistake, Dominick. I will kill you with my bare hands if need be before I let you hurt her ever again.” Ash’s voice carried outside the door, where Ellie leaned against the chilled concrete walls.
“Yeah. Okay. I got it,” her father said, without remorse or sadness. Her father, for the second time, simply gave her up.
CREATED BY JUTOH - PLEASE REGISTER TO REMOVE THIS LINE
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Ellie slept peacefully in their bed beneath the quilt, snuggled up to Ash’s pillow. He stood over his sleeping beauty, tempted to let her continue napping. But the beast in him won out.
“Ellie.” He shook her shoulder, rousing her.
She wiped her eyes and looked to the clock on the nightstand. “Oh.” She quickly shuffled from under the covers and ran into the bathroom.
“Two minutes!” he called after her and left the bedroom to give her space.
Hanging out in the hallway, he listened to her shuffle around the bedroom. He couldn’t help but grin when she cursed a split moment after he heard a thunk. She’d hit her toe on the armchair half a dozen times already.
His girl needed tonight. She needed his beast.
Deciding he’d been kind enough, he reentered the room to find her kneeling beside the bed in the correct position. Her naked body was displayed before him, making his already hard cock stiffen more.
“You remembered your positioning well enough,” he praised, noting the little hitch in her breathing. Her shoulders tensed. She was trying not to look up at him, but she wanted to. Badly. She wanted his pleasure. But not yet.
He walked past her, careful not to touch her naked form, and opened the drawer of his toybox. Picking out the thickest flogger he had in his room, he turned back to her, dragging the leather falls through his fingers.
“Put your face to the floor and stick your ass up in the air,” he ordered, running the flogger over her back to let her know what was coming. She could try to anticipate his next moves, but she’d be wrong.
He noticed she’d brushed her hair out while in the washroom, leaving the thick, auburn smoothed down her back. It spilled to either side of her as she moved into position, exposing the creamy skin of her backside.
Stepping to her left side, he ran the flogger over her up turned ass. First to the right, then the left, before letting it fall between her legs, brushing against her pussy and running up the length of her spread cheeks.
Her inhale of breath caught him off guard. His girl was sensitive already.
“Did you touch yourself?” he asked, holding the flogger over her ass. “Did you? When you were napping?”
She muttered a curse low enough she probably thought he hadn’t heard. He grinned at her. Oh, the beast in him was going to like this.
“Change of plans for my naughty girl.” He dropped the flogger and bent down. Pulling her up by her hair, he led her to the bed. “Punishment first.” He pushed her face into the mattress and, before she had a chance get comfortable, he began spanking her ass.
She wiggled and cried with each slap to her cheeks, but he wouldn’t stop. Not until the creamy white ass before him glowed red. And only when she finally stopped begging for mercy she didn’t really want any more than he was willing to give, did he slow in his swats.
“You played with your pussy.”
“Yes. I’m sorry.” She yapped when his hand struck her pussy. Her legs had spread during the spanking, giving him the perfect target.
“How am I supposed to give you an orgasm if you’ve already stolen one?” he asked with another swat to her thigh.
“You don’t have to, Ash,” she answered with a seriousness that belonged more in a boardroom than the bedroom.
He yanked her to her feet, turning her around until his eyes could lock on hers. Unshed tears sparkled in her eyes, but the smile she blessed him with soothed away some of his snark.
“I don’t have to?”
“No. You don’t have to give me an orgasm, or give me a flogging. I just want to be here with you.” She licked her dry lips. “I just want to be yours.”
Well. Fuck.
He pulled her to his chest and held her tight.
“So, if I push you down and just take your body?”
“I won’t stop you. I’ll spread my legs wide for you.”
“And if I want to tie you to the cross and flog your back until we are both exhausted?”
She kissed his neck. “I’ll hold out as long as I can and take every lash you give me.”
His eyes nearly crossed.
“And if I say I want you to put a ring on your finger and be mine forever?” He didn’t let her pull away. Exposing his vulnerability to her would be too much.
“I’d say let’s start forever right now.”
“I fucking love you, Ellie,” he growled and picked her up and tossed her onto the matress, stripping out of his clothes as quickly as his fingers would allow.
“Prove it.” She gave him a daring smile and moved back just in time for him to jump on the bed.
There was no need for preamble. He thrust into her wanting body and took her hard. Her nails scratched down his arms and back, pushing him deeper into his arousal.
She arched, grabbing at him when she screamed her release. He didn’t wait any longer than the first wave of her orgasm before he plowed into her once more and let his own release steal him away.
Once he caught his breath, he yanked on the quilt and covered them both up. Her head rested on his chest, and he ran his fingers lightly over her shoulder.
“I meant it, Ellie. Be my wife.”
She pushed up onto her arm and stared at him, large green eyes dancing with an energy he adored in her.
“I meant it, too. Let’s do it right away.”
“Demanding woman, aren’t you?” He rolled his eyes and laughed. “Once that ring is on your finger, you can bet I’ll be keeping you tied to this bed for days at a time.”
“Since when do you need a ring for that?” She snuggled into his chest, playing with the hair there.
“True enough,” he agreed. “I have some rope in my drawer.” He started to roll over, but she playfully swatted his arm.
He growled and rolled on top of her, kissing her hard and trapping her against
the pillows.
“You think to hit me, woman?”
“Of course not. I think to make you get the extra rope from downstairs.” She giggled.
He kissed her again and bit her lower lip.
“You really are a beast, Ash.” She laughed.
“And you’re definitely my beauty, and I suppose this is as close to a fairy tale either of us will ever get.”
“Because we live happily ever after.”
“Fuck yeah, we do. Now, don’t move. I’m getting the rope.”
He kissed her soundly.
And they lived—mostly—happily ever after.
The End