by Marian Tee
“I’m sorry,” Anneke whispered tremulously. “But I just can’t---”
“Please.” Raquel reached over to clasp Anneke’s hands tightly between hers. “I’ve already hurt him so badly, and it was all because I was afraid. I c-couldn’t make myself accept that I could have my son back in my life again. That he could actually do the unthinkable, forgiving me---” More tears fell down her cheeks. “He told me it was all because of you. That loving you changed him. And to think h-he even asked for my forgiveness---”
Raquel fell to her knees.
Anneke paled.
“This is all I can do for my son.” Raquel stared up at Marcus’ wife. “Please. I’m begging you. Please give my son one more chance.”
Marcus’ entire penthouse apartment was shrouded in darkness when she let herself in. It took a while before she found him, alone in the balcony, and when Anneke whispered his name---
He whirled around clumsily to face her, a visibly stunned expression on his handsome face. “Anneke?” He took a step towards her, unsteady on his feet, and it broke her heart to see the loss of grace in his movements. It just wasn’t right.
“You shouldn’t---” Marcus raked a hand through his hair. “You shouldn’t be here.”
His words were halting, and this broke her heart even more. This wasn’t right either, when he used to be so wonderfully eloquent.
“I didn’t want to be here at the start,” she answered shakily. “I was so happy, you know? But then Freddie told me what she discovered about your grandmother’s will---”
Pain fleeted over her face, and Marcus sucked his breath.
“It was like the past all over again,” she revealed brokenly.
“I’m sorry.”
“You made me think you were after me---”
Marcus’ lips tightened. He wanted to tell her it was so, that he had been after her from the start, but he didn’t let himself. It was better this way. He had to let her go so she could find herself a better man.
When he only stared at her stoically, Anneke knew she had to try harder. “Were you really ever after me?”
Nothing.
“Did you mean anything you said to me?”
Nothing.
“Were you simply lying when you made feel I was beautiful and good---”
This time, Marcus could no longer help it, and he said harshly, “You are that. You’re all of that and more, that’s why---”
When he stopped, she took the risk, finishing his words for him. “That’s why what, Marcus? That’s why you love me?”
His lips didn’t move, but the look in his eyes was everything.
And it was enough.
Oh dear God, it was more than enough, since that look in his eyes promised her everything.
“If I h-hadn’t come here,” she choked out, “you’d never have come after me, w-would you?”
“No.” His tone was dull. “I wouldn’t have. I’m afraid that’s the kind of man I am---”
“I know.”
Her words lashed at him, and he thought numbly, And so she did. Anneke believed he had been using her from the start, and he had to let her go on thinking that, for her sake.
“I know exactly the kind of man you are, my love---”
His head jerked up.
“And it’s why I’ll never stop loving you.” Their eyes met, and a smile wobbled over her lips as she said, “It’s why I’d never be so foolish to let go of a man who thinks I’m perfect. A man who thinks I’m a paragon, someone who walks on water---” When he still kept staring at her, not saying a word, she asked pleadingly, “Can’t you please say something?”
Marcus shook his head.
Tears pricked her eyes. “Please, Marcus.” And still, he remained immobile, and the tears began to fall. She knew – oh, she knew - he wasn’t letting himself move because he believed he didn’t deserve to come any nearer.
She stretched her arm towards him. “P-please, Marcus. Come here, please---”
“I can’t.” The raggedly spoken words were torn out of his throat. “I’ve hurt you so many times---”
“Yes,” she affirmed wildly. “Yes, you did but it wasn’t like the way your father hurt your mother. It wasn’t like the way your father broke his word to your mother, when he swore to love her and keep her safe. You aren’t like him and never will be, Marcus. Because you love me. You love me more than your happiness, your life, and I---” She swallowed hard. “I love you just as much, so please---” She offered her hand to him again. “Please, Marcus---”
And he still didn’t move.
“Please don’t make me beg---”
And that was what finally made him move, realizing that he had forced her to beg, when all he had wanted was for Anneke to have everything she desired in this world.
Marcus reached her in an instant, his arms locking around her like chains. She wrapped her arms around him just as tightly, and his entire body shuddered at the feel of her body against his.
Anneke.
Anneke.
Anneke.
“I’ll never let you go again.” He spoke the words in a raw voice, and they were a warning, a threat, and a promise all in one. He wouldn’t have been surprised if the words ended up scaring her, but instead his wife only laughed shakily.
“Oh Marcus.” And more tears began to wet the side of his neck. “Even if you did let go of me, I’ll just come after you.”
He pulled back to look down into her beautiful blue eyes, asking in a husky, teasing voice, “Who would’ve thought love would make an innocent like you so terrifyingly aggressive?”
Her smile wobbly but bright, she returned softly, “And who would’ve thought love could make a playboy like you turn so shockingly coy?”
For one moment, the words stunned him. Him, coy? But then he remembered the way he had first refused her every overture, and he realized it was true. As he threw his head back with a laugh, his wife laughed with him, even as she implored half-teasingly, half-seriously, “Please promise me this is the last time you’ll play hard to get whenever we fight?”
Epilogue
It was Marcus and Anneke’s first wedding anniversary, and they had celebrated it with a bang. Invitations had been sent out to over a thousand people, with the party held in the biggest ballroom in Queen Wilhemina’s palace. And after, the couple retreated into the palace’s private wing, walking hand in hand to the suite that had been specially prepared for them.
So many things had changed in the past year, and they were all for the better. To say that she was happy would be the biggest understatement in the world, and more often than not Anneke was tempted to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming it all up.
Glancing at his wife, Marcus caught a familiar look in Anneke’s brilliant blue eyes, and the Italian billionaire sighed. “Adorable as your insecurities sometimes make you---”
“Who says I’m insecure?” Anneke muttered, automatically defensive.
“They have no place in your mind tonight of all nights, bambina.”
“I told you, I’m not---”
“Accept that you are the happiest and luckiest woman in the world because you have a husband like me.”
A laugh escaped her. “Cocky doesn’t even cover it---oh!” Marcus had suddenly swept her up in his arms.
“I thought I should carry you over the threshold since it’s our anniversary.”
Oh! It was terribly thoughtful and wonderfully sweet of him. How could this man be so perfect? Be so---
The knowing gleam in Marcus’ dark gaze pulled the brakes on her thoughts. Crap. She had done it again, hadn’t she? Making a face, she confessed, “I can’t help it. You make everything unbearably perfect.”
“Only because you deserve it.” After laying her gently on the petal-strewn bed, he asked quietly, “Are you sure of this?” They had talked about this for a long time and had agreed that their wedding anniversary would also be their first and last tango into the dark side. Although Annek
e knew of his Dominant side, she had never experienced fully it for herself. And although Marcus would rather kill himself than hurt his wife – he had never put it to a test.
But tonight that would all change. Tonight, they would have much-needed answers to both questions, and following it the door to that chapter of Marcus’ life could finally be shut closed.
Anneke tried to control the trembling of her body as Marcus blindfolded her and began undressing her. The absolute darkness was unnerving, and it made her even more sensitive and responsive to her husband’s touch.
When she felt his hands shape one cheek of her butt, she couldn’t help stiffening. She knew, of course, what she had signed up for, but the knowledge only served to intensify her fears. Anneke had always been a weakling when it came to pain, but since Marcus needed to do this to get over his trauma---
Please God. Please just don’t let me faint after the first spank or I’d seriously die of embarrassment.
“You can still back out, bambina.”
She shook her head profusely. “I can do this.” After all, if that woman could survive a beating from Marcus and actually be aroused by it, well – she could do it, too. In fact, she was determined to do things even better.
In fact, Anneke thought determinedly, she was going to be so good at this that she would be begging him to whip her over and over.
“Ready now?”
Oh, crap.
Marcus pulled her up on her fours, placing her on the edge of the bed before walking away to take his whip out of the closet. “Take deep breaths,” he commanded.
She did as ordered, but a second later she realized she was well beyond it since she was already hyperventilating.
Marcus raised his hand.
But it was all he could do, since Anneke had already started crying.
“Anneke.” His tone was half-affectionate, half-exasperated. He had a feeling this would happen, but he had let his wife convince him he was wrong. She had just been so eager to please him that he hadn’t been able to turn her down.
He ripped the blindfold off her face as he drew her on his lap. “Never push yourself like this again.”
She pulled away with a shake of her head. “I think it was just n-nerves. Maybe after a little while---”
“No, my love. This isn’t for you---”
She cut him off, saying bravely, “Let’s try it again, but this time without the blindfolds. I think I’ll be able to handle it better if I can see what’s happening.”
He sighed. “Anneke---”
“Please.”
“You’re certain?”
The words had her eyes tearing up, but his wife gave him a resolute nod, saying determinedly, “Yes.”
“Alright then, but we’ll change things a bit, aside from the blindfold.” He settled Anneke on her feet and stood up as well. He took a step towards her, and she paled.
Fuck. She was just too cute, and it made him realize something. He might be done being a Dom, but perhaps his Sadist days were far from over.
“Turn around.”
Anneke’s heart thundered against her chest as she slowly turned her back to Marcus.
More commands followed.
Bend down. Place your hands against the walls.
She could feel herself growing fainter and fainter and held on to her consciousness with all her might.
Marcus’ hands settled on the side of her hips, and Anneke tensed.
“I’m not sure if I’ll ever get to beat you…”
A gasp of fear almost escaped her, but she managed to swallow it back.
“But I’ll love trying.”
Tears pricked her eyes.
I can do this, I can do this, I can do this---
Marcus bent over her, his chest pressing against her back. “I might fuck you while I’m beating you, but I promise you’ll like it.”
“I k-know.” Not. “I b-believe you.” Not.
“You mean that?”
More tears rushed down her cheeks. “Of course.”
“Then---”
She squeezed her eyes shut, preparing herself for the worst.
But instead of his whip striking her bottom, she felt him thrust into her without warning.
A whimper escaped her---
And then he was pounding into her, harder and harder, and she realized why he wanted her to keep her hands against the walls, the position causing her body to automatically respond to his thrusts.
He fucked her hard and fast, he fucked her so, so beautifully well that she forgot to be afraid.
After, he carried her back to bed, and as she snuggled to her husband, she couldn’t help whispering, “You didn’t beat me.”
He tucked her head under his chin, not wanting his wife to glimpse his grin as he murmured silkily, “I still might. You did promise I’d have the entire night to punish you so if I feel the urge all of a sudden, I suppose I could wake you up with a surprise whipping---”
“W w-what?” she stammered.
“It should make things more exciting,” he drawled indolently, “if you don’t know when I’m going to beat you.”
“No!” The word came out in a wail. Anneke sat up. “It’s not going to be exciting. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep if you say it like that. C-can’t you just beat me now?”
“I’m afraid not, bambina.” Marcus managed to keep his tone solemn. “So just be on your toes---”
Another wail, and it became harder to keep his amusement to himself.
“And prepare to be surprised.”
“Marcus!” But her tone was a mixture of dismay and sexual excitement.
Pretending to misunderstand her, he drawled, “Yes, I know. It’s going to be one hell of a night.”
“MARCUS!”
“And when I do beat you,” he lied, “I promise you, bambina---” Marcus kissed her hard, muttering against her lips, “It will be good.”
Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for your patience. It means everything to me.
And I also have a surprise Beauty and the Beast standalone out soon – something fun, twisted, and sexy – so I hope you’ll look forward to it!
Until our next journey,
Marian Tee
Also by Marian Tee
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