Spark

by J Marie

  I knew she was safe and sound, tucked away within the confines of my fortress and

  sleeping peacefully in my bed. Even when I’d gone to Vegas to visit Dom for three

  days, I still couldn’t get her out of my head. I watched him discipline Dalia for her

  loose mouth and yet barely paid any attention to it, too concerned with Jaden and

  her request for friendships. I’d actually almost considered it.

  After all the shit I dealt with just to try to keep her happy, she still thought to

  betray me. She still thought her loyalty belonged to her vendetta. She was dead

  fucking wrong about that. I owned her, and that fierce possession meant owning

  everything that she was. Her hopes, her dreams, her fears, and her faith all

  belonged to me, and I would uphold that custody with an iron fist.

  I headed over to the thermostat and lowered the temperature even more than I

  usually kept it. I was going to make Jaden desperate for me, and forcing her to need

  my body heat would compel her to accept me for comfort. I’d tried to take the easy

  route with her, tried to give her a simple way to accept her life with me, and now, it

  was clear I was going to have to revert to the extreme measures I had hoped to

  avoid. I was going to use her own body against her until her mind accepted how

  much she truly needed me. I was going to force the dependency until it pained her

  to be away from my touch, from my love.

  I didn’t care how long it took. We would be down here for months if that was

  what it meant. Until I saw the truth in Jaden’s eyes that she honestly and

  wholeheartedly believed that she was mine forever, that displeasing me was a

  personal failure, and that her plan for revenge was hopeless and unwarranted, she

  would never leave this room. I was done playing games. It was finally time for a real

  breakdown.

  When Jaden finally stirred a half hour later, I felt excitement rise up again. Soft

  panicked gasps left her throat as she struggled against her restraints. She needed to

  get used to them. They’d be in place for a while.

  When she realized she was getting nowhere, her eyes finally found mine as I

  remained relaxed in my chair with an open book in my lap.

  “W-what are you doing?” she asked, her voice laced with uncertainty as her

  naked body began to shiver from the cold.

  I glared at her and closed the book on my lap, placing it on the nightstand as I

  stood up.

  “Waiting for you to wake up,” I replied.

  “Waiting for me to w-wake up like t-this,” she said, tugging against her

  restraints again. “It’s fucking f-freezing in here.” I could see the goose bumps

  rising on her skin as her limbs shook to keep warm. It put a smile on my face.

  “You’ll be waking up like this for a while. How long will depend entirely on

  you.”

  “What are you t-talking about?”

  “Who do you belong to, Jaden?”

  She looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. Like I was stupid for not knowing this

  answer.

  “You,” she said, her eyebrows narrowing.

  “And what else belongs to me?” I asked her, my arms folding across my bare

  chest as I regarded her.

  Her confusion was evident as her eyes searched me for the answer.

  “I … I don’t …”

  I knew she was struggling with what I wanted her to say. She knew exactly what

  else belonged to me, but she didn’t want to say it. She could admit that her body

  belonged to me, but that was nothing compared to her mind, heart, and soul. And

  I’ll be damned if they weren’t in my pocket before I let her leave this room.

  Sunlight would not touch her beautiful skin until she gave me what I wanted.

  “I’ll give you a hint,” I said. “It starts with the letter L.”

  Fear had sparked in Jaden’s eyes before she shielded them from me, her lids

  closing tight over the amber I refused to be denied. Her body shook even more as

  she fought back the sobs I knew she wanted to release. And I welcomed them. I

  wanted her tears to coat my skin. I wanted her to shed them so she could move past

  her initial fears and give in to what was always meant to be. Mine.

  Lowering myself to the bed, I placed my hands on either side of her head and

  leaned in.

  “I may not have your love, and though that will come in time, it is not my

  immediate concern. My immediate concern is your lack of loyalty to the man who

  owns you. Treachery is not something I will tolerate as you’ve seen tonight, and you

  are no exception.”

  More silent tearless sobs racked her body as she tugged at her cuffs. I found

  myself pressing my lips to her forehead.

  “We will be going back to the drawing board, Jaden. You will not leave this room

  until you’ve abandoned your hopes for revenge, and I am satisfied with your

  behavior. You will remain here until you understand that your loyalty to me is the

  only thing that will release you from everything you’re going to endure down here.”

  More silent sobs, more shaking, and this time, the tears finally flowed. We were

  already making progress.

  “I hope you’re ready, princess. Because I have a feeling we’re going to be down

  here for a very long time.”

  52

  BROKEN

  I t took Jaden a full month and a half before she finally broke. She spent the first

  week sleeping in her cage, and the second week—when she behaved better

  —completely restrained to the bed; her only reprieve was when I allowed her to use

  the bathroom or to bathe. If she behaved, I would only cuff her wrists together

  while I warmed her body with my own, massaging the blood flow back into her

  arms.

  For every ounce of reluctance or mere glimmer of ungratefulness, I responded

  with that much more cruelty. If she wanted my mercy, she’d better damn well

  smile for it and show me how much it meant to her; otherwise, I had no reason to

  give it. If I didn’t feel her desperation for me, then I wasn’t working hard enough to

  extract it. For every small moment she denied me, whether it was defiance or false

  indifference, I punished her severely. Pain was a constant companion for her for a

  long time. I didn’t care if she was denying an orgasm or an emotion, I would not

  have her hiding a thing from me.

  The first few days had been difficult. Her first week was filled with nothing but

  punishments. I’d burned her with wax, whipped her with leather, beaten her with

  wood, and drained every single tear and scream from her body. For every word of

  backtalk, I made sure she tasted blood in her mouth. It didn’t take long for her

  pride to leave her as she begged and pleaded with me to stop. It wasn’t happening.

  If she wasn’t restrained to the bed, she was restrained somewhere else within the

  room, submitting to the pain she knew she owed.

  At first, she had fought me in her restraints as best she could as I left her legs to

  move freely, but that was only because I wanted to be able to move them in

  different positions when I fucked her. I threatened to numb her legs with an

  anesthetic if she kicked me, and I only had to follow through once on the second

  day. She was much more cooperative after that.

  On the days when she did finally give i
n to me—when she gave me what I

  wanted and took her punishments well—the pleasure I rewarded her with was far

  greater than anything she’d ever experienced. I was tender, gentle, passionate—

  everything she could have ever wanted or needed as she grew dependent on my

  comfort. If she denied me, I made sure to leave her wanting for the rest of the

  night. If she thought she was lonely and isolated before, she had no idea how

  reliant she was about to become on my attention and affection alone.

  Eventually, her pride disappeared altogether, and she made sure to express her

  gratefulness to me at every turn. The feeling I got when she clung to me, seeking a

  shield from the cold her body endured in my absence, was heaven. She’d bury her

  face in my chest, and as she warmed her little nose, she’d inadvertently warm my

  dead heart.

  After the third week, I let her roam the room freely, but the moment I entered

  that door, she had less than three seconds to get down on her knees and show me

  the respect I deserved. Down here, I was her fucking Master, and if I had to treat her

  like the slave she had been back at the warehouse to get her to understand her

  place, then so be it. If she disobeyed me even once, she returned to her cage. After

  two weeks of strict confinement, she only risked that punishment once. There were

  no more attempts of intentionally displeasing me after that.

  I made sure she depended on me for everything. I woke her, bathed her, warmed

  her, read to her, clothed her if she was good, fed her, punished her, pleasured her,

  and put her to sleep. I cared for her every need. She wasn’t allowed to do anything

  on her own without my permission, except relieve herself, and if she did, there was

  trouble for her.

  Again, in the beginning, she would experiment with her freedom, and again, she

  would lose it. It was a pattern with her. She’d behave well up until I tested her with

  more responsibility. She’d always fuck it up, thinking she could outsmart me;

  thinking I wouldn’t see when she tried to manipulate me into sympathizing with

  her.

  Eventually, she learned to stop trying, to take what I gave her in stride until she

  finally came to terms with what her ultimate goal was: to please me. By the fourth

  week, pleasing me motivated everything she did, but I didn’t want her motivation

  simply to be to get out of the room. I wanted her to please me because it pleased her

  to do so. I wanted her to make me happy because she wanted to, not because she

  had to. But that conditioning would be the result of Stockholm syndrome, and we

  simply weren’t there yet.

  When I moved to leave her, the panic in her voice had me smiling on the inside.

  She didn’t like it when I left her alone, but she didn’t realize how important her

  isolation was. I learned the most from her when she was alone, watching to see if

  she would fall into old routines or practices. After Jaden’s first week of being able to

  roam freely, she trained. She’d exercise until her face was beet red—shadowboxing,

  advanced kicks, running in place, push-ups, sit-ups, crunches, planks, yoga,

  everything she could do to not only stay in shape but also to stay warm. When she

  wasn’t exercising, she’d meditate or stretch. It wasn’t as if I gave her much to do in

  there. But after a few weeks, her behavior began to change. Each day, she engaged

  in a little less training; there was less rage in her shadowboxing, and her kicks

  lacked their usual flair.

  Some days, she wouldn’t train at all and spent hours crying into the pillows. She

  was losing hope, and though it broke my heart to see her in such pain, I knew it was

  necessary. She was beginning to see her training as pointless, and she was slowly

  starting to give up. She’d spend more time either curled in a ball on the bed, her

  small fingers tracing over my name on her wrists, or pacing the room while her

  eyes watched the door anxiously. She was waiting for me—waiting for me to free

  her from her isolated torment. But she would not be free because of pity or for my

  overwhelming desire to have her at my side again. I had a goal that I needed to

  accomplish, and if I stopped now, I feared the whole process would be ruined, and

  I’d have to start completely over.

  When I did eventually go to her, the happiness that flashed on her face made me

  smile. I wanted her to look at me like that forever. But just as I left, her smile would

  fade, and she would curl back into a depressing state of loneliness. I wanted to

  bring her back to the light so badly, but I wasn’t sure if she was ready. I needed to

  find out for sure.

  When I walked into the room in the morning, Jaden was still asleep in the bed,

  curled up on her side and facing the door. She looked so sweet and innocent in her

  sleep; my redheaded angel that I was going to twist into a new demon.

  Gently sitting on the bed, I tucked the stray hair that fell over her face behind

  her ear. The slight motion was enough to make her stir.

  “Wake up, princess,” I whispered, my hand lovingly caressing her face.

  Her lids slowly lifted just enough to reveal the beautiful amber behind them. A

  sleepy smile graced her lips as she moved her head into my lap, nudging her face

  against my thigh. Warmth flooded my chest at her reaction to me, and I rewarded

  her by running my fingers through the soft strands of her hair. She allowed a quiet

  moan of pleasure to leave her throat, practically purring in my lap like a sexy little

  kitten. I continued to stroke her hair for only a few more seconds before I finally

  gripped her roots tightly and held firm, sending a wave of shock over Jaden’s body.

  “Time for breakfast,” I drawled, and she knew exactly what that meant.

  Without a single second of hesitation, Jaden moved to pull down the zipper of

  my pants. She released my painfully hard cock from its confines only for it to

  become buried in the back of her throat. She bobbed her head and sucked hard just

  the way I liked until my self-control met its match. I gripped the sides of her head

  and fucked her mouth like the savage I was until my cum was shooting down her

  throat. And she swallowed it all as if she were starving for it.

  When I was satisfied, I pushed Jaden’s naked body back against the bed and

  pried her legs apart. My tongue was inside her in seconds, lapping and sucking at

  my own breakfast while her taste drove me insane. She was already soaking wet for

  me.

  Jaden’s back arched, her hands digging into the sheets as soft moans of pleasure

  left her mouth. My hands trailed up her hips, smoothing over her soft stomach

  until they were clutching at her breasts, pinching and teasing her nipples and

  causing her to twitch under my tongue.

  “Oh, God, Darren … please … let me come,” she groaned. If she asked, and I was

  happy, I’d give her what she wanted.

  “Come,” I ordered her, sucking her clit into my mouth and creating that painful

  pleasure she loved so much.

  My name left her lips in a cry of ecstasy, and it did things to me I could never

  explain. It made my ego soar, knowing I could bring her body to such heights.

  “Look at me,” I said, and her eyes immediately found mine.

 
As I climbed up her body, her eyes never left mine, even as I sunk deep into her

  liquid heat, filling her up entirely. Her body arched under me, a soft moan leaving

  her lips, while her hands moved up and down my arms.

  “Tell me what I want to hear.”

  “I belong to you,” she said instantly, but it wasn’t just the fact she said it. It was

  the way she said it. I could always taste the disdain in her voice when she said those

  words—the reluctance and blatant annoyance when I forced her to say it—but now,

  as I was buried deep inside her, she said it with passion, like she was finally happy

  to be mine. And hell if that didn’t have me fucking her like I owned her.

  I decided to let Jaden out of the room a week later, ready to release my little

  hellcat from her conditioned captivity into her old habitat. She’d woken up that

  morning in my arms in my bed where she belonged. She’d been so grateful for her

  release that she’d cried in my arms, pleading with me never to send her back down

  there again. She would be good; she would make me happy as best she could. She

  would do anything.

  I’d never felt more victorious in my life.

  Though I worried this was still all a trick, that she was manipulating me again

  and being the best damn actress on the planet. Only time would tell, which was why

  Sid watched her every second of every day, especially when she was alone. I wanted

  him to assess everything she did. I wanted to know if it was real as I felt it was.

  When Clive and Owen came back to assume their positions, she barely even

  looked at them, barely even smiled at Camaro. I had Clive and Owen training with

  her dog on advanced combative commands while Jaden was away. For a puppy, she

  was doing very well.

  Daniel and Katheryn had their baby girl a few weeks prior, and I wondered if

  taking Jaden to see the baby would entice her motherly instincts, but I thought

  better of it, considering her fragile state. In all the years I’d regrettably known

  Katheryn, I’d never seen her look happier than when she was looking down at Ella,

  sleeping peacefully in her arms. It surprised me when my chest started to ache, and

  I realized I wanted that with Jaden. Not now with her so fragile, but within the next

  few years, after we were married and happy.