It seemed to take forever, each slide of her feet bordering on painful as Sophie edged away. Hysteria loomed on the horizon, watching her. Any one of the floorboards beneath the wretched pink carpet could be loose. It could squeak and disturb Jared and then the whole thing would be over.
Sophie would be over.
Eventually, Sophie found herself at the bedroom door, her heart pounding so fast she was dizzy. The door was ajar, and she pulled it open with renewed apprehension. She couldn’t recall it creaking at any time in the last day, but the reality was she’d never been paying attention, and one loud noise from the thing now could be enough to stir Jared from his sleep. Her body was wracked with tension when the door slid open silently and she gulped, backing into the shadows of the hallway. Glancing left and right, she took in the dim corridor. She’d rarely been allowed to walk the length of the thing since her arrival, but she knew which direction the staircase was in and she tiptoed toward it. Passing a door to her right, she paused momentarily, considering stopping to look for something to wear. Sophie was naked, save for the ribbons in her hair and the plug in her arse, and she still had no idea where the hell she was—where this house was—so she would need something to cover her until she could find help. Until she could get to the police. But somehow stopping so soon after the pink room seemed like folly. She had to get down the stairs and look for an exit—a way out that didn’t involve Jared—and the sooner she did that, the better.
She held her breath while she made her way down the carpeted stairs. Luck seemed to be favoring her escape, and so far, she’d heard no unexpected creaks from any of the steps, but Sophie had no idea how long that might last. At any moment, he could wake and find her missing. At any moment, her luck could run out, and once that happened, her chances of getting away fell exponentially. This was, she assumed, Jared’s house. He knew the layout, and he knew the hiding places and he also knew every single way in and out of the place. Sophie pushed that thought away, too. However true that analysis was, it wasn’t going to help her get out of here. Only her feet, will and cunning could do that now.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Sophie’s gaze moved around the place. She knew the kitchen waited at the end of the hallway, and the lounge with the bloody cage was somewhere to the left, but beyond that, she had no clue how to get out. Instinctively, Sophie turned right and padded quickly to the end of the corridor. A large wooden door loomed in the distance and Sophie’s heart leapt. That must be the front door, though why she skipped so happily toward it was anyone’s guess. There was no way a man as organized and fastidious as Jared would have left his front door unlocked when he had a captive in the house, and she knew it, but somehow, she couldn’t prevent her feet from making the journey, from trying the handle, from accepting the gloomy reality for herself.
Shit.
Sophie spun on her heel, taking in the watercolors and mirrors that were hanging on the walls around her. So, inevitably the front door was not going to be an option, but surely, there must be another way out? A back entrance—somewhere else she could slip away from?
With a deep breath, Sophie moved back down the hallway in the direction of the kitchen.
Chapter Thirty-One
Jared
His flesh was hot, brimming with passion that was burning him up from the inside and every ounce of it was directed at Sophie.
Sophie.
The woman who had come so unexpectedly into his life. The woman who had reached out to him and somehow, reached inside his soul. The woman who’d become his little girl and was going to spend the rest of her life pleasing him.
It was a dream—this moment—this scenario, and Jared knew it.
He knew the floor under his feet wasn’t real, or the steam that rose from the freshly-boiled kettle didn’t really exist, yet somehow none of that mattered. What was real were the feelings Sophie stirred in him, the need to contain her, to tame her, to worship her.
Those things were real whether he was awake or not.
Jared turned his head toward her, his cock straining at the sight which met his eyes. There she was, all tied up in her chair, her fragile little wrists and ankles restrained in the pink cuffs however hard she pulled against them. He took a step in her direction, his gaze falling over her chest. Once more, Jared had added her bib in preparation for the meal to come, and the nipple clamps pinched her tits beautifully where the fabric of the bib ended. Blowing out a breath, he rubbed his hard length with glee.
The scene was perfect—she was perfect—and he was willing to bet her pussy was soaking wet against the wood of the chair. Just desperate to be filled by him again—whenever Jared decided it was time.
“Lunchtime soon, little girl,” he purred, coming to stand before her.
Sophie lifted her chin, her eyes wide at the assertion.
“Are you hungry?”
She moaned around the large, pink plastic ball shoved into her mouth, completely unable to answer him properly with the gag obstructing her tongue and Jared’s cock leaped at the delicious sound. He’d chosen that gag personally, with Sophie in mind. It had numerous small holes in the pink ball, meaning she could breathe unhindered, but the black strap ensured it was well lodged between her teeth. And with her hands bound, there was no way Sophie was getting it out of her mouth. She couldn’t release it any more than she could release the grip of the clamps at her chest, or stand up and walk away.
She was precisely how and where he wanted her to be.
His little captive.
“I’ll take that as a yes, baby.” Jared grinned at the way her brows knitted. “Daddy will make you a sandwich and then help you eat.”
A barrage of mumbled sounds came from behind the gag and his lips twitched in response. Even though Sophie was probably being impertinent and he should chastise her for the error, he could hardly suppress the urge to chuckle. Jared loved the indecipherable noises that came when a woman was gagged. Just the murmur of them made him hard, and his cock was already rock-solid. Having Sophie around like this was like having a perpetual hard-on.
He smiled while he wandered back to the kitchen counter and concluded Sophie’s sandwich. Picking up the knife, he spread the soft cheese onto the white, sliced bread, pausing to glance over his shoulder at her. She was still writhing against the cuffs, her lips stretched wide around the pretty pink ball. Jared had no idea if Sophie liked soft cheese. He’d never taken the time to ask, but he’d already decided it didn’t matter. She was going to eat what she was given now, when she was told to and that was the end of it. Any refusal to comply with those very simple rules would be met with further punishment, and not the sort that would result in her contracting pleasure. Jared had been wrong to give in to Sophie before and the message that sent was not going to do him any favors in the long term. He had to get better at following through with his threats of punishment and making them count, and Jared knew that he would. The next time little Sophie was insolent, he would paddle her arse until she cried out for mercy and she could scarcely sit in her chair.
He would make each strike count.
Finishing the sandwich, he put the two slices of bread together and sliced off the crusts. Jared grinned while he cut the sandwich into small triangles. It was just the way he used to eat his sandwiches when he was a small boy, and it would be ideal for his little girl. Placing the triangles onto her plastic, pink plate, he collected his mug of hot tea and wandered back toward the restrained Sophie. Her gaze fell on the sandwich, her eyes flitting to his face.
“Here we go, little girl.” He reached forward and slowly edged the pink ball from her lips. It landed at her neck, along with a barrage of drool that had presumably been collecting behind it. “Time for your lunch.”
“What is it, Daddy?” she gasped, scrutinizing the small white triangle when Jared picked it up and moved it toward her mouth.
“Soft cheese on white.” He smirked at the way he put that, as though he was a waiter in an expensive bistro. As though
Sophie had a choice.
She crinkled her nose at his verdict. “I don’t like soft cheese, Daddy. I don’t want it.”
Sophie pressed her lips into a hard line with the pronouncement, and to his astonishment, she actually shook her head with determination.
Jared pulled in a breath at her petulant display, his cock throbbing intently. “I wasn’t aware Daddy had given you a choice, young lady.”
Her eyes widened at that before returning to the sandwich between his fingers. “But I don’t like it, Daddy.”
Sophie’s voice had taken on a child-like quality he had never noticed before. It was like she was mocking Jared, and the thought riled him.
“I don’t care if you like it or not,” he insisted. “It’s the lunch Daddy has prepared for you and it’s the lunch Sophie is going to eat.”
“I will not,” she huffed indignantly, and Jared had the sense that if she could have stamped her foot in defiance then she would have done so. “And you can’t make me!”
He dropped the small sandwich back onto the pink plate. “Is that right?” he asked, ensuring he cocked an eyebrow at her performance.
“Yes,” she replied in an insolent tone. “It is right, Daddy.”
Jared folded his arms across his chest. He had to say he admired her fortitude. After everything, he hadn’t expected Sophie to show such defiance—not now that he’d mastered her so thoroughly—but evidently, he had been wrong. This display had been brewing inside Sophie all the time. Just waiting for the right moment to explode into life, and even though Jared was irritated by the performance, he was also mightily aroused. Namely, because he knew what was going to happen to the little girl as a consequence.
“Well, we’ll see about that, little girl.” Jared straightened in his chair. “Because I disagree, and whose rules do we follow in this house?”
She scowled at the question. “Yours, Daddy.”
Sophie’s answer was begrudged, but she had at least given the correct one.
“That’s right,” he replied. “Mine. And Daddy says if you refuse the sandwich now then you get a good spanking for your refusal, plus additional strikes for your tone, Sophie. And then, once your bottom is red and sore, I will ensure you eat it later today. And I won’t be offering you anything else until it is eaten.”
Her face blanched at his assessment, her lip disappearing between her white teeth.
“Is that what you’d like?”
Jared’s explanation seemed to have sucked some of the bravado from Sophie and her gaze lowered while she pondered the question. “But I don’t want it, Daddy.”
“Did you not understand the question, little girl?”
Slowly, she lifted her chin to meet his gaze. “Y-yes, Daddy.”
“And so?” His brow arched again. “What’s it to be, Sophie? Are you going to be Daddy’s good little girl, or do you want to be punished?”
She exhaled, screwing up her pretty face. “I don’t want it!” Sophie practically screeched the words at him. “I don’t want it and you can’t make me eat it.”
Jared shook his head. That was just where she was wrong. He rose from his seat, watching while her eyes widened. “So, you made your choice, Sophie. Now, it’s time you were punished.”
Reaching for the wrist nearest him, Jared yanked Sophie’s body out of the chair and toward him. And now, the cuffs that held her at the wrists and ankles evaporated in that way that things often do in dreams, enabling Jared to draw Sophie forward and straight over his lap. She went with a yelp, screaming as her limbs tumbled either side of him, her hair falling like a blonde waterfall to his left and even when he held her down, Sophie’s legs continued to kick against the tiles below.
“Stop it, Daddy!”
Jared lifted his palm and swatted her hard, landing against both cheeks. The impact settled her for a second, but then reality bit and Sophie seemed to fight harder.
“Ouch!” she screamed, banging her small fists against the floor. “Get off me.”
He silenced her complaints with a number of unyielding strikes in fast succession. Sophie struggled against his legs, but Jared’s large hand held her in place with ease. “Daddy warned you,” he told her. “He told you what would happen if you didn’t eat your lunch, didn’t he?”
He was spanking her relentlessly now, reddening both cheeks with determined swats that rained down onto her exposed, creamy flesh, and he was relishing every single one of them. The feeling of her hot skin under his palm, the crack of each swat as it reverberated around the kitchen and the small gasps of pain that escaped from her lips, all merged to ratchet Jared’s arousal higher and higher, until soon, he could barely think about anything except sliding his fingers back into her cunt.
About fucking her again.
About making her his.
“You’re going to learn, young lady.” He growled the words through gritted teeth while he smacked her vulnerable little bottom once more. “Do you understand?”
Sophie whimpered and when he glanced down, he noted that the hands that were once fists were now splayed out against the floor, as though she was desperately hoping to crawl away and escape.
Escape?
Jared snorted at the concept. Escape was laughable. There would be no escape for Sophie now. Even though she was no longer bound and restrained, she was still his and she was still trapped within the confines of his house. All the windows and doors were locked and only he knew where the keys were. The key to the front door was in his pocket right at this moment. As for the back door, that key was well hidden. Nobody would ever find it, let alone poor little Sophie with her ropes and her ribbons and her reddened backside.
Sophie had no chance.
Jared ran his palm over the curve of her arse. The flesh was warmed after the brunt of his palm and he smiled at the way she mewled. “Is it sore, baby?”
She twisted to try and see him. “Yes, Daddy,” she blurted. “It hurts.”
He smiled. “Then it is just as I promised you,” he answered. “You’re going to have a sore bottom until you learn the rules, little girl.”
Sophie raised her hand, tightening it into a fist again before she brought it crashing down. He turned at the sound, smiling at the show of insubordination. Even now, after this humiliation, Sophie was still defiant and he loved that about her.
“Stop that,” he muttered. “You’ll hurt your hand.”
She slammed her fist down again, Jared’s brow knitting at the noise. It was different than the way he expected flesh on tiles to sound. It was different than before.
Again the noise came, like a crash. The sound of wood resisting, protesting as it was forced in one direction or another. But that couldn’t be right. There was no wood here and no resistance except the strength of Sophie’s will.
Glancing down, he realized she was no longer sprawled over his lap. Sophie was gone, and for some reason, it didn’t perturb him half so much as it should. This was a dream, after all. People came and went in a flash where dreams were concerned.
Nothing had to make sense.
And then came the noise again, louder this time, drawing Jared from the kitchen and toward the utility room. Yes, that’s what it was! Jared inhaled as the realization washed over him. It was the sound the back door made in the utility room when it was being pushed against. The wood had been expanding for years and it had become more and more difficult to open. Jared’s brow furrowed at the thought.
It was the back door.
Someone was pushing against the back door.
The notion was disconcerting, though in his subconscious mind, Jared couldn’t decide why.
With a jolt, he was awake, sitting bolt upright on the edge of the bed.
But not his bed.
Sophie’s bed—the pink bed he’d had designed for her especially.
His head ached and instinctively, he reached out with his left hand, feeling for the warmth of Sophie’s body. Yet there was no warmth. No one was there. There was nothing th
ere except the cool cotton of pink sheets.
Sophie was gone.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Sophie
There was no way out in the kitchen. The place was just as Sophie had remembered it, the counters running along the back wall and the circular wooden table to her left. But there was no door—no exit—and heart pounding, Sophie had skipped out of it as soon as possible. She had no way of knowing how long Jared would sleep for, but for sure, wandering the rooms downstairs should not be part of her long-term plan. She had to find a route out of this house. There had to be one.
Fleeing the warmth from the kitchen, she stumbled into the lounge next. Her heart stopped momentarily when her gaze fell over the cage, and then she turned on her heel and was gone. Sophie already knew there was no exit in this room, and she had no wish to dwell on the metal structure that taunted her from the corner. A genuine swell of panic was blooming as she stumbled across the hallway from the lounge, heading in the direction of the next door—the only door she had yet to explore. This had to be it. This had to be her way out. Sophie couldn’t even contemplate the notion of having this chance and not being able to take it. That reality was too awful to even consider.
She turned the door handle slowly, conscious of any potential noise her exploration was creating. Pushing the door inwards, she slipped inside and was immediately hit by the heat of the new location. This room was much smaller than the other two, and by the looks of the washing machine and clothes airing around the place, it was Jared’s utility room. Sophie glanced around the place, trying to quell her increasing heart rate. It wouldn’t pay to let the panic take control. Sophie had to stay focused if she were to have any hope. She moved inside the room, ensuring the door was closed quietly behind her and took in the place. There was a counter running to her left and piles of neatly folded shirts adorned it, each collection sorted by color, as though they were about to go on sale in a shop window. Sophie gulped at that thought. The clothes were so beautifully pressed and well organized, it freaked her out, reminding her of the flawless bathroom upstairs and the general cleanliness of the whole place. It was so unusual to find such standards in a single guy. But then, Jared was no ordinary man, was he?
Mastered By Daddy: A Dark Daddy Romance Page 19