Chapter 31
And I suspected that’s exactly what I’d see so I was gone before she was awake. I grabbed my gym bag, a garment bag that had a dry-cleaned suit in it and tossed a clean pair of jeans into my bag, a pair of dress shoes, and headed out.
** ** **
I called the house at around 10:30, “What’s she doing?” I asked Rosita.
I was waiting at one of our coffee shops on someone and that someone was late. Not impressed. I glanced at my watch and tapped my food impatiently.
“She’s not so good. She’s been crying. You really need to be gentler, give her time to—”
“I didn’t ask how she’s doing, I asked what she’s doing,” I snapped.
I could almost hear the disapproval through the dead air.
“Mind your own f*****g business, Rosita; what’s she doing?”
“She’s watching television in your bedroom. I just checked on her and brought her coffee and breakfast. She won’t get out of bed.”
I switched the phone off without saying goodbye.
** ** **
That night I got back late but she was still awake. She was in my bed, staring at the TV when I opened the door. She didn’t look at me. I walked into the bathroom and undressed. When I came back her eyes were closed but I knew she wasn’t asleep.
I got a drink and stood over the bed, watching her while slowly sipping from a glass of whiskey.
Claire’s POV
Go away, go away, leave me alone.
I wanted to say this but I didn’t. I was quiet.
I knew he was standing over me but I kept my eyes closed and tried to breathe evenly and to will him to go away.
Then I felt the covers sliding away from me. I was still fully dressed in more of the clothes Rosita gave me, a pair of jean shorts and a blue tank top. She’d gone out and bought me a bra, some face wash, a toothbrush and she found my bra mixed in with Tommy’s laundry.
Now I felt the breeze from the air conditioning on my skin and I heard the sound of ice cubes tinkling in a glass. The television was then switched off and I felt his hand land on my ankle. He ran his palm up along my leg directly up to my h*p. I wanted to keep pretending to sleep but I involuntarily shivered at his touch.
“You’re not following my directions very well,” he said softly and I opened my eyes to see him lean over and pull on the buttonhole of the shorts, releasing the button. I curled up into a ball. I heard more ice cubes tinkling.
“If I’m not here to give you something to wear to bed I want you waiting for me, naked. Get undressed.”
“Leave me alone,” I said softly.
“Get out of those clothes or I’ll do it.”
Then he’s gonna have to do it because I’m not submitting to him. No way. I curled into a tighter ball and then felt my pulse begin to race as I felt the bed depress. He was hovering over me.
How did I ever become this helpless?
“You’ve got a chance to behave. Follow my directions and I won’t punish you.”
I stayed still.
“Undress,” he said softly.
“Let me go. Please.” I started to tremble hard.
“Let you go?”
Azriel’s POV
“Please.” She looked at me and looked so vulnerable. Every nerve in my body was awake. I liked seeing the word please on her lips.
“Why would I do that?”
“Because you don’t need to do this. I’m sure that you can find some other woman to fulfill your s****l appetite. It doesn’t have to be me. Please, you only bought me for a night and–” She rambles on, trembling like the leaf of a tree on a stormy day.
Claire’s POV
“But you’re already mine,” he told me and there was something that was at first unreadable to me in his eyes. But then it registered. I had trouble putting a label on it but at that second, with that look in his eyes it felt like my fate was sealed.
Devastation filled me. It was like getting a death sentence.
He’d slammed the proverbial gavel on the desk. He believed he owned me and he wasn’t going to let me go.
He was going to play his sick games with me and continue to use me.
He’d get off on my tears, on spanking me, on forcing me, and he’d enjoy every minute of it.
And I would come undone one stitch at a time. I already felt like I was a wreck.
Something passed between us. It was like an exchange of knowing looks. I knew then that he wasn’t going to let me go and I was pretty sure he knew I was having that epiphany. A slow smile spread across his face.
“Might as well get undressed,” he said.
Might as well. No.
I glared at him.
“Tell ya what, Baby Girl, let’s make a deal. Get undressed and spread those gorgeous legs for me willingly and we can have your favorite vanilla tonight. Don’t and it’ll have much more flavor, my kinda flavor. Tonight, it’s your decision.”
I was queasy.
He leaned over and put the drink on the nightstand.
Then he caught the hem of my tank top in his grasp and started to lift it, “I guess I’m doing this myself. Then I’m using this shirt to tie you to the headboard so you can’t move while I f**k you.”
I tried to struggle.
“Last chance, because I’m feeling generous. Take your clothes off and you don’t have to be tied to my bed.”
Azriel’s POV
I let go of her to see what she’d do. She swallowed hard and stared up at the ceiling and then shuddered and tried to mask a whimper with a deep breath but it broke and she choked in the middle.
She crossed her arms over her belly and then slowly lifted the tank up and over her head. Now she was in a bra and jean shorts. She put the shirt on the bed.
Yes.
“Stand up,” I ordered, “and undress slowly for me.” I leaned back and watched her get out of bed and slowly take off her jean shorts.
She had no idea how alluring it was watching her. She wasn’t doing it slowly to tease me but she was teasing me all the same.
She let them drop to the floor and stepped out of them. Now she was just in a white lacy bra and V-cut lace white panties.
She stood there, crossing her chest with her arms, looking so vanilla, looking so f*****g beautiful, like a bride on her wedding night.
So mine.
“The rest,” I said and waited.
She just stood there, eyes filled with wet unshed tears, trembling all over.
I waited. She continued to just stand there.
“Claire.”
“I can’t,” she said.
“Fine. Then it’s rocky road, baby girl.”
She remained still but with a resigned look.
While I usually preferred rocky road s*x to vanilla s*x, tonight I wanted her to submit to me without a fight. It was a first.
I wanted cool, creamy, sweet vanilla from her. As creamy and sweet as the lacy bra and panties she was wearing.
I wanted her to respond to me awake the way she’d been doing when she was asleep. And I wanted her to m**n for me, to wrap her arms around me, to voluntarily k**s me, to m**n my name. It was bizarre but it was what I’d been craving all day.
“But I can’t,” she said again to the ceiling.
I shrugged and stood up and she took a step back. I took a step forward and she backed up some more.
I reached out and grabbed her panties at the h**s and then hooked my thumbs into the waistband and pulled them down while simultaneously pulling her closer. I caught a whiff of her throat, her hair.
My nose touched her jaw and I inhaled her scent deeply, then caught the band of her bra in one hand and snapped it unclasped. I pulled it off her and then gave her a*s a hard slap, making her thrust forward against me.
I liked that.
I slapped her a*s again, then grabbed it and squeezed. She whimpered and took a tumble but I caught her by the h**s. She reached up like she was going to slap me in the face but I caught her wrist in my left hand and then slapped her a*s again with my right. It sent her breasts right against me and I pulled her tight against me and squeezed her a*s cheeks and dug my fingertips in, eliciting a squeal from her.
I loosened my grip. Before she had a chance to back away again, I heaved her up into my arms and carried her the few paces back to the bed. I quickly fastened her left arm to my headboard with the bra and grabbed the tank top from the bed and fastened her other arm to the headboard with that.
She was panting, I could see that she was freaked right out, and I was so f*****g hard it felt like I could blow my load any second. I took a few steadying breaths.
“Look at you now. You could’ve cooperated but now look what we’ve had to do. Put you in your place. Looks like your place is here, tied to my bed, baby girl. You’re exactly where you belong.”
She wouldn’t look at me. She looked f*****g beautiful naked and tied to my headboard and I couldn’t wait to sink into her.
I leaned over and my tongue flicked over a n****e and she gasped and pulled on the restraints. Both of her n*****s were rock hard.
“You’re not going anywhere. Not ever,” I said. Her face was filled with horror at my words.
It was as if until tonight she thought of this as a problem that she just had to figure out the solution to and now she knew that I was serious about this game and that I was 100% in charge.
I licked her n****e again and then blew on it gently, watching goosebumps rise on her skin.
“Do you not want this” I asked innocently.
She shook her head vehemently. Like expected.
“No?” I prodded.
She shook her head again, “Of course I don’t.” She was speaking all breathy and her eyes were wide.
“Tell you what,” I said, “If I touch your p***y and it is not wet, I’ll untie you and let you go to sleep.”
She swallowed hard and squeezed her eyes shut tight.