Page 48 of Vienna Bliss

Alena had been wrong before. She’d made mistakes before, but this one she didn’t see coming.

One moment Absolon was nervously standing by the door, and the next he’d lunged for her, shoving her back so hard that she tripped and fell, landing on her ass and the heels of her hands, pain shooting up from her wrists to elbows.

It also knocked the air out of her, so she didn’t have the breath to scream when Absolon knelt and flipped her over, onto her stomach, kneeling on her back and jerking her arms behind her.

“I know what you are,” his voice was soft, tender.

Alena sucked in air. “Get off me.”

A pitiful excuse for a spank landed on her ass. “Do not speak to me like that. You know your place.”

Alena opened her mouth to tell him to go fuck himself and maybe threaten him with creative ways either she or Alexander was going to remove his cock from his body, but she stopped, mouth open.

She couldn’t.

They’d done all this work to make Absolon think she and Alexander were in a BDSM relationship, the kind of relationship where the power exchange was so extreme that Alexander was going to sell her at auction.

Being a 24/7 BDSM slave did not mean that the slaves consented to be touched and used by anyone, but that was a subtlety that only people in the lifestyle might understand.

Alena had no idea what her next move should be, except that she was pretty sure that cursing him and then punching him in the face would risk everything they were trying to do here.

It was because of Alexander that she hadn’t considered this possibility. He was such a force of nature, such a dominant personality, that it had never occurred to her that someone like Absolon would dare to touch her.

“Most women don’t know their place. I suspect you tried to manipulate him. Tried to humble him when it is not his place or any man’s place to be humbled. That’s why he has to get rid of you.”

Well, that answered that question. Absolon held at least some of the same beliefs as the extremist group he was funding. In particular, he prized the misogyny and belief that women were inferior.

She hadn’t moved, which seemed to please him. Absolon took his knee off her back and rose, leaving her lying prone on the floor.

Alena gingerly got on her hands and knees. She could jump to her feet and make a run for it, she could school him in the finer points of D/s, or she could play along.

The first option risked the entire operation, because at the very least if Absolon thought that he’d fucked up, and maybe pissed off his employer, he might go on the run right after she did, to protect his own ass from Alexander’s wrath. The second option would be lost on him. Anyone who believed women were inferior, were incapable of understanding a D/s relationship.

That left play along.

Her stomach knotted and instead of rising to her feet, Alena sat back on her heels.

“I will not discuss Mr. Wagner’s personal affairs.”

Absolon frowned, looking a little uncertain and she realized she’d sounded too self-possessed. Alena added a little waver to her voice. “I’m not allowed to.”

“Ah.” Absolon grabbed a fistful of her hair, which she was wearing down, and dragged her to her feet.

Alena bit the inside of her lip to keep quiet as he dragged her over to the chair by the fire. When he took the one Alexander had been sitting in, she almost snorted.

“On your knees.” He released her hair with an added little shove that made her head hurt even more than having him yank on her hair had.

Alena knelt, hands trembling in rage, but also in fear. She was safe. She was. She was in Alexander’s house, there were a dozen people or more who, if not in earshot, would hear her screaming once she ran out of this room. She was safe. It was her choice to stay here, to at least temporarily subject herself to whatever bullshit Absolon had in store.

“How much?” he asked.

“How much?” Alena repeated, feeling scared and stupid.

He grabbed her wrist and twisted it painfully. Alena leaned to the side, trying to alleviate the pressure.

“How much is he selling you for?”

Alena tried to pry his fingers from her wrist, but he yanked her hand away.