My knees tremble at the word.
“Punishable,” I whimper.
“Correct,” he says.
Gravity leaves me and I’m in his arms. I don’t fight. I don’t want to. He hauls me over his shoulder like a sack of rice and secures me with an arm across my bare thighs. A clap rings outand my left cheek burns, making me yelp. Rhaz’s hand lingers on my ass, his finger trailing the line of my brand-new silky panties.
“How should I punish the thief of joy? The destroyer of the dinner surprise?” he muses, and another clap stings my other cheek.
I moan at the heat left in its wake. I love his punishment just as much as his pleasure.
He hefts me off his shoulder and sets me in a chair…backwards. With my skirt hiked up and my legs spread, I feel the heat of the air against my center. The thought of being so bared makes me whimper.
Fiery chains snake around my legs, tethering me to the chair before I can escape. Rhaz holds my wrists overhead and more chains latch me to the ceiling. He grumbles, but not in satisfaction. I yearn to hear him pleased.
“Not enough,” he mumbles.
The chair shifts under me, transforming with a flick of his fiery fingers. The obsidian back crunches and grinds down into a bar that spreads my knees, leaving me even more bared to him. The chair legs spread farther apart until my skirt is bunched at my hips and my thighs are truly stretched. I wriggle, but there isn’t an inch of give in anything.
“Nice magic trick,” I say with heady anticipation.
He smiles the way I imagine that a dragon would before snapping the rabbit in its jaws. “I have an array of tools to helpme exact my punishment, and I’ll use as many of them tonight as I need to until you apologize.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, quickly. “There, now can we have dinner?”
“You’re not sorry. Not yet.” He cocks his head and his grin widens. “But you will be.”
twenty-three
Wax for Dinner
Rhazan steps around me. I try turning to look, but the cage around my chest and my own arm is in the way. I wriggle and strain, but I can’t see him or the table at my back. Despite having eaten more than my fair share of the dinner that Nai Nai made, the scents wafting over my shoulder have me salivating.
“Rhaz, really, I’m sorry. It smells so good. Please?”
He chuckles but says nothing.
When he steps back around to my front, he’s holding one of the flickering candles. The wax is a deep, blood red. A bead of it slips from the top and rolls down the shaft over his fingers. My heart thuds faster as I consider those beads dropping over my skin, turning my body into a pretty canvas of fire and desire.
He drops to one knee, bringing himself eye level with me. “You will tell me if it’s too much.”
It won’t be.
His face hardens. “Comply.”
I wet my lips. “Yes, RhazDaddy.”
He reaches for my leg and my pulse skyrockets. I’m vibrating out of my skin and he hasn’t even touched me. The anticipation has warmth curling in my lower belly.
His talons recede to blunt nails as his skin meets mine.
“No,” I murmur, locking eyes with him. “Leave them.”
“You’re very bossy this evening,” he says, eyebrow ticking.
“Isn’t that every evening?”
He smirks. “You’re not in control right now, Jiahui.”
