“Nope,” I squeak out.
Say something? No.
Moaned under my breath? Maybe.
“Good. Then it’s time for us to dance once more.” He moves away, and IswearI can feel exactly where his eyes are moving as they travel over me. “Yes,” he sighs. “You’re very lovely. I thought tonight you might sleep in the adjoining room, Oliver, since you’re excused from breakfast service. Would you like that?”
“Yes, my—”
Without warning, the first strike of the cane lands across my ass, and I suck in a breath.
“—lord,” I finish weakly.
“At dinner, Niklaus reminded me that tonight is your last night here,” Lord Arden continues, as though we’re in the middle of a polite conversation. “I had quite forgotten.”
There’s a pause, and I’m not sure what he wants me to say, so I say nothing.
The second strike lands, harder than the first, and I scrunch my toes into the carpet and my fingers into the bedspread.
“I don’t suppose I could persuade you to stay another night?”
Another strike, and I ride the wave of sensation as I consider. Ican’tkeep taking days off work. Magda’s agreed to it so far, but it’s a pain in the ass for her, and that important meeting is coming upfast.
I don’t want to fuck up my chances at a promotion.
“Well, Oliver?”
I wait for the next blow before I reply. “I’ll think about it, my lord.”
* * *
When the punishment is done, Lord Arden is sweet and careful with me, just like last weekend, and we cuddle in his bed before I decide I’m going to fall asleep if I don’t get my butt into my own bed.
“Of course,” he says, when I raise it. “Of course you’d like to sleep in your own bed. I’m sorry I’ve kept you so long.”
We go through the back-and-forth of reassuring each other that we’re not at all offended—I think I’m even getting the hang of these English manners—but the truth is, I wish he’d just command me to stay there with him for the night.
I would. If he asked me, I would stay.
But he doesn’t ask.
He guides me to the communicating door between our rooms, dressed in his satin robe, while I remain naked but for the mask over my eyes. The last thing he says is, in fact, “Remember to wear your mask at all times, Oliver.”
It sure sounds like a promise to me.
But as time passes and I lie there in the bed in the adjoining room, staring at the closed door between our rooms, I start to get sleepy. When there’s a knock at the door, I’m relaxed enough to be startled, getting up on my elbow in the bed. “Come in?”
When the door opens, Lord Arden is silhouetted in the doorway, still dressed in that satin robe, tied loosely enough that it falls open at the front.
“Do you need something, my lord?” I ask, thankful now that Ididkeep the mask on. It’s dark in here, but light is coming in from the doorway behind him.
There’s a long pause before he says, “Yes, I need something.” I begin to pull the covers back, but he holds up a hand. “No, stay there, Oliver. I wondered if…”
My heart is starting to beat faster, and there’s a tingle in my balls. “What did you wonder, my lord?” I croak, when he hasn’t said anything further.
“I’d like to have sex with you,” he says carefully. “If that would be something…you’d like to do.”
I give a little shiver of desire. “That would be, uh, great.”
