I blink. “Because I upset you?”
“Because you tried to run, put yourself in danger, and lied to me.” He smacks my ass again, so abruptly and harshly it makes me yelp. “Apologize.”
I bite my lower lip. Haze aside, I can’t just bend to his whims. I have no clue what’s happening to my mind or body, but I need to be actively focusing ongetting out of here, not giving into him. I also need to take his head with me once I manage to escape—
He goes back to spanking me,muchharder. This time, I struggle in earnest, becausefuck, it hurts, and the pain is different from the sharp bite of a whip or the unbearable, radiating ache of a broken bone.
“Apologize,” he says, again, amping up the strength of his hits. I sink my teeth so far into my lips I taste blood, desperately trying to twist out from beneath him, but he holds me steady. The pain morphs from unbearable to outrightagonizing, and he’s not stopping or slowing down.
He won’t stop until he gets what he wants.
“I’m sorry!” I shout.
He stops immediately. Rests his palm on my lower back, waiting. “What for?” he prompts.
I try to recall what he said I was being punished for. My thoughts feel weirdly slow and detached. “Running, putting myself in danger, and lying to you.”
“Are you truly sorry?” he sounds genuinely curious.
I almost lie and sayyes, before realizing that lying is part of what got me into this humiliating position. “Not really,” I mumble.
“Hmm,” he says. “Well, at least you didn’t lie.”
He rearranges me with startling ease, flipping me over and laying me down on the bed. I hiss at the cool contact of the sheets on my burning ass, but Max doesn’t seem deterred by my pain—in fact, his eyes are gleaming as he climbs over me and searches my expression. He tenderly tucks a piece of hair behind my ear. I frown at the intimate gesture, confused, overwhelmed, and still fuzzy.
“Let’s establish some ground rules,” he says. “If you want to avoid punishments—which will increase in intensity—you’ll follow them. Don’t run. Don’t endanger yourself. Donotlie to me, and don’t bother trying to kill me.Manypeople have tried, and all of them died painful deaths.”
A slice of clarity cuts through the fog. “If we’re in a battle to the death, you should know I don’t lose.”
“I already told you I have no interest in killing you,” he says. “Flame, I want tokeepyou, not kill you. But, if you try to kill me, you won’t be getting a meager spanking. The punishment forthatinfraction will have to be far more severe.”
I blink slowly, trying to think through the fog and examine him. “I think the zoo has loosened their policy on keeping rabid beasts caged. That’s why you’re here, right?”
Max chuckles, and the accompanying smile lights up his entire face. He lowers his head, skimming his nose up the side of my neck.
“Flame?” he asks.
“I don’t respond to strange nicknames.”
“It’s not a strange nickname. It’smyname for you.” He exhales a long breath that tickles my jawline. “I wish you remembered the day I bestowed it upon you.”
“It’s a B-grade nickname, not a knighthood,” I deadpan. “You aren’tbestowingshit.”
He laughs again, and it almost makes me smile.Almost. “I want to eat you out. Will you let me?”
God, I want to know what it feels like just once…but no. I can’t. I need to crawl out from whatever weird spell he put me in, kill him, and get back to Dagon before he finds me—and hewillfind me. He always does.
“No.”
He pulls the skin of my neck between his teeth, suckinghard. I trap a moan in my chest.Fuck,his lips feel divine. And I feel… like someone I’m not.
I’m not driven by sexual gratification; I never have been. I prefer to have affairs with boyfriends between the pages of books, not in real life. In real life, if I ever slept with or showed interest in a man, Dagon would kill him, cripple me, and then killherin front of me.
“I won’t ask next time,” he murmurs, kissing a path up my neck. He pulls back, gazing into my eyes. “Your mind and your body are so out of touch, I don’t think you know what you want.”
“At least I have a functioning brain, which can’t be said for you.”
“I’ve fucking missed you, Flame,” he says with so much fondness, it makes my chest momentarily ache. “So much.”
