“Just… just go away!” Gabriel wasn’t sure if he was screaming at himself, or screaming at Sir. He took another few stumbling steps toward the door and hooked onto the knob. “If you won’t f-fuck me, then someone will! Someone whodeservesme!”
Gabriel didn’t mean what he said, but the hurt twisted inside and made him react in ways he regretted. Sir was special to him, and sounding off on him like this was only going to come back to hurt him, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop. There was anguish deep inside that needed to come out, and it all left himatonce.
Garrison had promised him the world, then left him alone and hopeless, and now Sir was following in his footsteps with empty promises and half-truths. All Gabriel wanted was stability—a family to call his own. Was that too muchtoask?
He twisted the doorknob, intending to return to his room to cry the rest of the pain away, but before he could step through the threshold, Sir rose from the bed. All he wore was his boxers, their front tented by his arousal, but even naked, he was intimidating. Taller than Gabriel remembered, body held rigid with anger, Sir swept forward like a cloud across the horizon to blot out the sun before a storm. Gabriel released the doorknob and staggered into the hall. His back hit the wall, and the air left his lungs allatonce.
Sir towered over him, the only light coming from the television in the room they’d just abandoned. Its dim presence outlined Sir’s body and encouraged shadows to play across his face inmenacingways.
Gabriel knew that look, and he braced himself for a beating. He’d been bad,verybad, and now Sir was going to punish him like he deserved to be punished. He’d overstepped the boundaries, and he deserved whatever rage Sir wanted to unleashuponhim.
But no rageevercame.
Instead, Sir whispered words detached of emotion—and somehow, that hit Gabriel just as hard as his fists would have. “Go to your room, Gabriel. You’ve been bad, and you need to bepunished.”
27
Gabriel
The room was dark,but Gabriel didn’t need to see in order to feel the sharp impact, or hear theslapthat rang through the room. The burning pain that spread across the tender skin of his ass brought him down from his fear and soberedhismind.
What had he beenthinking?
Sir’s hand came down again, the sound of his open palm striking Gabriel’s ass crisp in the otherwise quiet room. Gabriel buried his face against the blankets and pushed out a breath through his teeth as the sharp pain of impact diluted into lingering, tingling discomfort that refused to leave himalone.
He’d been bad. He’d gotten frustrated and yelled at Sir when Sir was the one in control. What did it matter what Gabriel thought? What had given him the right to speak his mind freely? He was the omega, and that meant that he was the one who had to listen. Sir was right to punish him—he’d stepped outofline.
“In this household, Rabbit,” Sir’s hand traced over the skin he’d just struck, chasing some of the pain away with affection, “you won’t yell. You won’t scream. You won’t blow up. It’s okay to be angry, but you will express your anger like a normal, adjusted human being. That means that all the hurt you feel inside? You need to express that to me with words. You need to open up and let me know when you feel neglected or unfairly treated so we can fix the problem before it becomes anissue.”
Sir had pulled the boxers Gabriel wore down from his ass so it was exposed. The elastic dug into the underside of Gabriel’s cheeks, right where his butt met his thighs, but all he could do was squirm in an attempt to correct it. The lower half of his body rested over Sir’s thighs, and the upper half was supported by his bed. Gabriel buried his face in his blanket and tried not to make a sound. He wanted to howl in disappointment and in pain, but he knew that now more than ever, he had tobegood.
He’d been so close to officially becoming Sir’s, but he’d ruined his chances by being too hasty and emotional. Sir wasn’t like Garrison, and he would never be. One day, Sir would give him a family. All Gabriel had to do was hold on until thathappened.
The hand that stroked pulled back, and Gabriel braced to be spanked again. When Sir treated him like this, he saw just how childish he had been. There was no reason for him to have gone off like he had. If he’d just talked to Sir like an adult, none of this would havehappened.
Smack!
Gabriel sucked in a breath and tensed. He buried his head in the blankets and tried to stay still, but the sudden pain was hard to tolerate. He wiggled his hips and inadvertently rubbed his dick against Sir’sthigh.
Sir’s hand went back to caressing. When Gabriel was bad to Garrison, Garrison had never rubbed the places he’d hit, and his voice had always been full of hatred and spite. When Garrison had punished him, he’d wanted Gabriel to hurt, and sometimes he’d beaten him badly enough that Gabriel couldn’t get up the next morning. Sir wasn’t like that. Even though it hurt to be spanked, Gabriel noticed that Sir didn’t put the full force of his body behind it, and he never struck the same spot twice. The pain wasn’t even that bad—if it wasn’t for the sudden, unexpected nature of each smack, it wouldn’t have hurt muchatall.
In fact, every impact of Sir’s palm pushed Gabriel forward, causing Gabriel’s hardened cock to rub against Sir’s thigh in secretive,sinfulways.
“Do I need to remind you that whatever happens to you is my decision?” Sir’s fingers smoothed over Gabriel’s sore cheeks. “Your body belongs to me. That’s easy. Anyone could own you like that, you know. Anyone could exert force over you and demand that you succumb to their desires. The physical is just as easily taken as it is given. There is nothing specialaboutthat.”
All the men he’d slept with as favors to Garrison. All the times Garrison had demanded he perform. All the long, lonely nights with no one but himself to keep himcompany…
“But why I’m punishing you right now, Rabbit?” Sir struck him again, his open palm bouncing off Gabriel’s rounded cheek. Gabriel cried into the blankets, but even as he did, he pushed his hips forward to rub his cock against Sir’s thigh. Pleasure and pain wove through him in tandem, twin sisters who sweetened each other by proximity. “It isn’t because I want to dominate your body. Your body is already mine. What I want from you is something I can’t take by force. What you need to give me isn’t something you can hand over so thoughtlessly. What I want from you, Rabbit? It’syourmind.”
Gabriel gripped the blankets tightly and clenched his jaw. His mind? What was so special about his mind? Sir couldn’t hold it. He couldn’t brag about it. He couldn’tfuckit…
“When you act in defiance of me, you prove that I own some of you, but not all of you. Your body is mine, and it has been since the day we met, hasn’t it? I’ve seen how willing you’ve been to give it to me.” Sir’s hand ran from his exposed cheek to the small of Gabriel’s back, and Gabriel couldn’t help but grind against his thigh, seeking friction. He’d been hard in Sir’s bedroom, and he was still hard now. After so long without physical contact, he needed release. “But your thoughts? Your emotions? Your devotion? Those don’t belong to me. Not yet. And we need to fix that,don’twe?”
Sir’s hand ran back down over the curve of Gabriel’s ass. His hand was exploratory, mapping out Gabriel’s body like Gabriel was of value. Even with the lights off, he got the feeling that Sir was soaking him in, drinking in the feeling of him rather than thesight.
“Yes, Sir,” Gabriel uttered. The harsh words he’d said and the emotion behind them was gone now. Beneath a firm hand, he was docile and obedient. He remembered his place. He belonged to Sir, and he had to treat Sir with respect. “Please, Sir, punish me so I’ll remember. I never want to forgetagain.”
“You say such beautiful things, Rabbit. Do you say them on purpose?” Sir’s hand dipped low, following the curve of Gabriel’s ass to the space between his thighs. Gabriel sucked in a needy breath, certain that Sir was going to start stroking him, but Sir’s fingers met the elastic band of the boxers he wore, and he toyed with itinstead.
