I did as he said, lowering one knee and then the other. At first, I didn’t understand the purpose of the rice, but within seconds, realization hit. Each grain pressed sharply into my skin, biting at my knees until the pain grew unbearable. I shifted, trying to ease the pressure, but the rice only dug in further, burrowing into my flesh.
“Stay, Pet,” Talon said as he rifled through the entertainment center, pulling out a few video game controllers and tossing them to Ryker and Cade.
He switched on the console, and soon the three of them sprawled across the room, shouting and laughing as they played a combat game. Each of them were completely absorbed, not even glancing in my direction, as if I weren’t there.
They played round after round, and with each passing minute, my legs and feet grew numb, folded awkwardly beneath me. They tingled with the desperate need to move or stretch, but all I could focus on was my knees. The pain had gone beyond discomfort.
Each grain of rice felt like a tiny blade stabbing into my skin. My muscles trembled as I fought to stay upright, shifting slightly to find relief. But the grains were everywhere. My pain tolerance faltered, and before I could stop it, a small whimper escaped my lips.
I heard a door open in the distance, and Killian emerged from his bedroom. He looked flustered, carrying a gym bag and dressed in athletic clothes, likely on his way to the fitness center. From the way his shoulders and jaw tensed, it was obvious he could hear what was happening and was desperate to get away from it.
“Where are you going? Do you want to join us? Rowan’s about to show us just how sorry she is,” Cade said aloud before signing something to him I didn’t catch.
Killian rounded the couch, stopping in front of me and staring down at my kneeling form with an unreadable expression. I looked up at him, missing the sight of that scar and those icy blue eyes always hidden behind shaggy black hair. I missed everything about him.
“Please, I’m sorry,” I mouthed silently, knowing he could read my lips. I wanted my apology to be just for him.
He continued to look down at me as if deciding what to do. His hand lifted toward my face, and I closed my eyes, leaning forward to meet his touch. A sigh escaped me, full of relief and hope, because he was finally responding, finally seeing me again.
But his hand never met my skin.
My eyes snapped open at the sound of the front door slamming shut.
Killian was gone.
There was something so intimate, so vulnerable about asking for his forgiveness like this, bare andsubmissive. That he had slammed the door on me, refusing both my apology and my touch, stung so deeply that the rice no longer hurt. All the pain in my body gathered in my chest, sharp and consuming, as if my heart were breaking under the weight of his rejection.
I felt tears well in my eyes.
Cade, taking pity on me and realizing I had emotionally and physically reached the edge of what I could take, switched off the game.
“He'll come around; give him time. Can you stand up, Rowan?” he asked, finally turning his attention back to me.
I tried, but my legs had gone completely numb. The moment I attempted to stand, I stumbled. Ryker hurried to me and caught me quickly, slipping his hands under my arms to support me.
His breath brushed my ear as he whispered, “You looked so beautiful kneeling there. You did so fucking good, Kitten.”
His lips trailed soft kisses along my neck, finding the tender spot he knew I couldn’t resist as he guided me to the couch and sat down. His strong arms pulled me face-down across his thighs.
I knew what was coming next, and it helped distract me from my encounter with Killian. My emotions shifted from sorrow to nervous anticipation.
“Cade, I thought my punishment was over. I did what you said, and it really hurt. I’m sorry. Please.”
“We’re not even close to done yet, Rowan. That was only the beginning. You said you wanted to be good for us.”
“I do,” I said quietly, resigning myself to the spanking I knew was about to happen.
Ryker’s palm grounded me and moved in slow circles across my ass cheek with a tenderness I knew wouldn't last long. Then Cade nodded to him.
“Count them,” Ryker said as his hand came down sharply, the impact stinging as it met my skin.
"One," I breathed in barely a whisper.
I tried to hold myself together and quietly take my punishment with as much composure as I could summon, but with each strike the pain intensified. By the sixth, tears blurred my vision, and by the fifteenth, I couldn’t stop the sobs that tore from my throat.
“That’s enough,” Cade barked.
Ryker moved me off his lap, helping me to sit upright on the couch. When my tender ass contacted the leather cushion, I winced.
