“I’ve made my decision,” Cameron informed his pet, each word steady and confident, as if he hadn’t just sat on the stairs wondering if he was doing the right thing for so long that his legs had gone numb.“Your punishment will take place tomorrow.”
Chapter Eight
He was not going to act like a nervous schoolboy called into the headmaster’s office to be caned.Franklin was a grown man who owned several very successful businesses.He’d proved to his father and everyone else that, gay or straight, he could hold his own in any boardroom on the planet.
He might now be a lion’s pet and a sub and a great many other things he hadn’t considered himself to be a few weeks ago.He might even be head over heels in love, which was probably even more unexpected than the rest of it.But he wasn’t a coward.
He’d asked to be punished, and Franklin was more than willing to be damned before he flinched now, no matter what Cameron might have in store for him.
He looked back across the room to where Arslan, Ellery and Cameron were deep in conversation.They were too far away for him to catch a single damn word.He couldn’t even try to lip read while their heads were bowed together.
There seemed to be some debate going on.Taking a deep breath, Franklin tried not to sigh as he let it out.
“They’ll make sure nothing happens that will bring any real harm to you,” Kefir offered from his seat on the hearth rug.
“I’m not scared.”The snap in his voice made him sound like he was lying.Franklin managed to scrape up a small apologetic smile that encompassed both Ryland and Kefir as he realised he was making a fool of himself.
“Ellery will be explaining human traditions.Arslan will be giving him advice on if it would be possible for a lion to adopt them without hurting his pet too badly,” Ryland expanded, from next to Franklin on the sofa.
Franklin nodded.
Ellery turned away from the group.“Kefir.”He beckoned the little lion across the room.
A moment later, Kefir left the den, closing the door neatly behind him.When he came back, he had a whip in one hand and a set of leather restraints in another.
Ellery took both from him without a word.He looked down at the length of the whip, inspecting it very carefully.Franklin was completely mesmerised by the sight of the implement until Cameron stepped forward to stand in the middle of the room.Suddenly, both Ellery and the whip might as well have been invisible
“The punishment will be a whipping,” Cameron announced.“Twenty lashes.”
Franklin stood up.“Yes.”To his eternal relief, his voice remained perfectly level at the prospect.
“It will be administered by Ellery, at my request, since he is the only master present who knows what a human’s skin can tolerate.”
“Yes,” Franklin said again.It wasn’t his place to argue about the details of a punishment.He wasn’t supposed to enjoy it.He had no right to complain that he would prefer it if it were Cameron on the other end of the lash.
Cameron stepped forward again, his expression very serious as their eyes remained locked.“In here?”he asked.
No matter where Cameron was looking, Franklin knew the lion wasn’t speaking to him.
“No.”Ellery and Arslan said the word together.
“Somewhere where there’s more room,” Ellery said.“Somewhere he can be restrained.”
Cameron turned to Arslan, so did everyone else, except Franklin.
“The old green bedroom,” Arslan decided.
Cameron nodded.
“It’s at the top of the stairs, third door on the left.”
Cameron nodded again.He reached out to Franklin and took hold of his wrist.As Cameron led him from the room, catching the cuffs Ellery tossed to him on the way past, Franklin became aware that the others were hanging back and sent up silent thanks that he might have a moment alone with Cameron before it all started.Maybe he didn’t deserve for his wish to be granted it, but he was still glad it had been.
The door leading into the bedroom Arslan had selected for the punishment swung open as Cameron turned the handle.Unable to look at his master right then, Franklin studied the room with ferocious intensity.Maybe it had been green once.Now, it was somewhat between colours.
Dustsheets covered every piece of furniture that had been too big or cumbersome to move out of the room.Patches of the walls had been daubed in different shades as someone tried out different samples.The whole space smelled of paint.
With his hand still wrapped around Franklin’s wrist, Cameron led him forward, to the base of a large four-poster bed.Any curtains that might have hung there were long gone.Only the bare length of wood remained.One deft movement and Cameron had the long chain connecting the cuffs looped over the rail above their heads.
