I blink. What does that mean? I’m curious, but I don’t want to try a gag. My throat is a bit raw. Maybe next time.
If there is a next time.
He sets me against the side of the tub so my back is supported and spends a long time picking leaves out of my hair. Then he washes it properly, massaging shampoo into my scalp until I’m limp in the water. I’m half asleep when he uses my homemade chamomile rinse. He applies a purple mask to my mids and ends and leaves me to relax.
It’s not until he’s back that I realize he washed my hair perfectly. He even towel-dries my hair before applying leave-in conditioner and a touch of oil on the ends.
How did he know?
He’s been watching me. Closely. And he’s right… I never knew. Not until he let me see him.
Does he have cameras in here? What else has he seen?
I felt so safe in all my secrets, but he might know them all. And then I’ll have nothing. No defenses. All my scheming won’t save me… or my father.
My skin prickles with the cold. He wraps me with a towel warmed by the heated rack, but the cold sinks deeper, to my bones. The sugar rush is over, and reality is setting in. Reality and regret.
I thought I could outsmart him, but now I’m here, naked in front of him, obeying his commands, when not a few hours ago, he and his thug friends were shaking down my father in his own office.
He’s playing me. I like it, but I can’t forget what this is. I can’t forget he threatened me and my father, then had the audacity to claim he was protecting me.
I will make him live to regret it.
I will keep pretending to be the fragile flower the world thinks I am. It won’t fool him at first, but eventually he will lower his guard. I’ll be his perfect bride if that’s what it takes. I will study him as he’s studied me. I will poison him from the inside out.
Kaiser and his friends will pay for messing with the Bosco family. My victory over them will be the talk of two cities, and destroying them will cement my status forever.
I will be the one who brought down Fraternitas. The ultimate supervillain.
But first, I have to survive the night.
Kaiser
* * *
Her forehead is wrinkled when I dry her off and lead her to bed. She let down her guard and now she’s regretting it.
She doesn’t need to be on guard. I’ll protect her from everyone who would hurt her.
But there’s no protecting her from me.
We walk into the bedroom. She stalls halfway to her king-sized bed, where I laid out some of my tools while she soaked in the bath. A ring gag. A box containing three sets of nipple clamps. Some rope and a suede flogger. Nothing too intense, but it probably looks scary to a novice submissive.
I stroke her hair from her face. I blow-dried it a little bit, the way she does after a shower. I followed her hair care routine to a T, and her hair looks like it always does, like it’d be soft and silky to the touch.
Her eyes roam over me. I took the time to dry off and change into loose black pants but left my chest and feet bare. She likes the look of my muscles. I have the urge to flex and show off, which I resist.
Her expression balks when she notices I’m still wearing the black gloves. Even though I washed her, I haven’t removed them. I want to touch her, but I’m not going to, not until I understand what’s going on with her. She said she was immune to poison ivy, but she also licked the poison apple tree in front of me, so her immunity may extend to other plants.
My arm is numb where I had to scrub off the sap. I know it hurts, but, like always, I have to concentrate to feel the ache. This came in handy when I was a young man in the fighting rings. Back then, I thought I was just learning to handle pain, but it went too far. It’s like I turned off the part of my brain that connects to my skin. The pain is there, but it doesn’t register. It feels far away.
I need to remember the lesson of the hogweed. The rash isn’t bad—I’ve lived through much worse—but it’s a good reminder that Bella is more than she seems to be. I’m dying to touch her all over, but I need to be careful.
Even though she looks very nervous right now. She bites her plump lower lip, and I have to bite back a growl. My dick is hard enough to pound nails, but I’m not going to pounce on her. Not yet. I have to go slowly, or I’ll lose control.
Some day I’ll be able to spank her hard, pull her hair, and bite hard enough to bruise and break the skin. She’ll wear my marks under her clothes.
But first I’ll have to break her in.
