“Oh, you absolutely are, Hannah. But you want to know something?” He pauses and waits for my answering nod before leaning down until his lips are a whisper from the shell of my ear. “I fucking love you bratty, because it means I get to fuck it out of you.”
My lips part on a silent moan. I wouldn’t have ever considered myself a brat before, but maybe it’s just because they make me feel so comfortable, like I can be any version of myself, and they’ll love me right through it.
So maybe I have always been bratty, and I was just too scared to show that part of myself.
But hasn’t that been my whole life up to this point? I’ve always been afraid of others’ perceptions of me. It’s hard not to be when you’re constantly reminded of your shortcomings.
Except with Asher and Rowan. From the first time I met each of them, a part of me I didn’t know existed recognized them as safe.
“You ready for the rest of your punishment, Little Doe?”
I tilt my head slightly and catch the sight of Asher behind me, his tattooed torso on display while his hands move over my sensitive flesh.
God, he’s so fucking hot. It’s insane to me that he chooses to be with someone like me. That he centered the last few years of his life on making me theirs.
Perhaps that’s the part of all this that has been the hardest for me to swallow. The fact that someone like them would go to such lengths to prepare their lives to fit me, rather than expecting me to fit within what already existed.
“Yes, Sir,” I murmur, meeting his eyes for a moment before allowing my head to rest on Rowan’s thigh once again.
I’ve had a lot of spankings, but this is by far the best position I’ve ever been in. Safe and loved between the two of them, with constant comfort among the pain.
Rowan runs his fingers through my hair, and I can’t help but relax further into him despite what’s coming.
The first slap of leather across my ass stings, but it doesn’t really hurt.
No, the pain doesn’t come until the fourth hit when the paddle touches the same place the first hit did.
I cry out as the leather comes down across my ass again, tears gathering at the corners of my eyes. The pent-up emotion in my chest begins to loosen, and with each bite of pain, I come closer to letting it go, to releasing everything that’s been building since our first night together in the club.
My life has changed so much in such a short period of time, and tonight I was in danger. Real fucking danger. Not the perceived kind, like going to a nightclub alone or walking down a quiet street at night. But the real kind. The kind that could have killed me.
A stray tear rolls down my cheek somewhere around number eleven, and Rowan brushes it away, his gaze locked on my face, watching and waiting for me to fracture.
“You’re okay, Han,” he murmurs as he wipes away the second and third tears that fall. “You’re safe. You can let go. We’ll always catch you.”
Those words, words I’ve longed to hear my whole life, are all it takes for me to fall apart.
A rough sob tears through my chest as the world falls away, and all that’s left are the two men holding me together and the blissful release of emotion.
Asher delivers the final few swats while Rowan cradles my cheek in his hand, brushing away tears as they fall.
The paddle hits the carpet beside me, and before I can take my next breath, I’m gathered against Rowan’s chest with Asher at my back, both of them careful not to brush over my tender ass.
And for the first time in my life, I know with absolute certainty that I’ve found my place in the world.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
ROWAN
She’s beautiful.
Fuck.
I always knew she would be. She was the night we spent together at the Scarlet Lounge. But this is different.
Hannah hands herself to us with such grace, and there’s nothing we won’t do to keep that trust, to be worthy of her submission.
Worthy of her.
