Page 648 of Coal Hearts

I didn’t move until the guard stopped puffing out his chest and slouched again.

And then I moved as slowly and as inconspicuously as possible toward the jewel quarters and Ily.

Chapter Thirty-One

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Ily

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AUGUST

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TIME HAD THE TERRIBLE ABILITY at changing the length of its minutes.

One day, hours sped past in a blink. The next, seconds crawled by with an age.

Our mornings were spent on the deck or in the ballroom sharing breakfast with so many other Masters and kneeling, unhappy jewels. Afterward, Henri would leash me and take me for a walk in the gardens. In the afternoons, he’d write or read, and I’d do yoga and meditate.

And our evenings...well.

Those became the bane and highlight of my existence.

Not because of the things we did.

But because those things destroyed us.

Piece by piece.

Heart by heart.

Until we were nothing more than creatures of the same twisted longing.

* * * * *

“Ah good swat, mon ami!” Victor slapped Henri on the shoulder as he delivered another shot of cognac to him. Henri took the glass with a shaking hand, wiping the sweat off his upper lip.

My eyesight faded in and out.

My blood positively burned.

My entire body scorched with fire.

The fourth lash of a tan-and-white flogger that Victor had given us as yet another gift sang through the air and swatted my bare belly.

The meditative intensity that used to be so elusive now found me every time we played. It uncoiled slowly, insidiously wrapping me in its blanketing sensitivity, quietening my mind and making my entire body feel everything.

I felt Henri’s stare as he glowered at the welts left on my belly and breasts from his flogger.

I saw his desire, his despair, desperation, and darkness.

I heard the heavy thud of his thundering heart as if our pulse pounded to the same beat.

You doing okay? His silver gaze asked.

I’m with you. I ducked my chin. I trust you.