“We weren’t together.” She waved her hand dismissively.
He wasn’t buying it. “We were together. You came to the club. I laid it out for you. I was plain when I laid that out. You knew when you walked in the bar that you were stating you chose me. I had already told you I had chosen you. You were scared, and you ran. You didn’t trust me. That earns you a punishment.”
“I’m not five. Why in the world would you want to punish me?”
“Because I like it.” His hand curled around her thigh, his fingers pressing deep while he confessed. She had to know what he was. She had to live with it—with him. With his darkest needs. “I even crave it. Right now, my cock is a fuckin’ steel rod because I know I’m going to put my handprints on your ass. You’re going to cry when I do. You’ll beg me to stop, and I’m going to get even harder because I can’t resist your tears or your pleas. I’ll take your tears away, one by one, and make it all better by making you scream my name when you come.”
There was a long silence. He didn’t move. He didn’t look up at her face. He couldn’t. For a moment he couldn’t even find air to breathe. His lungs burned. He went back to writing his name on her bare skin. Savage. Then her name. Seychelle. His heart pounded. He’d just laid it on the line. Told her how fucked up he was. That wasn’t even close to how fucked up he was. There was no getting around it. Not now. Not ever. He craved that shit. Needed it the way he needed to breathe air.
“You’re going to hurt me?” Her voice was soft. Small. Afraid.
He took a breath. Found the strawberries. “Yes. Sometimes. When you fuck up.”
“Hit me? You’re going to beat me up?”
He turned his head, his jaw sliding across her soft belly. He stroked the curve of her hip. His eyes met hers. Her fear was visible in her eyes, in the expression on her face. Her lips trembled, and she twisted her fingers in the sheet beside her hips. But that wasn’t the only thing in her eyes. There was a flicker of excitement. Desire. A cautious dark anticipation. He hated that his cock responded, throbbing with expectation. With urgent demand. It felt like fuckin’ paradise and yet was hell at the same time. He knew absolutely, if he slid his hand up her thigh into her panties, he would find her slick with heat.
“I would never beat you, Seychelle. Or hit you in anger. I’m not talking about that kind of relationship, and I think you know that. I’m saying you fuck up by disobeying one of my rules, I’m going to put you across my knee and leave my handprints on your ass. I’m warning you ahead of time, I’ll enjoy it. I’m also going to tell you, you will learn to enjoy it as well. Not all of it, but in the end, you’ll be craving everything I give you.”
“This is all part of what you talked about earlier.”
“Yes, and it’s the easiest part, easing you into the more demanding things I will expect. I will demand all kinds of sex with you, and yes, bondage and pain will be included, but we’ll work up to that. I can teach you to like the things I need, baby.” He turned his head back to her belly, pressing kisses into her soft flesh. His teeth scraped and then nipped, his tongue easing the ache. “Like that, baby. You liked that.”
“You aren’t talking about that, Savage.”
“No, but no one runs before they walk. I’ll make you love most of what I do to you.”
“Most of what you do?”
He nodded. He had to be honest, no matter what. She had to come into the relationship knowing what she was getting. “I told you straight up, I wasn’t satisfied with what I’d done to that woman. I’ll teach you to like most of what we do, but there will be times when that shit gets very real, Seychelle, when I need to put stripes on your body. It will hurt. I can turn pain into pleasure, and I can take care of you after, but you will suffer for me. You have to know that going into this.” His hand moved on her leg. On the scars there.
She was silent for a long time while his heart pounded and his mind screamed at him that he was a monster no one could ever accept or love.
“What if I can’t take it, Savage? What if the pain is too much?”
“Then you call a stop. You say red.”
“And you stop?”
“I would hope you would know when we get to that point that I would never initiate that kind of sex unless I was desperate. At the same time, I would know you would never say red unless you truly couldn’t take any more. That’s what trust is. That’s what we would need to have between us, so yes, I would stop instantly.”