Page 86 of Unbound

He was mad at me.

I blinked at him. My mouth opened. Anger radiated from every one of Dare’s pores.

I lifted my hand and panned it out in front of me, gesturing at the beach, the water. I grabbed my collar and mouthed, “Three.”

It must have satisfied him, been self-explanatory that I had to come to the one spot here that made me feel something other than dread and felt like I could because I was convinced I had my three-strand collar on, because he took in our surroundings and the anger drained out of his face. He went to his knees in the sand and thrust his fingers into his hair.

“I was fuckin’ worried sick.”

“I’m sorry, Master,” I said softly.

He pulled me against him.

I buried my face into his throat. I held him tight. Tears threatened. I pushed them away.

“I don’t wanna be Felicia again.”

He pulled back to look at me. He looked torn up. Remorseful.

”I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t want this. I fucked up.”

“Tell me to be your good girl,” I pleaded. “I’ll be your good girl for the rest of the trip and then maybe I won’t have to be her anymore after this.”

“I won’t call you that name again. I love you, baby. Fuck, that scared me. You scared me. You okay?”

He brushed my hair away from my face.

I nodded.

“They’re watching. They saw me strut this way, pissed.”

He had me plastered to him on our knees but he hauled off and slapped my ass really hard. I jolted. He slapped it again and then let me go and aggressively pointed at the sand.

He laid down and pointed at his stomach.

“Lay on my belly so we can talk,” he demanded.

I did.

“I’m turned on,” I whispered into his stomach, kissing it.

“That’s good,” he said, but he clearly wasn’t in the mood for beach sex. “I fucked up, baby. I tried to give you what I thought I’d want. I was wrong. I’m sorry.”

“Shh.” I shook my head and gestured toward the spot between my boobs. I was wired. “We’ll talk about that later. I have to get to the slave garden. Can I go see Truly for a few minutes alone?”

“What?”

“There’s a Zen garden, a courtyard at the slave quarters and Truly ran into me in the hall and says she has to warn me about something. Says there’s a private spot in the garden.”

“Truly?”

“One of the girls. Redhead from the Townsend room the other night.”

“What could it be?”

“No idea.”

“You trust her?’

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