Page 39 of Deviant

It took her letting loose a howling shriek and a break of the pose to snap me out of it. She got back into position before I could reprimand her. Dropping the belt on the floor, I filled my lungs with a calming breath, counted the rapid beats of my heart, prayed for patience and composure.

“Does it hurt?”

“Yes.” She sniffled.

“Is it a bad kind of hurt?”

She hesitated, no doubt tempted to lie.

“The truth, Alex.”

“It’s a…a g-good kind of hurt.”

Her butt cheeks were beet red, welting in some areas, and despite her low tolerance for that particular belt, I’d known what her answer would be. If her quaking thighs didn’t let me know, the shimmer of arousal between them would. Those sexy tanned legs of hers weren’t weak from pain. Fuck no. They shook with the effort it took to keep them spread. Not that closing them would give her relief. Her deviant cunt would still throb.

I pulled the chair from the opposite corner where I’d found Alex and moved it next to the nightstand, followed by the bowl and ginger. Removing a pocketknife from my jeans, I sat and began peeling and skinning the first finger off the root. “Time for the bad pain, sweetheart.”

18. Three Times the Burn - Alex

I was fucked.

He wouldn’t even spare me a glance. The determined way he skinned and carved that huge piece, so intent on his sadistic artistry, scared the shit out of me.

God, he was furious. For that reason alone, I didn’t dare move or say a word, no matter how I ached to apologize and beg for mercy. The only thing I had the courage to do was watch him carve his ultimate weapon, aside from water, against me.

Please, not the ginger. Anything but the ginger.

As his fingers worked the knife along the piece, and a plug-like shape began to form, I blinked rapidly, hating the threat of tears. Hating my weakness. If I were stronger, braver, somehow capable of tolerating this particular type of pain, he wouldn’t be able to hold it over me.

He finished carving and dropped the ginger plug into the bowl of water, and I thoughtthis is it, but then he broke off another piece and brought his knife to the outer skin.

Dread ignited in my gut. I shouldn’t have gone to my dad—not without Rafe. It had been a stupid and reckless thing to do. In the end, the visit had done nothing to answer my questions. Instead, it left me feeling like an orphan.

Rafe believed he was justified in punishing me, and maybe he was, but I didn’t think I deserved such a harsh form of discipline. That was the downside of giving my free will to a man who wouldn’t hesitate to take advantage of my weaknesses.

And Rafe Mason was my number one weakness.

“You broke my trust,” he said, shattering the silence after a while. He started on a third piece, and the repugnant spiciness of ginger grew stronger in the air.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m not sure I believe you.”

“I am. I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”

“Hurt me? You pissed me off, Alex. And you scared the fucking shit out of me. Do you have any idea what losing you would do to me?”

I couldn’t help but glare at him. “That’s a stupid question.”

He winced, but it was a fleeting show of empathy. “Then you know how fucking terrified I was when you disappeared on me.”

“I do, and that’s why Iamsorry.”

“I sense a caveat in there, babe.”

“I had to confront him.”

“I told you no.”

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