Page 179 of The Contract

The bars bite into my skin, unrelenting ice cold.

But I don’t flinch.

I can’t.

He needs to see it. Needs to know I’m not bluffing. That I mean what I’m about to say.

“Because I’ll give you anything you want.”

Even if it wrecks me.

“You’ll do that anyway.”

I have one bargaining chip. His only demand that first night.

Not my fear. Not my pain.

Me.

He wanted me. Freely, willingly giving myself over to him.

“I’ll give you me,” I whisper. “For life. I won’t run. If you free Mila, you get me.”

His breath skates across my cheek, slow and deliberate.

I shiver.

“I snap… you obey?”

A pause. Then?—

“Every depraved, filthy word?”

My throat goes dry. My lips part, but no sound comes at first. Then—barely—“Yes.”

He studies me.

A long, agonizing beat of silence where he just watches me.

Then—his thumb brushes my lower lip.

And I let him.

A test. Probably to see if I’ll bite. The thought reloads with every stroke. Like the barrel of a gun with the safety clicked off.

Slowly, he slides it between my lips.

Not a question.

A claim.

And I take it.

Jesus, what choice do I have?

“Suck,” he commands.

Tears sting, hot and fast. Humiliation burns its way up my throat.

---