Page 31 of Punish Me, Daddy

“You’re going to tell me how you did it,” he demanded, soft but deadly. “Or I willmakeyou. And if you lie?—”

Another step.

“You’ll be inmoretrouble than you already are.”

I gulped.

He was bluffing. Maybe. Probably. Hopefully…

Something about the way he said it—the way his voice curved around the word trouble like it was something intimate—made my skin buzz with anxiety.

I glanced at the door.

He was standing between me and it, leaving me nowhere to run. Even if I could make it out the door, I was no track star. I knew better than that. He would catch me and then who knows what he would do.

I stared him down, even as the heat in my stomach curled tighter.

“Okay,” I began, lifting my chin. “Fine. I did it.”

Silence.

Just the hum of the fridge and the pounding of my pulse. His jaw ticked once, but otherwise he didn’t react. I folded my arms across my chest.

“How did you find out?”

He smirked and I turned my head, infuriated.

“That’s not your business.”

Of course it wasn’t.

He was the type of man who didn’t explain. He didn’t justify. He knew. And that was enough.

Something like annoyed defiance twisted in my chest, and the words came out before I could stop them.

“Whatever,” I sneered. “Fuck you.”

He chuckled back at me, and something inside me snapped. I didn’t pull off that scheme just to end up scolded in my own kitchen like a misbehaving debutante. I had made a play—a good one—and I wasn’t going to let him reduce me to some trembling little thing just because he was the one man in this city who actually scared me.

I squared my shoulders, lifted my chin, and looked him dead in the eye.

“You act like I should be sorry,” I snapped, voice hard and sharp like broken glass. “But I’m not. You got played, Nikolai. I won. I outsmarted you. Deal with it.”

His gaze narrowed.

Fuck. What have I done?

One heartbeat. Two. Then I saw the shift. It was subtle—the way his eyes darkened, the way his stance changed, how the amused smirk fell away, and something colder slid into its place.

Dangerous.

Predatory.

I felt it before he even moved, but I didn’t back down.

“If you’re that pissed off about losing a few bets,” I added, “maybe you should start hiring people who don’t get outmaneuvered by a girl in a miniskirt and heels.”

That was it.

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