Page 44 of Taking Adalisa

“Why?” he slowly repeats my question. “Because you put yourself in danger. You walked into that facility looking for your friend and didn’t even think about your own safety.”

“H-how?—”

“How do I know? I know you, Adalisa. I know that you are trying to find Margery and you will do anything to find her,” he tells me. “I know that you will put your own safety on the back burner that is unacceptable.”

“I need to find her,” I whisper. “She is all I have left.”

“And now you know she is safe. When I am allowed to take you to her, I will, but right now you can’t see her.”

What does he meanwhen he is allowed to take me to her?

“What you need to know is that putting yourself in danger is not okay. It will never be okay. If you think something is going to be dangerous, then you will contact me and I will decide what to do,” Matthias informs me. “When you walked up to the facility, did you feel okay about the situation?”

I keep my face neutral. He can’t know I had a bad feeling before, can he? I didn’t give anything away.

“Did you?” he asks again. “And do not think about lying to me. It will only add to your punishment.”

Sighing, I nod. “Yes,” I whisper.

“And yet you still decided to go in. At least you had the bracelet on.”

I wince at the mention of the bracelet. It’s almost like they singled me out because I had the bracelet on. It was like they took one look at my bracelet and heard me say Margery’s name, and that was it. There were no more arguments or hearing me out.

What if they hadn’t called Matthias?

“You need to be more careful,” Matthias says. “You can’t go walking into places you don’t know. That is dangerous, especially when you don’t know anything about the operations going on in there.”

“I know,” I mumble.

I have learned my lesson. Don’t walk into strange places.

Margery needs me.

“What you did was naughty, putting yourself into danger. So after a spanking all will be forgiven,” Matthias gently explains.

I stand and shake my head. “Yeah, no. I definitely don’t need a spanking.”

He raises an eyebrow, and it takes everything in me not to sit back down. “Are you sure about that?” he asks. “I think, deep down, you know you need a spanking, but you don’t want to admit it. You don’t want to say the words aloud because it becomes real. But I think you do want this, and you’ve wanted it for a while.”

“No.” My voice wavers, and I curse myself inside my head.

He caught me there. I do want a spanking, and I have for a while. To feel the love and care that someone is looking out for you and holding you accountable? It’s been a dream of mine. Not the whole spanking and pain aspect of it, though. I don’t want that, but I want to feel like someone actually cares for me and wants what is best for me.

Matthias smiles as he looks at me. “Lies.”

I shake my head. Partial lies, but he doesn’t need to know that.

“That will get you into more trouble. It will add to your tally,” Matthias informs me.

I bite the inside of my cheek, not believing him. ? I’ve never heard of that before in the books I’ve read.

Matthias grabs hold of my chin, and I clench my jaw.What is his obsession with holding my chin?

“It makes you focus on me,” he tells me.

“Did I say that out loud?” I groan.

I need to get that under control. “I like it when you speak your mind,” Matthias honestly says. “It helps me know what you are really thinking. Don’t ever stop.”

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