Lily came to an abrupt stop, looking at the determined expression on his face. Shade took out a slip of paper she recognized. It was her IOU.
“I’m going to give you a choice. Either you can apologize or I can cash in my hour of time. Your choice, Angel.”
Which was really no choice at all.
Stubbornly, she mimicked him, crossing her arms over her chest. “The IOU.” Lily trembled when he gave her a lethal smile. “I’m not the one who should apologize.”
“Take off your nightgown.”
Lily jerked off her gown, throwing it at his smug face, her eyes throwing violent sparks.
Shade went to his cabinet, opening the side where he kept his toys, she was sure. He pulled out a paddle then sat it back down. Next, he took out a flogger. Lily swallowed hard when he sat that back down. He paused several seconds before he opened a sliding compartment to the side, taking out what she had only seen in old westerns that looked like a whip.
Lily lost her confidence.
Scanning her new bedroom, she picked the closest corner and ran to it, shivering when Shade laughed.
He sat the whip down on the chair next to the cabinet then went back to his cabinet and pulled out leather cuffs.
“Get on the bed, Lily.”
“I’m sorry. I overreacted.” Lily’s temper had fled when he had pulled out the flogger.
“You’re not sorry yet, but you will be.” He pointed to the bed. “Bed. Now.”
Lily tried one more time to escape her punishment. “Blueberries.”
“What did I tell you about using your safe word to get out of a punishment?” If it was possible, his frown became even more ferocious. Her mouth snapped open. “If you’re about to tell me you hate me, I would seriously think about it.” Her mouth closed.
Lily wanted to cry, but channeled her inner Sex Piston and stubbornly lifted her chin. Leaving the relative safety of the corner, she went to the bed and lay down.
“On your stomach.” Lily paused then rolled onto her stomach.
As soon as she was on her stomach, she heard him move. He took her wrist and placed the leather cuff around her wrist then moved it to the headboard and slipped the ring into the hook on the bottom, snapping it closed. He moved to her other side and did the same. He then moved to the foot of the bed and buckled another cuff around her ankle before doing the same to the other. She was now bound and spread-eagled on the bed.
His hand brushed her calf as he picked up the whip.
“I can understand you being angry about Raci wearing my jacket. I wouldn’t have said a thing if you had tore me a new asshole. What I didn’t think was cool was you trying to get Rider killed. If you had touched anything of his, he would have been in the morgue tonight, brother or not.
“I don’t think that you have quite grasped the fact that you are mine, Lily. Mine.”
She heard the swish of the whip and gave a startled scream, waiting for the burning pain. She lay there, paralyzed with fear, not knowing what to do. When the tip of the whip touched the hair on the back of her shoulder, it actually felt like he had brushed it away with his hand. She felt only the faintest touch against her skin.
Thinking he had missed, she heard the sound of the whip again, this time feeling it against her other shoulder, the barest touch as if he had touched her with a gentle finger. She lay tense as another series of flicks had her feeling as if he was caressing her with fluttering touches. Her fear lessened and she relaxed against the mattress, a tear of relief she couldn’t hold back slipping from the corner of her eye.
The whip started striking her faster, moving from her shoulders to different areas of her back. This time Lily felt the strikes going from caresses to tingling, waking her nerve endings until she felt a light buzz across her skin, almost like when she felt static electricity. She felt the tiny flicks as he moved to her lower back then her buttocks, down her legs to her ankles. Her whole body was tingling.
Shade moved between her thighs, his fingers sliding into the moisture she had felt beginning when the whip had been striking her buttocks. Two fingers plunged into her passage.
“Are you doing okay, Lily?”
“Yes,” She mumbled.
Shade’s fingers slid out of her, giving only a faint brush against her clit. He went to the nightstand and Lily heard the music as he switched it on. He walked back to the foot of the bed where she couldn’t see him again.