“I’m staying with…a friend. It’s complicated.” Understatement of the century.
Rachel blows out a frustrated breath. “Okay, then, when are you coming back?”
I shut my eyes, leaning my forehead against the freezing glass. “I don’t know. Soon.”
“Daphne,” her voice is half exasperated employee, half worried friend. “You gotta come back. The board is livid. I told them you were doing research and also taking time off for your birthday and the anniversary of your mother’s death, but they’re not buying it. I don’t know how much longer I can hold them off.”
“Not much longer,” I say quickly. Shit. I have to get back to New Olympus. Rachel’s right—I have too much responsibility. “I promise.”
Her voice drops. “It’s not just the company. It’s your father. He’s…not doing well.”
Frost slices through me. I stand. “What happened? What’s wrong?”
“The nurses don’t know. It might be the stress and shock from learning we couldn’t reach you—”
“You told him that?” Fuck!
“I didn’t have a choice! You just disappeared! I didn’t know if you were on holiday like you said or dead in a ditch!”
“All right, all right,” I soothe. It’s not Rachel’s fault all this happened. “I understand. I’m sorry. I’ll be back—right away. Today. I’ll call you back in a few hours.” I have to vow several times to call before Rachel lets me end the call. I hang up and drop my phone into my purse.
I don’t have any time to waste. There’s too much riding on me—my company, the board, Adam’s expectations. My father’s life. I can’t stay here.
I have to convince Logan to let me go.
Twenty-Three
Logan
The door creaks open slowly and Daphne enters. She looks nervous, her cheeks flushed. If I had to guess, I’d say my little submissive feels guilty about something.
“Logan, I need to ask you something.”
“Yes?” I ask, lazily. I’m feeling magnanimous today. Perhaps I won’t punish her too harshly for breaking a rule.
She fidgets. My disobedient little kitten.
She lifts her chin. “I called my assistant.”
“You what?” I’m looming over her before I realized I’ve crossed the room.
She raises her chin and stares me down. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” I grit out. “We had an agreement when you came here.”
Her mouth falls open. “I didn’t agree to never contact the outside world! It’s my goddamn phone.”
“I thought your time in the tower would teach you that nothing belongs to you. You have no privileges unless I give them to you.”
Her mouth falls open. “I thought…we were past all that.”
“Is that why you snuck out? To phone her behind my back?”
She flushes. Busted. “That’s not fair. I have a life. Friends. They were freaking out.”
She’s going to leave me. “You have no life anymore,” I roar. She’s changed everything, brought the sun back to my world, and she’s going to plunge me back into darkness.
Instead of flinching, she looks at me with pity. Her gaze softens. “Oh, Logan.” She cups my face with her hands. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
I jerk away. “Yes, it does. You agreed to do as I say. My game, my rules.”
She straightens, her hands fisting at her sides. “Your game is fucked up.”
“Oh Daphne.” My hands close on her arms. “You have no idea.”
Daphne
“Where are you taking me?” Please not the tower. Why did I think we were back to normal? What evidence did I have that Logan would be rational? He’s different, changed. Completely deranged.
When he glares down at me, the blue of his eyes reduced to an icy ring around blown pupils, my heart sinks. Logan is gone. There is only the Beast.
He drags me down a staircase—the opposite direction of the tower—and I sag with relief. Relief that’s short lived when he brings me into a cold stone room unlike any I’ve seen before. My mouth drops open.
A huge wooden X shaped cross dominates the middle of the room along with leather-topped tables, low benches with angled seats. Implements of such shapes and varieties I can’t even imagine what they could all be used for.
“What is this place?” I breath.
“My playroom.” He leads me to the middle of the room and positions me in front of the cross. I’m too busy gazing numbly at the wall of implements—everything from red handled crops to wooden paddles to wicked looking whips—that I don’t try to fight him.
“Play?”
“My sort of play.” He turns me to face the cross and cuffs my arms above my head before leaning in to whisper. “Welcome to the dungeon.”
Beast
My little submissive swallows, her eyes wide. “You’re crazy.”
“I’m not disputing it. You are at my mercy. I think it’s time you beg.”
“If you want me to beg, I will.”
“Not yet.” I thrust a rose sideways between her teeth, a makeshift gag. I brought a dozen roses down here in anticipation of showing her this place. This dungeon, these implements, this was another part of my gift to her. I was going to wait until she was stronger to put her through her paces but no.
I need to break her down until she needs me. Craves me. Will never leave…
As I peel away her leggings, I get a whiff of her arousal. She wants this as much as I do.
I cut off her shirt and bra, and grab another rose, running it down her back. She naked but for a see-through pair of panties. She shivers, but not from cold. I keep it warm down here. No, she’s already falling under my spell.
“Is this what you wanted, Daphne?” I murmur. “To know what I would do to keep you? The lengths I would go?” I run the rose down the cleft of her ass, smirking as she shifts her weight from foot to foot. “You want me to claim you, don’t you? Here?” I palm her ass, squeezing gently before giving the firm globe a smack. She jolts against the cross. “Do you need your Master to claim all of you?”
“You’re nuts,” she breathes, but her accusation holds no heat. I grab a fistful of her thick hair and ease her head back. She’s already panting, lips parted, nipples beaded. Her eyes are hooded and I bet if I checked her pussy, she’d be sopping wet.
“Doesn’t take much with you, does it?”
“Fuck you.”
“Oh, you most certainly will be. Fucked long and hard by me.”
Now she’s rocking her hips, seeking stimulation against the wooden cross.
“Ah ah,” I tsk. Time to turn in my rose for a sterner implement. I braid her hair loosely and tuck it over her shoulder, out of the way. I run my hands up and down her limbs and back, then select a flogger.
“Let’s get you warmed up.” I snap the flogger, letting the leather strands rain on her back. Her shoulders immediately relax as she accepts the sensations. The thudding strands give her a massage, with a light sting mixed in.