But I couldn’t reach the brink like this. He was withholding any contact below my waist—more punishment for coming; I knew this as well as if he’d told me.
“Touch me, Sevastyan!” My inner walls clenched only emptiness. “I have to come again.”
“Do you want me inside you?”
I moaned, barely recalling why it was so important not to have sex. “Oh, God . . . I don’t . . . I can’t . . .” My lust-stupid brain spun its wheels, gained no traction.
“If you became mine, I wouldn’t let you go.” His words were clipped, as if he was biting back frenzy. “Understand me, if I’m your first lover—I will be your last.” The ringing tone of finality chilled me. “And I would kill any man who thought to touch what was mine.”
Permanent.
“Beg me to f**k you.” He lashed my right breast.
Trap!
In my mind, I saw him at the ready, about to capture me, to chain me forever. The hunter about to strike. This was what he’d awaited.
This. Why now? Why me?
“Beg, Natalya.”
Can’t think! “N-no?”
Silence. Finally: “What did you say?”
“I can’t. Not unless you can tell me it’ll only be sex. With no strings attached.”
“I said you controlled this situation.” Tone gone sinister, he grated, “But I control you. I can make you beg.”
I whispered, “I know.”
My admission seemed to temper some of his anger. “Then why deny us, milaya?”
“It’s all too much. I just . . . can’t.”
“Then I won’t f**k you till you beg me to—outside of this torment. Because I’m playing to win.” He makes the rules. “This is more to me than just pleasure.” Another slap of the venik.
“Sevastyan, I don’t . . . I don’t know how much longer I can stand this.” Just when I was about to plead for mercy—or faint—I felt pressure at my core. A warm, bulbous object nudged against my opening. Despite what he’d said, was he going to f**k me?
No . . . that wasn’t his . . . oh, dear God, was it the polished handle of the ladle? I whimpered, “Y-you can’t.” I couldn’t think—because he’d begun to slowly penetrate me. “You’re . . . you’re doing this to spite me?” Diabolical man!
“I promised you unmatched pleasure, yet you took away my most effective means. Come now, pet, you said you needed something inside you.”
I did. And I wanted it deeper, but he merely thrust with shallow pumps, until my head lolled. He avoided my cl*t completely—more punishment. Still, I was about to come.
Slap. Even as he f**ked my pu**y with the handle, he whipped my tender br**sts. At that moment, I couldn’t decide which stimulation I would kill for most.
I did crave the brand of pain this man delivered.
“Bend your will to mine.” The strain in his voice made my toes curl. He lashed me; he thrust into my clinging channel. He maddened me. “When I order you to come, obey.”
Thrust, thrust, thrust to the staccato sounds of my whipping.
I sobbed from the intensity. Gone light-headed. Euphoric. “Sevastyan, oh, God, please.” A keening moan burst from my lungs.
“Ah, woman, your sounds! Come for me. Now.”
I plummeted over the edge. Core-deep contractions made me scream with abandon, made me jerk against the ties as my body spasmed.