successful cases alongside the unsuccessful ones who died." I watched the flash of grief spill through her eyes at the mention of her sister's fate and drank it in. I'd never felt anything as powerful as that emotion which I saw in her. The closest I'd come had been my grandmother's death, but that had left me empty and alone. Not filled with pain and a sense of injustice. I could only imagine ever truly understanding it if I were to lose one of the other Night Keepers...or her.
"So now you want to tell your father about me?" she guessed, giving up any pretence.
"No," I replied firmly. "I won't have that man near you. There is nothing in those documents to give away that you are one of the few successful test subjects. Nothing to give away your part in it at all aside from this scar. And there's no way he will ever find out about that. I believe that the research here will be sufficient to allow the right people to create a vaccine without them ever learning of your existence."
"So, we're just going to keep my immunity secret?" she asked, looking like she was hoping I'd agree.
"We tell the other Night Keepers," I said because I wouldn't keep a secret that big from them. "But it doesn't go beyond our ring of confidence."
"Okay." A smile touched her lips and she moved an inch closer like she thought she might embrace me and I tutted at her.
"Get changed, siren, you have a punishment to endure."
Tatum's eyebrows rose and her gaze strayed to that velvet bag again before she bit into her lip once more and my cock twitched with ideas I wouldn't allow it to fulfil.
I moved across the room, taking hold of the large, cream armchair in the corner and tugging it closer to the bed. A blaze of pain tore across my ribs, but I just gritted my teeth against it and kept going until I had it where I wanted it.
Tatum tried to come and help me, but I shot her a glare to warn her off and she quickly started shedding her clothes instead.
I watched hungrily as she revealed her body to me and I slowly moved to take the velvet bag from the nightstand.
Watching her dress herself in the white lingerie was almost as alluring as watching her strip and when she finally stood before me like a picture of innocence, my heart had shifted to a thundering beat.
I closed in on her, gently brushing her long hair back over her shoulders and skimming my thumbs down her sides in a slow move which had her sucking in a breath as her spine arched beautifully.
"Tell me who owns you," I breathed, hooking a finger beneath one of her suspender straps at the top of her thigh and pulling it away from her bronzed flesh.
"The Night Keepers," she replied and though I'd been looking for her to say my name, I found I liked that answer even better. She was ours. The Night Bound. Sworn to us forever. Which was good, because that was exactly as long as I intended to keep her.
I released the suspender strap with a flick of my finger and it snapped against her skin, making her flinch.
"On the bed, on your back, knees bent, thighs apart," I commanded and I almost groaned aloud as she instantly did as I’d said. I knew I should have questioned my need for control more, worried about what it said about me, but at this point, I’d just accepted that I was my own brand of monster and I wasn’t going to make any effort to change it. Especially now that I’d found her so willing to comply to my needs.
The sight of her laid out for me like that had the ache in my throbbing cock consuming my every thought as I watched her, and it took me a moment to remember the bag in my hands.
"You have a choice," I said to her slowly as I drew the strings open and she watched me with a feral hunger in her big blue eyes. "If you would rather I punish you with some menial task then say it now."
"I want this," she replied instantly, still not knowing what I had in mind, but fisting her hands in the sheets in anticipation of it.
"Good. Hold onto the headboard. If at any point you let go, I won't let you come. Understood?"
"Yes," she panted,