Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40814 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
It’s a shameful rush. Giving us what we both want so desperately, but in the back of my mind, a chorus of voices chant: you’re hurting her, you’re hurting her, you’re hurting her—
I’m about to push her away when she suddenly collapses to the side, feebly reaching for her pillow.
“Daphne!” I exclaim, but she turns her face away from me.
“Go away,” she says weakly into the pillow, still not letting me see her face.
“Daph, what the hell just happened?”
Finally she shoves the pillow to the side and glares at me. “I don’t have enough fucking energy to seduce my fucking boyfriend, that’s what.”
First of all, her boyfriend? The term is ridiculous for what we are. And secondly, when did she get so foulmouthed?
She turns her face away again. “I just keep sticking my foot in it. I didn’t mean to say you’re my boyfriend. I know we’ve never, like, defined things…” Her voice turns bitter. “Especially now that we can’t even fuck.”
This woman… I shake my head at her. Have I taught her nothing? Then again, I’ve been so concerned with her external well-being that I’ve been neglecting the appetite I helped her develop. And sex was always the place where the two of us went to find clarity.
I lean over her and capture her wrists, pinning them on either side of her body. “I think you should take one of the sleeping pills the doctor prescribed tonight,” I say in my lowest, most dangerous voice. It’s the voice of the Master. “You’ll need your rest for what I have planned for you tomorrow.”
I’m hovering so close above her, I feel the shiver that runs through her body, head to toe. Even in the middle of everything she’s going through, I can still affect her.
I want to curl myself behind her and clutch her to me, to prove to myself that she’s real and she’s not going anywhere.
But her needs come first and I need her anticipating tomorrow. Her life is in chaos and she needs order.
She needs her Master.
So I peel myself away from the bed and release her wrists. “Until tomorrow. Sleep now and sleep soundly.”
Five
Daphne
I wake midmorning, feeling refreshed for the first time in days. I actually slept. Soundly, the whole night through. Usually my sleep is full of nightmare terrors.
But last night?
Quiet. If I had dreams, I don’t remember them.
Is that really his power over me? He orders me to sleep soundly…and I do? Or was it because I knew that behind those words, there would come action?
No more time to mull things over because there he is, pushing the door open with the morning breakfast tray.
But unlike normal, he doesn’t set it up over my lap. He lays the tray on my nightstand and sits beside me on the bed.
Right beside me.
So close, I feel the blazing heat of his thigh against my side. It makes sparks zing elsewhere throughout my body.
They don’t tell you this. But just because you’re sick, it doesn’t mean the rest of your body just shuts off. Maybe if we were doing traditional chemotherapy… But we’re not. And I feel just as needy as ever, maybe even more—but instead Logan’s been pulling away.
There’s just been so much distance between us. Even at a physical level. I’ve missed sleeping with him because I’m stuck on this narrow hospital bed. So much distance.
Until now.
What does this mean? Why is he suddenly being like this? Because of my pathetic attempts to seduce him yesterday?
Then again, maybe he’s as hard up as I am.
“I can feel your thoughts spinning a million miles an hour.” Logan looks down at me gravely. “It’s time for all that to stop.”
I squirm a little uneasily. “What’s gotten into you?” I’ve gotten used to the easy banter between us. But Logan’s not having any of it.
He leans over. He’s not wearing the mask over the ruined half of his face anymore, but he’s still every inch the Master. More than ever, maybe, because there’s no obstruction to his ice blue eyes blazing into mine.
“I am Logan. But I’m also your Master. And it’s time you remember that.”
I reach up to caress his face but he catches my wrist in a firm grasp and stretches it over my head.
My breath hitches when I feel a soft leather cuff circle my wrist and cinch tight. I look up at Logan, at Master, but apparently I’m not going to have any control in this session. Because the next thing I know, he’s coming at me with a sleeping mask. He settles it over my face, completely blocking out my vision.
“Relax,” he intones in a low, mesmerizing voice. “Your job is to keep every single muscle absolutely relaxed, no matter what I do to you. If you start to tense up, you’ll be punished. And I promise you won’t like my punishment.”