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  “Shit!”

  This time, the word popped out more from astonishment, coinciding with the first stroke he inflicted. He’d barely moved his wrist to lay the falls across her thighs. Her skin warmed and then tingled. She took a deep breath, relaxing for a second.

  All right, that wasn’t so bad. A bit pleasant, even.

  It was also a beginner’s tap.

  “No more words.” He emphasized with a second thwack, backed by more muscle. Oh, this one stung, but Rose clenched back her retort, bolting a glare into him instead as he finished, “You’ll get to use words when I direct them from you. Understood?”

  As she debated how to best narrow her eyes more, he dipped his last word into a seductive murmur…brushing her exposed labia with the leather strands.

  Dear. God.

  She squeezed her eyes shut. The moan in her throat turned into a choke.

  “Y-Yes, Sir.”

  Smack.

  He replaced the falls with his palm and not nearly with as much tenderness. Her eyes flew open. Had he just spanked her pussy? And—shit—was her vagina drenched in reaction?

  “Very sweet and respectful, honey—but not the words I’m waiting to hear.”

  He stepped closer, the wicked light in his eyes searching for something in hers. Apparently he found it, because his lips twisted into a confident smirk—right before he palmed her sex again. “We’ll get to the words. Don’t you worry. Right now, you’ve agreed to accept a punishment for turning tail on your Master this morning. You’re going to feel a little of what it was like in my heart, to realize you didn’t trust me enough to stay and face me.”

  “No!” It burst before she could stop it, fueled by watching him swing the flogger in more ferocious swoops. “It’s not you! I’ve trusted you with everything!”

  He laughed. Sort of. “More words. More bullshit I don’t want to hear. Keep it up, Rose, and your welts will be as blue as this ocean by the time we’re done.”

  “But you need to understand. You need to—”

  “Silence!”

  His bellow came with a frightening thwack of the flogger to the deck near her feet. In the aftermath, she looked on as Mark heaved on his breaths, gritting his teeth, watching her with feral appraisal. Rose shook violently, but her terror suddenly had nothing to do with what he was going to do with her. Shit. Shit! All his actions were a terrible revelation, showing her what she’d done to him, how deep the cut she’d truly inflicted by walking out this morning. She’d had no idea. She’d thought he’d call her a few choice things, have the bed changed, and then subject her to an emotional blackout for the rest of the week.

  She’d never thought he’d feel this…pain. Over her.

  She’d never thought she’d cause anyone pain like this. Ever.

  Her brain unleashed an ocean of misery on her heart.

  She raised her head, hoping he’d look up just once—and see how she knew now.

  How she knew.

  How she was so sorry for what she’d done…

  But through the first dozen blows, his focus seemed only on the body he disciplined. He said nothing else. The air was filled with his raging grunts, the ominous whirs of the falls, the hard thwacks on her skin, and her deep, resigned silence. Even as the blows got harder, Rose swallowed and held back her screams. The flogger’s bites were whispers of pain compared to the sorrow in her soul.

  I’m sorry. Oh, Sir…so sorry.

  He finally looked at her face. He did it only for a moment, after turning to shake his hair free of sweat. A flash of disbelief darkened his eyes before he whooshed the flogger high again.

  Despite her resolve, the strike made her cry out. He’d been targeting the flesh of her thighs and arms, so the blow across her breasts was a sharp shock. The flesh there was already puckered and sensitive because of the wind. His strike filled them with sudden stings.

  But then she got the real stunner. To compensate for the pain, she tried to twist her hips. The ropes didn’t let her move much, but far enough that when her pussy shifted, those wet lips kissed each other in more than a few places.

  Arousal flared up her body. Her outcry was quickly drowned by her hiss.

  She looked back to Mark.

  Again, he was a man transformed.

  Raw power filled every angle of his face. His lips, slightly parted, twisted with victory. Cords stood out in his neck. Veins were prominent in his chest and biceps.

  For a long moment, she forgot about being sorry, stubborn, or anything except totally turned on.

  He wielded the flogger again, once more aiming across her thighs—only this time, riveting his stare on hers too. And bunching his arm hard with the effort.

  This time, it really hurt.

  Rose shrieked—but forgot the pain in the very same moment, watching what her shudders and writhing did to him. He dragged in a harsh breath. The corners of his eyes twitched. His free hand shifted to his crotch, nursing the growing ridge there.

  She barely had time to catch her breath before he laid the falls again across her breasts. Again harder than before. Again forcing her to twist her hips. Again sending the pulses through her pussy, her body, clear into her scalp. Her lips parted on another hiss. His jaw clenched.

  The pattern began.

  His flogger strike. Her scream.

  His caught breath. Her rolling hips.

  Their growing, connected need. Their spiraling, mutual desire. Sting and succor. Pain and pleasure. A place far beyond where they’d been together last night. A man different than the Dominant who’d taken her in the storm by the pool and then seduced her in his bed. This merciless pirate wasn’t going to do any of that. His whole face told her so. When his body joined with hers, it was going to be brutal, primal.

  And God help her, she couldn’t wait.

  And damn it, she knew he recognized that too.

  As if seeing the thought take over her mind, Mark hurled the flogger to the deck and then regained the space between them. Instead of pressing his body against her like he had before, he grabbed the shrouds beneath her, pulling her against his body. He had her fully surrounded, completely bound.

  His to be used.

  She whimpered, only hoping his need was worse than hers and he’d be inside her soon, no more questions asked. They’d have this last beautiful bonding here on the sea, where they were safe from the world. Maybe, for a little while longer, her fantasy would be safe from Shane’s reality.

  “All right, honey. Now we’re going to talk.”

  She groaned. So much for wishes coming true. “What? Why?” She tried to plead it into his lips, to take advantage of the heavy lust that clearly plagued him as much as her. But he shook his head, fanning his heated breath across her face.

  “Not an approved response.” He pulled again on the ropes. The action brought her spread mound against the rough bulge of his crotch. “Give me what I need, and you’ll get what you need.”

  Her right wrist flinched, reacting to the instinct to slap him. She huffed, knowing she’d have a rope burn now from the effort.

  “No need to get testy.” He made the shrouds sway a little so every inch of her pussy got a rolling tease from his erection. “The question is easy, pet. Just tell me, damn it. What did your brother call you about?”

  “Shiiiit!” She sucked in ragged air. Her whole pelvis shook. “Oh Sir…that feels so…”

  “Not approved either.” He eased back on the ropes. She could feel her labia convulsing, her clit trembling. Every nerve between her thighs screamed for release. He couldn’t be doing much better, despite the iron control in his voice. “You know what is approved for discussion. Shane. You. This morning.” He rolled his hips, ruthlessly taunting her with a crotch-to-crotch flyby. “Was it about me?”

  Rose reacted instinctively, jerking her gaze from him.

  Mark palmed her cheek, forcing her to look back. “Nail on the fucking head, huh?”

  “H-How do you even know his name?”

&nb
sp; “What did he want to know about me?”

  “Mark.” Tears hovered in her entreaty. “Sir. Please—”

  “He told you to sleep with me, didn’t he?”

  A weepy laugh spilled out. “God! And you think I ran because of that? You think I left you just to piss him off?” She struggled to look away again, but his grip didn’t relent. “Damn it, stop! It’s more complicated than that!”

  “Okay. He told you not to sleep with me.”

  “All Shane did was talk some sense into me, all right? Does that make you feel better now? Are you satisfied?”

  His hold relaxed, but his voice hardened. “That’s it. I’m completely right. He drilled right in and got to you. That bastard punched all his old shit right back into your head, crap he’s been feeding you for years, even before Owen. He probably told you about being no good for me, to stay away and not corrupt the good senator with your eccentric reputation and your depraved sexual tendencies. No, wait. He didn’t stop there, did he? He likely found a great way to call you five kinds of alley cat too, right? Forget the ‘black sheep of the family’ shit. That’s much too easy for an asshole like him.”

  “Stop! Please, just stop!” She drew a hard breath, getting ready to say it. Worth. The irony of all ironies. A safe word that embodied the furthest thing she felt right now.

  “No.” It was a vicious syllable, spoken in the moment he captured hers in a fierce, fervent kiss. “No, goddamn it, we’re not stopping. Shane’s wrong, Rose. He couldn’t be more wrong.” With her face still pinned by his mouth, he slid his arms along hers, locking their hands, fitting his body atop hers with a thrust of undeniable intent. “To start with, I’d challenge him to name exactly who’s been corrupting who here…”

  “Ohhhh, shit!” She moaned it as he dropped his head down to her breast. “Oh!” she cried again as he bit one of her nipples like it was an exotic, tender piece of fruit. He closed a hand over her other breast, teasing that engorged nub with his thumb.

  “Or,” he continued, growling seductively as he withdrew something from one of his pockets, “whether there’s been damn near enough corruption going on.”

  Rose tried to see what new toy had turned his voice back into that pirate’s tone and had his cock swelling anew against her mound, but he took the sneak attack approach. Before she determined what the cold, steel pressure was on the underside of her breasts, he had the clamps fastened to her nipples.

  “Ohhhh, Sir!”

  Mark devoured the rest of her scream with his mouth, looming over her, grasping her hair, and groaning into her in return. When he released her, there was a smile—a damn smile!—on his lips. “My good pet. How fun it is to corrupt you.” He stroked the outside of her breasts. “You’re so goddamn gorgeous like this.”

  She yearned to scream again. To order him to pull them off. The pain was hideous at first, two crunches of consuming agony, but then she listened to his voice. His sensual praise made it easy to breathe through the first minute. The way he stroked her flesh, moving his hands down her body by heated inches, made the second and third minutes easier. When he got his hands around her ass, kneading her cheeks so her sex slid perfectly against his crotch, she nearly forgot about the clamps. Every sensation in her body was eclipsed by the rising, burning need in her soaked, throbbing pussy.

  “Sir.” She made it a plea, her voice high and breathy. “Sir, please! I need…”

  “Yes, honey.” He jerked at his pants now, the rip of his zipper like a glorious angels’ chorus on the sea wind. “I know what you need.” His erection burst free, the moist head demanding a path through her curls, seeking her intimate sheath. He took out a condom packet from his pocket, ripped it open with his teeth, and rolled it on with a low groan.

  As he angled his hips and lined himself up with her vagina, he brushed the hair from her face and hovered his mouth over hers. “I’m going to fuck you hard, Rose—and I hope your goddamn brother hears you screaming all the way back in Chicago.”

  She smiled and gave a teary nod to that. The next instant, she wondered if he really did intend her shriek to be heard in Chicago. As he drove his cock into her core, he gave the attaching chain to her clamps a sharp tug. Adrenaline charged her system, turning her senses into a fireworks show, and she ignited, breaking open with need. It was the most agonizing and amazing physical experience she’d ever had. Her head slammed back. She wrenched her eyes shut. Her senses spun and burned as she struggled to process it all at once.

  “That’s it.” Mark’s voice came filled with equal parts desire and demand. “Accept it. Take it. The pain is making it better for you. You knew that when I was marking you with the flogger, didn’t you? You felt it in the deepest parts of your cunt, how you opened and accepted more of the pleasure after you took the pain. This part is even better. Breathe, baby. Open up to it. Open up to me and all the good things this can be for you.”

  She nodded again, though the motion was shaky. He began moving inside her now, sliding his hard, huge length to the very edge of her pussy lips and then thrusting back in with deliberate rhythm. “Do you feel this, honey? Do you feel the head of my cock, about to kiss your sweet spot inside…here?”

  She gasped as he gave an extra little push, the tip of his cock indeed hitting a spot in her tunnel that made her start to quake from the inside out. “Oh, God!” she cried out. “Yes!”

  “And does your ass feel my hot balls as I fuck you deeper…like this?”

  “Yes.” She panted and sighed. “Yes, yes, yesssss.”

  “And does your sweet little asshole feel my finger playing with it, exploring it, turning you on more…like this?”

  Her head began to swim, her body disengaging from reality. “Ohhhh yes, Sir…”

  “And will you trust me for the rush again, letting me pull your clamps off, letting you hurt some more again for me…like this?”

  “Fuck!” Her back arched off the nets as the blood rushed back to her nipples in a torturous rush. Her whole body tightened. She felt her walls clamp around Mark’s driving, penetrating stalk. He swelled and surged against her, and his balls contracted beneath their joined bodies.

  “Oh, yeah.” He gripped her hips to drive the pace, setting a relentless beat. “Let it take you over, pet. Let it explode through you. You’re going to come now, and I’m going to come with you. Now, Rose. Now!”

  Her body didn’t need another word. Her senses flew, soaring on the wind, spiraling for the clouds. Then she careened even past that, her senses rocketing for the stars, her body bursting in a supernova of ecstasy. She felt every pulse of his shaft as he rammed into her and then froze, exploding deep in her body on a guttural, primal groan.

  Many minutes later, still buried inside her, Mark deposited tender kisses on her closed eyelids, prompting her into a soft little hum. She finally opened her eyes to find his face bathed in starlight, his gaze aglow with curiosity.

  “Okay…what are you thinking?”

  A furrow invaded his brow. The next moment, he smiled it away. “I’ll share after you’re untied and I get some Vitamin E oil into your skin.”

  “Promise?”

  He wrote in the air with one finger. “In permanent marker.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Forty-five minutes later, Mark used the finger with which he’d written his air assurance to follow a more interesting path, the swell of his submissive’s lovely ass.

  He’d taken Rose down into the yacht’s sumptuous stateroom, getting her aftercare started immediately, wiping her down with eucalyptus-scented cloths and then massaging the oils infused with lavender and Vitamin E into her skin. After that, he’d brushed the tangles from her hair, relishing the chance to have every strand of that mahogany mane in his hands.

  Now she was stretched across the soft coverlet of the big bed with him, stomach down, head resting on her folded arms, quietly looking on as he traced the crisscross rope burns across her creamy skin.

  “Does it look nice?” she asked softly
.

  He chuckled. “Ohhh yes, honey.” He gulped hard as he followed one very low, down into the crevice between her ass cheeks. “Beautiful.”

  Her lips inched up. “It feels beautiful.”

  “You sure about that?” He trailed his finger up to one of her eyebrows, looking into the thoughtful brown depths in the gaze below it. Her smile hadn’t extended there.

  “Oh, I’m sure.” Her tone reminded him of her don’t-doubt-me comeback from the first day they met.

  “Then what is it?”

  She worried her bottom lip with her teeth. “I don’t just feel beautiful here. I felt beautiful…out there too. On the deck, when you had me tied down. Even when it hurt. Perhaps…especially when it hurt. It brought something out in you that made me feel amazing. Desired.” She rolled to her side, facing him now but not looking right at him. “As if we were purging demons or something.” A nervous spurt tumbled out of her. “That’s ridiculous, isn’t it?”

  Mark pulled her close and captured her lips. “Not at all,” he whispered. “It’s completely possible.”

  She lifted her mouth to his again, a silent entreaty for that contact, and he gave it to her with passionate fullness. Her mouth welcomed him just like her body had, with soft supplication and warm surrender. She let him fill her up again, possessing her with his tongue, but that was the grand-slam paradox of the night. The truth was, she filled him. He never thought he’d be complete or understood again. Her brave confession had just topped him off. He was officially at the brim, and he showed her that by wrapping his arm around her waist, deepening their embrace. When they pulled apart, they didn’t go very far. Their breaths mingled against the pillows, their bodies fitted…two broken pieces, fixed by being one.

  That thought, enormous and sudden, made him sit up. He managed to look casual about the movement, reaching for a bottle of water on the nightstand. “Here.” He extended the bottle to Rose. “You need to keep hydrating, pet.”