He chuckled. “You can’t argue with me on your knees, Pet. It still makes you just as defiant.” His fingers stroked my hair. “You’re not going to do nothing. I’m going to keep you quite busy for the next several days, and then you’re going to get on a plane that will put thousands of miles between you and Mateo Lopez.”
I opened my mouth to argue but then clamped it shut. I didn’t even know what he was planning. I needed to know that first, didn’t I? So, I nodded, though there was no punishment he could inflict that could possibly stop me from doing whatever I could to help him—with or without his consent.
“Good. Now, you must be hungry, so I’m going to feed you while I tell you what’s going on. Maybe with your mouth full, you’ll be less inclined to argue.”
He reached for the tray on the night table and came to sit on the edge of the bed where he’d sat not long before. Heat rushed through me at the memory—laying across his lap, seeing our reflection in the mirror, feeling the sting of his hand, every slap sending my body into exquisite overdrive. It was strange and conflicting how my body responded. I should hate it. After the violence I’d suffered, I should loathe it, but I didn’t. It was my choice this time. And nothing felt more right than submitting to both the pain and pleasure Derek could bring. If I wasn’t still rattled over those men and what their presence meant, I’d be tempted to provoke him again.
Instead, though, I knelt patiently and opened my mouth when Derek’s fingers pressed against my lips. Then I had to stifle a laugh at the absurdity of the taste in my mouth. In the midst of finding ourselves thrust into yet another nightmare, he was feeding me caramel corn—my favorite food from when I was a child. How could he possibly remember that?
“There’s a lot I never forgot,” he said, though I hadn’t said a word.
Before I could respond, he’d switched to real food and his tone became serious. “Lopez wants me to fill in for Marcos. At the end of the week, someone important is supposed to be arriving at a private airstrip two-hundred miles from here. He wants me to be there to meet him.”
“But you don’t believe him, Master?”
“I believe he wants me at that location, but I don’t believe it’s for any kind of meeting—not the kind everyone walks away from.”
“Are you sure, Master?” It was a stupid question; I realized it the moment the words were out. Derek wasn’t the type of man who operated on guesses.
“I’m sure. I’ve known men like him for a long time. I am like those men…and it’s what I would do to get an enemy out of his comfort zone and vulnerable.”
“You aren’t like them,” I whispered vehemently.
“And you’re supposed to be too busy eating to argue, Pet.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but he pushed more food past my lips, so I didn’t push the issue. But a moment passed, and he’d said nothing further. Nothing about what he was planning.
“What are you going to do, Master?”
He heaved a heavy sigh. “I’m going to go to that meeting and I’m going to kill them all.” There was no doubt in his tone. He didn’t even sound angry. He sounded…certain.
The rest of the meal passed in silence. I wanted to ask him about how he was going to do it, but if I was going to push my luck with questions, I needed them to find out how he intended to put me on a plane—so I could thwart his efforts. I had no idea how I could help yet, but one thing I knew for certain—there was no way in hell I was going to be on that plane.
“I can see what you’re thinking, Pet. Don’t make me show you what I’ll do to you if you try to defy me on this.”
OK, another thing I knew for certain: I had to figure out how to keep my face from giving away what was going on in my head.
He heaved another heavy sigh and set the empty tray aside. “It seems I’m going to have to give you a small sample of that to help dissuade you.”
Uh oh. This didn’t sound like the ‘put me over his knee and spank me until I come’ variety of punishments.
“Stand up and take off the nightgown.”
Suddenly, I was hopping to my feet to show my complacency, not certain I was going to like this variety of punishment.
“Stretch your arms above your head and stand against the post at the foot of the bed.”
Since the bed was a four-poster, there were two posts at the foot of the bed. I didn’t think it mattered to him which one I stood in front of though.