“That’s ridiculous.” I roll my eyes. “We live in the same house.”
“I don’t give a shit.”
“You lost me the only friend I had in this place,” I spit out. “Are you happy with yourself now, Heath?”
“Yes,” he grunts in response. “I’m very fucking happy with myself. But I’m definitely not happy with you.”
“Big surprise there,” I mutter, but before I can get anything else out, Heath’s ripped himself out of the hold the guard had on him.
He approaches me menacingly, and I shrink back as he grabs for me. His fist wraps around my long blonde hair and he brings me to my knees in front of him. Just like always, I accept my submissive position in an instant. How does he do this to me? I have no self-control around Heath.
“Your days of mouthing off to me are over,” he grits out before addressing the guards. “Get the rest of the guys out here. Brutus, Phoenix, Cannon, all of them. Now.”
The guard nods and runs off to relay the message while Heath circles me on the grass.
“Can I leave?” Liberato growls, but Heath stops him with a deathly glare.
“No. I want Rain to show me what you taught her. And you can make sure she does well. Then, you can watch her get punished.”
He pulls out the leather belt from his chinos, still watching me closely while I pout.
“Why am I getting punished?”
“Because you should know better than to piss me off by now, Sunshine. At this point, I’m just going to assume you fucking love it when I hurt you. You little pain slut.”
The guard returns, along with several of the men I recognize from the den. I swallow thickly, knowing already that whatever is going to follow won’t be easy for me to take.
““Why’d you call us here?” Phoenix asks Heath. “Thought we weren’t allowed to look at your property.”
“Damn right you’re not,” Heath hisses. “Think of this as a way for me to show you what you can never have. Enjoy the motherfucking show.”
He cracks the belt through the air, making me cry out in a desperate whimper. I don’t want to beg, but the pleading words are eager to escape my lips to find his forgiveness.
Heath approaches me, carefully wrapping the belt around my throat and looping it so it serves as a collar. Like that, he walks me up to each of his men and forces me to kiss their boots. My face is flaming red with embarrassment and I want to die of shame. It would be better than having to see all their smug faces as my lips leave a lipstick print on their expensive shoes.
At least they aren’t fucking muddy. Xavier’s made me do worse.
Once I’m done, Heath walks me to a spot on the grass in front of them all. He strips me naked and I watch him with contempt, shivering in the cool evening air and trying to shield my body from the men who are trying not to stare.
“Why don’t we have a little competition,” Heath hisses. “Don’t look at my woman, don’t you fucking dare. And whoever breaks gets to belt Rain five times. I’ll add five for each one of you that breaks, because you know by now you fucking shouldn’t.”
“Don’t,” I beg. “I don’t want to get hurt.”
I don’t want his friends hurting me, either. The pain I get off on is only inflicted by Heath. But it seems he knows this and is determined to make the entire experience even worse for me.
He leans over and softly says, “I know you love it when I hurt you, Sunshine. I’ll make sure you don’t like it this time.”
“Fuck you,” I say, but my voice is defeated and scared.
I can feel the other men doing their best, but then Heath makes me stand up. He forces me to stand with my hands behind my back and marches me up to each of the men, trying to get their attention. Some of them close their eyes, the others stare stoically in front of me, as if their eyes are unseeing. For the first time, I’m seeing just how unhinged Heath can be. It makes me wonder how many drugs he’s taken today.
Just how bad is this problem of his? Liberato seems to think it’s going to kill him if he doesn’t stop…
And I just denied that it was a problem in front of Heath. Fuck. I need to go back on that soon, because now I’m worried, too—even more so than before.
Predictably, Phoenix is the first to break.
As Heath shoves me in front of him, I stumble, and he catches me. With a roar, Heath separates us, pushing me back with too much force and making me fall on my ass.
This seems to worry him, but he doesn’t comment. He just silently undoes the belt around my neck and hands it to Phoenix without another word. I brace for the impact of the leather hitting my back.