Chapter Twenty-One
Shelby
By the time I was finished with my preparations and waiting on the bed for my husband, I was exhausted. I'd even had a quick shower to wash off the sweat that had poured from me when I'd had to hold the hated solution. Unfortunately, I was so tired that I actually nodded off, only to be rudely awoken by Winston.
“What the fuck did you do, Shelby?” he yelled as he pulled me from the bed. “Which one of them gave you a phone?”
Shaking my head in the face of his wrath, I pulled at my arm to dislodge his pinching grip. “I didn’t do anything!”
“Tell that to the deputy out front, Shelby. Someone called in a welfare check on you!” he all but spit at me as he took a robe from the closet. The brief peek inside showed more of the same...and a whole lot of other things in clear totes and on shelves that I wasn’t the least bit interested in becoming acquainted with.
“I’m telling you, it wasn’t me. I haven’t even been alone to do anything! And Marigold is a bi—” I cut off at his stern stare as we left the room, hurrying toward the front of the mansion. “She would have told on me,” I finally finished.
“We’ll find out who it was, and they won’t care for the consequences, I can tell you that. Don’t think that the police can save you, anyhow. It might delay the inevitable, but I’d get you back and make you pay for it tenfold.” His voice was a low hiss by then, but I was so used to his rants that I only listened with half an ear.
Even as we neared the front door, he continued to threaten me. I didn’t doubt his family's reach; it was why I hadn’t bothered to report him before. Families like his paid what was necessary to get their way... It would have been suicide to try it.
Before we rounded the corner that led to the foyer, Winston put on a smile, straightened my robe to cover as much skin as possible, then laced his fingers through mine to tug me into view of a uniformed man.
“Officer, as you can see, my wife was in the middle of a nap, but she’s quite fine. Just as I assured you.” He lost some of his joviality at the last bit, making the officer and me both stiffen.
"Of course, Mr. Hamilton," the young man replied nervously. "Just have to be sure, ya know? Seems there was some confusion on the part of the woman that called in. I just spoke with my captain, and he assured me the matter has been handled. Sorry to trouble you folks. Have a nice day." The officer had backed up to the door as he spoke, nodding along with his apology, until he was close enough to open it and disappear before any of us could respond.
Dread pooled in my gut as Dirk turned to directly haul me back in the direction we had come. Throwing a helpless look at Jerry, who appeared angry yet remained tight-lipped, I followed my deranged spouse.
"Dirk, I didn't have anything to do with that. I—"
"Just shut up, Shelby. I'm tired of hearing how nothing is your fault. I hope you're happy. You probably got that man fired, if he's lucky, and you're going to learn to obey me as your wedding vows promised, or suffer the consequences." He continued to rave until we were back to the room with Sasha and Marigold, and I didn't bother to contradict him. It wasn't worth the escalation it would bring.
Strangely enough, I was still scared to death of what he would do, but a sense of detachment had taken over. My body could only handle the whiplash from being doomed to a reprieve and back again. As the door shut, I stood there, numbly surveying the women that lounged on the bed and wondering what the point was to any of it. The stinging slap to my silk-clad behind reminded me that it didn't matter if I saw the point in it. All that mattered was what he wanted. With that thought firmly planted in my mind, I shrugged the robe off and left it where it fell, not caring if it pissed Winston off. It wasn't like I was there of my own volition, so really...it didn't fucking matter what he did in retaliation.
"Get on the bed, Shelby. I want to see if you followed instructions, or if I have to get my belt out before the fun can begin." Winston had already removed the accessory and set it aside as he undressed, but even that threat didn't have much of an effect.
I obeyed his command, but only to sit on the edge and not a thing more.
"I said to get on the bed. Now!" he snapped as he came forward, his dick hanging at half-mast and cruel intent fairly radiating from his entire being.
"Am I not sitting on it, sir?" I dared to say. My rebellion resulted in Sasha and Marigold edging away to get out of the danger zone—Winston appeared positively apoplectic. It made my heart triple its beat, but my soul sang with the knowledge that I wasn't so beat down that I had completely lost my self-respect. Maybe my self-preservation, but I was tired of taking his shit and didn't care.
"Hands and knees before I whip the skin off of your ass for sassing me!" He didn't have the belt as he advanced, but a frisson of fear worked its way through my rebellious bravado.
Why I taunted him further, I didn't know, nor where the gumption to do it came from, but as I moved into position, my tongue darted out to lick dry lips, and I delivered the words that burned in my mind. "If you wanted to order me about like a dog, you needn't have married me. You could have just gotten a pet."
I braced myself for the burning slap of leather that never came as I sneered at the women who couldn't contain their gasps at my backtalk. But the loop of the belt as it came over my head and tightened around my neck, trapping my hair around my face, dashed the last of the insulating shield.
As adrenaline raced through my system, my air was cut off, and I reared up onto my knees while I tried to loosen the makeshift noose. "Dogs get trained, Shelby, but I'm happy to treat you like a bitch and bring you to heel," Winston all but snarled in my ear.
He gave the leash enough slack to let me breathe before placing a hand between my shoulder blades to shove me forward until my face was in the bed and my ass in the air. As I coughed and tried to sit up enough to get more air in my lungs, Winston gripped the nape of my neck to hold me in place. I barely noticed the stinging from my scalp where my hair pulled as he spread my cheeks with his free hand to expose my back entrance. Instead, I was too busy trying to breathe and clench against the broad erection that came to rest against my pucker. Not that it did much good when he forced himself inside.
A guttural scream of agony erupted from my abused throat as he breached the tightened ring with what felt like a burning rod intent on causing the worst tearing pain I'd ever been subjected to. Yet my cry was cut off as he yanked on the belt, tightening it again and pulling me back to impale myself on his still advancing member until his hips met mine and he could go no further.
My body futilely twisted away only to have Winston's weight come down to pin me to the bed while my stomach heaved as a result of the tortured nerves in my backside being so violated. Nothing came up, not that it could have, but my mouth watered just the same as I cried into the bed when Winston began thrusting in punishing strokes.
He dropped the belt to grip my hips, using the heels of his hands to spread me open and take me deeper so that I shrieked with each penetration and eventually threw up the phlegm that had built in my throat before losing myself in a haze of misery. Until he latched on to the back of my neck, biting down without mercy before leaving a series of the same at random, earning more cries of pain from my waning vocal cords.
When it was over, his erection having swelled and throbbed within me to release his seed, I moaned in misery and tried to crawl away. He let me, lifting slightly to accommodate my escape, but the removal of himself was enough to set my ruined hole burning anew. I fell onto my side, his hot ejaculate trickling out against my skin, and moaned when he slapped my ass with a declaration of his own.
"That's my hole now, Shelby, and don't you forget it." I couldn't find the will to open my eyes when I heard his muted footfalls move away from the bed. "Marigold, clean her up," he demanded a second before the bathroom door shut.