ANA
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, with everything that I have in me. I don’t know if it’s entirely true—I’m glad I found that paper, happy that I know. I couldn’t have imagined that would be the number I would find, but I would have driven myself insane wondering. I could blame Yvette and her comment, but I know that won’t help me. Yvette didn’t make me go into the study.
I did that on my own.
“Please.” I look up at him, at his hard and angry face, my hands shaking so hard that I feel like my fingers might tear into the rug. All of me is shaking, terrified, kneeling on the floor in the ridiculous maid’s dress. I do wish I could go back, even if it’s just to listen more carefully and get the fuck out of the office before he could catch me.
Being sorry for getting caught isn’t really sorry, but I’m hoping Alexandre won’t be able to tell the difference.
“Please don’t be angry. I shouldn’t have snooped. I’m so sorry, please don’t hurt me. Please forgive me, Alexandre, please! I didn’t think you’d be so angry, it’s my fault, I should have listened. I’ve been a bad girl, please, please—”
The words tumble from my lips once I start, one after another, until I’m speaking so fast I can hardly breathe. “I know you don’t want to hurt me, Alexandre, please! I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I didn’t think—”
I’m crying too hard again to speak, and my head drops forward, some of my hair escaping from under the maid’s cap and falling around my face. Dimly, I see him stand up from the couch, and every muscle in my body tightens with panic and the need to run, to flee, to get away. But at the same time, I can’t move, frozen to the spot, a rabbit caught in a trap.
“You’re right that I don’t want to hurt you,petit,” he says, his voice slightly less harsh. “I don’t want to be cruel to you. But youmustlearn to obey. You are mine, mypetit poupée,mon chouchou, and you must learn to trust your master. You must learn to obey me in all things, without question. And then—” his hand touches my cheek, and I force myself not to flinch back. But he doesn’t strike me. To be fair, he never has. Instead, his fingers slip beneath my chin, tilting my swollen and tear-stained face up so that I’m forced to look at him. “Then you will be my good girl again, won’t you,petit?”
I nod speechlessly, relief washing over me like a drowning wave.He hasn’t hurt me. He’s barely touched me. Maybe I overreacted. Perhaps it was all an insane overreaction, everything I did, coming in here—
“You will have to earn my trust again,” Alexandre says sternly, dropping his hand from my chin. He steps back, looking down at me, and I can see how intensely aroused he still is. He must be achingly hard, painfully so, but he doesn’t so much as acknowledge it. He doesn’t move to adjust himself or touch his rigid cock. Although I’m kneeling right in front of him, he doesn’t give the slightest sign that he expects me to notice it, much less relieve him by sucking him off.
“Since you wanted to be in my study so badly,” he continues, his voice lowering to its normal calm pitch, even and cool. In a way, the lack of emotion is almost as frightening as his anger. I want to hear him be pleased with me again, to praise me, to speak to me in that kind, encouraging way that he sometimes does. His indifference is almost as painful as his anger.
“You will stay here, kneeling where you are, until dinnertime. You are not to move, not to stand, not to change position. I will come and get you when it’s time to eat. Am I understood?” Alexandre pauses, and I nod quickly, even as my heart sinks. Kneeling here for that long will be excruciatingly painful—but it could be worse.
It could be worse,I repeat in my head. I know how accurate that is. Kneeling on a rug as punishment is far from the worst thing that’s happened to me.
“Yvette will not be here tonight,” he continues, and I feel a flush of happiness at that, but it lasts for only a second. “I’d meant to have you eat at the table, as I’d planned on normally doing since she wouldn’t be here to object. But since you’ve decided to act like a misbehaving pet, I see no choice but to treat you as one until you earn my trust and my forgiveness once more. So as a lesson in manners, you will eat on a plate that I will bring you, here on the floor. And for every meal hereafter, whether in your bedroom or in the dining room, you will do the same, until I say differently. Am I understood?”
Mind your manners. Even now, it grates on me, but if I had—well, I wouldn’t be in this position.
I also wouldn’t know the truth about what he’d paid for me. That, for some reason, I’m worth such an outlandish amount to him.
I still don’t knowwhy, though. And now is definitely not the time to try to find out.
I nod mutely, fresh tears sliding down my cheeks. In a matter of minutes, everything between us has shifted. He towers over me, his face still grim and set, even though his voice has returned to normal. He’s still angry at me.
He plans to make me eat off of the floor like a misbehaving puppy. To leave me here. To force me to obey his commands.
And a part of me, even as I feel my eyes well up with misery and humiliation, feels that tingling spreading across my skin, down between my thighs. That shivering feeling as Alexandre looms over me, powerful and dominating.
My master. Myowner.
“Answer me,” he says sharply, and I flinch.
“Yes,” I whisper. “I understand.”
“Yes, what?” he barks, and I raise my eyes to his, seeing the implacable expression on his face.
“Yes, sir,” I whisper.
I feel an inexplicable rush of arousal as the words slip from my lips, and without my panties, there’s nothing to stop it. I can feel it, sticky on my thighs, and from the way his eyes widen slightly, I think he knows. I see his cock twitch in his pants, thick and hard and inches from my face.
But he doesn’t so much as touch it through the crisp fabric of his trousers.
“I’ll know if you move,” he says sternly. And then, without another word or a hint that he’s even noticed his own arousal or confirmation that he’s noticed mine, Alexandre flicks off the light, turning and stalking out of the room as he closes the door behind him.
Leaving me in total darkness.