I pressed my hand to the place she’d poked, not because it hurt, but because her words were sharp as fuck andtheydid hurt. I didn’t have a chance at a rebuttal before she spun to Barrett. I winced for him as she opened her mouth.
“Yousaid you’d find me. Why did I think you three were any different than the guys I normally date? A man is a man is a man.”
Finally, she spun back around to Dominic. “And if you think you can pat my head, call me your fucking pet, and then disappear, I’ll show you what happens when pets go bad. All any of you had to do was have a conversation with me and tell me you weren’t interested anymore.”
I might’ve laughed at her pets gone bad line if she hadn’t been so damn serious. As it was, I wasn’t sure that she wouldn’t really try to bite Dominic in her anger.
Dominic wasn’t worried, though. He moved fast, gripping the back of her neck and pulling her over his desk. I watched the transformation in Sugar with astonishment. She struggled for not even an entire two seconds and then went pliant under his grip. She arched her back and lifted her ass higher for him, seemingly ready and eager for the spanking.
I moved closer, some of the dots starting to connect. Had some of her fight been to get a reaction from us? I shook my head and accepted that maybe I knew nothing about relationships with women.
Dominic didn’t spank her, though. He kept her bent over, hovered over her, but his hands didn’t budge. I could see some of the tension fading from his body as he looked down at her. “What do you need, Sugar?”
Her whimper was the saddest sound I’d ever heard. “This.Please.”
“You need your ass spanked?” He watched her nod and still didn’t move. “Is that why you’ve been throwing a fit today, acting like a brat, putting yourself in danger?”
43
***SJ***
Istiffenedandstruggledto stand up. “I didn’t act like a brat!”
He pressed his hand to the center of my back, keeping me where I was. “No? Should I repeat the things you just said to us? Do you want to hear how hurtful those things were?”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Stop it!”
“You want Holden to leave? You don’t know why he’s here, after all. And Barrett is no better than the asshole who forced himself on you the other night. Right? And me? I’m just the monster who patted your head, fucked you, and then left?” The anger was clear in his voice, but there was something else, something I didn’t want to acknowledge.
Fighting back tears, I screamed at him, “Just punish me!”
“Why?”
I kicked my legs and growled in frustration. I fought against his hold, but it was useless. I was already exhausted and Dominic wasn’t even winded. I knew that the moment I stopped fighting, though, I was going to have to deal with my actions.
“Do you think it’s possible that you made assumptions about what was happening and then decided the worst about us? After I’ve told you multiple times not to do that?”
I sagged onto the desk, giving up. My heart raced, my eyes burned, and my lungs ached with my labored breathing. I wanted to go home. My period was going to be a bitch that month, or something, because I felt nearly unhinged. My emotions were swinging like a pendulum and it was my sanity tied to the pit under them.
“Talk to us, Sugar.” Barrett’s voice was so calm and grounded, a rock I wanted to hold on to in the storm I was feeling. “You talk to us and we can talk to you.”
I sucked in a harsh breath and dug my fingers into the desk. “I just… Why won’t you spank me?”
Dominic moved around his desk and sat in his chair facing me. His eyes were still burning as he studied my face. “We need to make some things clear before we go forward, clearly. I’m not touching you again until we do.”
One single tear slipped down my cheek and landed on his desk. Forcing myself to stand after being on display like that was humiliating. I wrapped my arms around myself and looked down at the floor. “Okay.”
Holden’s loud curse surprised me. What surprised me even more was him grabbing me and pulling me into his chest. He cradled my head to his chest with one hand and stroked my back with the other. The rumble of the soothing sound he made washed over me and I clung to him while fighting to keep my tears from escaping. “Shhh. It’s okay,tesorina. Don’t cry.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I was mean.” I held him tighter. “I’m glad you’re here. I didn’t mean it.”
He lifted me into his arms and sat on Dominic’s couch with me still wrapped around him. “I know, Sugar. No need to apologize.”
I spoke into his neck as I tried to get everything out. “I just thought everyone was done with me and I got really sad. And mad. I was so mean and I didn’t mean any of it. Barr isn’t like anyone else. He’s not a jerk. I don’t know what happened. I just woke up so mad this morning and I convinced myself that y’all didn’t want me. But I’m the one who made the no funny business rule. I’m just confused.”
Barrett sat next to us and brushed my hair from my eyes. “We could clarify things for you, if you’d like to talk.”
I nodded as a few more tears escaped. “That’s a good idea.”