“But you could have trained me,” she whispered. “You could have been the one to teach me… To show me I like all this stuff. You didn’t have to involve another man.”
My jaw was so stiff it fucking hurt, and I couldn’t look into her eyes.
“Thorn,” she whispered, and my eyes went to hers, because I couldn’t resist their siren call. “Thorn, just tell me the truth. I won’t be angry. I just need to know what happened… why you pushed me away before I even got the chance to make a first impression.”
“I would’ve been too rough,” I responded, my voice raw with emotion. “I would’ve ruined you.”
She crawled closer to me and touched her little fingers to my chin, looking at me, looking into my soul.
“You don’t think he was rough?” she asked, a note of anger hidden under layers of hurt. “You don’t think Ellis ruined me? What you did to him… what he did to me. You don’t think it impacted me?”
I couldn’t find an answer.
“I hate myself for not being the one,” I told her. Once those words were out in the open, it felt like a dam had been broken, and I had to tell her every part of the truth in my heart. “I made a mistake, Rose. One I’ll regret for the rest of my fucking life. And I’m sorry. I’m really fucking sorry.”
A silence lay between us as she contemplated my words.
I didn’t want her forgiveness, I didn’t expect it, either, but I wanted to fix things between us, repairing the cracks in our new relationship. At the same time, I was afraid of being too lenient on her. There was no doubt in my mind about what I wanted. I wanted her on her knees, begging for more – the perfect pretty little submissive to follow my lead. And she would give it to me, whether it was willingly or not.
“I need to go,” I finally said, getting up and refusing to look at her.
I felt her staring after me, those pretty eyes accusing me of everything I was guilty of when it came to her. I was a fucking bastard, yet I didn’t know how else to act. I needed to get away.
“I’ll see you later,” I muttered in her direction, closing the door firmly behind me.
It made me feel like a real fucking coward, especially knowing what I would do the second I got away from her.
I walked into the rec room and turned on the cameras. My eyes focused on my beautiful captive, sitting brokenly on the floor of the bathroom. Her knee was patched up, but her soul wasn’t. I could see the emotion bleeding from every pore of her body.
“I’m sorry,” I muttered to nobody in particular, feeling lower than I ever had before. “I’m sorry I don’t know how to take care of you properly.”
Something took over then, a masculine need to show her I was right. She’d told me she was my whore plenty of times, but now it was time to whore her out. It was only fair, right?
I took my pager out of my pocket and sent an urgent message to a friend, telling him to meet me in the rec room as soon as he could. Minutes later, he sauntered in, his chiseled chest naked and with only a pair of low-slung jeans covering him.
“Problems with your little acquisition?” he asked with a bright smile, smirking at me.
“I need your help,” I said, and he chuckled as if I’d just confirmed every one of his suspicions.
“What do you need me to do?” he asked roughly.
“She’s misbehaved,” I lied. “I need to show her who her true master is, and if I deem it important for her to fuck another man, she better follow the fuck through.”
“I agree,” he said, giving me a brilliant smile. “But are you sure that’s what she needs?”
I stared at him in front of me, noticing the stark differences between us.
He was taller than me, though I wasn’t short by a long shot. He was lean and muscular, almost too thin for my liking. His hair was a little longer, dark like mine, but not peppered with grey strands like my own. And he was cocky, cocky like I remembered being when I was his age and thought I had the world lying at my feet. He would have it knocked out of him eventually, just like I had. But not yet. Right now, I could use him to serve a purpose. I could use him to break my pretty toy completely and bend her to my will.
“You will fuck her,” I growled at him. “And I will watch. She’d better fucking come, or I’ll consider it a job badly done by the both of you.”
“Understood,” he replied, his smile faltering and his expression rough. “Do you want her to see me?”