“Goddamn it, Darren, I can’t help it! I have a skill set thatI have worked hard to achieve, and I don't want to forget it. Whycan’t you just understand that?”
“Because I don’t have to understand shit if I don’t want to.That's the beauty of my position overyou.”
I released anannoyed sigh at him but keptmy mouth shut.
“And it’s not the fact that you train,Jaden. It’s why.”
I let out a longslow breath and forced the words out.
“I just don’t want to forget myself,” I whispered, fightingback tears. “Please ... you’ve already taken away so much. Please,don’t take this from me, too.”
He was silent fora long time, his big chest rising up and down as he considered mywords. I felt my fingers grip his t-shirt as I hoped like hell hewould find it in his heart to let me have something. Just one thingof myself that I could keep.
“I have a feeling if I say no,” he began, “that you’ll turninto a depressed little mouse and I simply can’t have that. I enjoyyour fire far too much.”
“Is that a yes?” I peaked inexcitement.
“It’s a conditional yes,” he said. "If you want to continuetraining, I expect a huge improvement in your behavior. Is thatclear?”
“Thank you, Darren. I promise you won't regretit.”
Actually, hewould. Eventually.
“You are still not allowed in my training room. That has not,nor will it ever, change.”
“Okay.” I nodded against him.
“You realize I’m still going to punish you for breaking thatnail, though, right?”
A heavy breath ofdepression escaped my lungs as I sankintomyself. “Do you really have to?” Iwhined.
“Yes,” he said seriously. “Because now I have to schedulethose Russians to come back and fix what you broke much earlierthan they're supposed to.”
“Honestly, you should just let me do my own nails. Contrary topopular belief, I’m not completely helpless when it comes tomanicures, you know.”
“Really?” he said amused. “And here I thought you didn’t havea single girly bone in your body.”
“Yeah, well, my mom saw to that.”
“Well, that’s a relief.”
We laid there fora little while longer before I started to get hungry again, and Iheard Darren's stomach rumble with mine.
“All right, come on. Let’s head back,” he said getting up andhelping me out of the hammock. “But first,” he said pointing at alarge tree. “Bend over and put your hands on thetree.”
My heartthumped in my throat as Ilooked back at him and then the tree, confused and scared as Iwatch him pull his belt from the loops of hisjeans.
“Oh, God, Darren, please no. My ass can’ttake anymore,” Ipleaded, backing away as I glared at the belt in his hand. Icouldn’t take any more contact against my ass. I could barely sitas it was.
“You should have thought of that before you broke more of myrules,” he stated calmly.
“But it was an accident!” I pleaded further, sounding sopathetic.
“One more word and your five will turn into ten. Now, move.”He pointed at the tree.
I almost startedto cry. This was fucking humiliating and my stomach boiled withfear and rage as I bent over and hugged the tree as if my lifedepended on it.
Darren came overto me and pulled my dress up, exposing my bare ass, and grazed hispalms over my already bruised skin. “I don’t need to tell you tocount because it should be routine for younow.”
And then he foldedhis belt and smacked it hard on my ass. I gasped out loud as the pain searedintomy tender flesh. There was no fucking wayI would be sitting down well into next week.
“One,” I gasped.
But instead ofanother smack, he massaged the globes of my ass first beforedelivering another slice through the air and landing on my othercheek. I felt my legs buckle and I held on to the stupid tree evenharder.
“Two.”
Another massage andthen another strike, this time landing on the top of my ass. Themassaging didn’t evenhelp that much, just redistributed the heat through myfucked-up skin. My asswas burning all over again.
“Three.” I cringed.
Two more strikescame down, and after each time, he massaged where he made contact,only dulling the pain for a short second before delivering thefifth and final strike.
“Five,” I groaned.
But then anotherone came and I wasn’t prepared for it. Completely blindsided by hislie, I screamed in agony as the last one hurt more than any of theother ones had. My ass felt as if I had dipped it in acid, and asingle silent tear fell down my cheek as he finally put his beltback through the loops of his jeans and pulled my dress back down over my throbbingass.
“That last one was for hesitating. Don't ever do it again,understand?”
“Yes, Darren,” I said, still keeping myself bent over at thetree.
“Good girl. Now, let’s go.”
He took my handand my ass pulsed with pain the whole way as we walked back to thehouse. Every step brought with it a wince and an uncontrollableurge to cry, and it was the first time I actually found itdifficult to keep up with his pace. He eventually took out hisphone, texted something, and placed it back in his pocket. If onlyI could get to that damn thing, I might have a chance at gettingthe hell out of here.
When we got backto the house, our lunch was already set out for us on the patioand, by the grace of God, there was a rather large pillow restingon one of the chairs with two large bags of frozen peas. Darren satdown and I slowly eased myself into the chair. The frozen bags didwonders for me. It did not numb the pain entirely, but I found iteasier to deal with.
As we ate ourlunch in silence, Darren fiddled on his phone and I watched thewaves of the ocean crash over one another, spreading all over thepowdery white sand. I wanted to explore the entire beach, theforest, and everything else that surrounded this beautiful fuckingprison of mine, but I doubted I would be allowed the privilege anytime soon.
At least I had wonmy ability to continue training, assuming I was ever afforded theopportunity.
