Intense

“This?” she shrugs. “Nothing. Trash.”

I walk over to her and sit down in the chair next to hers. She shows me the cover and I laugh. It’s some trashy romance with a muscular shirtless hunk on the cover by a woman named Willow Winters.

“What’s it about?” I ask.

“You know, the usual. Boy meets girl. Boy fucks girl until she can’t stand it.” Aria shrugs.

I can’t help but laugh. “Sounds like great literature.”

“It won’t win the Nobel Prize, but it’s good anyway.”

“Did Jenkins bring that?”

“He did, actually.”

“I didn’t know we had that stuff in the house.”

“Apparently someone here loves their dirty stories.”

“Do you like dirty stories?” I ask her.

She blushes slightly. “I guess so.”

“What do you like about them?”

“I don’t know,” she says, looking away. I can tell that she’s embarrassed and I love it.

“Tell me,” I say. “What do you like about them?”

She pauses for a second, searching for the words. “They’re fantasy,” she says finally. “Bad things happen and people don’t communicate, but the drama makes it really hot, and the endings are always happy.”

I watch her for a second, smiling at that. It’s interesting that she specifically mentioned the happy endings as something she likes. Maybe she’s looking for her own happily ever after, but doesn’t even realize it yet.

There’s a knock at the door suddenly. I stand and walk over. Jenkins is standing out in the hall with a cart and my whisky. “Thank you,” I say to him. He nods and heads back to the stairs.

I take the glass then wheel the cart into the room, shutting the door behind me. As I take a sip and park the cart near the table, Aria stands up and steps toward me.

“Wait,” I say, looking at her. “What are you wearing?”

“This?” She looks down at herself. “It’s just a dress.”

I hadn’t noticed it before, when she was sitting. It’s a black dress that hugs every inch of her body with a cutout right around her breasts, showing just the right amount of cleavage. It’s a gorgeous dress and suits her figure perfectly, but it’s all wrong.

“Would you wear that if you were just sitting around at home?” I ask her.

She cocks her head at me, smiling. “No, of course not.”

“So why were you wearing it?”

“For you,” she says.

I sigh, sipping my drink. “I want you to be yourself, Aria.”

“I can do that, if you want.”

“No,” I say softly, stepping toward her. I reach out and softly take her hair in my fist. “It’s not about what I want.”

“Yes, it is,” she says in a small voice.

“You don’t understand,” I say. “I want to spoil you. I want to make you feel good, but only if you want me to. Now though...”I can tell that she’s upset. “I messed up,” she says. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten all dressed up.”

“We can fix it,” I say gently.

“How?” she asks.

I let go of her hair and step back. “Take off the dress,” I say, heart hammering in my chest.

She looks at me for a second. “Okay,” she says.

I watch as she slowly slides it off her body until she’s standing in front of me wearing nothing but a pair of black underwear.

Her body is gorgeous. Her breasts are full and her hips are perfectly curvy. I want to order her to turn around so that I can take a look at her beautiful ass, but I hold back.

Because I know what I want. I know how I’m going to punish her. I stare at her body and I can see the blush on her cheeks. She’s a little embarrassed to be standing in front of me like this, letting me stare at her, and I like that.

I think I have something else that she’ll like.

“Do you want to get on the bed?” I ask her softly. “Face down,” I add.

She watches me for a second then nods. “Okay,” she says.

I watch as she climbs onto the bed and stays there on all fours, looking back at me over her shoulder.

I give her a look then head into the closet to get her punishment.

8

Aria

I’m practically shaking when he comes back from the closet holding three long strips of black silk. He smiles at me and walks slowly toward me, and I can feel my heart hammering hard in my chest. I don’t know what he’s going to do with those long silk ropes, but I want to find out.

“Flat on your stomach,” he says to me simply. I pause then obey. He walks down toward my feet, sliding his fingers along my skin. He touches my lower back, my ass, and slides down my legs until he stops at my feet.