AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You shouldn’t. I’m a wild animal. I should be locked away in a cage.”
I sigh and stare out the window. We don’t speak again for the rest of the ride back to the house. It’s late when we get back. A couple of Jack-o-Lanterns glow on the front porch. I hear shrieks and screams outside, but they aren’t horror movie screams. They’re the sounds of people playing out by the pool.
Brian and I walk around to the side of the house. There’s a raging bonfire in the back, a nighttime picnic set up with burgers and hot dogs, and lots of splashing in the heated pool under halloween orange lights that have been strung all around it.
Brian leans in and whispers in my ear, “Wouldn’t you have rather been at this party than the one you ended up at with me?”
“No,” I say, and go back to the front door. I hold the door open for Brian so he can carry our bags in.
We go down to the incinerator first and burn the bag with the bloody clothes. Then we stand in our shared dungeon room and just stare at each other. It’s as though we’re suddenly strangers, and I hate it. I hate this distance he’s put between us. He may mean to protect me, but it only hurts me.
“Brian…” I start to move closer to him. I want to close this distance between us before it becomes a sinkhole that swallows us both.
He shakes his head and holds up a hand as though warding me away. “Mina, I need you to do something for me.”
“Anything.”
“I need you to punish me. For tonight.”
“I told you, I’m not upset about tonight.”
“Yeah? Well I am. And I’m not ever going to get the fuck over it until I feel like I’ve paid for what I did to you.”
“You didn’t do anything to me!”
The muscle in Brian’s jaw clenches. “You know that’s not true. So will you do it?”
He holds my gaze, and there is so much pleading in his eyes. I’ve thought about this before. Not punishing him quite like this, and not domming him in the standard way, but giving him release from some of his demons. I know the power of that dungeon when used appropriately and the catharsis that can come when given the space to cry without someone asking ‘What’s wrong?’
I want to give that to Brian, because although I don’t believe he deserves to be punished, I know he needs this for his own reasons.
“Will things go back to normal between us if I do?”
His dark gaze holds mine for a long time until finally he nods.
“Okay.”
He lets out a breath. “Okay.”
He walks past me out of our room.
“What? Right now?”
“Yes, right now, Mina. I need this right fucking now.”
I follow him into Cell A, and he’s already stripping down. When he’s fully bare, he walks with purpose to the St. Andrew’s Cross. He looks over his shoulder at me, a question in his gaze.
I let out a long breath. I can’t believe we’re here, that he isn’t just letting me punish him, but actively asking for it. I don’t know how to feel about any of this. I just need for things to go back the way they were between us before tonight.
I cross the room and secure his arms and legs. I trail my fingertips over the scars of his back—scars stretched and faded by time, given to him in his childhood. I press a kiss over one of the cigarette burn marks.
“What do you want me to use?” I ask quietly.
“Lady’s choice.”
I go to the large box of toys and implements and scan the various crops, whips and floggers hanging on hooks on the wall.
“Mina?”
