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A light bulb seemed to appear all at once over Marcus’s head. “Oh. I see what this is, what you’re doing. You think I’ll volunteer to take her place. And Saskia seeing the gory mess unfold will somehow be even worse for her. You just love fucking with people, don’t you?”
“You think I’d whip you instead?” Quill asked, amusement threading his voice.
“Hell yes, I do. I think you’ve been setting me up from the beginning because you want me back in your chains.”
Saskia’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head as she looked from Quill to Marcus and then back to Quill again. She’d thought the two of them were friends. Surely there had to be something closer than just employer and employee for Quill to share her. It had never seemed like a logical employment perk. But the last thing she’d suspected was that Quill once had something kinky going on with Marcus. Or was she misreading this somehow?
His gaze flicked over the guard in that same proprietary way he so often looked at Saskia. Nope. Not imagining that.
“I’ve asked, and you’ve said no. So you won’t do it for me, but you’ll do it for her?”
“I didn’t say I’d do it for her,” Marcus said.
Quill sighed, his gaze sliding to Saskia. “It’s going to be a brutal day for you, sweetheart. You’ll have Marcus to thank for that.”
It felt like he had something to prove, and that scared her. She didn’t know how bad he might get under those conditions. Quill grabbed her wrist and pushed her against the column. He was about to lock the first shackle when Marcus’s voice stopped him.
“You know she didn’t do anything wrong. All she has done since she got here is try to please both of us. She doesn’t deserve this.”
“I know. Life isn’t fair. It’s all very sad.”
Quill finished locking Saskia into the chains and went for a whip. She jumped when he snapped it in the air for effect.
“Master, please.” She’d always had a healthy fear of him, but things had escalated far beyond either healthy or fear. A quiet place inside her head kept whispering he might lose control. She might not get out of these chains. The next box she might occupy might be made of pine rather than black metal bars. “Please,” she whimpered.
Saskia couldn’t stop the tears or the trembling. He’d whipped her before, but before he’d seemed in control of himself. Right or wrong, he’d had an end game in mind that probably didn’t include her death. Now he didn’t seem to be thinking beyond the next fifteen seconds or about any consequences which might unfold past that. A lot of permanent damage could occur in just a few seconds with a very strong person wielding a whip and little reason.
“Goddammit!” Marcus said. “Unchain her.”
Quill smiled. “So you’ll take her punishment?”
“It’s intended for me. You just want me to ask for it.”
“Good boy,” he said, a slow smile spreading across his face. “You still can be taught.”
Marcus angrily stripped off his clothes while Quill unchained her and put her back in the cage.
“You will watch, Saskia. You should see firsthand just how kind and patient I’ve been with you,” Quill said.
She scooted back against the far end of the cage and wrapped herself in the sheets. Marcus seemed resigned to his fate. He wasn’t afraid, just pissed off.
He didn’t make a sound as the whip came down. Occasionally he flinched, but he wouldn’t give Quill the satisfaction of breaking. Not like Saskia had. Quill could turn her into a bundle of trembling nerves and tears with only a few lashes—or even the threat of them. Like today.
Marcus’s back muscles clenched. It appeared as if the black dragon would leap off his skin to seek vengeance against Quill. But the large ink reptile kept its fire safely in check.
That awful whip crack echoed off the walls in the gallery without another sound in the world to dampen its thunder. And still, Marcus didn’t beg or scream. The only sign he was being hurt at all were a few silent tears that trailed down his cheek and the bright red anger Quill painted across his back.
Saskia counted twenty excruciating lashes. It was obvious Quill held back far less with Marcus than he had with her. He laid the whip down and ran his hands down Marcus’s sides, groped his ass, then pressed a possessive kiss against his throat as if he were branding him.
“Tell me how much you miss this,” Quill growled against his ear.
Marcus shook his head. “I’m just doing my job. Protecting her.”
“How noble. You protect her because I told you to. You need to submit to me like you’ve always needed it. Even if it’s under the guise ofdoing your job.”
Quill’s hand wrapped around the front of Marcus’s body, and Saskia watched the pumping motion. Even though she couldn’t see the erection, it was obvious Marcus was already hard.
“You do miss it. Come for me.”
