Leo guided her through sterilizing his wounds and applying the bandages. She worked as quickly as she could, bracing herself against his cries of pain as he gripped the edge of the table, his knuckles going white each time. Tears blinded her eyes as she worked. When it was done, he resembled a mummy.
Ropes had cut into his ankles as well. It was hard to believe anyone could do this to another human being. Whatever she’d thought of Leo, whatever fears she’d had, she knew he’d never hurt her like this.
He struggled to get up.
“Wait, we didn’t do anything about your wrists and ankles.”
“They’re fine. It’s not a big deal.”
She couldn’t stand the idea of the bed covers irritating the raw skin. It had been hard enough not to vomit as she’d worked on his back.
“Please, Master.”
He relented, and she applied salve gently to his wrists and ankles, then loosely wrapped strips of gauze around them.
“I’ll stay down here for a few weeks while I heal,” he said, his voice tired, aged thirty years. “Ask Demetri to bring down my meals… and my phone. I’ll need to make a few business calls. And I’ll have to reschedule surgeries.”
“No. I’ll get them.” She’d do anything to delete from her mind the images of what he’d suffered trying to make things right.
He nodded, relenting to her request as she helped him to the bed and tucked him in.
“I’m going to make you some stew,” she said. He needed something with meat in it, something to help him get strong, but nothing so heavy he’d vomit it back up. “D-do you have any painkillers?” “No painkillers,” he said.
“But…”
“I should suffer.”
The dominatrix was right. He was a masochist even if he didn’t get off on it. It made Faith wonder if perhaps she was, too, because she found herself continually drawn to him, willing to put herself in the path of pain for a brief glimpse of approval or affection.
Leo had almost drifted to sleep when she brought the stew down. The record needle was doing that obnoxious scratching thing at the end, so she lifted it off, thankful to have the silence.
“Master?”
“Yes, Faith?”
“Can we never listen to this again?”
“Okay.”
She helped him sit up and sat on the edge of the bed to feed him the stew. He stared stubbornly at her for several minutes before finally opening his mouth.
After the stew was gone, she got up to leave, but he gripped her wrist, his hold on her still impossibly strong.
“Stay.” It didn’t feel like a request. “It’s late. Get in the bed.” Faith got in, but his voice stopped her.
“Naked.”
She hesitated, unsure. It was impossible not to forgive him after his penance, but the request was so wrong.
“I’m hardly in a position to do anything to you,” he said. “I-I need your body heat, that’s all.” “W-will you please not look?” He closed his eyes without protest.
She felt briefly stupid for her fear and stripped off the clothing. His arm went around her, the gauze from his wrist brushing against her waist. Somehow she slept soundly.
***
Weeks passed. Leo healed. They returned to the world upstairs.
He watched her across the table at dinner-her cheeseburger special. He didn’t know how she made them taste like they’d come right off a restaurant grill.
Faith pretended to be consumed with the task of swirling a steak fry in a giant glob of ketchup on her plate.
“I’ll speak to Angelo. He might agree to release you if I convince him you aren’t a threat to the family. And I’ll smooth things over with Uncle Sal so you won’t have to worry about him, either. To everyone else, I’ll say we broke off the engagement.”
Faith’s ring glittered in the kitchen light. Leo hadn’t insisted she wear it all the time, but she had. And every time he saw it on her hand, he became more convinced she wanted their engagement to be real.
But her happy ending came at a dark price… a price Leo felt increasingly guilty asking her to pay, no matter how much he wanted to keep her locked away in the glass room. If that night in the dungeon hadn’t happened, he could have eased her into his kinks slowly, conditioned her to want them… if for no other reason than her deep desire to please him.
But now… the gulf was too great.
“Do you want to leave, Faith?”
Her eyes stayed trained on her food. “I can’t leave, Master.”
“Why can’t you leave? If it’s money, I can give you money. I’ll set you up some place nice. I’ll pull a few strings and get you a good job.” He wanted to stuff every word out of his mouth back in.
“Do you want me to go?” she asked, chancing a glance up from her plate, searching his face for the answer.
“You know I don’t.”
“Then I won’t go.”
She’d killed his attraction to fear. But he needed to hear cries and whimpers and begging and see tears and hear cracks and smacks and watch red burst out over flesh. He needed it like a drug addict needed meth.
Even while he held Faith at night and wanted to protect her, he wanted to make her cry. He wanted her to cower and tremble at his feet, and he couldn’t simply wish that desire out of existence.
“Faith, you know what I’ll do to you. You’ve seen the things in the dungeon. Take your chance and go. For your own safety, please.”
He could make her go. He could take her out of here as easily as he’d brought her in.
Her jaw set in a determined line. “I’m not going.”
“Why not?”
“You know why not! Don’t make me say it.”
“Say it.” He’d seen all the signs. The way she’d looked at him before that night, and then again after Esmeralda had come. She had fallen for him and couldn’t make herself leave no matter the threat. Just like a battered wife. Just like Gemma with Emilio. He’d killed the bastard, now he was the bastard.
“I love you,” she whispered. “I wish Angelo had killed me.”
He knew this time she meant it. If he brought his brother in with a gun, she wouldn’t fight them again.
“It’s better for you to go. I can’t give you what you need, and I don’t think you can give me what I need. And after that night… I don’t know how we could ever… ”
She reached out and laid her hand over his. “I know you’re a good man. What you did for me… I know we haven’t talked about it but… it was everything. Y-you saw the gravity of what happened and you paid a price
higher than I ever would have asked just to try to make it right.”
“It can’t ever be right.”
Leo’s muscles went rigid when she left her chair and knelt at his feet. He could barely breathe.
“I want to be with you. I want to please you. I’ll be your slave. I’ll be whatever you want.”
His suspicions about her being a sub were right. Just not a masochist. One out of two? A strong one out of two wasn’t bad.
“I’m going to my office to do some work. When I’m finished, you will be in one of two places, either in your room with your bags packed and ready to go, or in the dungeon naked in front of the mirror. Like that night.” She flinched, and he knew she’d be packed in an hour.
***
Faith knelt on the kitchen floor as Leo’s footsteps faded from the room. She could go back to her life. Not her exact life, but a better life. She trusted when he said he’d give her a nice apartment or house and help her find a job. But the idea of going back to cats and no real family made her feel cold inside. If she took his offer, she knew she’d never see him again, and despite everything, she couldn’t stand that ending. Let him kill her if he didn’t want her. But tossing her away after all this?
If she were wise, she’d take the offer, go to her room, and pack her things. But she loved the way he smelled and his warmth and the way he held her. She loved how he’d protected her so many times, and despite how wrong it all was, she loved him for the scars he’d always carry for her.
It shouldn’t have been, but the decision was easy.
When she got downstairs, she turned on the lamps and removed her clothing, folding them and placing them carefully on a chest of drawers beside the bed. She paused in front of the record player, thumbing through the cardboard sleeves until she found the dreaded record. They’d agreed never to play it again, but nothing would let him know she was serious more than playing this collection of music, resetting everything exactly as it had been. It was the only way she could prove she was his, and the only way he could ever hope to rewind and redo that night. If she didn’t trust him to make a different set of choices, she should be upstairs in her room packing.
The record player had a setting to restart the needle at the beginning when it reached the end. She didn’t know how long he would be, so she set it and the music started-that deep, haunting tone. Frightening and sad. Everything she’d found her experience with Leo to be.
Faith went to the mirror and knelt in front of it, spreading her legs, committed to the outcome.
***
Leo sorted through mail, mostly wedding bills and deposit receipts. Then he checked email. He wanted to put off the moment when he’d go upstairs, find her ready to go, and have to keep his end of things. The idea that she’d go to the dungeon was too far outside reality to hope for, especially after he’d asked her to relive that night. It would push her the final bit to wake her up and take her out of his life for good where she’d be safe and could find some happiness.
When she was gone, he’d call Mei Lin. If she hadn’t gotten back with her Master, perhaps there was something they could build on in this life after all. If it ended up being a rebound, that might be ideal, a short fling to scratch each other’s itches and help heal each other’s losses. Faith felt like she belonged to him, like she was his responsibility to care for and keep safe, but keeping her safe from himself meant she couldn’t be under his roof.
As he closed the browser window, his cell rang. He recognized the number.
“Hello, Caprice.”
“I miss you.” She sounded as if she’d been crying. He doubted it was over him. Most likely some other love affair had gone sour and he was the first person she thought of when she was alone again. Lucky him.
Leo glanced at the calendar. It was about time for a Caprice call. He should have known a few quick sessions during the holidays weren’t going to end with her meekly going off to Vegas and never contacting him again.
But his dick could tell convincing lies when necessary.
“I told you it was just during the holidays,” he said.
“Why are you marrying her? I don’t get it. Honestly, I don’t. I mean she’s pretty enough, I guess, but she’s not what you need, and you know it. I’m what you need.”