I take a deep breath and scoot a couple of inches closer to him.

He reaches out his powerful hand and holds it a few inches away from me. I look at it, then his expressionless face, and back to his hand. Gingerly, I move my hand towards his, unsure of what to expect.

The moment my fingertips reach his palm, fast as a knife-cut, he grabs hold of my hand, and yanks me towards him. I collapse over his lap. Except for the horrified gasp that escapes my lips, I’m too stunned to speak. The smell of the luxurious leather upholstery fills my nostrils and I can feel the hard muscles of his thighs under me.

I don’t struggle. I don’t do anything. I can’t. I just remain frozen and wait.

Thorne slips a hand under me and opens the closure of my jeans and pulls down the zip. Yanking my jeans down to my thighs, he rests a hand on my ass. Embarrassment floods my body. Why did I choose today to wear a black thong?

“Mmm …”

The hum makes me shudder. When he lays his large palm on my ass, I can’t help my entire body from clenching or my nipples from swelling and hardening.

“You’re far too nervous. Relax,” he murmurs soothingly as he tightens his grasp around my waist and runs the fingers of his other hand along the bare skin of my bottom. One of his thick fingers slowly slips in between my legs. For heart-stopping seconds, he feels around the silky, wet folds for my clit. I grit my teeth and don’t allow myself to moan with pleasure at the exquisite sensation.

As quickly as the touching begins, it ends. His hand is suddenly gone. When it comes back down on my flesh it is with such force that the crack reverberates around the interior of the car.

I scream out in shock at the intense burst of pain. I try to wriggle out of his grip but his hold is like steel.

“You … will … obey … me … Chelsea Appleby,” he says, biting the words out with each new burning slap. Hot tears roll down my face and I have to bite down on my lip to prevent myself from crying out.

It is the most humiliating thing possible. To have a man punishing me like a naughty child, but a tiny knot is forming in my stomach, making me tremble with an aching perverse craving.

I never thought it, but it turns me on to know that his driver is on the other side of the partition and could possibly be hearing every sound Thorne’s hand makes on my ass. I like the idea that I can cry out for help at any time, but I don’t want to. He lands another blow, and I feel the vibration of it between my legs. My ass is on fire, but it is a pain that is mixed with an achy, illicit pleasure. In fact, I am shocked by how much the pain electrifies my pleasure. Each sensation working off the other. My sex begins to throb harder and harder with every blow. It’s building into a crescendo.

I want him to reach for my clit again.

When he angles his hand, the next blow lands on my pussy. I gasp for air. Just as my pussy is dripping and I almost climax, he stops. He stops and gently tugs my jeans up. Thorne pulls me upright and sets me down next to him. I’m too afraid to look in his eyes. Too afraid to let him know how close I was to having an orgasm by what he just did to me.

Thorne reaches out to me, this time he is reaching for my face. I try not to flinch and keep my eyes on him as his hand brushes against my cheek. His touch makes me shiver. Then he slips his hand behind my head, and pulls my face right up to his so that I cannot avert my eyes even if I want to.

His face is more wildly beautiful than I remember. With his raven colored hair falling across his forehead, and his steely eyes like the ashy remnants of a fire, I begin to melt inside. My eyes travel down the strong, masculine bones of his cheeks, his proud Roman nose, and his jaw.

“Do not disobey me again, Chelsea. The next time I will not be so kind.” He breathes the words right into my face. They send a chill down my spine. Looking straight into his eyes, I search for his weakness. He cannot be so cold and cruel. He is not one of the AIs he builds. There must be some human emotion in him.

He pulls away from me suddenly and removes his grip from the back of my neck, but his touch lingers long after he has moved his hand away. I am still reeling by the way he had decided to punish me, and the way he claimed complete ownership of me.

The only response I can give is to summon up a wave of fury and hatred towards him and glare at him. I will never let him think I feel anything but disgust for him. I will not allow him to destroy me. I cannot let him see or touch the vulnerable soft spot that I have spent my whole life hiding.

I sit on my burning bottom a foot away from him and stare out of the window, frustrated not to have been allowed to come, and shocked that I had come so close to climax while he was punishing me.