Two pairs of shoes—no, three. I recognized Derek’s Armani shoes, but the others were unfamiliar. One pair next to Derek’s, the other a few steps back.

Pure terror flooded my veins—it was ice cold and made me want to escape my skin. I was in the dungeon again; two sets of shoes—two monsters. I could hear the crack of the whip. I could feel my tormentor deep inside me, tearing me apart. My whole body shook so hard it made my teeth chatter.

I focused on Derek’s shoes—he was here too—and tried to remember what he’d said. Except, he hadn’t said anything—nothing that explained why there were two men here, why he’d told me to dress in a flimsy nightgown and kneel at the end of the bed.

‘Do you trust me?’—that’s what he’d said. I’d said yes, and now I was facing the biggest test of that I could imagine. But this wasn’t a test. Derek hadn’t arranged this. Someone had found us. But then, why weren’t we running? I wanted to scream, to run, to jump out the window if I had to, but he’d said to stay here and keep my head down no matter what.

Derek’s shoes and the other man’s were right in front of me. They’d been talking, but what had they said? Something about runaway…and punishment.

No. No. No. This couldn’t be happening.

I needed to calm down. My breathing was coming too fast—I was certain they could see the rapid rise and fall of my chest—and I wasn’t going to be able to hear anything else they said over the pounding of my heart.

One pair of unfamiliar shoes walked around me. He stopped somewhere behind me and I swallowed back the sob rising in my chest. Trust Derek—I had to trust him or I was going to fall apart.

“Oh my, Derek, I see you’ve gone to great extents to discipline this one. If you’re this thorough with all your slaves, I can well-understand your success with them,” the man behind me spoke, and then his fingers grazed across my back, tracing one of the fading wounds.

I couldn’t stop the tears that trickled down my cheek, and I would have lost it if Derek hadn’t chosen that moment to lift my chin, forcing my gaze to meet his. A whole conversation passed through that one look. I didn’t even know a person’s eyes could say so much. “Trust. Obey. And I don’t want this either,” his eyes said.

I would trust him, and I would obey because I could see how much this seemed to be hurting him, too, and if he was doing it anyways, that meant this was important. But still, I couldn’t stop the tears. He nodded for me to lower my head, and they trickled down and dripped onto the nightgown.

“Yes, well, it hardly seemed like enough given the crime, but it appears to have made her understand her place, hasn’t it, Pet?”

“Y-yes, Master,” I forced the words out.

“She still seems rather…emotional, does she not?”

“I think anyone would after ten hours of kneeling in one place. I imagine she’s quite uncomfortable at this point, and with two hours still to go, I don’t think it will be getting better with time.” Derek chuckled. It sounded almost completely natural like it wasn’t an act at all. “But you won’t make a mess on my carpet no matter how badly you need to piss, will you?”

“No, Master.”

“And why not?”

“Because it would displease you, Master,” I replied, hoping I was answering correctly. I’d say whatever he wanted me to if it meant the strange men in the room would leave.

The man behind me chuckled, a dark and sinister sound. “Very…inventive, Derek. I see you have things well under control. I’m tempted to come back for her myself when you’re finished with her. I’ve begun to tire of my own crop. Perhaps it’s time for something new.”

“She’s not quite ready, obviously, but when she is, I’m sure you’d be pleased with her,” Derek replied without missing a beat.

If I hadn’t known better, I would have believed him. And even knowing he was acting, the thought of ever finding myself alone with that man made my heat pound so hard I’d swear it was visible through the nightgown. Every wound on my back flared to life when I thought about what this man would do to me, as if the lashes were brand new and he was standing behind me with a whip in hand. My stomach roiled violently. I was going to be sick. If I didn’t find some way to calm down, I was going to throw up right in front of them. What would Derek be forced to do to me to keep up the act then?

Quiet, deep breaths, as I willed my mind to go blank. To think about nothing but Derek’s black, patent leather Oxford shoes. And four breaths later, the three of them left the room.

The second the door closed, the sob that had been trapped in my chest threatened to escape, but I held it back. I couldn’t make a sound and risk drawing them back here. More deep breaths. With no shoes left to focus on, I turned my attention to the carpet itself.

Moments passed, but I didn’t move from the place Derek told me to stay. I waited for the door to open with bated breath. Would he be alone the next time it opened? Would those men still be with him? I couldn’t think about it, so I focused on the carpet. The deep, navy blue that created a flawless surface—there wasn’t a single strand out of place that I could see.

There was no other carpet in the house, only in this room. Everywhere else, there was hardwood and marble, but this room’s floor was plush and soft. I wondered why. If he liked hardwood and marble so much, why hadn’t he had that installed in his bedroom? Or, if he liked carpet so much, why hadn’t he had it installed elsewhere in the house?

The door flew open, but I didn’t stop looking at the carpet, watching the familiar leather shoes tread across it without leaving a single depression.

“Why is there carpet only in this room, Master?” The ridiculous question tumbled out before I could stop it.

He stopped several steps away. “Look at me, Pet,” he said. His tone was harsh, but I didn’t think he was angry with me.

I looked up obediently and met his gaze, but there was no silent conversation this time. In the blink of an eye, I was no longer on the floor. I was in his arms, wrapped so tight I could tell he needed to hold on as much as I needed to be held. The sob that I’d kept trapped in my chest struggled free and escaped, but safe in Derek’s arms, it had lost some of its intensity.

I even became aware of a new feeling inside me. Pride. As terrified as I’d been, I’d done it. How many other women who’d been through what I had could have done what I did? How many of them would have been strong enough to trust another person as much as I’d just trusted Derek?

I was getting better. I was healing. I had known what I’d needed, and I’d been right.

“It’s OK. I’m OK,” I tried to reassure him, meeting his gaze as he lowered my feet back to the ground. And while some of the tension seemed to leave him, much of it didn’t. Something else was wrong—no doubt, something to do with those men. “What’s going on?”

“That man’s name is Mateo Lopez. Marcos had met with him several times before, but I didn’t know who he was until today. Scar, he was Marcos’ boss, and he knows. He didn’t come out and say it, but he knows I killed Marcos. I didn’t think so at first, but I’m sure now.”

Guilt and fear rained down in equal measures. I was the reason Marcos was dead. Derek had killed him for me. And if that man knew it, we weren’t safe. But then…

“Why did he come here?” Shouldn’t that man have wanted to kill us?

“He came here to toy with me and draw me into a trap,” he replied matter-of-factly, as if we were talking about the weather.

The significance of what he said wasn’t lost on me and I swayed on my feet. If Derek’s arms hadn’t still been around me, I would have fallen on my ass.

It wasn’t over. There were still people who wanted us dead. Well, they would want Derek dead. God only knew what they’d do to me.

No, I wasn’t going to let that happen. Not again. If they caught me, I’d find some way to end my life long before they had the chance to turn me into a beaten and broken whore. Maybe Derek was right, and any woman’s body would have responded the same way mine had. That didn’t change the fact mine had betrayed me in the worst way, and I wouldn’t give it the opportunity to do it again.

“What are we going to do?” I asked bluntly. I needed to know the plan so I could also be making arrangements for my own plan if the need arose. I would do whatever he needed me to do. I would do whatever it took to keep Derek alive, just like I knew he would do for me. But I wasn’t naïve and foolish anymore. There were things worse than death, and so long as it didn’t interfere with keeping him alive, I wasn’t going to experience those things ever again.

“You’re not going to do anything, Scar. This is my mess to clean up, not yours.”

He wanted me to do nothing? “I don’t think so,” I said flatly. “You can’t expect me to sit idly by while you get yourself killed. Even if I was fine with that—which I’m not—what do you think is going to happen to me once you’re dead? Do you think they’ll just let me go on my merry way?”

“No, but you’ll be thousands of miles away in case anything goes wrong. I’ve kept myself alive for a long time. I have no intention of stopping. Not now that you’re…” His words trailed off.

“Now that I’m what? Pathetic and broken? Too weak to take care of myself? Is that what you were going to say?” I don’t know why I was getting angry, but I refused to let him do this on his own just because I was a wreck.

“No Pet, that isn’t what I was going to say,” he said. His voice was calm and cold, and it instilled me with the strong urge to lower myself down onto my knees, but I didn’t.

“Then what? Now that I’m…what?”

“My world. Now that you’re my world, I have no intention of lying down and dying. I don’t know how the hell I could ever possibly deserve you. Hell, I’m not convinced you’re not going to wake up one day and realize what a monster I am. But for however long you’re here, I don’t plan on missing it because I’m dead.”

“Oh.” My cheeks flamed hot and I felt like an idiot for exploding like I did. I dropped to my knees. “I’m sorry, Master. But still, I can’t do nothing.”

He chuckled. “You can’t argue with me on your knees, Pet. It still makes you just as defiant.” His fingers stroked my hair. “You’re not going to do nothing. I’m going to keep you quite busy for the next several days, and then you’re going to get on a plane that will put thousands of miles between you and Mateo Lopez.”

I opened my mouth to argue but then clamped it shut. I didn’t even know what he was planning. I needed to know that first, didn’t I? So, I nodded, though there was no punishment he could inflict that could possibly stop me from doing whatever I could to help him—with or without his consent.

“Good. Now, you must be hungry, so I’m going to feed you while I tell you what’s going on. Maybe with your mouth full, you’ll be less inclined to argue.”

He reached for the tray on the night table and came to sit on the edge of the bed where he’d sat not long before. Heat rushed through me at the memory—laying across his lap, seeing our reflection in the mirror, feeling the sting of his hand, every slap sending my body into exquisite overdrive. It was strange and conflicting how my body responded. I should hate it. After the violence I’d suffered, I should loathe it, but I didn’t. It was my choice this time. And nothing felt more right than submitting to both the pain and pleasure Derek could bring. If I wasn’t still rattled over those men and what their presence meant, I’d be tempted to provoke him again.

Instead, though, I knelt patiently and opened my mouth when Derek’s fingers pressed against my lips. Then I had to stifle a laugh at the absurdity of the taste in my mouth. In the midst of finding ourselves thrust into yet another nightmare, he was feeding me caramel corn—my favorite food from when I was a child. How could he possibly remember that?

“There’s a lot I never forgot,” he said, though I hadn’t said a word.

Before I could respond, he’d switched to real food and his tone became serious. “Lopez wants me to fill in for Marcos. At the end of the week, someone important is supposed to be arriving at a private airstrip two-hundred miles from here. He wants me to be there to meet him.”

“But you don’t believe him, Master?”

“I believe he wants me at that location, but I don’t believe it’s for any kind of meeting—not the kind everyone walks away from.”

“Are you sure, Master?” It was a stupid question; I realized it the moment the words were out. Derek wasn’t the type of man who operated on guesses.

“I’m sure. I’ve known men like him for a long time. I am like those men…and it’s what I would do to get an enemy out of his comfort zone and vulnerable.”

“You aren’t like them,” I whispered vehemently.

“And you’re supposed to be too busy eating to argue, Pet.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but he pushed more food past my lips, so I didn’t push the issue. But a moment passed, and he’d said nothing further. Nothing about what he was planning.

“What are you going to do, Master?”

He heaved a heavy sigh. “I’m going to go to that meeting and I’m going to kill them all.” There was no doubt in his tone. He didn’t even sound angry. He sounded…certain.

The rest of the meal passed in silence. I wanted to ask him about how he was going to do it, but if I was going to push my luck with questions, I needed them to find out how he intended to put me on a plane—so I could thwart his efforts. I had no idea how I could help yet, but one thing I knew for certain—there was no way in hell I was going to be on that plane.

“I can see what you’re thinking, Pet. Don’t make me show you what I’ll do to you if you try to defy me on this.”

OK, another thing I knew for certain: I had to figure out how to keep my face from giving away what was going on in my head.

He heaved another heavy sigh and set the empty tray aside. “It seems I’m going to have to give you a small sample of that to help dissuade you.”

Uh oh. This didn’t sound like the ‘put me over his knee and spank me until I come’ variety of punishments.

“Stand up and take off the nightgown.”

Suddenly, I was hopping to my feet to show my complacency, not certain I was going to like this variety of punishment.

“Stretch your arms above your head and stand against the post at the foot of the bed.”

Since the bed was a four-poster, there were two posts at the foot of the bed. I didn’t think it mattered to him which one I stood in front of though.

“Face the post.”

I turned toward the bed, but then he strode to the closet and disappeared inside. When he emerged a moment later, he was carrying a handful of belts. I started to tremble and had to lock my knees to stay upright.

Instead of whipping me with them though, he leaned in close. “Move closer to the post, Pet, until your sexy, little pussy presses against it.”

His breath against my neck made me shiver, but I moved closer until the cool wood of the post rubbed against my clit. A different kind of shiver raced through me. Then he was wrapping one of the belts around my wrists and the top of the post, shackling me in place. I thought he was done when he tugged on my wrists and they wouldn’t budge, but he grabbed another belt from where he’d dropped them on the bed.

I tried to brace for impact, but it never came. Instead, I felt the leather across my breasts, gently wrapping around them. He pulled tight then and fastened the buckle behind my back, and now my chest was strapped to the bedpost. Then another belt, around my hips this time, and buckled so tight the post pressed hard against my clit. It made me throb, but I could barely move, definitely not enough to get the friction I needed, unless, maybe if I moved my thighs…

Another belt wrapped around them just then and strapped them immobile too. Damn it.

“Comfortable, Pet?” he asked as something silky covered my eyes—the silk belt from the robe he’d bought me.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t see. All I could feel was the press of the post against the valley between my breasts and against my engorged clit.

“No, Master.”

“Good.” His footsteps retreated to the door and then he was gone.