I have more than enough to do. I have paperwork to fill out, the endless fucking paperwork of ruling a kingdom. I have pointless commendations to give, I have bullshit to sign, I have new housekeepers to interview because the butler my father chose won’t hire someone without my final approval.

I don’t give a shit who’s cleaning the floors, I just want them to stay clean. But instead, I have to micromanage every task in this huge, cold, drafty palace.

I walk back to my office — it’s one of the rooms in my suite, along with my master bedroom, two extras, a kitchen, and a parlor — and I’m not thinking of the paperwork I have to do or the household staffing issues I have to deal with.

I’m thinking of Belle. Again. She’s all I can think about the last day. The look in her eye when I told her she was mine, something I shouldn’t have said. The way she looked so defiant when I said it.

The way I want so desperately to prove her wrong, to rule her body and mind, to hear her gasp it as she comes, I’m yours…

“Stop it,” I growl out loud.

The guard walking in front of me stops instantly, and I nearly run into the other man’s back.

“Not you,” I mutter as he looks back at me, mystified. “Keep going.”

Just as quickly, he starts again.

Get yourself the fuck under control, I think.

* * *

I force myself to work for a while, even though I can’t concentrate. Instead I think about a thousand things I could do to Belle, a thousand ways I could make her say my name like she’s begging me.

A thousand ways I could make her feel things she’s never felt before, pain followed by intense pleasure, the utter submission she could give me. I want to watch her give up control completely, give herself to me, let me rule over her…

Something beeps on my desk, snapping me out of it yet again. It’s just an unimportant email, so I go back to signing boy scout commendations or whatever the fuck it is I’m supposed to be doing.

Even so, every couple of commendations I let my eyes sneak over to the monitor. It’s on Belle’s room, obviously. For the last few hours she’s just been sitting in her recliner, reading one of the books we allowed her, getting up every so often to use the bathroom or refill her water glass.

I watched her talk on the phone with her father as proof that we really did let the old man go.

And then, finally, she stands. Yawns. Tosses the book on the bed and heads into the bathroom.

I make a mental note: have a camera installed on the shower. Right now, we don’t have cameras in the bathrooms, but we’ve never had a prisoner I wanted so badly to watch shower before, either.

A few minutes later, she comes out. She lowers the blinds over the window, and now she’s got my full attention as she looks around the room. Turns the lights off, toggling the camera’s night vision.

That makes Belle blurry as she unbuttons the pants we let her wear, but I can still see the perfect swell and curve of her ass as she bends over, pulls them off. She tosses them on the chair and then, with her back to the camera, pulls her shirt off over her head.

I’m hard as fuck, pen still gripped in one hand as I watch her. I want to sink my fingers into the notch at her waist. I want to tie her hands to the bedpost, raise welts on her back with my flogger, alternate between showing her exquisite pain and pleasure as I tease her clit so close to orgasm that she whimpers…

One last time, Belle peeks between the blinds, her back still to the camera. I wonder what she’s thinking, what she’s checking on, but then in a flash she’s turning to the bed, naked except for her panties, and slides between the sheets.

I only get to look at her for a second, but I can’t help myself. I’ve already unbuckled and unzipped my trousers, and my cock springs out at full attention.

I can barely see her — she’s in night vision, after all — and can only barely make out the form of her body under the sheets, her full, perky breasts rising and falling, her dark hair spread out on the pillow.

I wrap my fist around the base of my cock, breathing deep. She doesn’t know it but she’s already submitting to me, giving me what I want, and I stroke myself slow and hard, watching her breathe as she turns slightly, moves her arm—

I stop.

Belle shifts her hips in the bed, her thighs parting under the sheets as her hand steals downward, skimming past her breasts, over her belly, until it’s unmistakably between her legs.

Her hand starts moving. I can’t see detail, between the night vision camera and the sheets covering her, but I can tell she’s pleasuring herself. Her legs part a little more and she turns her head to one side, her face in the pillow as her hips buck.

Watching, I stroke myself harder, faster, my thick cock filling my fist insistently. For a moment I wonder what Belle’s thinking about, but then a certainty fills me that I already know.

She’s thinking about this afternoon. About me telling her that she was mine. That’s what has her wet and naked in this bed, getting herself off in the dark when she thinks no one knows.

My fist tightens more, and a growl comes out of my throat at what she’s doing. I’m wildly, unstoppably jealous, that domination desire building deep inside me. It’s indignation that she’s doing this on her own terms, without me.

She’s mine. That means her pain and her pleasure is mine. Her body is mine. Her orgasms are mine.

Even if she doesn’t know it yet.

On the camera, Belle gasps, her head thrashing to one side as her hand moves even faster, her other hand clutched on the pillow beside her head. I grunt, fist tight on my cock, eyes glued to the screen.

Her hips buck again, hard enough that the sheet slides down her body a few inches, revealing one perfect, plump breast. Belle gasps into the pillow again, her other hand automatically going to her nipple and pinching it, rolling it between her thumb and forefinger with her eyes closed, totally lost to pleasure.

She’s about to come. I can tell, and so am I, thick cock throbbing in my hand, the head purple, nearly ready to explode.

Belle whimpers on camera, her mouth open, her head thrown back against the pillow. She’s moments away, and even from here, I can tell it’s incredible, beautiful, a sight to behold.

I turn the monitor off. I want the first time I watch her come to be in person.

My hand tightens, pumping harder and faster, the familiar pull in my balls that means I’m seconds away. I exhale hard, head back.

I come with one more stroke, imagining Belle underneath me, harder than I’ve ever come before. I come so hard I nearly hit the ceiling, grunting between my teeth as I do, fist locked around the base of my cock.

Seconds later, I realize what I’ve done. It’s not that I just jerked off in my office, it’s that this girl made me lose control, and I don’t lose control.

But where Belle’s concerned, I can barely help myself. For hours now, I’ve been doing nothing but thinking about her, fantasizing until I couldn’t stop myself any longer.

I tuck my cock back into my pants. Sit up straight. Turn the monitor back on.

Belle’s there, lying on her side. Both hands visible over the sheets, her breathing slow and measured, like she’s already fallen asleep.

You will be mine, I swear silently.

One way or another, Belle Marchand.

You will be mine.