The Love He Craves (The Love She Craves: Selling Her Soul to Declan Book 2) (19 page)

Chapter 17

Nyxie peeled her uniform over her head before she reached his bedroom. She crossed to his bathroom, put the dress, nametag and all, down the laundry chute, and hoped she would never see it again.

Didn’t he understand how degraded she felt by his game? She removed her underwear and socks, and put them down the chute as well.

Fuck his water bill.

Stepping into the shower, she turned on the water. It felt icy at first, but she didn’t care. She only hoped the water would wash away the disgust she felt over being treated like the lot lizards that Bob had to run off from time to time.

When she emerged, she found a change of clothes with a note on the bed.

Get dressed and come to my office. Don’t be late for school.

Headmaster Stryker

She quickly dressed in the dark blue and green tartan skirt, and white, short-sleeved blouse. It was slightly sheer and she could see her white bra through the thin cotton fabric.

“How parochial,” she said aloud as she looked at herself in the mirror. If the skirt had been red and she tied the shirt at her midriff, she’d be dressed a bit like Britney Spears in one of her videos. But doubting that Declan would like her looking slutty, she tucked the shirt into her skirt and buttoned up the blouse all the way to the Peter Pan collar at the top.

As soon as she had her bobby-socked feet in her canvas Keds, she retrieved a piece of gum from her purse and bounced down the stairs, her black ponytail dancing behind her.

“Hey, teach,” she said when she saw him standing outside his office, looking at his watch. He had changed into a corduroy sports coat with leather patches on the elbows. A slight smile lifted one corner of his mouth as he eyed her over a pair of reading glasses perched halfway down his nose. He lightly hit the end of a wooden ruler against the palm of his hand.

“You have thirty seconds to get in your seat before the tardy bell.”

Rather than move towards the room, Nyxie dashed down the steps.

“Walk in the halls!” he shouted after her.

Her pace slowed only until she rounded the corner, but as soon as she was out of sight, she continued her breakneck speed. She was on her way back up the steps when she heard him counting down the seconds.

“Three, two, one, zero.”

After that, she didn’t see any point in rushing. “Am I in trouble, Mr. Stryker?” she asked, holding her hands behind her back. “I wouldn’t have been late if you hadn’t told me to walk.”

His arms were folded over his chest, the ruler still held in one fist.

“Head
master
,” he corrected.

A seductive smile quirked her lip as she made up a racy joke in her head. Her hands came from behind her back and she held a large red apple out to him. “I brought you an apple. I was hoping to be teacher’s pet.”

He took the fruit from her and gave her a playful swat on her fanny with the ruler as she passed.

She saw two chairs at his desk, his office chair and a chair from his dining room table. She sat in the latter, leaving the office chair for him.

“Change seats,” he said. “I can get up and move around the room while you’re working. You need the comfortable chair because you’ll be there for a while.”

Her toes barely touched the floor in his seat and she swung her feet alternately, like a five-year-old.

“There’s a lever to lower the seat,” he said.

“I’m good.”

“Lower the seat—ever heard of ergonomics?” The way he used his Dom voice made her reach down and adjust the seat.

“Am I really going to be here that long?”

He lightly tossed an envelope on the desk in front of her. It was addressed to her from the university’s GED program. The seam at the top had been cut open.

“You opened my mail?”

“It came to my address and I needed to know your deficiencies, so I can help you with them.”

She stared at him, all excitement from the moments before, gone. “You couldn’t have given it to me and asked to see it
after
I looked at it?”

“Would you have shown it to me if I asked?”

“Of course.”

“Then what difference does it make if I opened it?”

Nyxie wasn’t going to argue. She had learned as a child, there was no glory in being right. It was just easier to let others have their way. With ill-concealed annoyance, she pulled the sheets from the envelope and began perusing her scores.

“Considering you went in cold, you did really well. You did great in all of your English and social study type tests, you squeaked by in biology and chemistry, but you failed miserably in calculus.”

“I never had calculus,” she mumbled, her attention on the big fat zero after
Calculus
. “Everyone else had a calculator; I just stared at the test trying to figure it out.”

He placed a heavy blue textbook, graphing calculator and notebook on the desk in front of her.

“You made me dress up like a schoolgirl, so you could teach me calculus? I thought we were going to have fun.”

“Would you prefer to be naked?”

His tone stopped her complaint immediately.

“No, Headmaster.”

“Besides,” he said, sitting down next to her. “I have plenty of fun planned for my little Lolita.”

Her head jerked around. “I’m no Lolita. I turned eighteen just last week,” she said, playing her role. “You’re just a dirty old man after my nubile body.”

Who said romance novels were a waste of time if she could throw out words like
nubile
now? She hoped she had pronounced it correctly. She stopping chewing her gum long enough to bat her eyes at him.

“Are you chewing gum?”

She looked him boldly in the eye and lied. “No.”

“Swallow it.”

Her eyes widened. “Won’t it stick in my intestines for seven years?”

“That’s a wives’ tale. It’ll pass through you in a day or two.”

Holding his gaze, a mischievous grin grew on her face. She reached into her mouth with her finger and thumb, pulled out the offending item and stuck it under his desk.

“You did not just do that!” he said, ducking his head to look under the desk at the glob marring his pristine and rather pricy desk. “Get up.”

He was out of his seat before she could rise, and moved his chair to the middle of the room before he sat back down.

“Drop your panties to your knees and lie across my lap.”

Her eyes were fixed on his as she peeled the white cotton panties down to her knees, and then braced one hand on the chair between his legs as she lowered herself to his lap. With a look over her shoulder at him, she dragged her hand across his thigh.

Declan lifted the plaid skirt up to her waist, revealing her small but shapely bottom.

“I am completely fascinated by your ass,” he said, rubbing the orbs of her butt cheeks. “All that walking you’ve done has given you a great ass and you’re so lean, I can see the play of your muscles through your skin.”

She tightened and released her muscles a couple of times and tried to form a bicep muscle by flexing her arm. “Maybe I should become one of those female bodybuilders.”

“You want me to trade you to another master?”

“Since you’re into fitness, I thought maybe you’d like that.”

He gave her a swat on the fanny, not hard, but enough to get her attention.

“One, Headmaster.”

He caressed the spot as he spoke. “I’d like to think you know me better than that. It’s one thing for a woman to be fit and toned, it’s another thing when women start looking like men. I don’t find it attractive in the least. I like women who are soft and yielding. Although I’ll miss the definition of your glutes, I look forward to seeing you a little rounder. Don’t get me wrong, I feel very protective of you when you’re this small. I want to put rocks in your pockets every time the wind picks up.”

She chuckled. “You say that, but here I am over your knee.”

“Not the same thing.” He put his left hand on her back and could feel her ribs expanding as she breathed and he could feel her heart beating through his fingertips. Without warning, he brought his hand down on her left butt cheek. She hadn’t been expecting it and she gasped.

“Two, Headmaster.”

He could feel the increase in her breathing and the quickening of her heart. Her skin bore a pink handprint. With splayed fingers, he caressed everything but the spot where he had struck. Suddenly, he spanked her twice more in the same spot.

She started to give the count but he stopped her. “I want you quiet this time. I want to listen to your body.”

Her heart beat harder. Her body became taut and still. He knew her bottom hurt because his hand stung, and the edges of the handprint were welting. Over the next minutes, he landed a few more in the same spot, then gave her a reprieve and began spanking the other side. He could feel her tensing as her pain level went up and he felt the way she relaxed slightly after a lighter hit.

“God. Yellow,” she said suddenly, after another hard hit in the same spot.

Her voice nearly startled him. He was so absorbed by gauging her reaction, he had taken it further and longer than he intended. Had it been ten, or twenty, or could it have been double that? He silently cursed himself. Nevertheless, he finally felt he could measure her pain by her body’s reaction. Too bad not all punishments were in these ideal conditions, where it was quiet and he could take his time.

It surprised him when she safe worded him. Surprised him because she’d never done it before, other than when she was trying to gain control of the scene. Surprised him, because he knew they had taken it much further many times before. He held perfectly still, feeling the cadence of her heart and lungs. Leaning over, he kissed the abused side of her bottom, and then tenderly stroked it, feeling the raised ridges.

“Are we finished?” she asked quietly.

Declan nodded before he answered. “Yeah, that’s enough.”

Sagging with relief, her whole body pliantly molded over his lap. When he felt her release her grasp on his leg, he suddenly realized how tightly she had been gripping it. He hadn’t even noticed. Christ.

“Come sit on my lap for a minute, Nyxie.”

It took her a moment to start moving, but when she managed to find her shaky footing, she pulled up her cotton panties that had fallen to her ankles.

She found her perch on his lap and leaned her body into his with her head on his shoulder and her arms around him.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, a little wobbly, but okay.”

He kissed her forehead and held her for a few minutes before he spoke again.

“I don’t understand you. You tell me you’re not into this in one breath and then you intentionally bring punishment on yourself.”

She stretched toward him and kissed him long and lingeringly, but although he allowed it, he didn’t participate. When Nyxie realized he was not going to return the kiss, she withdrew, and a small sigh escaped her lips.

“Are you trying to distract me?” he asked, taking her by the upper arms and holding her away.

“Is it working?” She tried to reengage the kiss but he took her by the shoulders, holding her back.

“Dammit, Nyxie, stop. Present.”

She wanted to ask if he was serious, but his tone answered her question before she asked it. If he saw her look of frustration, he made no indication.

“Do you want me to take off my clothes?”

“No,” he said. “You can sit there like that until you’re ready to tell me.”

“There’s nothing to tell.”

“Don’t lie to me, Onyx. Why can’t you trust me enough to tell me the truth? Do you think I’ll be angrier than I am now?”

She found a small area between the side of the desk and the wall and got into her prescribed position.

Declan frowned, realizing she had found the smallest spot available. It gave him pause. Why would she intentionally provoke him, try to distract him and then confine herself in a small space. She felt safe in small places, but why did she feel she needed that safety now?

“Do you want some ice for your bottom,” Declan asked.

“No, sir,” she said, not lifting her gaze. “I’d rather have a damp towel.”

It took a few minutes for Declan to return. He brought a pair of towels, one wet and one dry to protect his carpet, and two glasses of ice water.

“Are you ready to tell me what’s going on?” he asked, handing her both towels. They were folded already so she only had to rise up to put them under her bottom. Nyxie’s eyes closed briefly, as the cooling wetness soothed her sore flesh.

“Why am I not allowed to keep some things to myself?”

“You can, but not this. This affects me too, when you intentionally provoke me into punishing you.”