tomorrow she would be stronger again. She would spend the time rebuilding her defenses even as she locked away the memory of tonight forever.
“You know tonight is only the start.” His husky voice rang with utter certainty. “Say the words, darlin’.”
She couldn’t. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Their hands on her, the promises of what they intended to do to her, had short-circuited every synapse in her mind. Just this once, she needed them just this once.
“I can’t,” she finally said, and knew the admission would haunt her for the rest of her days. Her gaze shifted to Lucky, who took Diek’s place in front of her, and a slow, pleased smile unfolded on his too-kissable lips.
He found the fastening of her skirt and snapped it free. The sound of the clasp scraping along the metal teeth of her zipper echoed through the room. His hands moved to the waistband, his fingers gliding along her flesh as he pushed the skirt down and let it fall in a pool of denim around her feet.
“You listened well, even if you didn’t follow through completely as we told you to.” He palmed her bare ass, kneading her butt cheeks as he dipped his head. His tongue swiped over her lips, and she parted them on a breath as chemistry sparked in the air between them. Her senses reeled as his kiss filled her with the sweet taste of passion. His mouth on hers made her weak. She melted into him, feeling the bite of pleasured pain in her nipples as the clamps pressed to his chest, delivering more pressure.
He drew back far too soon, slowly dropping his hands from her ass and stepping aside. He exchanged a wordless look with Gunner and gave the other man an almost imperceptible nod.
Gunner took the lead then, tugging gently on the rope binding her wrists as he moved to sit on the edge of the bed. “You know we have to punish you for not following through.” He delivered the threat in a tone that sounded so reasonable it sent a fiery lace of trepidation tearing through her.
She licked her suddenly dry lips and shot a glance at Diek, her gaze instantly dropping to his hands that worked to free the belt around his waist. “W–What are you going to do?”
Neither man answered as Gunner used his hold on the rope to bend her forward over his lap. Humiliation heated her flesh. She turned her head, finding Lucky, who kneeled close to her so she didn’t have to strain her neck to meet his gaze. She wanted to ask him to help her, to stop Diek from what he was about to do. Lucky had always been the softer Rylon brother, the one she could confide in, the one who had held her through the death of her father and comforted her as only a friend could. He’d never used her grief as a way to make a sexual move on her, never used her indecisions as a tool to claim her. When she needed him, he’d simply been there.
One look in his whisky-brown eyes told her that Lucky wasn’t here with her tonight. This Lucky wanted to watch this, hungered to be a part of it, and anticipated his chance to do more.
“I’ve waited to see you this way for years.” Diek’s tone was thick with his own arousal. “I’ve waited to turn this beautiful ass of yours nice and red for years, too.”
Mustang’s ass tingled in expectation. “Why would you want to spank me like some disobedient child?”
“Not a child, darlin’, but our disobedient woman for sure,” he corrected her. “A woman who doesn’t follow her men’s orders has to be punished.”
“I follow my own orders.” The shame of being across Gunner’s lap in perfect display for a whipping allowed her to find an ounce of the strength she couldn’t seem to latch onto earlier. Not that it did her much good.
“In some things, perhaps,” Lucky agreed. “When it comes to your body and the demands we put in place, you obey or you endure your punishment.”
The words barely left Lucky’s mouth before Diek delivered the first smack. The cool leather of his belt connected with