Chapter 3

My eyelids flutter while my stomach does a nosedive.

"My what?" I lean back in the chair as far as I can go, which is almost nowhere considering he's practically in the damn thing with me.

"Your punishment. I warned you, if you were mine, I'd teach you not to disobey. And you put yourself in a lot of danger barging in on a man like me with your extortion attempts."

"But I wasn't yours then. I mean, I didn't even know you when I got here." That has to count for something. Hell, it counts for everything!

"You don't know me now either," he points out. "But you will."

"You can't really expect me to let you… punish me. You didn't say anything about that being part of the deal."

He moves away from the chair, leaning his ass against the desk and folding his arms over his chest.

"You didn't ask."

"I did. I asked if it was just on paper." I push the chair back a few inches, needing more space.

"I don't like disobedience."

"Disobedience?" I scoff. "I didn't disobey you. I got up to leave." I harden my tone. No matter how much his unholy attractiveness makes my stomach flutter, I am not giving in.

He deadpans for a long pause.

"I want to punish you for many things. I want to punish you because you disregarded your safety today by coming into the office of someone you believed to be dangerous and tried to extort me. I want to punish you because if anyone else finds out about what you overheard, you could be in danger. And as my wife, you'll be mine to protect. I can't do that if you are going to make a habit of disregarding your safety."

We stare at each other in a tension-filled standoff.

"Oh."

His eyebrows shoot up. "Oh?"

"Well, when you say it all like that it sounds a little bad. But I couldn't help what I heard; I was just having coffee trying to look for a job. That's not my fault." I take a breath. "Trying to extort you, okay, I can give that to you, but really it seems to have worked out, right? We are both getting what we want?"

He stares at me like he's not entirely sure what to make of me, and to be honest, I'm not sure either.

He's set on this punishment thing, and I'm set on keeping all of my fingers and toes intact. I've seen enough mob movies to know how these guys get messages across. When they've been wronged, they take appendages. Or break bones.

Oh, gawd. I've never had a broken bone before.

My heart's in a full gallop now.

"And this is how it will be while we're… conducting our business? You'll punish me whenever you see fit?" My stomach swirls. Saying no to this man means starting over again with finding a solution. I've given him the only thing I had to barter with already. I'm now with fewer options than I had when I walked in.

"It's how it is always with me. You'll learn." He nods and takes a step in my direction.

Before his foot is flat against the carpeting, I'm off. I run for the door. It's locked though. I tug and try to twist, but it's not budging.

A second later his tree trunk of an arm wraps around my middle and picks me off the floor as though I'm a simple chair in his way.

"Running makes it worse." He brings me back to the desk and plants me on the floor, keeping his arm around my stomach.

"I'm not going to let you cut off my finger. Or break my arm! I won't." I try to wiggle away, but he has me completely trapped. The desk is in front of me and he's pressing his rock-hard body to my back.

"Settle down," he demands, sinking his free hand into my hair and pulling my head back until I'm looking up at his face, upside down.

"Please. I'm sorry I came here. Just let me go. I won't say anything to anyone." I'm completely fucked. I thought I was getting what I needed, but what I did was fall into the trap of a madman. I deserve whatever I have coming.

"Why do you think I'm going to break your bones?"

"You said you were going to punish me." My voice comes out all weird with my throat being stretched this way.

He moves his hand to my hip. At least the pressure is off my middle.

"Have you never been punished before?" he asks, releasing my hair and spinning me around to look down at me.

I want to rub the sting away on my scalp, but it's actually somewhat calming, so I leave it.

"How do you mean?" I ask. "Like by a boyfriend or by my parents?"

His jaw tenses. "One of your boyfriends hurt you like that? Broke your bones?" The mob boss quickly turns into a warrior ready to jump onto the battlefield.

"No!" I press my hands to his chest before he gets carried away with his anger. "No. That's never happened."

He eyes me, still uncertain if I'm telling the truth probably.

"My parents grounded me when I was in high school. And my father took away my cell phone once when he caught me talking to a boy at two in the morning." Maybe mentioning the boyfriend wasn't a great idea, but he seems to take the news fine. His breathing slows, and his heart isn't slamming against his chest anymore.

Slowly, I move my hands away after I realize I can feel his heart beating beneath all the muscle he has. And there's a lot of muscle.

"I won't break you." The words fall between us lightly. I stare into the intense storm of his eyes and my chest warms. He's not giving me a line.

"Okay." I nod, because I'm too dazed at how silken his voice was while giving his sincere vow.

"But I will bend you." He grabs my waist and spins me back around to face the desk and pushes me between my shoulders until I'm bent over the desk.

"What are you doing?" I shove up, but he's got me pinned down easily with one hand.

My body locks up when his fingers push my sweater up my back, and he hooks them beneath the elastic of my leggings. I kick my leg out, which he easily avoids and rips down my leggings, along with my white cotton panties.

Fire erupts in my face. Of all the days to wear comfortable panties!

"Wait! Wait!" I swing my arm back, but he catches it and pins it to the small of my back and pushes my body further up the desk. I can move my chest now, but he still has me immobile, my feet barely touching the floor. I try to reach, but my toes only scrape along the carpet.

Silence stretches out for a long moment. The only sounds in the room are of my struggling against his grip, which seems to be only a small nuisance to him.

His hand cups my ass cheek and my struggles cease. A small sound escapes me. I close my eyes, waiting for the humiliation to surround me.

I'm not embarrassed of my curves, but no man has ever touched me like this before. I wait, expecting a backhanded insult to be uttered.

" Blya, ty velikolepen ," he says in a low growl.

I tense.

"What?" I try to look at him over my shoulder. If I can see his face, I might be able to decipher what he said. He lifts his eyes to mine and my breath catches.

Desire.

It burns hot in his dark eyes.

"Never disobey me again, Coraline," he says firmly. Then his hand lifts from my ass.

It's only for a moment though. It comes back, lashing hard across my ass bringing fire and brimstone with each smack. Over and over again he peppers slaps to my ass, not missing a beat.

As the pain builds upon itself, I start to twist from side to side. Anything to avoid the blow of the next smack.

He's spanking me!

A new fever burns beneath my struggles. I'm a grown woman and he's spanking me like some errant child.

"Stop it!" I yell, bucking back at him. "I'm not a little girl. You can't just… ow… Dammit! Stop it."

"Cursing will only make it worse," he informs me matter-of-factly and increases the power of the smacks.

"I'm a grown woman!" I yell, still trying to shove my way off the desk with my only free hand.

"I know." He moves the smacks further down, striking just below my ass on my thighs. The pain gets so much worse.

"You can't spank women!" I try to educate him, but my lesson is lost among the spanks and the cup of pens that go flying when I wiggle again.

"Be grateful I don't use my belt since it's your first time." He steps to the side of me, letting go of my wrist so he can wrap his arm around my waist and pull me against him.

His belt? I squirm harder, which only gains me harder slaps.

"The more you fight, the longer this lasts." He spanks faster and harder.

My entire ass and now my thighs are on fire. I press my cheek to the desk, feeling tears lining up on my eyelids.

A wave of warm calm descends over me as he spanks me over and over again, until I'm lost in a cloud.

I feel every slap, every bite of his hand, but it builds upon itself until my body softs beneath his punishment.

"Ah, there you are." His voice soothes the last of the prickly spots, and I'm floating on a warm pillow.

The spanking stops, but his hand doesn't leave me. He's stroking my thighs, up and down, and then he goes up higher, and slips between my legs.

I try to push them together, to keep him from finding what I already know, but he tsks his tongue.

"No, sweet girl, relax. Let me in." He glides through my folds easily, collecting my arousal on his fingers.

I turn again, watching as he brings his wet fingertips to his mouth, and he licks them clean. His gaze meets mine and he grins.

"Delicious," he says.

I close my eyes.

"Let's get you dressed." He pulls my clothes back up and eases me off his desk, carefully sitting me on the chair again.

I blink a few times and take a deep breath. My ass burns and throbs, but I'm too confused to worry about it.

He squats in front of me. In his expensive suit, he gets down to my eye level and brushes my hair from my eyes.

"I'm going to have to find another way of punishing you, I think." An arrogant grin sits on his lips. "You'll be okay in a moment. Rest here. We'll leave when you're ready."

"Leave for where?" I ask, the fog finally starting to lift.

"I'm taking you home."

"I have my car." I take a deep breath, shake my head a little to clear the rest of the cobwebs.

"I'll have it brought to you later. I'm taking you home. No arguments." He lifts his eyebrow.

I'm sure he wants to threaten me with another spanking, but I'm not entirely positive I would fight it. I feel as though I've just had a deep muscle massage. But in the interest of getting through this next month and getting the money I need, I simply nod.

Fine. We can do things his way.

"Don't look so smug. The next time I punish you, you won't be feeling this good." He tweaks my nose and moves to his feet, taking out his phone.

He gets on a call and starts barking orders in Russian and it gives me a moment to recap the last hour in my mind.

I'm getting the money for my mom.

And I'm marrying a Russian mobster.