Chapter 104 That Night
Lila POV
The trembling wouldn’t stop, electric currents kept shocking through my veins as everything between my legs throbbed with release. His tongue felt like velvet against my sensitive flesh, and the warmth of his mouth felt incredible as he lapped and sucked, milking an orgasm out of my body. When he had his head between my legs, his mouth devouring every inch of me, I wanted to push my body up to give him more of me to taste but the four chains attached to my collar made it impossible. So all I could do was rock my hips as my body became desperate for release.
Every muscle went numb, like all the strength had drained from my body but I knew he wasn’t done with me. It was too easy, too simple and nothing with Nico was easy or simple.
The mattress moved, and I tried to listen to figure out where he was, what he was doing. Then I heard the clanking of the chains and felt the faintest movement from the collar around my neck, more sounding of chains, until finally I could feel I was no longer bound to the four bedposts.
Just as I wanted to fall back, to allow my body the rest it needed, Nico grabbed the collar and jerked me upright. “Not so fast. We’re not done.”
“I just need five minutes,” I pleaded.
“Not yet, you can rest when I say you can.”
Abruptly, he pulled me forward by the collar, and I fell face first against the mattress. My hands were tied behind my back, and the blindfold was still secure, nervous anticipation bloomed inside my stomach, and even after the mind-shattering release I had just had, my body started to hum again, my skin tingling with the need to be touched.
Nico placed his hand beneath my chin, lifting my head, and I heard the clasp of the chain, realizing what the purpose was of the fifth ring on the collar. I tried to pull myself back up, but the chain held me in place…head on the mattress and ass in the air.
“Are you comfortable, little pet?”
“No.”
“Good.”
I could hear the smile in his voice. “Remember, you trust me.”
My heart skipped a beat. “You’re scaring me by saying that every ten minutes.”
“I’m saying it every ten minutes to make sure you don’t forget it, especially because of what I’m about to do next.”
“What are you about to do?”
My words weren’t even cold when the first lash landed against my ass. It wasn’t so much the pain as it was the surprise that made me cry out. Only when the burn on my skin started to intensify did I recognize the pain…the pain caused by a belt.
“Nico...”
Another whip and crack followed and this time, I bit into my lower lip, trying to swallow the cry of pain that wanted to force itself out of my throat.
I felt his breath against the side of my face. “Forgive me,” he whispered, and I could hear the regret in his voice.
“Nico, please.”
“For you to conquer your demons, you need to face them, little pet.”
And then his face was gone, another lash against my body. “I need you to go back,” he ordered.
“Go back where?”
“Go back to that night, the night I had you chained from the dining hall ceiling. The night I gave my brother permission to torture you.”
I tried to shake my head, my cheek rubbing against the silk of the sheets. “I can’t. I don’t want to go back.”
“You have to.”
I heard the belt slice through the air, and then pain seared my skin. This time I cried out, but then his hand was on my burning flesh, gently rubbing in circles. Pleasure and pain, two things that followed Nico and I wherever we went. It was something we would never escape.
“Do you remember what was going through your head that night?”
I took a deep breath. “I was scared.”
“What else?” His hand dipped between my legs, softly teasing my sensitive flesh before dragging his fingers all the way up the slit of my ass.
Again…pleasure and pain.
“I remember hoping you would save me.”
“After I was the one that put you there?”
Images flashed through my mind like flashcards straight from hell. “I wanted you to save me.”
Fingertips travelled over my tied hands and up my spine, sending shivers throughout my body. “Do you know what I was thinking as you hung there naked and vulnerable?”
Did I want to know? I kept quiet.
He twisted my ponytail around his fist. “I sat at the table next to my mother, listening to her stressing the importance of you dying. I sat there listening to every hateful word she had to say about you, and all I could think about was how you would look hanging from the ceiling of my bedroom, naked, and for my eyes only.”
I swallowed, his mother’s face popping up inside my head like a virus. Would I ever forget the hate I saw in her eyes that night, right before she tried to slit my throat?
Abruptly, he pulled my head back, and my muscles protested as the chain held my head in place. His cheek pressed against mine. “That was the moment I realized killing you would no longer be as easy as I imagined it would be.”
He let go of my hair, and my head fell forward just before I felt the sting of the belt across my upper back.
The pain triggered it all. The familiar sting on my back made all the memories come back. Until now, Nico knew my back was a hard limit for me because of what Damon had done because of the abuse I endured, the humiliation.
“Nico, what are you doing?”
Another lash, and tears sprung from my eyes, only to be soaked up by the silk blindfold.
“I need to break you, little mouse. That’s the only way you will be strong enough to survive me.”
A gentle finger traced over the spot the belt had collided with my back. “I need you to acknowledge your pain.”
“Why?”
“Because only then will you be able to turn your pain into power.”
Two more lashes across my back, cracking against the sensitive flesh of my arms. The pain was indescribable, just like it was that night.
That night…
Damon dark eyes, his hateful words.
Everything rushed back, and I could no longer control the memories or the fear that came with it. “Tell me, Lila,” he urged while his palm caressed my skin once more. “Tell me what you feel when you think about my brother.”
“I hate him,” I bit out between clenched teeth. “I hate him.”
“Why?”
“Because he hurt me.”
“I hurt you, too.”
“That was different.”
“How? How was it different?”
I turned my head in the direction of his voice, the blindfold casting my world in utter darkness. “Because even though you hurt me, I could see in your eyes that it wasn’t out of hate.”