Chapter Sixteen

Ben Angela was still sleeping as I went to open the door. I’d gotten up a bit earlier and showered and changed, then called room service for some breakfast. I did tell her she could sleep in, but if she didn’t wake up soon, then we’d be eating lunch instead of breakfast.

I paid the guy that brought the food up a tip. It came with a tray that I carried with me to the bedroom. Angela was still lying peacefully beneath the covers. I set the tray down on the nightstand, then gently shook her awake.

“Angela? Come on, wake up. It’s time to eat.”

She groaned and rolled around beneath the covers before pushing them off her face. She squinted her eyes at me, before looking around the room. I’d pulled the curtains open, letting warm sunlight into the room. She sighed, then shoved the pillows behind her and sat up against the headboard.

“What time is it?” She asked.

She lifted her arms and stretched her body out, distracting me for a moment as my eyes fell to her bared breasts. Her nipples, exposed to the air, had hardened into pink nubs, and my mouth watered as I reconsidered what to eat for breakfast.

That thought came to a stop quickly when I saw all the marks all over her body. She didn’t complain last night, or at least, she didn’t once say she was in pain, but I’d left a lot of marks on her. They filled me with both pride and worry. I loved that she had my marks on her, but maybe I was a little rough last night.

It’s all her fault, though.

I didn’t expect her to ask me to spank her. When I did it before, in the classroom, I didn’t just stop because we didn’t have a lot of time. I stopped because I realized I liked it a little too much, and I didn’t want to hurt her too much. I didn’t want her to hate it. I figured I’d have to talk her into it, maybe with a promise to let her spank me as she’d teased before. It was a kink I’d realized I liked pretty early on, but not a lot of girls were into it, and the girls that would allow me, would still get mad when I got too enthusiastic.

Last night had been amazing, with Angela not only giving consent but asking me for it, then watching her pale cheeks bloom underneath my hands. I was starting to think Angela was the perfect woman for me.

“Ooh, is that breakfast?”

I blinked, coming back to myself. Angela was staring at the tray, looking more awake.

“I called and had some brought up. I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I asked for a bunch of different stuff.”

“I’ll eat anything. Bring it here; I’m hungry.” She sent a glare my way. “Someone worked me so hard last night I even forgot about dinner.”

I grinned, unrepentant.

We settled in on the bed with the tray laid across Angela’s lap. I saw her wince as she shifted on her butt, and grew worried again.

“Was last night too hard on you?” I asked.

When I thought spanking was something she would be into, I’d done some research on it. I knew I had to be careful so it would feel good and not hurt. It was a kink I had, and while it would be nice if it was something we could share, I didn’t want to hurt her too badly. Maybe I was too rough last night…

“No need for you to worry so much, I just ache a little. Do you even know how long you were in me for last night? It’ll go away on its own.”

“I was more worried about your ass. Does it burn?”

She shrugged. “Don’t worry about that, either. You didn’t exactly give me just some light taps, you know? It doesn’t really hurt that much, anyway. And if I disliked it, I wouldn’t hide it from you.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t do it again, though,” I said, feeling down about it. “I want to have fun, not give you a hard time.”

She snorted. “Trust me; I had fun last night. If I hated any of it, I would have told you to stop. Besides, you’re nowhere near as bad as my ex-was.”

Angela picked up a fork and started poking at the food, before bringing some to her mouth. She hummed in appreciation, forking more into her mouth.

“Do you mean your ex-husband?” I asked.

Besides knowing there was one, I didn’t know much about him. She’d mentioned him a few times but never outright talked about him. Her hands froze at my question, and after a moment, she looked up at me.

“His name was Stuart,” she said, the corners of her mouth turning down. “I was so sure I was in love with him when I married him, but actually living with him was hell. It was easy at first, but it started getting harder. He was… controlling. In a way I absolutely hated, but I didn’t know how to make him stop. I would talk to him about it at first, but there were times when he didn’t even seem to notice when he did it, especially in the bedroom.”

I frowned. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

She shook her head slowly. “If you’re talking physically, then no. Psychologically, then yes. He made me feel inadequate, and I didn’t even realize that I was practically living under his thumb for the longest time. When I did, I started pulling away, then asked for a separation.”

The guy sounded as bad as my dad, just in a different way. I stared at Angela as she ate, wondering how she could have lived with someone like that. I didn’t say anything, because I didn’t know the circumstances, but if she’d moved to New York after the divorce, then it had to be recent since she’d joined the school when I was already a student.

“I love writing,” she continued, looking up with a smile. “I’ve written a book, but it’s just sitting in my computer collecting dust. There are parts of me in that book. I finished it before I moved, and it was what pushed me to start new.”

“You should publish it,” I said.

She shook her head, looking down again. “I can't. I felt brave enough to leave him, but it nearly broke me. All my friends said I broke his heart, too, and no one was on my side. If I could just live quietly, I would be okay with that. Well, not totally, it’s too boring without friends to spend time with.”

“They don’t sound much like friends, anyway, so you’re probably not lacking anything.”

She chuckled. “It’s why I wrote the book, losing my husband, my friends, my reputation. It changed things, and we were in such a tight-knit community. Everyone would keep talking about it, and I felt like I was being backed into a corner. A few times, I almost changed my mind, to just keep living as we had been, but I knew I couldn’t. The writing was therapeutic for me, and it took me almost a year to finally finish it and start putting the pieces of myself back together.”

The room grew silent. She wasn’t eating anymore, and I wasn’t sure I still felt hungry. Just the thought of someone being so unfair to Angela made me angry. I wished I could meet that ex-husband of hers, so I could punch him out, but it would probably be better just to be glad he was out of the picture.

“I’m sorry about your husband,” I said after a while. “He was clearly a bastard, and you don’t have to worry yourself, missing those so-called friends. If they could turn away from you so easily, then they’re not really your friends in the first place.”

Her eyebrows jumped up. “You’re surprisingly cynical for someone so young.”

I scoffed. “As long as you’ve got eyes and you’re not stupid, it doesn’t matter what age, it’s not difficult to see all the hypocrites. I’ve always had them hanging around me; I guess I was a prime target. It only really hit me after Dad was gone. A lot of people think being popular in school is awesome, but it’s such pressure. I have to put up a front for people that aren’t going to care about me after I graduate. It’s just worse when I act out; I realized that in high school, but having to be the guy that everyone expects is annoying.”

“Then just be yourself. You’re in college now, not high school. It should at least be freer, right?”

I laughed. “If you really think that, then maybe you don’t remember college all that well. I wouldn’t let it trouble me if it really was something so simple. The trouble started when rumors about me started spreading, with both students and professors growing those rumors. No one likes the nice guy, or even likes them, and when people have expectations of you and you don’t meet them… it’s not like it’s unbearable, but it was annoying my whole first year, so I went along with everything in the end.”

“I guess that’s true,” she murmured. “I mostly just stuck to myself back then, honestly. It’s gotta be hard being so popular, when people outside of your family are talking about you.”

We had a quiet moment before she took a deep breath and smiled.

“Come on, let’s eat or this food will get cold. This room is on my tab, you know, and nothing here is cheap.”