SovereignsChoice Read online

  My heart jumps into my throat. But for the first time, my initial reaction to the word punishment isn’t fear—it’s anticipation. Still, I try to argue with him.

  “Okay, I know I shouldn’t have taken off the harness and I swear I won’t do it again,” I said. “But you have to believe me when I tell you I came by accident.”

  “So we’re back to that again, are we?” He pulls me away from him and eyes me skeptically. “Explain to me, Emma. How exactly does one have an orgasm ‘by accident’?”

  “It was because of the damn harness being so snug,” I say and go on to explain exactly how it happened—how the harness was stuck, Barnes was knocking on the door, the vibrator somehow got turned on and lodged right against my clit… “I was all tangled up in my clothes and I fell on the floor,” I explain to Aiden. “And you hadn’t let me come for three days before that so I was already on the edge. When the damn vibrator hit my sweet spot, I just couldn’t help it—I went off like a freaking rocket.”

  “Is that right?” Aiden murmurs, his eyes dancing.

  “Yes, that’s right,” I say with as much dignity as I can muster. “And if it’s any consolation, I didn’t enjoy it at all. I mean, I was basically writhing all over the floor trying to tell Barnes how many people were coming to lunch while my body went crazy. It’s really hard to concentrate on pleasuring yourself when you have a proper English butler banging on the door and demanding a head count for high tea.”

  Aiden throws back his head and laughs loud and long. It’s a deep, rumbling chuckle that seems to come from the bottom of his chest and fills the whole room. It occurs to me this is the first time I’ve ever heard him really laugh and even though his amusement comes at my expense, I can’t help liking the warm, intimate sound immensely.

  “Poor Barnes,” he says at last, wiping his eyes where pinkish tears have begun to emerge. “He must have thought you were going mad.”

  “I don’t know what he thought and I don’t want to know,” I say primly. “But I thought you should know it was an accident. I know I disobeyed you by taking off the harness but I didn’t lie to you.”

  “Very well, I won’t doubt you again,” Aiden says, suddenly sober. “And I won’t punish you for your orgasm.”

  “You won’t?” I’m surprised to hear a note of disappointment in my own voice.

  “No.” Aiden shakes his head. “I will, however, take you to task for removing the harness in the first place.” He gives me a severe look. “I’m going to clear breakfast out of the way and then you’re going to assume the position, Emma.”

  My breath catches in my throat and heat blooms between my thighs. “What-what are you going to do to me, Master?” I whisper, hardly able to get the words out.

  “Five strokes with the belt across your ass ought to teach you a lesson,” Aiden says sternly. “And two more to your pussy, to teach you proper submission.”

  “My-my pussy?” My hand creeps down to cover my tender, bare pussy lips reflexively as I remember the sharp sting of the belt’s kiss in this most sensitive spot.

  “Don’t worry, darling,” Aiden murmurs. “You know I’ll kiss you better afterward. But for now, I need you to submit.”

  “Yes Master,” I whisper again. And without any further protest, I do.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Absolutely not,” Professor Canton, who teaches my Advanced Herbology class, says flatly. “You’ve missed enough class as it is, Ms. Krist. There is no way I will consider letting you take the final exam anywhere but right here in the classroom.”

  “I understand,” I say humbly. “It’s just… I don’t have a ride to class tonight.” Also, I have been forbidden to leave the house by my strict vampire Master, who is concerned about my safety. But that isn’t something I can really share with my prof.

  “Look, Ms. Krist, I’ve been extremely patient with you,” he says. “I cut you a lot of slack because I think you’re the most promising student I’ve had in years. But enough is enough. You can find yourself a ride tonight and take the exam with all the rest of the students or fail the class.”

  “Fail it?” I say, horrified. “But-but the damage that would do to my GPA would be irrevocable!”

  “Then you’d better find a way to get here, hadn’t you? Eight o’clock tonight and don’t be late.” There’s a click and the phone goes dead…along with my future.

  Thoroughly upset, I throw my cell on the bed and start pacing. This can’t be. I can’t let this happen. It’s way too late to drop the class and there’s no way Professor Canton will let me take the test online. Not that I blame him—it’s not really even fair for me to ask him. But I didn’t know what else to do.

  I wish for the millionth time that Aiden were here. I’d been planning to talk to him about this, to get him to agree to let me go. Surely if he knew my whole academic career and future hung in the balance he’d be more reasonable. Hell, he could even drive me to and from the test himself if he wanted to. Thinking about it, I’m sure he would go for that idea—too bad I didn’t mention it to him before he left.

  For the past two days, since Aiden had to leave suddenly, I’ve been on my own, knocking around the big glass mansion with nobody but Barnes to talk to. And since his conversation seems to be limited to what he ought to fix me for lunch or dinner, he’s really not very good company.

  I hate to admit it but I miss my Master. I’m worried about him too. I wish he had left me a forwarding address or phone number but he left in such a hurry. He simply woke me up in the middle of the night and told me there was trouble. His gray eyes were worried, and when I asked him what was going on, he said that she-who-made-him needed him. He promised to be back as soon as possible and made me promise to stay in the house. I was so sleepy and disoriented, I agreed to everything at once. Now, however, I’m having second thoughts—lots of them.

  Aside from my own current problems with school, I can’t help wondering about Aiden’s maker. All I really know about her is that she’s French and into kinky sex. Do vampire parents have the same relationship that humans do with their children? Or is their affection for those they awaken to the vampire life more…incestuous?

  I try to push the thought out of my head but it won’t go. Or rather, it won’t go until something even worse and more pressing takes its place—like the idea of failing my test, ruining my GPA and being forced to work in the family herb shop for the rest of my natural life.

  I’m still pacing around the room, practically pulling my hair out, when my cell phone rings. I pounce on it at once, hoping it’s Aiden or maybe my professor calling back to say he’s reconsidered. Fat chance, I know, but a girl can hope. It’s only Lexy, however, sounding bubbly as usual.

  “Hey cuz, can I come over?”

  “If you want to, I guess,” I grumble. “It’s not like I have anything else to do tonight—nothing I can get to, anyway.”

  “Geez, don’t overwhelm me with your enthusiasm,” she says flatly. “Maybe I should leave you alone if you’re going to be in such a pissy mood.”

  “No, I’m sorry.” I sigh and run a hand through my hair. “It’s just that I’m supposed to go to my final exam in Advanced Herbology tonight. I was going to ask Aiden to take me, since he’s forbidden me to leave the house without him. But he’s been gone for the past two days doing who knows what with the kinky French woman who turned him into a vampire in the first place.”

  “Whoa, whoa, slow down,” Lexy says. “I must have heard you wrong. You’re not really going to miss the final exam just because his High and Mightiness is off doing family bonding stuff with his vamp mom, are you?”

  I start pacing again. “I don’t want to but I don’t know what else to do.”

  “Go take the exam, of course,” Lexy says practically. “Look, I know you don’t have a car there. I’ll come get you and drive you myself.”

  I bite my lip, filled with indecision. “I shouldn’t. Aiden will be so angry when he finds out and I’m sure Barnes will tell hi