Weeks passed. Clint healed. They returned to the world upstairs.He watched her across the table at dinner—her cheeseburger special.He didn’t know how she made them taste like they’d come right off arestaurant grill.Genevieve pretended to be consumed with the task of swirling a steak fry in a giant glob of ketchup on her plate.“I’ll speak to Raffalle . He might agree to release you if I convince him you aren’t a threat to the family. And I’ll smooth things over with your boss, so you won’t have to worry about him, either. To everyone else, I’ll say webroke off the engagement.”Genevieve’s ring glittered in the kitchen light. Clint hadn’t insisted she wear it all the time, but she had. And every time he saw it on her hand, he became more convinced she wanted their engagement to be real.But her happy ending came at a dark price… a price Clint felt increasingly guilty asking her to pay, no matter how much he wanted to keep her locked away in the glass room. If that night in

Clint’s erection had grown physically painful, but he’d gagged her andwasn’t ready to replace the gag with his cock yet. Tears streamed down herface as he laid down lines of welts across her ass with the cane. He neededto make her cry more. She had to earn her pleasure with tears. Enough timehad passed for that to be the price.The gag frightened her, still, which drove him harder to use it. She needn’t fear. He knew when enough was enough with her. He’d beencareful and exercised restraint. Each time the cane came down, she wincedin a way that both made him want to comfort her and hit her again to watchthat reaction… the intense expression of pain on her face, the tears that rolled down, and the lovely welt as it bloomed so quickly into those sharp red lines with the groove he loved to run his tongue along.He knew what the cane felt like. Though, used properly, it didn’t oftenbreak skin, the hard rap of a thin dowel of rattan or steel always left aprofound impress

Genevieve stood at the back of the rows of chairs with her veil in place, abouquet of white roses in her hands. The wedding was all white. Whitechairs. White flowers. White candles. A white runner on the ground for herto walk on. The only thing besides the tuxedos that weren’t white were theclothing of the guests and her bright red hair.The reception, by contrast, had been planned under large tents withJapanese lanterns and bright jewel tones. It reminded Genevieve of the Wizard ofOz where everything went from black and white to color, and it gave her thesmallest shred of hope that her life with Clint would be in color.Raffalle had offered to walk her down the aisle. He stood next to herlooking more like an aging bodyguard than a father figure.He leaned close to her ear. “I think you know a lot more about thisfamily than you should.” Her back went rigid. Raffalle was the type of man who would shootyou on any day of the year, be it your birthday, your graduati

Five months later Clint slept well and rose early to use the gym at his house before leaving for the office. He had several meetings this morning, both business and charitable affairs. He was overseeing the building of a state of the art residential centre for the disabled and it was very close to completion. He was very happy with it and looking forward to its opening.He was the first to arrive. He saw Rafalle come in behind him. Once they had all arrived he held a quick team meeting with the brokers, ensuring everything was running smoothly and he was up to speed. He opened Genevieve’s door. “How is your head today?”“Oh, much better, thank you.”“Good.” He left her to her work, no time for anything else, though it occupied his mind constantly. Genevieve was pleased he had come in, happy that things still seemed to be ok between them. She has kept her pregnancy from him because she had feared he wasn't ready , somehow he found out she was hiding something and he has been cold t