Walking downstairs, I head into the kitchen, wondering where Mikhail is. He wasn’t in bed with me, for which I’m grateful. I find the kitchen empty and figure Mary probably went home for the night.
There’s food in the fridge with my name on it. I place it onto a plate—chicken and broccoli—and stick it into the microwave. While waiting for my food to heat up, I hear a noise.
It sounds like someone … screaming. I strain to listen, my heart beating faster. No, not screaming. Moaning. Though I can’t tell if it’s in pain or pleasure.
Even though I don’t want to, I walk toward the sound. It’s coming from the room Mikhail refused to show me earlier. The door is cracked open.
Peering through the crack, I see something that shocks me. Mikhail and Andrei are in the room with two women. The room has a bunch of … things in it. A bench on the ground. A wall full of whips and canes.
And Mikhail is standing behind a woman and using his hand to … spank her. The woman is fully naked while he’s clothed. Andrei is doing the same thing to the other woman.
The sight scares and confuses me. What is Mikhail doing? Why is he with a naked woman? And why is he spanking her?
It’s the woman I heard. She’s moaning with her eyes squeezed shut. She looks like she’s enjoying it as she rubs her backside closer to Mikhail’s hand.
I stumble away in fear, and my back slams against the wall. Everything goes quiet.
And then the door is ripped open, and Mikhail is standing there, staring at me with his intense gaze.
“Sofiya,” he says.
I gasp and run away. I need to get away from him. He’s a bad man. He was hurting that woman, even though she seemed to enjoy it. None of this makes sense. I should be back in New York with my sisters. My parents shouldn’t be dead. I should be safe.
But none of that is true anymore. My parents are dead. I’m no longer with my sisters.
And I’m definitely not safe.
“Sofiya,” Mikhail repeats, running after me. Before I can reach the stairs, he grabs my arms. “Sofiya.”
“Please, let me go,” I cry out.
To his credit, he does. But I stumble and fall back onto my butt.
“Sofiya,” Mikhail says gently, reaching out for me.
I can’t. I can’t do this. I can’t.
Darkness hedges at my vision, and then I slump to the ground as everything goes black.
Chapter
Five
SOFIYA
The darkness slowly leaves me as I wake up. Blinking, I stare at the ceiling, realizing I’m in Mikhail’s bedroom.
And Mikhail is standing over the bed, staring down at me.
I jerk away from him. “Don’t hurt me,” I whisper, squeezing my eyes shut.
Mikhail sighs. “I won’t hurt you. Sofiya, look at me. Let me explain.”
“Explain what? That you were beating that woman?”
“Look at me,” he repeats more firmly.
I open my eyes and force myself to meet his gaze. It’s overpowering. For a moment, I think I might pass out again.
“I’m a dom,” he says.
“A dom? What’s that?”
“You’ve never heard of a dominant/submissive relationship before?”
“No,” I whisper. My father kept me sheltered from most things in life.
“A dom is someone who likes to be in control. I like to have a woman submit to me. In all areas of life. Eventually, I want you to be that way. But I know this is all new for you, and I didn’t want to push you too hard. I had planned to introduce you to the lifestyle over time, but then you saw what you saw.”
“What I saw didn’t make any sense. You were beating her.”
“I was spanking her. She liked it.”
My breath gets caught in my throat. It feels like I’m sinking through the mattress. “I don’t understand.”
“Some people get aroused from pain.” He holds my gaze as he says this. I’m acutely aware of my body. The way my top clings to my chest. The way my skirt flares out around my hips. The tiny scrap of underwear underneath my skirt is the only thing protecting me from Mikhail.
“What you saw,” he continues, “was a form of play. The woman, Irina, has been my main sub for a long time. Everything is consensual.”
