Penance (Long Slow Tease, #2) (16 page)

She tried to turn her head away, but he gripped her chin and smacked her abused ass at the same time, making her scream. “How did you lie to him, Michelle? Answer me.”

“No, you’ll hate me, hate me so much.”

Another slap, this time to her thighs. The pain nearly made her pass out, it was only his grip on her chin that kept her anchored to this world. “Answer me, now.”

All the training she’d done with him kicked in and she answered like any well-trained submissive would, with the truth. “He doesn’t know I’m here.”

Petrov immediately released her chin while
Maya gasped from somewhere nearby. A moment later a glass of what she assumed was water was thrown in her face, rousing her from her stupor. As soon as her mind began to work she forced her eyes open and found Petrov staring at her with a mixture of shock and disgust.

“Did you lie to me, Michelle? Does Wyatt really have no idea where you are and what you are doing?”

She tried to hide her face but he grabbed her by her hair, forcing her head back. “Answer me.”

“No…he doesn’t know I’m here.”

“Son of a fucking bitch. Maya, get her down from there. If I touch her right now I’m going to kill her.”

Michelle was barely aware of
Maya releasing her and putting a thick robe on her that stung terribly against what had to be welts on the backs of her legs, but nothing hurt as much as her heart and the realization of what she’d done.

Dropping to her knees, she started to crawl to Petrov but halted when he said, “Do not approach me
. You no longer have the right.”

She crumpled
to the floor, curling into a ball and crying while hugging her knees.

His anger filled the room.
“Do you even realize what you’ve done? Do you have any idea what this is going to do to Wyatt? I’m terribly hurt by you using me like this, but that man is going to be devastated. I talked with Yuki, I know about his PTSD issues and this...oh, Michelle do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

The sorrow in his voice whipped her harder than any cane. “I’m sorry, so sorry. I’ll make it right, I swear.”

“How?” His voice came from next to her as he crouched down and gently smoothed her hair off her wet cheeks. The comfort in his touch tore at her and she began to cry so hard she was choking.

A moment later he gathered her into his arms and
Maya wrapped herself around Michelle’s other side so she was completely surrounded by them. “Honey, you are your own worst enemy.”

“I just wanted to make it right,” she sobbed. “If I could do my penance I could make it right.”

For a long time they held her until her sobs turned into heaving breaths. When she finally went still Petrov and Maya released her, leaving her staring up at them as they both stood. The couple exchanged a glance and Petrov sighed, pain and disappointment radiating from him tempered by a gentle love that broke her heart.

“You must tell him the truth, Michelle. There is no way he can miss the welts all over your buttocks and thighs. You will be stiff for the next few days, unable to care for yourself. I had thought…I had thought he would be there to tend you, which is why I beat you so hard.”

She could only moan in distress. “He’ll hate me.”

“Yes, he
might, but he will hate me more.” Petrov rubbed his face with both hands. “Maya, clean her up and call her a cab. Michelle, you will go to your hotel and you will confess to Wyatt everything that happened here. Do you understand me?”

“Yes,” she whispered, fear sinking it’s talons into her until she was shaking.

“That is your true penance, and I fear it will be far more painful than any beating I could ever give you.”

Wyatt leaned back into the black suede chair where he’d made love to Michelle the previous night and let out a satisfied sigh. On the table in front of him sat the remains of a huge lunch he’d shared with James who lounged on the burgundy leather couch, his sock-clad feet up on the edge of the table. They were watching a random baseball game as they lazed in the luxury suite. Wyatt couldn’t remember a time when he’d been more relaxed. He felt so good, so satisfied, that he was in danger of falling asleep in the chair. He nudged an empty plate that used to hold chicken wings out of the way with his toes before propping his feet up on the table.

James let out a mellow burp. “Man, it’s nice having another guy to hang out with. Michelle and Yuki would have beat my ass for that b
elch.”

Laughing,
Wyatt stretched and settled deeper into the chair. “Like you wouldn’t enjoy it.”

“That’s true, though Yuki can be rather terrifying if she wants.”

Glancing at the clock on the far wall Wyatt wondered if he had time for a nap before Michelle returned. “What time do you think Michelle will be back from her spa appointment?”

“It could be hours.”

“What the hell would they do at a spa that could take all day? She’s already been gone close to five hours.”

James snorted. “I have no idea. I just know that when Yuki comes back from the spa she’s all smooth, glowing, and totally relaxed. Maybe Michelle is getting her pussy waxed.”

Saliva immediately filled Wyatt’s mouth at the thought of licking her smooth flesh. “You think?”

Before James could reply the door opened and
Wyatt couldn’t make sense of what he was seeing for a moment.

Michelle entered the room and she looked terrible.

“What the fuck?” He surged to his feet as she took a stiff step into the room.

When their gaze
s met, the despair and the abysmal pain he read in her eyes sent him into a panic. “Michelle, what happened? Are you hurt? Are your parents okay?”

She held up her hand and a visible shudder worked its way through her body. “Wyatt, wait. I need you to listen to me, okay?”

He started for her again and she backed up rapidly, bumping into the wall and letting out a pain filled cry. “No, stay there!”

James joined him and the men exchanged a worried look. “Michelle, what’s going on?”

Her lower lip trembled and she whispered, “I went to see Petrov.”

Not comprehending what she was saying, Wyatt took a hesitant step forward. “Michelle, did he hurt you?”

“I asked him to, Wyatt. Begged him.” She broke down in tears while James started swearing up a storm.

Before he was even aware of it
Wyatt had her in his arms, but quickly released her as she screamed and stepped away, clutching at her butt. Anger blossomed into rage and obliterated everything. He tore her jacket from her, revealing a loose skirt and blouse. He spun her around, and at the sight of the welts and bruises on her thighs and buttocks, he dropped to his knees.

“What the
fuck
happened to you?”

She painfully knelt before him, but was crying too hard to talk.

From behind him, James said in a dead voice, “Michelle, did you go to Petrov for a beating?”

Wyatt waited for Michelle to deny it, to say that she hadn’t let that man who used to be her Master hurt her, but all she did was nod and Wyatt’s heart shattered.

He stood and staggered back, feeling physically ill as he realized what she had done. “You fucking lied to me!”

She flinched and curled into herself. “I’m so sorry, Wyatt.”

Furious didn’t even begin to describe his emotional state. What he was feeling was beyond anything he’d ever experienced before. He was so mad and hurt, he wondered vaguely if he was having a heart attack. That would explain the pain tearing him apart as he stared at the woman who’d betrayed him. If she went to Petrov for a beating that probably meant she’d had sex with the man as well. Sex and BDSM went hand-in-hand for Michelle and her unfaithfulness destroyed him.

But he
wouldn’t, could never hurt her, so he had to find another outlet for his fury.

“I’m going to fucking kill him.”

As he stormed past her she tried to clutch at his leg, but he kicked her off, a bolt of guilt hitting him as she fell on her injured butt with a sharp cry of pain. He wanted to stop and see if she was all right and he couldn’t help his bitter laugh at himself. “You fucking, faithless
bitch
. How long have you been lying to me? Every fucking minute since I met you? How could you? How the
fuck
could you do this to me, to
us
? And how fucking
dare
you make me believe you love me. You don’t love anyone but yourself.”

He jerked open the door and ignored Michelle’s piercing scream as she begged him to stop, to wait, but if he stayed
, his unthinking violence would turn on her.

The journey out of the hotel and into the cab was a complete nightmare and everyone that saw him stayed well out of his path. By the time his cab reached the dungeon his anger had reached epic proportions
but he managed to keep it under control, his training in the military on how to function through extreme emotions kicking in. After throwing a handful of bills at the driver, he got out and stared at the building, knowing from Michelle that Petrov lived on the top floor. A bright, picture-perfect blue sky stretched out over Chicago, and for one bitter moment, he had a flashback of being in battle, of feeling the killing rage filling him beneath another faultless blue sky, but he choked it back. Nothing from his past compared to the pain of his present and he was going to fucking slay the man that Michelle had allowed to hurt her, to touch her, to fuck her.

He stormed up to the front door but before he could jerk the handle open an older
, gorgeous, black woman opened it with a stern expression on her face.

“Wyatt, we’ve been expecting you.”

He was tempted to shove past her, but she was a female and even in the depths of his anger he could never hurt a woman. “Where is he?”

“I’m assuming you mean my husband?”

“Where the fuck is he?”

She took a step forward, getting into his personal space and the scent of her floral
and spice perfume teased him even as he fought for control. “You need to listen to me, okay?”

“Fuck
that. Where is he?”

What she did next shocked him so much he forgot to be angry for a moment. She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a tight hug. “Listen to me, Wyatt, this is very important.”

He pushed out of her embrace, but her touch helped him leash his anger, at least for the moment. “Tell me whatever it is you have to say then get the fuck out the way, lady.”

“
Maya.”

“What?”

“My name is Maya.”

“Fine,
Maya, what the fuck do you want?”

“Wyatt, Petrov didn’t know Michelle had
come here without your approval.”

“Yeah, right.”

Her lips firmed and she gave him a hard look that reminded him of his mother when she was absolutely done with his bullshit. “My husband would never have betrayed you like that, Wyatt, not even for Michelle.”

“Did you stand there and watch while he beat her? While he fucked her? Did you get off on it?”

Once again, she shocked him, but this time by slapping him across the face. “You will
not
disrespect me like that in my own home. I don’t care how angry and hurt you are, I am not responsible for the current state of affairs and neither is my husband. If you want to come in and speak with him you will be respectful or I swear I will get out my husband’s gun and shoot you myself. Am I clear?”

Her no nonsense tone and stance reached him in a way her gentleness had not, calling on his many years in the military and snapping him to attention. “Yes,
ma’am.”

She blew out a harsh breath and looked down for a moment before meeting his gaze again
, and to his surprise, he saw tears in her eyes. “Michelle didn’t hurt only you with her deceit, she hurt my husband as well. Please keep that in mind when you see him. Follow me.”

Trailing after her he tried to fight the depression that was filling him as h
is anger receded. The bone crushing weight of heartbreak and despair taking its place threatening to send him crumpling to the floor. Maya taped a code into a keypad next to a sturdy metal door then led him inside. Despite the dark décor of the sex club below, the living space above it was nice and normal. He’d expected to find some indication of the BDSM lifestyle here, but it was just a home. The massive, open space before him consisted of a kitchen that overlooked a big walnut dining room table big enough to seat twelve separating a tastefully decorated living room spacious enough to host a large party from the kitchen.

A set of sliding glass doors led out to the
wide balcony where Wyatt spotted Petrov sitting in a deck chair sipping a drink and looking out over the Chicago skyline. Colorful potted plants surrounded him and the scene was one of urban domestic tranquility. Wyatt’s anger returned, but before he could take a step Maya laid her hand on his arm.