~SCARLETT.

"Twenty," I managed, the word fracturing in my throat like shattered crystal.

My voice quivered, just like the rest of me. The last spank still echoed through my skin, each one before it, stitched into me like fire, the burn spreading down my thighs, curling behind my knees, and searing into the hollow beneath my ribs. It was everywhere now, coiled in my muscles, throbbing in my wrists where he'd held me down, and pulsing in that twisted knot of heat low in my stomach that refused to ...