Aiden

The leash he thought he had on me snapped the second he touched her. He had used up all his chances with me.

The public humiliation at the masquerade ball, I had let it go for her. Because I asked for it. But that mercy was dead now.

I was stripped off my shirt. My arms spread wide, wrists chained to iron hooks bolted into stone.

The head enforcer stepped behind me. He muttered, "Excuse me."

The whip hissed through the air, the first lash sliding across my back. The pain followed ...