Feathers and Thorne Series Books 1 - 3: The Complete Collection

Chapter Fifty-Four

Isabella

Carter is redoing his tie, already frustrated with the first few versions of it. I would step in and help, watching him do it a million times before today with success, but I haven’t had the stomach to say much to him after he decided to still attend this fundraiser tonight.

I want to run away and move across the country, perhaps even the globe! He would never allow it, though. He is a stubborn, serious man with pure convictions of business… and not much else.

His eyes find mine in the reflection of his bedroom mirror, and he forces a grin. “Go get ready, dove. Ernesto is already downstairs in the SUV, waiting for us to—”

“I’m not going,” I pant, cutting him short.

His eyes narrow, and he finally turns, giving up on his tie once and for all. “What did you just say? You’re not going? I don’t remember giving you a choice, Bella. Now go get dressed, or we will be late.”

“I can’t go, Carter, not after everything that happened.”

Only now do his features only slightly soften, but they’re still disapproving and stern in some ways. He told me yesterday that Sam was okay, in the hospital and guarded by his family from the Bronx, and that my father has two men on him at all times. But even with those assurances, I don’t feel safe.

Certainly not safe enough to go to some stupid political fundraiser. That’s why I’m standing my ground tonight. I am going to stand up to Carter Blackthorne, and he will just have to deal with it.

“Dove,” he purrs, obviously trying to bed down his temper. “I’m not leaving this penthouse without you. You’re coming with me tonight, either in pajamas or a dress—I don’t care which.”

“I’m not going at all,” I say again, firmer than before. “I know you have a vested interest in this election, but that doesn’t change the fact that Jacob Lacey and Donovan’s brother are still on the fence about hurting both of us. I don’t want to go, not after what happened at the press conference where we were shot at and not after William Lacey tried to kidnap me in broad daylight.”

He shakes his head, obviously exhausted, but I don’t care. “Dove, I told you, I’m not going to let that happen to you. You’re well protected.”

“Protected,” I echo in a heavy exhale. “Like I was protected two days ago? Protected like I was with Tristan? You have no ounce of control anymore, Carter. Why can’t you just see that and—”

He charges across the room. I don’t know if it’s my time with Jacob Lacey or the pent of anger I feel radiating off Carter Blackthorne in this moment, but I hit the ground on my knees and shield my face, fearful for further injury.

I feel so small, so pathetically fearful, and he stops before he even comes within three paces of me.

“Dove,” he purrs, speaking lighter now. “Get up. You don’t have to be like this. I would never hurt you. I know you have gone through a lot, but you should know me better than this.”

I lift my teary eyes from my palms, feeling weak under his pressuring gaze. “I’m scared, Carter. I don’t want to go there tonight. I can’t. I’ll be thinking of Jacob and William and Donovan… It petrifies me.”

“I know it does,” he whispers, taking purposefully slow steps forward until he can bend down and hold my sides in his massive palms. He helps me stand, pushing my hair back and off my blushing face. “Never recoil away from me again. I would never harm you.”

I can only nod, embarrassed by the very fact that he had to explain something I already knew. “I’m sorry. I just don’t feel safe, even if you tell me I am.”

His lips twitch, and he looks over me carefully, considerably wounded by my action, but it’s too late to address it again. I step forward into his arms, and he holds me loosely to his firm chest. I position my ear right against the center crease of his pectorals.

His heart is racing a million miles an hour, yet from the outside, he looks so calm and collected.

I wish I could be as composed as he is in this damn situation.

“I know you’re scared,” he breathes into my scalp. His hot breath sends shivers down my spine. “This week hasn’t been easy for you, but I have to be at this fundraiser tonight to place a nameless check in his favor. If I could simply send a proxy, I would, but giving anyone else a blank check could bankrupt me.”

“Can’t you trust your family to do it?”

“The same family that gave you stitches in the back of the head, dove?”

I sulk, thinking of my exchange with Tristan. My knees want to buckle, but thankfully, they don’t. I stay firm, even if I’m crumbling in every other pathetic aspect.

“I see your point,” I whisper. “I just don’t want to go tonight.”

“You are my assistant, after all. You have to go. It’s a work event, and I require it.”

I step back, feeling a little insulted by his abrasive tone when telling me I’m forced to attend this fundraiser. Even after being so lenient, he just becomes more solid seconds later. I push his arms off me, storming back into my room and slamming the door shut.

The door stops before the doorframe can catch the lock. I see Carter’s leather shoe in the way, and I swallow hard, realizing how I just broke his rule again.

“Stop. Walking. Away. From. Me.”

I shiver at his growling voice, shaking my head in a pitiful offer of mercy, but he approaches anyway. “Carter, please, I’m sorry.”

“Come here, or you’re going to make it worse.”

My breath hitches, and I can’t take his looming, daunting tone anymore. He catches me when I try to rush past him, needing to get back to the living room so I can avoid him long enough, hopefully enough to where I don’t have to go to that event tonight.

He picks my feet off the floor, holding my squirming body in his arms, high up to his chest. I try to push out of his grip, but he refuses to let me go until we’re in his bedroom. The minute my stomach and chest hit the bed, I can hear him undoing his belt.

In an effort to avoid the punishment, I crawl forward, gasping in fear as he snatches my ankle and yanks me backward again. His palm rests flat, pressuring against my lower back, keeping me kneeling on the floor and bent over the side of his bed.

“Carter, please, this has nothing… nothing to do with sex!”

He growls a noise, dragging his thick leather belt against the helm of my ass through my shorts. “I gave you my rules, and you can’t seem to obey any of them now. I’ve kept you as safe as I can for as long as I can, but if you want to be this defiant woman, I’ll make sure you know I’m still in charge.”

I feel tears in my eyes at the very thought of his belt connecting with my ass. He’s been frustrated lately, even a little perturbed at times when I didn’t think I could help him out of that rut. The mere act of spanking my ass in punishment isn’t just solely about my defiance tonight.

It’s about every shitty thing we’ve had to endure lately.

“I’m going to belt your ass every time you refuse to do as I say, Isabella.”

I shiver, knowing I will not go to that stupid fundraiser tonight, not if it could end in either of us getting hurt or even dying at the hands of the Lacey family. He drags the belt up to my lower back, taunting me with his subtle rage brewing within.

“Are you going to go get dressed for me now?”

“No,” I pant.

The belt comes down hard against my ass, and I seize, my entire body going tight at the sting that radiates from my upper thighs. My knees shake, my body is warm with pain, and I fear the line of questioning to follow, knowing my answers already.

“Are you going to go get dressed now?”

“No.”

Smack.

I bite down a scream, feeling him whip my ass with his belt at least thirteen more times until I’m sobbing and he’s out of breath. If I give in now and go to the event, I won’t be able to sit down, and his belt marks will be painted across my body.

I have to see this through, but I feel too overwhelmed with pain to go on.

“I will do this all fucking night until you give in, dove,” he snarls, his voice no longer his own. “If you don’t submit to me fully, then you will take your punishment without tears.”

“It… it hurts, Carter, please. I’m just… just scared to go!”

“I would be more scared of me than that bastard Jacob Lacey,” he snaps. “You will do what I say, dove. You will trust me to protect you, or you will face punishment for it!”

“Stop, Carter, please!”

He brings the belt down harder than I’ve ever felt it. I writhe so hard in recoil that I escape his thick, pressuring hand on my back. I fall to the floor, twitching and trembling in agony while the spike of a searing pain spreads across my ass in slow motion.

He grips his belt tighter in his fist. “Do you trust me to protect you or not?!”

I flinch, never having seen this side of him before. He’s beyond furious—he’s unrecognizable. When I don’t answer right away, he raises his fisted belt as though to hit the side of my ass still accessible to his range of motion, and I realize this isn’t about me at all. It can’t be.

He would never hurt me unless there was some dark reasoning behind it. All I know now is I can’t take another slap of his belt, or I’ll pass out for certain. I don’t want to end everything good we’ve built, but right now, the outside forces that have tried to pull us apart have finally succeeded.

I surrender once and for all.

“MERCY!”