The palace is eerily quiet, which isn't surprising after the day I've spent alone. Much like the day before, Elias has been busy with other matters. I've tried to keep myself entertained by exploring the countless rooms of the palace, but they lost their luster after I visited the library and art gallery. Every room after that was just another opulently decorated space. Thankfully, Lorelai has accompanied me to dinner in the dining room both nights, so I haven't been completely alone.

I enter Elias's room to find him not there. It isn't surprising. He didn't come to bed until after I fell asleep last night. But what is unexpected is the white nightgown laid out on the bed. Unlike my lacy panties and bras, it appears very innocent. I hold the thin cotton up to my body and note that it reaches almost to my ankles. It isn't hideous by any means, but it's definitely outside of my norm. But of course, if this is what Elias wants me to wear to bed, I won't deny him. It is the least I can do after the choices I've made.

My guilt over my time with Cane was only amplified after the night Elias fed from me. All his sweet confessions about not wanting to feed from another and not being able to find pleasure without me ate away at my heart. I'd found pleasure more than once, and I willingly let Cane into my dreams. Despite the nagging feeling in the back of my mind when I shared those moments with Cane, I did it anyway. Therefore, if Elias wants to get his kicks with me dressed like some virtuous maiden, I'll play along.

After putting on the nightgown and tying my hair at my nape, I crawl into bed and wait and wait and wait. As time ticks by, I sink further into the mattress until my eyelids grow heavy and I fall asleep.

"Wake up, Cordelia. It is time to play with your demons."

My eyes spring open and I shoot straight up. I barely comprehend the words whispered in my ear when I'm pulled out of bed. A blindfold is placed on me as I'm held tightly with my arms behind my back. I open my mouth to scream but the hand that moves from my eyes to my mouth stops me.

"Shh, belle rêveur. I need you to trust me," Elias says.

It's just Elias. I immediately relax against him, knowing whatever he has planned for me is not to harm me but to give me pleasure.

Unfortunately, pleasure isn't something I feel I deserve right now. But it seems Elias is tired of hearing that song from me considering I've been self-deprecating for weeks now, no matter how hard he tries to get me to see his point of view.

I just can't forgive myself.

But I think Elias might have other plans.

I just nod against his shoulder and purse my lips so I can kiss his palm.

It feels like we walk through the palace forever. Elias doesn't say a word unless it is to direct me down a set of stairs. Even then, he mutters nothing but a gruff step down. The house grows colder the further we go. My skin pebbles and my nipples ache with how hard they grow. The stone beneath my bare feet chills me to the bone. It is only when a door closes behind me with a heavy thud that I hear the crackle of a fire and begin to warm up.

Elias guides me forward and lifts both my hands over my head. Thick cold straps are wrapped around my wrist, and then the heat from his body vanishes. I'm left completely vulnerable, my hands bound above me and my toes holding my weight. It's lonely and cold. The only thing that ignites my senses is the light brush of my nightgown swaying around my body. I don't like the feeling at all.

"Elias?" I whisper.

His voice comes from behind me, and his breath brushes my ear as he says, "It's a terrible feeling to be lost in the dark all by yourself, isn't it?

"Yes. I hate it," I whisper, trying to lean back against him, but he steps out of my reach. It almost feels like a purposeful move, and it stings, making my skin prickle all over.

He makes a pensive sound that is nothing more than a hum in the back of his throat, and the fire crackles. I can tell he's poking at it, adding wood to stoke the flames.

"Elias? Where are we?"

"We are in the place where you are going to learn to get over your guilt. You will see what it has felt like for me the past weeks to never give you pleasure while you've used my body to pay your penance. Tonight, you will confess your sins, pay for them, and let them die in this room. Do you understand me, Cordelia?"

A shiver runs down my spine and over my entire body, giving my goosebumps goosebumps.

I can't believe he's doing this. That he's brought me here, wherever we are, to give me exactly what I've been wanting. I have no idea what to expect from tonight, no idea how he's going to carry this out, but I know it's going to be everything I need.

"Yes, master," I murmur, remembering what he told me to call him way back when he first introduced me to his darker side.

"Good girl, Cordelia." His fingertip runs down my spine as he says, "Now, I need you to tell me what haunts you the most. What keeps you from letting me pleasure you the way I want to?" As if to stress his point, he brushes my hip so I can feel how hard he is for me.

I wish I could see the look on his face. Does he really want to know about the things I did with his brother? Will it pain him to know that I touched Cane the way I've touched him?

"My patience is running thin, Cordelia," he says with measured breaths before his palm cracks against my ass.

I whimper and bite my bottom lip. The thin nightgown does nothing to shield my skin, and the slap stings, but in the best way. "I—please, Elias, can I see you while I do this? Please."

"No. For days you have left me in the dark. It doesn't matter what I feel about what you've done. I've told you exactly what I felt about it. That wasn't enough for you. So, you face your guilt without worrying about my feelings. I will not give you a reason to hold back anything. Confess."

It is not the spanking that lands on my other ass cheek, but the authority in his voice that has my heart hammering in my chest. I've never heard him sound so detached before.

"I don't even know where to start."

"At the beginning," he growls in my ear.

I close my eyes even though I can't see anything and whisper, "It all started when I let myself believe that you stopped caring about me. I thought we had a primal bond and you should have been able to find me. That's when I started letting him in. And then when I tried to escape to find you because I wanted to give you one more chance to find me...I almost died. I got stuck in the blizzard without my inhaler and he came to save me. I thought it was you...that you finally came for me. But it wasn't. It was Cane." Tears slide from my eyes and down my cheeks, finally falling freely. "That's when it really began. When he saved my life."

"That's a good start, belle rêveur." He lowers one strap of my nightgown, exposing my breast. "But I don't think a misunderstanding because he lied to you is what eats at you. What did you do that makes you feel unworthy of me?"

"It's not. I just wanted you to understand why it started. After that, I was traumatized...I didn't want to be alone. So I slept in his room...in his clothes. He held me at night, whispered to me that it was going to be all right. Then he showed me his side of what happened the night you tried to kill him and I think...that was the final straw. On the night when I was craving release and wanted to touch myself in his shower...I stopped myself because I knew he'd be able to sense it...but when I got out of the bathroom, he came in and he knew. He wanted to touch me, and he..." I take a deep breath and push down the tears, trying to get through this without breaking down again. "I let him. I broke. I was so weak, Elias. He broke me. He's my mate too, and he took advantage of that. That was the first night I let him make me come." My voice breaks on the last, traitorous word.

He lowers the other strap of my nightgown. "You let him touch these beautiful breasts?"

"Yes."

"Did he taste them?"

"Elias," I say so pathetically that I wince.

"Did. He. Taste. Them."

"Yes."

His warm tongue laps at my nipple, and my back arches as I offer myself to him. Every wet stroke sends butterflies flapping in my stomach, but it is not enough. Not nearly enough.

"Did he sink his fingers into the wet warmth of your pussy? Did he fuck you with them until you came?"

The memory of Cane touching me does nothing for me, but the idea of Elias doing that now to somehow erase the transgression I committed against him makes me feel...feral.

"Yes," I say, stronger this time. "But even then, I knew it should have been you. I kept trying to push it away, but the memories bombarded me. As soon as he was done and left me to get dressed, I cried. I didn't even know if I could ever reciprocate for him because all I could see was you. I felt so dirty for what I'd done."

The fabric that now hangs loosely at my waist pulls at my feet. Elias's breath tickles against the wet skin between my legs, and I know he is kneeling before me. "But you did reciprocate, didn't you, dolce tentazione? You took his cock in your mouth and as he used it, you wished it was the barbells along my shaft gliding against your tongue."

I whimper and want more than anything for him to drag his tongue through my wet slit right now. "Yes, I did. I only did that to him a couple times. And the last time, he...well, that was one of the first signs that he was in this for all the wrong reasons. We..." I pause and Elias slaps my clit.

"Keep going, Cordelia."

"Fuck," I groan. "We were going to, you know...at the same time—"

"No, I don't." He pinches my clit, sending blissful pain through every limb of my body. "Use your words, Cordelia. You were not modest when you had his cock in your mouth; there is no need to start now. What did you do at the same time?"

I wince and stretch my neck back, my hair ticking the base of my spine. "He wanted to sixty-nine," I blurt.

"Fuck, Cordelia. The guilt that you must feel. We never had the chance for me to feast on this pretty cunt while you choked on my cock. But you let my brother do that to you."

He licks me, and I realize that with every small confession I've given him, he has rewarded with pleasure, undressing me, playing with my nipples, and now stroking me with his tongue.

I groan and a tear slips down my cheek. "I know. I wanted to do that with you so much. And I'll admit, I was so angry with you. So bitter that you hadn't come to find me yet when I had it drilled into me that you should've been able to. But that's when it happened. I gave him his pleasure. He came in my mouth and I took every drop. And when he was done, he patted my ass and said, 'Good job.' Like a fucking horse. And then pushed me off him. I didn't even finish. I have never felt so used in my entire life," I say, ending on a sob. "I knew then that he didn't give a shit about me, mate or not. That was the beginning of the end."

He hums like he is lost in deep thought, the vibration from it hitting the most sensitive part of me. "Who would have never left you unsatisfied, Cordelia? Who would forgo their own pleasure just to witness yours?"

"You, Elias."

"Who would still do that for you despite everything that happened between you and my brother?"

"You."

"Good girl."

He opens me to him and his tongue moves from bottom to top. My knees go weak and I practically hang from the restraints around my wrists. He doesn't let up until I'm shaking and repeating his name over and over again. I wiggle to move away from his hungry mouth, but he grabs the back of my thighs and wraps my legs around his neck.

"I will never leave you wanting, Cordelia. There will never be a moment you are unsatisfied with me, because I'd rather deny myself than miss an opportunity to watch you come."

"Fuck, Elias," I squeal, the position he has me in both terrifying because I can't see and thrilling because it's more erotic than anything we've ever experimented with before. "I know you wouldn't. That's what I kept saying to myself after that...that you'd never do that to me. And—" I cut myself off with a squeak because he bites my clit and then each of my inner thighs. "Fuck. That's when he told me his plan to kill you and I knew I couldn't do that. I still loved you. But I also knew I couldn't let him know I was going to betray him."

"And what was the most important thing you just said in all of that?"

"That I couldn't let him kill you."

"Wrong!" His hand smacks my ass.

I wrack my brain, trying to play back what I said. Another spanking hits me as Elias becomes impatient waiting for my answer. He gives me two more firm swats before the answer flows out of my mouth.

"I love you. I love you."

He smooths my stinging skin with his palm. "You amaze me at every turn, dolce tentazione." He stands and moves behind me. The tell-tale sound of his zipper has my body anticipating what comes next. "You've left me starving for you for days. And I'm ready to make you pay." He pulls the blindfold off and turns my head so I can see him over my shoulder. He is a beautiful mess of dark tussled hair, warm beige skin, and pink lips glistening with my wet desire on them.

He aligns with my entrance, teasing me with the promise of being filled by him. "I'm going to fuck you until you never forget that nothing matters beyond us. Nothing."

With that he slams into me.

My scream echoes off the stone walls of whatever room we're in, and I know that this night with Elias was exactly what I needed to let go of the guilt. The fact that Elias knew what to do to achieve that in a way that wasn't just me listing out the things that happened is...it's everything.

It's just one of the millions of reasons that I love him. That he is my soul bonded mate that I choose and would do anything for. No matter what.

"Elias, I—I'm already so close," I cry out, shocked that I'm on the edge with no stimulation to my clit.

He slides his arm around me and grips my breast, pulling my nipple. "Do you think that will slow me down? I plan on having you clenching my cock with orgasm after orgasm all night. This is just the beginning."

A shot of pain shoots straight from my nipple to the core of me, and my body contracts around him. "That's it, my Cordelia. Come all over my cock."

I shout his name as I unravel, my whole body trembling, and he doesn't let up. In fact, he slips his hand further down, pressing his fingertips against my clit as he pounds into me, his piercings hitting every sensitive spot.

"Oh, dolce tentazione. You are so fucking smooth and wet for me. You feel like silk. Fuck, this cunt was made for me."

"Yes, yes," I whimper, clenching around him, feeling my release building again. "I want you to come inside me, Elias. Please. Fill me."

He releases my nipple and wraps his hand around my neck, putting just enough pressure to make me lightheaded. "Tell me you will never find yourself unworthy of me again. Tell me you will never withhold your body from me as punishment."

"Never, Elias. Never, I swear to you. Please, please, give me all of you," I gasp.

His fingers flex around my neck, and he grits through his teeth, "Mine."

We come together in a wild rhythm over and over again, riding out our pleasure. Elias doesn't let up on me until he has spent every drop and I go limp in his hold. He releases the strap from my wrist and gathers me in his arms. He carries me to the soft, white rug in front of the fireplace. Covering me in a blanket, he slides in beside me and pulls me to his chest.

"I love you, Cordelia."

"I love you, Elias."

The room falls silent with just the crackle of the fire to remind us we are not the only beings in the universe. I glance around and take in the walls of river rock and the array of whips, rope, and sexual toys.

"Is this a sex dungeon?" I ask.

He looks around, his gaze landing on the largest bed I've ever seen. The straps hanging from the tall posts and attached to the head and footboard also make it the most menacing bed I've ever seen. "It's whatever you want it to be. This is what I've been working on for the past couple of days. I wanted to create a space where we can explore each other's fantasies. And yes, at one point it was a dungeon."

I lift an eyebrow at that. I can look past what this space used to be to see what Elias has made it for us. "Thank you."

He rolls me on top of him. "Don't thank me yet. I'm far from finished with you tonight."

I laugh, loving the playfulness on his face. "Well then, tie me up and spank my ass."

He joins my laughter. "That's my good girl."