Everyone stopped talking to look their way.
Great. Just when she’d thought she was becoming used to public humiliation, her embarrassment reached new heights.
Her face grew hot, her feet frozen in place.
No one said a word.
“Come, pet,” Nathaniel said loudly, whistling low as if she were a dog.
“You did not just fucking whistle at me!” she gasped, hurrying to keep up with his stride. Her heels echoed loudly, and she felt more degraded than words could say as she clacked past the appalled parents with her mouth stretched taut around the ball and her skirt ridden up to expose her ass.
She wasn’t even wearing fucking panties.
“I’m going to die from embarrassment,” she moaned.
“Not until I fuck you in this dress,” Nathaniel shot back with a grin.
Headmaster Arken nodded in approval as they passed, and he gave Nathaniel a knowing wink as he stroked his short beard.
Kira bristled when Nathaniel nodded back, as if he and Arken were exchanging some secret gentlemen’s club message at her expense.
“Acknowledging your conquest?” she snarled.
“Yes,” Nathaniel replied simply as the front doors opened for them.
She was relieved when they were outside in the open air. There were no students to be seen, at least.
She threw the dirtiest glare she could at Nathaniel, although she suspected the ball gag ruined the effect, which forced her jaws open and her lips parted and stretched.
“I like seeing you like this.” Nathaniel looked pleased with himself as he led her towards the waiting carriage in his elegant gentleman’s coat. “It reminds me of our first carriage ride together.”
“It reminds me how much I loathed you.”
“Loathed?” he whispered. “Past tense, pet?”
She didn’t trust herself to answer, and settled instead for letting him feel her anger through her magic.
He chuckled in response and pulled her closer by the elbow. “You know, one of the limitations of using the gag was that you couldn’t answer my questions. Now that you can respond to me with your magic, I see no reason why we couldn’t use it on a daily basis.”
Kira had been about to get into the carriage, but she hesitated, not because of the threat of the gag, but because of the emptiness of that threat.
With only a few days before the wedding, ‘daily basis’ held little meaning. There was no guarantee they would be able to see much of each other in the coming weeks—it was traditional for a vampire couple to take a month-long honeymoon, and Kira had a feeling she wasn’t invited.
The prospect of being left behind while Nathaniel travelled all over the world with his new wife left her feeling bitter and hollow, even though she knew it wouldn’t be easy for Nathaniel, either.
He seemed to read her thoughts, because he helped her into the driverless carriage without another word and rapped on the ceiling. It lurched forwards as the horses set off with loud clip-clops down the drive and through the gates into the city.
The late afternoon breeze was pleasant, the hearty smells wafting from restaurants enticing. If Kira’s stomach hadn’t been queasy with nerves, she might have enjoyed the city sights more. Nathaniel encouraged her to lean out the window and ‘take it all in’, which she thought was nice of him, at least until he appeared behind her and lifted her skirt.
Before she could ask what he was doing, he pushed something hard and cold between her ass cheeks.
Icy panic flashed through her as she tried to twist away, but he wrapped one arm around her waist and held her in place, her elbows propped on the open window’s ledge.
“What—?”
“Hold still while I plug you,” he murmured in her ear, easing the object in deeper.
Kira squirmed, but she was powerless to stop what was happening. As the pressure built uncomfortably, her body seized up, and the edges of her vision went murky with an overwhelming, nauseating, carnal desire.