by Allysa Hart
I wouldn’t change my mind. I was stubborn like that.
His large hands covered my shoulders and he turned my body so that I was between his legs with my back to him. I couldn’t help myself, I shimmied back, searching for the flesh of his cock through his shorts. He only laughed, and scooted me back into place, gathering a handful of my hair and gently pulling me backwards.
“Lean back, sweetheart, I want to wash your hair now.”
He was gentle as he pulled me backward into the water, to wet my hair, until only my face was above water. He was using the tiny bottles of specialty shampoo he had ordered rather than the industrial size one I had picked out, and they smelled amazingly like mint and fresh peaches. Large hands covered my head, working the soap into a lather, and gently massaging my scalp. By the time he finished, all my anxiety about my nakedness and his lack thereof had dissipated, and I was completely relaxed when he let me up and pulled me against him.
I felt him shift as he reached over the side of the tub, all the way to the ground, and came up with a soft pink loofah, and a small bottle of body wash. He really had gone all out. I didn’t remember seeing him bring any supplies out with him, so he must have brought them out when I had the mask on.
He worked the soap into a lather, rubbing the loofah in small circles all across the back of my body. He started with my shoulders, and moved slowly downward, caressing every inch of my back like it was his job. When he reached the dimple at the top of my tailbone, he paused.
“I want to wash this lovely bottom of yours. Purely for the sake of my own pleasure. May I?”
His quiet question left me breathless and I nodded. I couldn’t have said no if I wanted to. Hell, I couldn't even speak.
He started at my lower back and went right down the crease of my bottom, making sure that the loofah invaded my center crevice, before working his way outward with long waving strokes. By the time he reached the V between my legs where ass and pussy met, I was fully aroused. Arching my back, I pushed out my ass, and moaned.
Grayson was as turned on as I was. I could see it on his face, and there was no mistaking the giant bulge in the front of his shorts when I looked down into the water. I wanted him to run the loofah down to my most private parts and touch me like a man would.
My pussy screamed for him. The rest of me, specifically my brain, wasn’t so sure. Losing my virginity was a big step. Losing it to a giant green ogre would be a monumental one.
Before I had a chance to make a decision either way, Grayson cleared his throat, and looked away. “Turn around, so I can finish washing you.”
Without thinking, I rushed to obey.
His touch had changed. It was softer, more careful, and almost reverent, but that made it even more erotic. My nipples pebbled when the loofah grazed them, and when he trailed the path down my belly to my aching mound, I drew in a deep breath as my entire body tensed waiting to see what he would do next.
He skipped that portion of my body altogether and continued his ministrations by scrubbing my legs from the tops of my thighs down to my toes. My body shuddered as I released the breath I had been holding. When he finished, he smiled at me, and handed me the loofah before standing and exiting the tub.
“Finish up, then come inside, put on one of your pretty new dresses, and we’ll have lunch. Later we will set up your new tablet and maybe download some new books to read.”
I don’t think I had ever been more frustrated in my life. I was crawling out of my skin. It had been about a week since my homemade spa day, and memories of my bath with Grayson literally haunted me. My body ached for his touch, and all of my advances had gone unnoticed. I was ready to lie in front of him on the floor naked and scream “Hey, Ogre Daddy, would you please fuck me already?” If I thought it would work I might have actually done it too, but there was no one on the planet more stubborn than a damn ogre, I was sure of it.
After finishing my bath, we had enjoyed a delicious lunch, and as promised, Grayson showed me how to use the eReader. Having every single book I could dream of right at the tip of my fingers was like a dream come true, but it could only keep me distracted for so long. The pulsing in my girly bits seemed to get stronger and stronger as the days went by. I had attempted to ease the tension with my fingers a few times, but it didn’t feel right. I wanted Grayson.
“Do you want some dessert, Princess?”
Grayson startled me out of my lustful thoughts. I took a deep breath trying to calm the need inside me, but nothing helped. Is it possible to go crazy from sexual frustration? If so, I was headed in that direction on a speeding train.
“Can you be my dessert?” I muttered under my breath.
“What was that?” he called from the kitchen.
“Nothing.” Sighing, I headed for the table. He did make some pretty amazing desserts, so maybe that would help, for a little while at least.
The plate he set in front of me made me recoil with disgust. Coffee cake. The smell of it made me retch, and I pushed away from the table.
I didn’t want to make Grayson feel bad, but there was no way I could eat that. Just the smell of it had rekindled memories I was trying to forget. I hadn’t ever told Grayson what exactly had transpired that last night at the castle, and I had no plans to. Instead, I made every excuse I could think of.
“You know what? I changed my mind. I’m not really hungry for dessert.” I backed away, my eyes trained on the offending cake. “I actually have a headache,” I lied. “I think I will go to bed early.”
Before he could say anything, I darted down the hall to my bedroom, closing the door behind me. I leaned my back against the wall and took a deep breath. It’s just cake Ari, calm down, I coached myself, calming my roiling stomach and gasping for air as I attempted to ward off the brewing panic attack.
“Ari, are you okay? I brought you some aspirin for your head.”
I jumped into bed before he opened the door and came in. “Thank you, Grayson. It’s not too bad, I think it will be fine after a good sleep.”
“Humor me,” he said as he handed me two little white pills and a glass of water. I nodded and took them to appease him.
“Thank you, Ogre Daddy.”
Leaning down, he placed a warm kiss to my forehead. “You’re welcome, little princess. Rest well.”
A shrill scream startled me out of my sleep and I bolted upright in my bed. I was dripping with sweat, and I couldn’t shake the panicked feeling from my nightmare. Grayson barged into the room looking disheveled from sleep.
“What happened? Are you okay?”
Annoyed that I had woken him, I jumped up and started pacing. “Yes, no, I don’t know. It was awful. I could hear her screaming at me and she had the whip and the cake, and I was trying to say I’m sorry, but the words were stuck.”
“Ari, slow down, sweetie.”
“I can’t. Her words, I can’t get them out of my head. She told me I would never deserve love, that my parents would be ashamed and that I would never be queen.” I froze. Repeating the words out loud seemed to give them some sort of power and they consumed me. “She’s right. I’m a disgrace to the throne. I let myself be manipulated by an ugly old sea hag. I let myself be beaten and abused. I let her do it to other people. Holy fuck, I helped her do it to other people! What would my parents think of me?”
“Princess, take a deep breath.” Grayson cajoled, his voice calm and even.
“I don’t need a deep breath. Grayson, don’t you see what I have done? Don’t you see who I am? How can you even look at me? I am a complete and utter failure. I’m a worthless human being.” The more lies I spoke, the more truthful they seemed, and the more I said.
“Enough!” Grayson roared. I jumped in surprise covering my ears. He had never yelled at me like that before. He visibly took a deep breath and took my wrists, gently pulling my hands from my ears. “I’m sorry, but I could not listen to another word. You had a nightmare and those are all lies. Do you understand me? Horrible, awful lies.”
I shook my head. “They aren’t lies. It’s all true! You just don’t understand.”
“I may not understand all of it, but what you need to understand is that I will not allow you to speak those lies about yourself. I will sit and talk this out with you as much as you need to help you figure it out, but if you continue to self-deprecate, there will be consequences, do you understand me?”
“No! You don’t get it. I am the most worthless princess on the—” Before I could finish my sentence, he lifted me into the air and stomped to the other side of the room. He set me down and turned me to face the corner. “What the—”
“You are not less and you definitely are not worthless. That is a lie. I told you there would be a consequence if you kept it up, so here we are. You can spend a few minutes here staring at the wall. I want you to calm yourself down and find some more productive words and then we'll talk.”
I was stunned into obedience. I stood there staring at the point the two walls met and did as he asked. I took some deep breaths, and I tried to figure out how to talk to him about how I was feeling. The problem was that I believed what he called ‘lies’ and I didn’t know how to unbelieve them. Tears pricked the backs of my eyes, and I laid my forehead against the cool wall, but thankfully before the dam broke, Grayson spoke.
The corner? What in the actual fuck? I was a spanker. Period. But for all the threats I had made, I had yet to find the gumption to flip Ariana over my knee the way I was often tempted to. But, the corner? I don’t know what was more surprising, the fact that I put her there or the fact that it appeared to be working. She stopped arguing and wasn’t repeating the lies any longer, at least not out loud. I held back my sigh of frustration and observed her from a few feet away.
The little brat had been pushing, poking and prodding me over every little thing since our spa day, and I was ready to burst. She thought she knew what she wanted, but she had no idea what it would take for her body to accept my cock. Plus, I was pretty sure she was a virgin, and she deserved to enjoy her first time. Fuck, I had been perpetually hard since she looked up at me with those pleading eyes, but now her outburst had me seeing red, and I finally lost my mind.
I didn’t leave her standing there very long, just long enough to get my point across. I would have much rather reddened her naughty little ass, and I would have in a heartbeat, but she had only been with me a few weeks. I didn't think she was ready for something like that. I didn’t want to scare her.
“Are you ready to talk, little princess?”
She nodded.
“Good, come here then please.” Her cheeks were tinged with a blush of color as she made her way over to me. I sat down on the floor and pulled her into my lap. “Listen, I know we have a long road of recovery ahead of us. Two years of hurt are not going to magically disappear, but consider this step one. No more self-deprecation. You are an intelligent woman, and you can find productive ways to convey your insecurities. No more name calling. Got it?”
She laid her head on my chest as I spoke, and I wrapped my arms around her. “Speaking those things gives them power so even if they live up here”—I tapped her head—“they need to stay out of here.” I moved my finger to her mouth and circled her lips.
She surprised me by snapping at my finger almost catching it in her teeth.
“Brat.” I stood her on her feet and faced her toward me. Cupping her shoulders I looked her straight in the eyes. “I mean it, Ari. If I hear any more of that nonsense, I’m going to spank your ass cherry red. No more Mr. Nice Daddy.”
“Okay, I get it. Can I go back to bed now?” She wasn’t taking my threat seriously, I could tell. That was mostly my fault, I had definitely made empty threats, but it obviously was not doing either of us any favors. The little princess was in for a rude awakening next time she poked her ogre.
“Yes, get some sleep. Everything looks brighter when the sun comes up.”
Brighter my ass. The only thing bright was the sun beating through my window, and I cursed myself for forgetting to close my curtains. My night hadn’t gotten any better after the nightmare, and I was groggy and grumpy. The bedroom door was open, and I could hear Grayson banging around in the kitchen. For the amazing things he prepared, he wasn’t the most graceful while he did it. It usually didn’t bother me, but right then I wanted to slap him upside the head with one of those pots he kept slamming around.
I stomped into the kitchen and straight to the coffee pot. Grabbing a mug out of the cabinet, I slammed the door shut. Grayson raised a brow in my direction, but I couldn’t care less what he thought in that moment. I glared at him for a second, daring him to say something. When he didn’t, I stomped away.
“Well, good morning to you too,” Grayson grumbled.
“It’s morning but so far there’s nothing good about it.”
I couldn’t help my attitude. I was so frustrated with him and all of his empty threats. I was beginning to think he was all talk. Either that or he just didn’t want to deal with it.
“You still struggling with the nightmare, Princess?”
“It wasn’t just a nightmare. It was like a reminder of everything. It just validates my belief that I was blind and stupid. I really can't believe how dumb I was.”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, the atmosphere of the cabin thickened. Grayson’s body tensed and the look on his face made me want to run. I gulped and dug my feet in. I was going to get this ogre to put his money where his mouth was once and for all.
“What did you just say?” I stopped dead in my tracks, but didn’t move toward her. I saw clearly what was happening. I had been throwing out empty threats for far too long, and this was a clear challenge. Ari was saying, put up or shut up.
Smirking, I watched her out of the corner of my eye. She also froze. Then her shoulders rose and fell, emphasizing her small form. She sighed.
She turned toward me, and her eyes sparkled with a hint of defiance. I felt a glimmer of hope as I waited to see what she would say next. I didn’t turn from the stove, focusing all my energy on stirring the pot of soup with my trusty wooden spoon.
“I said,” she began, sass lacing her tone, “I was blind and stupid. I can’t believe how dumb I was.”
I looked toward her then, licking the spoon before washing it off in the small sink. I held it in my hand as I spun around, walking toward her.
“I heard you the first time.” I kept my tone dry without a hint of amusement. “I thought I told you I didn’t want to hear those lies coming out of that pretty little mouth.”
She stomped her foot, and my jaw hardened instantly. “They aren’t lies! I lost everything I was because of a freaking storybook! A storybook! Who does that?”
Her sass was quickly turning into a full-blown tantrum. The urge to turn her over my knee had never been stronger, but as tempting as it was, I still wasn’t sure that she was ready.
Reaching her, I grabbed her shoulders, holding the spoon between my fingertips. “Everyone did. She’s a witch, and that’s not a euphemism. She’s actually a witch. She cast a spell on you with her stupid storybooks, just like she did everyone else in Venus.”
“Sure,” she scoffed, indignantly. “Everyone but you.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “And look what I got for it. I haven’t always looked like this you know.”
Her anger softened when she looked at me. It always did. “You look the same to me,” she breathed. “Maybe even better.” She giggled.
I smiled, let go of her shoulders, and moved the spoon to my other hand. She stared at it, as it moved. My hand fell to my side, clutching it. Her eyes remained trained on the spoon. Interesting.
I looked at the spoon with new eyes. Just a simple harmless piece of wood. I used it daily in my kitchen to take the most basic ingredients and make something new. That was exactly what I needed to do here. Make something new. I needed to take a pouty, self-deprecating, foot-stomping, angry princess and turn her around. Make something new. Could my
simple wooden spoon be the answer?
Could it change her thinking as quickly as it turned some beans, water and spices into something warm and hearty to fill our stomachs? My eyes never left hers as I lifted the spoon, and smacked it down hard across my thigh.
It stung, but it was no whip. She jumped when it cracked, and her breathing grew labored. I smacked my thigh again, and her hands flew to cover her face.
“I told you before, I didn’t want to hear those nonsensical lies anymore, didn’t I?” Behind her hands, she bobbed her head in affirmation.
“Use your words,” I growled.
“Yes, Grayson!” Her voice was little more than a squeak, and I could see the blush on her cheeks peeking through the spaces between her fingers. My cock hardened at the picture she made. She wanted this. Needed it. And dammit, I did too.
“That’s yes, Ogre Daddy to you,” I growled, stepping close, and grabbing ahold of her ear.
“Yes, Ogre Daddy.”
I nodded my appreciation of her obedience, then pulled her across the room to the old wooden stool,. Sitting down, with my massive legs pressed tightly together, I pulled her face down over my lap, chuckling when she yipped in surprise.
“Um, Grayson?” she piped up, her voice suddenly uncertain. “You don’t have to do this, you know. You’re enough just the way you are. I’m sorry if I made you feel like you had to punish me. You don’t!”
The last sentence was delivered in a shriek as the wooden spoon cracked heartily against the middle of her backside. “Little girl,” I muttered. “You should know me well enough to realize I don’t do things I don’t want to, now do I?”
“Well, no, but—”
“The only butt you need to worry about right now is your own. I’m doing this for me, not you. Now pipe down and take the punishment you have coming to you. You’re going to learn a lesson about speaking lies, about blaming yourself for the abuse you suffered, and you’re going to learn it by way of my wooden spoon, understand?”
