The Messenger( Iva) novel Chapter 157

Punishment 1-2

Iva froze.

Her words stuck in her throat. Her lips parted, but no sound came out. Her mind went completely, utterly

blank.

Punishment.

He had said punishment?

She stared at him, waiting for the joke, waiting for the warmth to return to his eyes, waiting for him to pull her into his arms and tell her he was just messing with her.

But the warmth didn’t come.

Caleb leaned back in the chair, his gaze never leaving hers. He crossed his arms over his chest, the muscles in his forearms flexing, and waited.

“I asked you a question, little mate.”

The endearment-usually so soft-sounded different on his tongue now. Sharper. More dangerous.

Her heart pounded so hard she could feel it in her temples!

“1-” Her voice cracked. She tried again. “I don’t-”

“You don’t know?” He tilted his head slightly. “Or you don’t want to say?”

Iva’s hands shook at her sides. She pressed them flat against her thighs, trying to still them, trying to find some scrap of composure.

“I wasn’t running from you,” she whispered, trying to find the saving words.

One of his eyebrows rose. Just slightly,

“Really? Weren’t you?” he replied in an ironic tone that froze her even more.

The question hung in the air between them, heavy and damning.

“Answer the question, Iva.” His voice was still calm. Still controlled. But there was an edge beneath it now. A razor hidden in silk. “What punishment do you deserve?”

Her throat worked. Her mind scrambled for something-anything-to say.

But the truth was, she didn’t know.

She didn’t know what punishment fit the crime. Of running from a mate bond that had been blessed by something greater than either of them.

“I don’t know,” she finally admitted, her voice barely above a whisper.

Caleb was silent for a long moment.

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Then he unfolded himself from the chair.

He rose slowly, deliberately, like a predator who had all the time in the world. He was taller than she remembered. Broader. More imposing He took one step toward her, and she instinctively took one step back.

His eyes darkened.

“Don’t.”

The single word stopped her cold.

She stood frozen as he closed the distance between them. When he was close enough that she could feel the heat radiating from his body, he stopped. He looked down at her, his gaze raking over her face, her throat, the rapid pulse beating at the base of her neck.

“You want to know what punishment you deserve?” His voice was low. Intimate. Terrifying.

She nodded weakly.

Caleb’s hand lifted. His fingers brushed her cheek, feather-light, and she flinched before she could stop herself.

His jaw tightened.

“You deserve to feel exactly what I felt when I returned home and you were gone,” he said quietly.

His hand curved around the back of her neck, firm but not painful.

“You deserve to know what it’s like to search for days and find nothing. To follow a trail that keeps going cold. To wonder if you’ll ever see your mate again.”

His thumb pressed against her pulse point, feeling the wild beat of her heart.

Iva’s eyes burned with tears she refused to shed.

“I’m sorry,” she breathed.

Caleb’s expression didn’t soften, but on the contrary… he was becoming more and more enraged.

“Sorry isn’t enough.”

And before she could respond, before she could ask what he meant, his grip on her neck tightened-just slightly-and he pulled her toward him until there was no space left between them at all.

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Punishment II-T

“Iva.” His voice was quiet, controlled, but beneath it she heard something new.

Something dark.

“I have been patient with you. Gentle. I gave you softness because I thought that was what you needed.”

His thumb traced the line of her jaw.

“But running?” His eyes darkened. “Running changes things.”

She should have been afraid. A part of her was. But beneath the fear, something else stirred. Something that had been sleeping inside her since the moment he first looked at her.

Heat.

Not the heat of her cycle. Something sharper. Something that made her knees weak and her breath come faster.

Caleb saw it. She watched him see it-watched the knowledge flicker across his face, watched something dangerous ignite in his eyes.

His hand slid from her neck to her hair, fisting gently at the nape. He tilted her head back, forcing her to look up at him.

His free hand came up to cup her face, his thumb brushing across her lower lip.

“You ran from me.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “And I need you to understand. This punishment is necessary. I need you to know that when you belong to me-you belong to all of me.”

Iva’s heart slammed against her ribs.

“Caleb-”

“Shh.” He pressed his thumb against her lips, silencing her. “You don’t speak unless I tell you to speak. Do you understand?”

The command hit her like a physical force. Her body responded before her mind-a shiver, a flush, a pulse of heat between her thighs.

She was surprised by this new Caleb, but despite everything she nodded.

Caleb’s smile was slow and dangerous.

“Good girl.”

He released her hair and stepped back. The loss of his touch made her sway. She caught herself, watching as he walked to the chair by the window and sat down. He spread his legs slightly, leaning back, looking at her with an intensity that made her skin prickle.

“Come here,” he said. “And kneel.”

Her breath caught.

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She had never kneeled for anyone. The word itself felt foreign, wrong, like something from a movie maybe.

“Iva… I am waiting.”

Her feet were moving before she made the decision, carrying her until she stood directly in front of him.

“Kneel,” he repeated.

Slowly, Iva lowered herself to her knees, unsure of everything-as one million thoughts were running wild in her mind.

The hardwood was cold beneath her. She felt exposed, vulnerable, completely at his mercy. Caleb looked down at her, and something shifted in his expression-satisfaction, hunger, and beneath it all, something tender that made her chest ache.

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to see you like this,” he murmured.

His hand reached out, fingers tracing the curve of her ear, the line of her throat, the collar of her shirt.

“Take it off.”

She froze for a moment, before she reached for the hem of her shirt.

“No.” His voice stopped her. “Slowly.”

Her fingers trembled as she pulled the fabric up, inch by inch, revealing her stomach, her ribs, the swell of her breasts. Caleb watched every movement, his eyes dark and focused. When the shirt finally dropped to the floor, she sat before him in nothing but her trousers and the thin lace of her bra.

“Stand.”

She stood.

“Turn around. Slowly.”

She turned, giving him a full view of her body. She could feel his gaze like a brand, burning into her skin, claiming every inch of her.

“Face me again.”

She did.

す

Caleb rose from the chair. He circled her slowly, and she felt the heat of him pass behind her, felt his breath on her shoulder, her neck, her ear.

“Hands behind your back,” he said quietly. “Cross your wrists.”

She trembled but obeyed.

Something cool and soft wrapped around her wrists-silk, she realized. A tie from his shirt. He bound her hands together with careful, practiced movements, not too tight, not too loose.

“Perfect,” he breathed against her ear.

His hands slid down her arms, over her ribs, around to her stomach. He pulled her back against his chest,

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and she fell him-hard and ready against her lower back.

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Punishment H

Punishment 11-2

“You’re going to stand here,” he said, “and you’re going to take what I give you. And if it becomes too much, you say ‘red. Do you understand?”

“R…r…red,” she repeated, her voice barely a whisper.

“Good girl.”

His hands moved to her trousers. He unbuttoned them slowly, teasingly, his knuckles brushing against her stomach with each movement. Then he pulled them down-over her hips, down her thighs, past her knees. She stepped out of them when he commanded, leaving her in nothing but the lace bra and a matching pair of panties that suddenly felt scandalously small.

Caleb stepped back. She heard him move, heard something being placed on the bed. Then his hands were on her again, guiding her forward, bending her over the edge of the mattress.

Her bound hands pressed against the comforter. Her bare bottom was exposed to the cool air-and to

him.

“Count,” he said.

She didn’t understand until his hand came down on her flesh.

The slap echoed through the room. Heat bloomed across her skin-sharp, stinging, electric.

He was really punishing her!!!

“One,” she gasped.

Another slap. The other cheek this time.

“Two.”

Again. Harder.

“Three.”

Her breathing quickened as shy tears came to her eyes. The pain was sharp but beneath it, something else was building-a heat that had nothing to do with the stinging of her skin.

Caleb’s hand paused. She heard him shift, heard the rustle of fabric.

Then something cold and smooth pressed against her heated skin.

Leather? A belt?

No no no… this is insane!!! He never did this to me before!

But before she got the chance to beg, Caleb teased her body with it… making her tremble in anticipation, fear… and to her shock… desire.

Caleb set the belt aside. His hands cupped her stinging flesh, gentle now, soothing. He massaged the heat into her skin, and she moaned at the contrast-the tenderness after the punishment.

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