I dust the shadowed library shelves until my fingers bleed from paper cuts, chasing the ghost of security in this crumbling manor. Dismissal. That's the blade forever at my throat, the terror that keeps me polishing silver at dawn, scrubbing floors till my knees bruise. I've clawed my way here from nothing, and one slip means the streets again - cold, hungry, forgotten.
But him. The master who stalks these halls like judgment itself. Gravelly voice wrapping around orders, eyes that strip me bare before his hand even moves. I mouth off, sarcasm my shield - "Yes, milord, straight away" with a bite - but deep down, I ache for the crack of his palm on my trembling skin, lamplight flickering over the shame. It's weakness, I tell myself. Filthy craving. Yet when he bends me over the desk, possessive grip claiming what class forbids, fire twists through me, defiant and alive.
Rain lashes us one night, bodies drenched and pressed in the crumbling gatehouse, his mouth devouring mine like salvation he can't afford. He bares a vulnerability no lord should - haunted restraint cracking as he growls my surrender into his keeping. But trust frays. Ledgers clutched in a bloodied hand, stolen from moonlit shadows, point to a predator circling closer, one who wants me broken before him.
My livelihood dangles by his whim, self-respect shattering under each chastising strike that blurs pain into hunger. Equals in the dark, servant by day - this transgression could ruin us both. What devours first: the lurking beast, or the forbidden blaze he's lit in my veins?
A full-length Victorian discipline spanking erotic romance featuring a defiant housemaid and her possessive master.
