Read Online Rude Awakening by Sam Crescent, Natalie Dae - Free Book Online

here he would have taken his ire out on her—a few lashes with a stout walking cane would have done the trick—but a night had passed with still no sign of her. Where was she? Why hadn’t she returned? He thought he’d conditioned her enough so she would have slunk back with her tail between her legs before now. And why had the damn snow fallen so fast when he’d searched for her last night, as though the fates were against him? It had obliterated her footsteps in no time, leaving him at a loss as to where to go once he reached the end of his quiet street.
    He grimaced. She’d so pay for this disobedience.
    He’d ordered a specialised piece of equipment last week and it had yet to arrive, hence the phone call to the supplier. The rude male shop assistant told him he could collect it if his need was so urgent, his words full of sarcasm, giving Master the impression the chap wasn’t particularly fussed at his threat to take his business elsewhere after a refund. The snow had prevented any vans going out, surely Master understood that.
    Master bristled, clamping his jaw tight. It didn’t matter to the shop assistant whether his need was urgent. The delivery should have been with him days ago, snow or not—a delivery that would have stopped Margaret running out on him.
    “Damn it!” he muttered, walking to the window and looking out.
    His front garden appeared nothing more than an expanse of untouched white, the road, too. No cars had driven down the street today, and it seemed people in the homes opposite hadn’t ventured out, their snow-covered lawns free of gouges from footprints. He didn’t blame them, he hadn’t had any intention of going out himself today if it weren’t for that blasted delivery and his need to have his purchase in place for when Margaret returned.
    Would the contraption even fit in his Land Rover? He thought about the size of it once erected, what it had looked like when he’d browsed online, and suspected it must come in pieces. He’d have to build it himself, and this time last week he’d relished the prospect of seeing Margaret held in place by it, unable to leave the room unless he unlocked the straps and allowed her some freedom. Today, he revelled in thinking of her locked up and never being free, never knowing any other place but the room he’d planned to use for her incarceration times. And it was all her fault. If she hadn’t run, he’d have only locked her up as a treat, a few hours here and there, but when she came back…
    She’ll never leave this house again. Until I’m tired of her.
    A fresh surge of annoyance oozed through him at the image of her floating inside his head, all smiling face and smug expression. He heard her voice, the unmistakeable triumph in it. “ I’m free, Master .”
    He pursed his lips, clenched his hands and left the living room, knowing he had no alternative but to go out into that terrible weather and collect the item he was desperate for. And he was desperate. Yes, he was desperate to erect it and desperate to bind her to it.
    Little bitch.
    Shrugging into his coat and pulling on boots he wouldn’t usually be seen dead in, he left the house, stepping straight into knee-deep snow. His trousers would be wet in no time—he hadn’t been so crass as to tuck them into his boots, that just wouldn’t do for his image—and the cold was already seeping through the fabric.
    “Goddamn you, Margaret!”
    He struggled towards the garage door, standing still for a moment to wonder how the buggery he was going to get rid of the snow in front of it. He clicked a button on his key fob and hoped the automatic door was strong enough to shift the snow for him. It was, although he got a good dusting of the white stuff in the process. Snow sneaked past his coat collar and melted on his neck. He bit back a string of curses and tromped inside the garage, never more thankful to own a vehicle that would have no issues navigating the thick snow.
    Once inside, he