The Devil's Touch by Vivien Sparx Read Free Book Online Page A

submissive it is a spanking with my bare hand.”
    “And these women… what? They just accept you smacking their backsides?”
    “Yes,” Lucien nodded. “They do.”
    Angelica frowned. She wasn’t completely naïve. She’d seen pictures…
    “Restraints and equipment are only for show, Angelica. If a Master needs to restrain his submissive it is because he fears they will not accept their punishment, which in turn means the Master does not have true control and power over them. I do.”
    Angelica raised an eyebrow. He sounded smugly confident and she felt the challenge escape her lips before she had time to stop herself. “How?”
    “I’m wealthy,” he said. “So I have enormous influence. I can make doors open, or I can slam them shut. And I understand women. I know their minds, and in a corner of every woman’s mind – even yours – is a primal instinct to obey. Women were made to submit. Men were made to dominate. It’s the natural order. I simply make use of this knowledge… and then I add an incentive.”
    Angelica was affronted. “You think women were made to obey? That’s sexist!”
    “No. It’s sense.”
    There were sudden hectic spots of color high on Angelica’s cheeks and she shook her head so that her hair swished over her shoulders like an angry tail. “And you think I have an urge to submit?”
    “Yes,” Lucien said. He hadn’t moved. He stood in the center of the floor, handsome and masculine – and impossibly arrogant.
    “And you control these… these women by using your power and influence? So you blackmail them?”
    “Yes,” Lucien nodded again. “But not in the way you think.”
    “Oh,” Angelica said, feeling her outrage suddenly rising and unable – and unwilling – to control it. “So the great Lucien Lance has morals after all. He won’t blackmail women for sex!” She folded her arms tight across her chest. “I can see how you earned your reputation… and I can see why people call you Lucifer.”
    There was a long silence as they stared at each other. Lucien’s smile slipped from his lips and his eyes narrowed. Angelica felt a small premonition of alarm, like a chill breeze, and a rash of goose pimples arose along the length of her arm. Lucien’s mood had changed, and Angelica lowered her eyes, dismayed and confused, but somehow compelled to look away.
    “I use my power and my wealth to encourage a submissive’s obedience,” Lucien said, but now his voice was low and thin with the effort it took to suppress his anger. “As I have already told you, I want emotional and physical control of my submissives, but I’m not a monster, Angelica. And I’m no saint either. What I am is a winner. I get what I want and if I need to, I will use whatever means necessary to encourage obedience to my every command.”
    “Well, despite what you think, Mr Lance,” she made a point of addressing him now by his surname, “there are plenty of women – women like me – who aren’t interested in submitting to your sexual urges. And I would never accept punishment from you, or any other man!” Angelica’s temper carried her off the bed. She began to hunt around the room for her dress. “I’m someone who can’t be blackmailed,” she added. “I quit my research job this afternoon, I have little money, no boyfriend, and I am sleeping on my friend’s sofa.” She gave Lucien a surly huff when he held out her discarded panties.
    Angelica went to snatch them from him, but his hand flicked out and caught her by the wrist.
    “What I should do is put you over my knee and smack some manners into you,” Lucien said with deceptive calm.
    “You wouldn’t dare.”
    “Yes. I would,” he said, and she saw the truth of it in his expression. “That and much, much more… but instead, I’m going to show you exactly how I motivate the women who submit to me. Maybe, afterwards, you will have a better understanding of the power I can wield.”
    His grip was vice-like, but he