No sooner had she defended herself than he corrected her in even, exact words that left no room for her to argue against (and not just because he threw her out as soon as he was done with them!). "You simply did well at managing with your *punishment* for trying to cheat me on those stupid fucking letters. And believe me, it would be worse on you if you'd failed there, but carrying out your punishments? That is not good enough for you to receive comfortable sleeping quarters. Now, out."<br/><br/>Once she was gone as demanded he paced the room, mostly because there was still all sorts of tension in him. He was both angry and excited, and the only way to deal with that - with Zoey absent, anyway - was by strutting up and down the length of the large, deep floor rug he had laid out at the foot of his bed. Once she returned though he plucked the candle from her nervous hands, and placed his empty palm atop her head to smooth her slightly mussed up hair. "Fine, thank you. Lie down, on the floor, on your back. I hope I don't need to tell you that your thighs should be your spread and your tits offered up high, do I?  This time, I expect you to succeed. Let me down again tonight and I will be more than fleetingly upset." He paused to let the words sink in, standing over her and watching her like a hawk, the candle twirling idly in one hand. Once he was sure she'd got the point, and got it well, he pushed the thing back down toward her.<br/><br/>"Open wide; you're going to hold it with your teeth." He let her take it in that way, then wandered back toward where he kept a pack of matches - little more than sticks of wood with some alchemical marvel on the end that burst into flame when dragged over a suitably rough surface. He talked without looking to her, and at least part of that was to hide the gleeful, malicious smirk on his handsome features. "You will look down your body toward your feet while it burns, so that every drip-drip of hot wax lands on your pale, pretty skin."<br/><br/>He returned toward her, with his match burning delightedly, the flame dancing with excitement. He bought it in no particular hurry toward the wick. "I'm not going to bind you, so that when it's more than halfway burnt out you can put the thing out and crawl onto the foot of my bed, to sleep. However, if I don't see half a candle encrusted over your chest by morning... If you make me think you've cheated me..." He neither needed to nor wanted to finish that sentence. Instead he lit the candle and spun away again. "I'm going to bed. Be *silent*."<br/><br/>That was the last he said, before returning to his bed and his book and, in time, to sleep.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>