Shameful Reckonings Read Online Free Page A

never told him so.
    Boris escorted her to where Nicholas was waiting. Giancarla had expected him to be in the cavernous living room, but instead he was in his study, a smaller room of dark wood paneling and packed bookshelves. Giancarla saw him sitting in his Italian leather swivel chair. She heard the door to the study close. Nicholas always reprimanded her in private.
    “Darling!” she smiled and went towards him with her arms extended. “What a wonderful surprise! Why didn’t you call and tell me you’d be home early? I could have…”
    “Stop.” Nicholas held up his hand, halting Giancarla’s words and her forward motion simultaneously. He looked up at her, and his eyes seemed cold… even contemptuous.
    “Darling?” Giancarla said nervously. “What is it?” He must be really upset about the bikini this time. She might even have to give him some oral sex, which she didn’t much care for.
    “It is many things, Giancarla, starting with that bikini you are wearing,” Nicholas replied.
    Giancarla started to speak, but then Boris came into view. She felt a sudden chill, and it wasn’t just from the skimpiness of her bikini. She had been about to smile sweetly and offer to take it off for him. Now… this was different.
    “I’m sorry, darling,” she said hastily. “I just forgot.”
    “No, you did not,” her husband shook his head. “But that is the least of my complaints. Whenever I am away, it seems that you treat the staff here like zeks.”
    Nicholas often used foreign words or phrases in his conversation. ‘Zek’ was one that Giancarla recognized. It was a Russian word that meant ‘slave laborer’. If Boris hadn’t been there, she might have playfully suggested that she needed a good spanking. Nicholas could never resist her when she got all sexy on him. As it was, she couldn’t think of anything to say or do except stand where she was and look properly chastened and repentant. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly, hanging her head.
    “Again, you are not,” Nicholas said sharply. “And even that is nothing in comparison to what else you have been doing. How long have you been having an affair with that great Swedish lout at the club?”
    Sudden desperation struck her. “You mean you’ve been spying on me?!” she yelled. “How long has that been going on?”
    Nicholas swiftly rose from his seat. Giancarla never saw the slap coming. He struck her hard enough to snap her head around and make her stagger. She put a hand to her cheek. She was so stunned that all she could do was gape at Nicholas. His eyes were full of a smoldering anger.
    “ You ,” he snarled, shaking a finger at her, “ You are an arrogant, spendthrift, faithless little bitch! I rue the day that I married you!”
    “Nicholas,” Giancarla sobbed. Tears started from her eyes. “Darling…”
    “No,” Nicholas shook his head. “Do not speak another lying word!” He didn’t yell at her, which was more unnerving than if he had. His voice was low, and harsh, and angry. Giancarla suddenly realized that she was shivering from fear. She said nothing, only waited, trembling, while Nicholas sat down again.
    “Now,” he said, in a more normal voice. “Take off that indecent bikini.”
    “What?” Giancarla gulped. She looked quickly at Boris, and then back at her husband. “But…”
    “You like to show off your body,” Nicholas smiled nastily. “And it is a superb body. Let Boris see it as well as I.”
    Okay, he meant to humiliate her as part of her punishment. She could survive this, but she would have to be much more careful in the future. Giancarla conjured up more sobs and tears as she untied the strings that kept her bikini on. The top slid away first, then the bottom. They made a terribly small pile on the floor at her feet. She stood with her head down so that her hair hid most of her face and kept halfheartedly trying to cover herself with her hands and arms without actually ever doing so.
    “I’m