Chapter 56: Leather Collar
The sharp questioning made Adele’s heart clench. Her throat tightened, and she subconsciously wanted to deny it.
Lina’s words made her scalp tingle even more.
Her breathing rate after she fell asleep… she knew it so clearly!
So, on countless nights, when she was already fast asleep, a pair of eyes had been stuck to her, observing her without blinking. Even the most ordinary physiological rhythms had been meticulously recorded.
A fear of being watched and analyzed for a long time seized Adele. Her fingertips trembled, and her breathing was briefly chaotic.
Lina.
Bad rabbit.
But soon, Adele chose to indulge her.
One more time.
She accepted Lina’s crazy dependence. The chill that had climbed up her back then turned into a silent sigh, wrapped in an almost resigned doting, and was gently sighed away in her heart.
Forget it.
If it’s Lina, then it’s fine.
The fleeting fear in Adele’s eyes woke Lina up. The person who had been questioning her sharply a second ago suddenly retracted her fangs. Her cold and sinister expression instantly shattered.
She let go of the hands that were pressing on Adele’s shoulders, lay down, and buried her face deeply in the crook of Adele’s neck. Her trembling voice was filled with sobs and remorse.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I scared you, didn’t I? I didn’t mean to… I really didn’t mean to…”
Lina apologized incoherently.
“I was just… I was so scared. I was so scared that you were just about to untie it, to leave me, to abandon me… I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have yelled at you, I’m sorry…”
Adele couldn’t bear to blame her to begin with. At this moment, feeling the weight on her and the hot breath on her neck, her heart melted into a puddle. “It’s okay, baby.”
She paused and told the truth.
“I was just about to untie it because the skin on your neck here is already very red. If you keep wearing it, it will really break the skin. It will hurt a lot…”
Adele felt Lina’s body stiffen and quickly patted her even more gently, choosing her words carefully. “I… I was just afraid you would misunderstand, so I wanted to help you take it off first. We can talk after you’re more comfortable. I just don’t want to see you in pain.”
Lina did not answer immediately. After a long moment, she nodded ever so slightly and said in a muffled voice, “…Okay, you can help me take it off.”
Adele’s heart relaxed. Just as she was about to do it, Lina suddenly raised her head, looked at her with teary eyes, and proposed a condition: “But… you pinch me. Use your hand to replace it, okay?”
“Ah?” Adele was shocked, almost thinking she had misheard. “You?”
“Control me, please.” Lina said, “Hold me tightly in your hand!”
“Lina…” Adele tried to persuade her. “It’s not good to always pinch.”
An occasional light pinch could be considered a kind of fun between them, but to always pinch, what was that?
Lina pursed her lips. The little bit of stubbornness that had just faded appeared again. She threatened, “Then I won’t take it off! I’ll just sleep with it on. It’s best if it rubs all my skin raw!”
Adele: ?!
A wicked fire shot to Adele’s head.
Usually, she would carefully hide her desire to control Lina under a doting affection, deliberately restraining and suppressing it.
At this moment, her ever-growing desire was completely ignited by Lina’s rebellion. She wanted to immediately grab her and make her obey in the most direct way!
Before she did that, she had to get this damn leather collar off her poor neck!
Adele took a deep breath, trying to keep her voice steady, and coaxed, “Okay, I promise you. Let’s take it off first.”
She calculated in her heart that as long as she took it off, she would throw the leather collar and the chain far away from this manor, so that Lina would never find it again!
Lina seemed to believe her, or rather, she was willing to believe Adele’s words.
A lop-eared rabbit is willing to obey all of its master’s commands.
She submissively lowered her head, revealing the reddened skin.
Adele freed the rabbit ball’s neck with the fastest speed.
A circle of red and swollen marks was particularly glaring on the fair skin.
Adele looked at these marks and thought of the outrageous request Lina had just made. Her face turned cold, her tone brooks no argument. “Alright! Now go to sleep!”
Lina finally reacted. Adele had no intention of satisfying her at all!
Her empty neck once again gave her a feeling of being abandoned.
Under Adele’s astonished gaze, Lina directly raised her hands and squeezed her own neck tightly!
“You won’t pinch me… then I’ll pinch myself!” She squeezed the words from between her teeth, her cheeks rapidly flushing with blood.
“What are you doing! Let go!”
Adele was so scared her soul was about to fly out. She pounced on her and grabbed her, trying to pry her hands open.
Lina struggled, as if she had gone mad, trying to choke herself to death.
Adele could no longer bear it. Her desire for control could no longer be restrained.
Worry, fear, and anger made her tear off her usual gentleness, revealing the assertiveness that had been hidden for a long time.
The white wolf finally got serious with the lop-eared rabbit.
With a slight exertion of force, she subdued and flipped her over, pressing her down on her lap!
“You are not allowed to hurt yourself. How many times do I have to tell you! Self-respect and self-love, can’t you learn it!” Adele held both of Lina’s hands behind her back with one hand. She clamped Lina’s legs and, like disciplining a child, trapped her on her knees.
Lina was completely immobile. She lay on Adele’s lap, her slightly raised bottom becoming the best spot to bear the anger.
Slap—
Adele’s slap was merciless. The crisp sound suddenly exploded in the bedroom.
“You just have to make yourself all bloody, covered in wounds, before you can stop, right!”
Lina had never been slapped so hard by Adele before. She was so stunned she didn’t know what to do.
The fear of being beaten and bullied from her memory quietly emerged. Just as it was about to kidnap her reason, it was dispersed by Adele’s “scolding,” which was filled with concern.
Only the pain was left.
The pain she was most familiar with.
“How else can I tell you? Not hurting your own body is the bottom line!”
Adele’s lesson fell, fast and heavy.
Slap! Slap! Slap!
The thin pajama fabric could not soften the pain at all. Lina had long since been spoiled by Adele. Suddenly being treated so roughly, she could no longer grit her teeth and endure as she had before. After just three or five hits, she was in so much pain her calves were kicking, and she was whimpering.
She wanted to struggle, but her wrists and waist were held firmly. She couldn’t dodge at all and could only be forced to endure.
Lina curled her toes. Tears soon welled up in the corners of her eyes.
She knew that Adele doted on her the most. As long as she begged for mercy now, cried and said a few nice words, she would definitely be able to get over this.
But she didn’t.
Instead, she was immersed in this pain.
Is this a punishment from Adele?
To her, this was the most direct proof that Adele loved her, cared about her.
Her extreme lack of security made her need to repeatedly confirm Adele’s feelings, so twisted that she longed to be completely controlled by Adele. She needed a passionate response. Only then could her uneasy soul get some comfort.
Lina once again felt a sense of security in the pain. Her body slowly relaxed. She even began to subconsciously lift her waist slightly to meet the falling punishment.
I’m sorry, Adele… I’m sorry, Teacher… I’m sorry, Master… I’m just such a disobedient bad rabbit… please punish me harshly.
The sharp pain slowly changed. A burning pleasure spread from the spot where the slap had landed to her whole body. Lina bit her lower lip, not letting herself let out a shameful whimper.
But her gradually chaotic breathing and violently trembling body still exposed her change.
Adele was in a fit of anger. Only by holding Lina firmly in her hands could she truly be at ease.
It was as if as long as Lina was out of her control, out of her sight, she would be hurt.
She could allow Lina to offend her, but she absolutely could not stand to see Lina hurt herself.
After a few more slaps, she finally felt that the person under her hand was too hot.
Adele’s heart skipped a beat. Her anger was instantly replaced by panic. She thought she had hit too hard and had injured Lina. So she hastily stopped her movements and turned the person over from her lap, wanting to check her injuries.
But what entered her eyes—
Lina’s ears were bright red. Tears were still hanging on her trembling eyelashes. Her entire being was soaked in the tide of passion, trembling softly.
Adele understood in an instant.
She wanted to give a lesson! Not a reward!
“You!” Adele was speechless, not knowing what to say. She wanted to put Lina on the bed first and calm herself down, but she didn’t control her strength well, and the motion of putting her down was very much like throwing.
Lina was “thrown” onto the bed and let out a fragile whimper. The person, still in the afterglow, blinked her wet eyes and said in a small voice, “I’m sorry… I was wrong…”
Adele met Lina’s eyes and her heart softened again.
She sighed in frustration.
Adele leaned over again, pulled the curled-up Lina back into her arms, and held her tightly.
“I really… I really don’t know what to do with you!” A pair of snow-white wolf ears popped out from the top of Adele’s head. As she spoke, her ears drooped.
A proud white wolf can’t even handle a little lop-eared rabbit!
Lina curled up in her arms and said coquettishly, “It’s fine… as long as you don’t leave me, you can treat me however you want…”
Adele’s emotions were extremely complicated.
She knew that Lina’s psychological problems could not be solved overnight.
Choking her neck and so on, it was even more impossible to continue…
Her gaze swept over the silver chain that had been thrown at the foot of the bed. A compromise came to her mind.
“The leather is too harmful to your neck. You’re not allowed to wear it anymore.” Her tone was firm. “But… we can tie our hands together. That should be fine, right? That way, when I move, you’ll know. You’ll always be able to feel me. You won’t have to worry about me running away again, right?”
Lina’s eyes gradually lit up.
Tied together, never to be separated.
Adele’s proposal satisfied the morbid craving deep in her heart.
So good.
She just wanted to be locked together with Adele forever.
Lina nodded obediently. “Okay.”
She took the initiative to hold out her wrist and held it out to Adele. “I’m willing to be tied together with you. Very willing.”
*
Ever since she had “caught” Adele and brought her back, no matter how busy Lina was, she would never stay overnight in the palace again.
No matter how magnificent the grand hall, it was not as reassuring as the old castle in the manor. No matter how soft the couch, it was no match for her lover’s embrace.
The importance of power in Lina’s heart was quietly changing.
As twilight fell, a carriage screeched to a halt at the manor gate. Lina leaned out, her gaze immediately catching the figure waiting under the portico.
A smile was on Adele’s lips. The moment their eyes met, the smile grew wider.
A bright smile immediately bloomed on Lina’s face. In a few quick steps, she threw herself into Adele’s arms.
“Why are you at the door?” Lina asked, knowing the answer.
Adele also understood her deliberate question and said, “Waiting for you.”
Lina wrapped her arms tightly around her waist, greedily breathing in that familiar cool fragrance. “I missed you so much today. I was thinking about you all day. Did you miss me?”
“I was about to come and find you.” Adele also became less reserved and began to express her feelings directly. “Every minute and every second after you left, I was thinking of you.”
Lina nuzzled her embrace, and only then did she raise her head with satisfaction. Her sparkling eyes were filled with a joyful light. She let go of one hand and fumbled in her pocket.
“The thing you talked about last night, I had someone make it.”
A section of a pure silver chain that flashed with a cold light, slender yet sturdy, with two soft leather wristbands at either end. The leather was several degrees softer, able to lock a person but not hurt them.
“Last night, we agreed, right?” Lina tilted her face up and looked at Adele, her eyes ardent. “The two of us will always be connected, never to be separated.”
Adele hadn’t expected her to be so efficient!
She said, “…Do we have to connect them now?”
“Of course!” Lina immediately chimed in. “Every moment, not a single minute or second apart.”
After saying this, she stared into Adele’s eyes.
Even she herself didn’t feel it, but her aura was gradually growing cold, sinking…
Adele promptly held out her left hand. “Okay.”
Lina’s aura became gentle again.
She smilingly put a leather collar on Adele’s left wrist. Her movements were a little eager, but also exceptionally gentle, especially when adjusting the tightness. She deliberately made it a little loose for Adele, afraid she would be uncomfortable.
Then, she put the other leather collar on her own right wrist.
After two crisp “clicks,” the slender silver chain hung down, connecting their wrists.
It locked the two of them firmly together.
The length of less than half a meter made it so that they had to be together for everything.
“Alright!” Lina joyfully shook her wrist. The silver chain made a soft clinking sound. She took Adele’s arm, which was also shackled, and said, “Let’s go in!”
Adele looked at the restraint on her hand and chose to accept this sweet burden.
If Lina could have a little more security because of this.
She was willing.
After the two of them left, the maids who were waiting not far away exchanged glances. A subtle atmosphere filled the air, and a moment later, it exploded.
“Ahhhh!”
“Yayaya!”
“Oh my god!”
“…”
A young maid, the youngest, couldn’t hide her thoughts. She nudged the older maid beside her with her elbow, her eyes wide, and whispered, “Then… do they not take it off when they shower at night?”
An image seemed to appear in her mind… her whole being twisted shyly. “So shy~”
The older maid let out a “tsk” and tapped her on the head. “Such a young age… what are you thinking about.”
*
After being connected, Adele did not feel uncomfortable. The two of them had been very clingy before anyway.
But…
It was always a little inconvenient.
“It’s getting late. I’ll go take a shower first.” Adele said, about to undo the leather collar.
The moment her fingertips touched the lock, Lina, like a startled butterfly, “waved” her two ears at the same time.
“You can’t take it off!” she refused.
Adele’s movement paused. She tried to argue, “But… this can’t get wet, right? And it’s not convenient. I’ll be quick. I’ll be out after I’m done washing.”
Lina shook her head. It seemed she had long since anticipated this moment and had already prepared her words. Her tone was exceptionally serious. “I’ll wash you.”
“You… wash me?” Adele repeated her words, her face turning red in an instant.
This, this, this!
It was one thing for her to have no self-control, but Lina’s self-control was even less than zero. If the two of them showered together, they probably wouldn’t be able to get out of the bathroom for three hours…
“That’s not good…” Adele tried to politely refuse. She was really a little shy.
But Lina had already unbuttoned her outer garment and walked straight into the bathroom.
Adele was pulled along and also walked in.
/
“My baby finally agreed to let me see her diary. I read it from beginning to end. I saw her fear, helplessness, anger, and repentance. But I didn’t see a single word of resentment toward me.”
“But I saw a lot of her hatred for herself…”
“My baby has really suffered too much.”