Chapter 423: 423. Of Course! It’s Going To Hurt, But She Deserves For What She Did To Me!**

Rex saw the turmoil in her eyes, but he didn’t see submission yet. That flicker of defiance in her gaze, the way she glared back at him despite the tears pricking her lids, only stoked the embers of his resentment.

He wasn’t finished with her. He wasn’t anywhere near done extracting the toll for her interference.

"Still thinking? Still analyzing?" Rex growled, his voice vibrating through his chest and into hers. "Just stop thinking at this point, hahaha!"

"Better start feeling the consequence of your tongue."

He suddenly shifted his weight, his hands moving from her breasts down to the sensitive skin of her thighs. Without warning, he delivered a sharp, stinging slap to her inner thigh.

SMACK.

"Nggghhh...!" Mireya gasped, her body jerking. "Rex! That’s..."

"...that’s unnecessary!" she hissed, trying to twist her hips away from him.

"Unnecessary?" Rex barked a dry, humorless laugh. "Everything you did tonight was unnecessary, bitch!"

"Your suspicions, your little investigation, your attempts to paint me as a villain to the whole group... all of it was a waste of time that led you straight to this floor."

SMACK.

Another blow landed, harder this time, right on the tender skin of her hip.

"Ow! Damn it, stop!" Mireya struggled, her hands clawing at his forearms, trying to pry his heavy limbs off her.

She wouldn’t let him see her crumble, but she forced her jaw tight, maintaining a wall of icy resolve even as her skin burned. "You’re acting like a child throwing a tantrum!"

"Am I?!" Rex’s eyes darkened.

"How’s this then?!" He moved his hand lower, targeting the swell of her labia through the thin scrap of lace.

SMACK.

The sound of skin meeting skin was loud in the soundproofed room.

"Aggghhnnn!" Mireya let out a strangled cry, her toes curling into the rug.

The sting was sharp, localized, and incredibly intimate. "Rex... please... that’s... you shouldn’t..."

"Shouldn’t what, huh, you fucking bitch!?"

"Punish the woman who tried to dismantle my reputation?" He didn’t slow down.

His hand became a blur of motion, delivering rapid, stinging slaps to her most private folds.

SMACK. SMACK. SMACK.

Each impact sent waves of stinging heat through her groin, mingling with the involuntary throbs of arousal that she desperately tried to suppress. She fought him with everything she had, her legs kicking feebly against his thighs, her torso twisting as she tried to shield herself.

"You wanted the truth, Mireya!" Rex shouted over her protests, his strikes becoming more frequent, more forceful. "You wanted to know who was behind the calculations?!"

"Well, surprise, you fucking bitch! Here he is! The man himself!" Rex laughed. "He’s the man who’s going to make you regret every word you whispered in the shadows!"

SMACK.

A particularly heavy blow landed squarely on her clitoris, hidden beneath the lace.

Mireya arched her back violently, a loud, broken moan escaping her lips. Tears finally spilled over, hot and stinging, as she fought the urge to wrap her legs around him and beg for mercy.

She refused to give him the satisfaction of a total breakdown. She gripped his biceps, her nails digging into his muscle, her face contorted in a mixture of fury and sensory overload.

"Go ahead..." she breathed, her voice trembling but defiant. "Hit me... call me names... but don’t you dare think... you’ve won... just because you can bruise my skin!"

Rex grinned, a predator seeing his prey bleed. "Oh, we’re just getting started, Princess."

"We haven’t even gotten to the real punishment yet."

The relentless staccato of slaps against her most sensitive skin finally broke the dam of her stoic defense. The stinging heat, combined with the overwhelming weight of his body and the sheer indignity of the situation, caused Mireya’s composure to shatter.

The fierce glare in her eyes softened into a watery, pleading desperation. "Ggghhh...!"

"I’m sorry!" she sobbed, the words tumbling out of her mouth as she shook under his hands. "Rex, please... I’m sorry!"

"I was wrong... the accusations, the doubt... it was all misplaced! Please, just stop... it hurts..."

Tears streamed down her temples, soaking into the floor beneath her. She looked up at him, her face flushed and tear-stained, her pride momentarily eclipsed by the visceral need for the onslaught to cease.

Instead of softening, Rex erupted into a dark, guttural laugh. It wasn’t a laugh of amusement but one of mockery, a sound that chilled her more than his anger ever had.

"HAHAHAHAHA...!!!"

"You’re feeling sorry now?!?" Rex repeated his words, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he slowed the slapping motion but didn’t pull his hand away. "But why...?"

"You’re just doing your thing, right...? No need to say sorry when it’s too late."

"You think ’sorry’ fixes the damage?"

"You think a few tears wash away the poison you were spreading?"

"You realized your mistake only because you felt the sting of my hand, not because you actually understood your folly."

He leaned in closer, his breath hot against her damp cheek. "It’s too late for apologies, Mireya."

"Apologies are for people who have a choice."

"Right now, you don’t have a choice... You only have the consequences."

He didn’t let her recover. Reaching down, he grabbed her wrists with a firm, uncompromising grip.

Since they were both on the floor, he hauled her upper body upward, forcing her to shift positions. He maneuvered her with brute strength, pulling her onto his lap.

He turned her around so that she was sitting astride him but facing away from him, her back pressed against his rock-hard chest, her rear resting heavily on his thighs.

’It’s too late... I-if this goes on, I will be forced to go naked...’ Mireya thought. ’I need to calm down and think...!’

Mireya gasped as she was repositioned, her arms pinned awkwardly by his grasp, leaving her vulnerable and unable to see his expression. She could feel the heat of his massive chest against her spine and the intimidating presence of him looming behind her.

"There," Rex muttered, his voice low and venomous near her ear. "Now you can face the world you tried to manipulate, even if you can’t see the man holding you captive."

He leaned forward, his chin resting on her shoulder, his lips brushing the shell of her ear as he began to whisper insults that cut deeper than his slaps.

"And what about your precious Apollo?" Rex sneered, the name sounding like a curse in his mouth. "Is he worth all of this?"

"Is he worth the lies you nearly told?" 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"You pretend to protect him, to guide him, but you’re just using him as a shield for your own insecurities."

"You’re so busy playing the martyr for his sake that you didn’t notice you were walking straight into a trap of your own making."

Mireya flinched, her shoulders trembling. "Don’t... don’t speak of him like that..."

"Why not? It’s the truth, isn’t it?" Rex chuckled darkly, his hands sliding around her waist to squeeze her ribs. "You and Apollo... two sides of the same coin."

"One plays the saint, and the other plays the skeptic."

"Both of you are so wrapped up in your roles, your ’Academy prestige,’ that you forgot how fragile everything is."

"You thought you could poke at me, test my limits, and then tuck yourselves safely back into your ivory towers."

"But the tower is falling, Mireya. And you’re the one buried in the rubble."

He tightened his grip on her waist, pulling her back flush against him so she could feel every inch of his unrelenting fury. "You’re not a savior. You’re just a girl who lost her footing, and now you’re going to pay the interest on your debt."

Rex wasn’t satisfied with verbal degradation; he wanted her to feel the physical manifestation of his contempt. Suddenly, he wrapped his thick, powerful arms around her middle from behind.

He didn’t embrace her like a lover, but he clamped his arms around her stomach with a brutal, suffocating roughness, squeezing her midsection as if he were trying to crush the very breath from her lungs.

"Ugh! Rex... stop... it’s too tight!" Mireya gasped, her abdomen compressing painfully under his iron grip.

She felt the air leave her lungs, the pressure making her vision swim for a fleeting second. She tried to lean forward to alleviate the pressure, but he only tightened his hold, anchoring her firmly against his massive frame.

"Tighten up, Mireya," he growled against her neck. "This is what happens when you try to squeeze the life out of my reputation."

"Now you get to feel it yourself."

While keeping her pinned with his arms around her waist, he brought his hands upward. His large palms migrated from her ribs to her chest, seizing her breasts with a renewed ferocity.

Even though the delicate lace of her bra provided a thin layer of protection, his grip was so overwhelming that she could feel the structure of the garment straining against the sheer volume of her flesh. He squeezed them upwards and inwards, molding them with a dominant, punishing force.

"Please... s-stop it... enough with this!" Mireya cried out, her voice strained as she fought the dual sensations of her bruised stomach and her tormented chest.

She reached back blindly, her hands grasping at his muscular forearms, trying to pry his fingers loose. "You’re hurting me! Rex, seriously, stop!"

"Hurting you?" Rex mocked, his fingers digging even deeper into the soft mounds, catching the underside of her breasts and hoisting them with a jarring jerk. "We haven’t even begun to cause actual pain."

"You’re far too resilient for that, aren’t you, Princess?"