“Don’t move,” she reminded him. She rested her cheek on the back of one of his hands, and tipped the bottle of oil, pouring a bit more. As she let the lubricant dribble from the bottle, she pressed the tip of her finger inside. The oil followed.
Hot.
So hot.
He tightened around her finger, an instinctive resistance to the intimate invasion.
She used sharp edge of her teeth on his inner thigh, right next to his heavy balls.
He jumped, startled from her bite, and relaxed his muscles.
She slipped the small device she’d retrieved into his anus.
Immediately, he tightened, but it was too late. The small anal egg was in.
Riana sat up and patted his butt.
“Mistress, may I speak?”
“You may.”
“What the Krel is that?”
A chuckle slipped out. “That, is an amordildo. Unlike other anal eggs, once inside the body it expands to fit the wearer.”
He stiffened.
She patted his butt again. “Don’t worry. Not in an uncomfortable way.” She grinned. “But you will definitely feel its presence.” Unable to resist, she tugged on one of several small chains attached to the egg resting in the crack between the cheeks of his ass.
He jolted, a tremor running the full length of his spine.
She gave another, lighter tug, loving the way his buttocks clenched and released and his shoulders twitched. “These remain outside your body.”
“What,” he licked his lips and started again. “What…? I mean, it feels like every nerve in my body is being shocked.”
“Does it hurt?” She tugged on a different chain, already knowing the answer.
His body arched. “No,” he moaned. “Feels good.”
“Each chain is a different length and at the end of each chain is a small sensor that resonates to a person’s bio signature.” She leaned down and nipped the curve of his ass. “Your bio signature. It’s designed to tease with varying pulses of energy, never bringing you to culmination but on the edge of it.”
“You mean it’s designed to torture,” he ground out, his hips flexing on the soft, burgundy carpet.
“Exactly.” She smiled against the heavy muscle then sat up. She gave his luscious ass a swat. “You may turn over and open your eyes.”
He turned and settled carefully onto his back, avoiding her gaze by covering his eyes with his arm.
Riana chuckled. She probably should make him quit hiding and face her, but she decided he’d had enough unusual experiences for one afternoon.
Besides, the fifteen minutes were nearly up.
She gathered her clothes and began dressing, unable to sneak a peek at Darias. He was on the floor, one muscular arm still flung across his eyes, his flagrant erection reaching almost to his bellybutton.
“I have to leave. Stay here as long as you need. I’ll leave orders that no one disturbs you.”
He didn’t speak, but his lips tightened.
Riana knew just how he felt. Moisture slipped down the inside of her thighs and it was all she could do not to squeeze her legs together. Putting the oil back in the desk drawer, she saw the soft leather folded inside. She fingered it. In the back of her mind was the half-formed thought to give it to Darias. She shook her head decisively. No, she wanted the time to enjoy his reaction. And his appreciation.
Hand on the doorknob, she said, “Wait for me in our chamber. I’ll be there as soon as I can get away. And, Darias?” His chest stilled as he waited for her to continue. “All I want you wearing is your skin.”
* * * * *
Bryta cornered Riana as she started up the winding staircase several hours later. Her head throbbed. She was in no mood for any more crises. She’d settled a dispute between two women—each insisting they had sole right to the same man—before it came to actual bloodshed. The man in question had been quite smug over the fact that women were fighting over him until he realized both harbored some very significant grudges, and then he’d been glad to have Riana decree that neither woman owned him. He’d gone, displaying amazing gratitude, with Jayna, Riana’s new captain of the guards.
Then there had been bickering over whose house sat closest to the Supreme Chief’s chair during the meeting Riana had hastily called in regards to Trinearia’s insistence on continuing trade negotiations. After that had come the meeting with Myrta. Riana pinched the bridge of her nose between two fingers. Zethra. That woman was a born trader.
Riana rubbed her temples and waited impatiently for Bryta to catch up. “Whatever it is, can’t it wait until morning? It’s after two in the morning and I’m tired.” And Darias was waiting in their chamber.
“What in Quaral’s name did you do to Darias? Punish him outside your chambers?” Bryta sounded scandalized as she stopped directly in front of her.
“Of course not.” With a hard stab of guilt, she remembered the day she forced him to present himself in the office. It took a considerable force of will to subdue the flush that tried to stain her cheeks.
“You did something to him. I saw Darias and Gaith speaking outside your office. It was obvious he was in,” she paused delicately, “some discomfort. Discomfort that wasn’t there when he went into your office.”
Riana sighed as she realized what had the other woman so agitated. She glanced about and realized they couldn’t have any privacy where they were. She sighed and, taking the blonde by the arm, steered her back down the stairs and into the office. Once inside, she shut the door behind them. Motioning to the scroll-backed chair in front of the desk, she made her way to her own chair, casting a longing glance at the spot where she and Darias had started to make love. Seated, she leaned back and eyed her friend. “Bryta, let me ask you something. It’s personal,” she warned.
“You may ask what you like. You’re my Supreme Chief,” Bryta said, her straight back, telling Riana loud and clear that she was not about to be easily mollified.
“I’m not asking as the Supreme Chief, I’m asking as your friend.” Riana rubbed her eyes and wished she was in bed with Darias. “Do you enjoy sex with Gaith?”
The blonde’s face turned fiery red.
“I don’t mean to embarrass you,” she hurried to assure her friend. “It’s just that I’ve not noticed any particular,” she hesitated, searching for the right word, “closeness between the men and women here in Nexar.”
Bryta cleared her throat and studied her locked fingers. “I enjoy sex the nights after punishing Gaith.” She peeked at Riana from between her lashes.
“Not any other time?” Dismay and sadness for her friend lodged in Riana’s throat.
The blonde shook her head. “No. Once or twice, while I was still Gaith’s woman, I almost did. But then Gaith would finish and I’d be left more frustrated than before.”
Her blush deepened until Riana wondered that it didn’t scald the other woman’s cheeks.
“What do you mean about closeness?”
“On most worlds sex, or making love, is something to cherish and anticipate. For men and women.”
Bryta looked astonished. “You’re joking. Women actually look forward to that?”
“That,” Riana confirmed dryly, “is not usually associated with punishment. Until I came here, sex was joyous.”
“You’ve had other lovers?” Awe echoed in her voice.
“That’s not the point. My point is the men of Nexar have mucked up a perfectly natural act.” She drummed her fingers on the desk as she considered how to go about righting the situation. The running of the country-state and her battle of wills with Darias had consumed all of her time and her plans to educate the women of Nexar had somehow fallen by the wayside.
Well, it was time she remedied that.
Riana leaned down and opened a drawer in her desk. She’d gotten some items out of the hold of the Midnight Mischief after her encounter this afternoon with Darias, hoping to entice him into trying them out. That was after the nooning meal and be
fore she had to deal with another petty squabble between two houses.
One by one, she began putting the items in the drawer on the desk.
Bryta’s eyes opened wider and wider at the obvious use of some of the articles.
Riana smothered a grin, not wanting her friend to think she was laughing at her.
Bryta touched a long string of metallic spheres with a tentative finger.
Riana got the feeling if she yelled “Boo”, she’d have to scrape the other woman off the ceiling.
“What are these?”
“Wa’Shin balls. They can be used for men or women. They vibrate, enhancing pleasure.”
Bryta’s mouth dropped open in a perfect O. She closed it with a snap. “You don’t mean you… I mean, you aren’t telling me that you put them…” She shook her head.
Riana nodded solemnly. “That’s exactly what I mean. Here,” she tossed the Wa’Shin balls toward Bryta. “Try them. You might even want to let Gaith experience them.”
“And this? What is this for?” Her shyness forgotten, Bryta sat forward, prodding a squat glass jar containing a thick blob of gel.
“It’s goldjel. It shapes itself to the man and pleasures him.”
“You mean it’s alive,” she yipped, yanking her hand back.
“Don’t worry,” Riana soothed, “goldjel is harmless. If you’re uncomfortable with it, why don’t you choose something else? Perhaps, the sonic nipple clamps or…” She held up an iridescent blue-and-green feather. “This. Go on,” she encouraged, “experiment.”
“Oh, I couldn’t. I wouldn’t know how.” But she cast a longing glance at the array on the desk.
“I’ll tell you a secret.” Riana leaned over the desk and lowered her voice. “Use the same repertoire as when you punish Gaith, only instead of taking the suppressant and remaining detached, participate. Bring both yourselves to fulfillment.”
“Are you sure it’s allowed? I mean, isn’t it forbidden?” She looked torn.
A smile curved Riana’s lips because she knew then that half the battle was won.
“It was. Under the men. However, the men are no longer in charge. I don’t see why we can’t change things to suit ourselves. Do you?”
A slow smile of agreement spread over the other woman’s face. “You’re right. You are absolutely right. We now run Nexar. We can invent a new custom if we wish. Zethra knows, they didn’t hesitate to invent a new rule whenever it suited them.” She took a deep breath. “You weren’t punishing Darias, were you?”
“No,” Riana confirmed gently, “I wasn’t.”
“Did he mind? Outside of the bedchamber, I mean.” Her face turned almost painfully red.
“No, I don’t think so, but I let the choice be his. He had to agree or I would have stopped.” Riana didn’t intend to say more. Some things were private between a man and a woman.
Awareness crept into Bryta’s eyes, and she nodded. The small, fragile-looking woman stood, hesitated a moment and then scooped up the Wa’Shin balls, the sonic nipple clamps and reached for the container of goldjel but paused, hand in midair. “Are you sure you want me to have these? They are yours.”
Riana waved her hand. “Take them. I have a whole hold full of such things. You know,” she said slowly, as the thought came to her, “you might even consider starting a new business with me. After all, I have a hold full of cargo and Nexar has a country-state full of new clientele. Why shouldn’t we go into business together? Just think of the possibilities,” she urged.
An intrigued expression flashed across the other woman’s face.
“I’ll consider the suggestion.” Bryta paused at the office door and threw an impish smile over her shoulder. “Tomorrow.”
“Bryta?” She waited until she turned back and threw her second-most favorite novel to her friend. “Here. Read this. It might give you some ideas.”
Bryta caught it. She glanced uncertainly at Riana before she opened the book and skimmed it. Riana thought the other woman couldn’t get any redder. She was wrong.
“People write about this?” Bryta squeaked.
“Uh-huh. Quite popular too,” she said in what she thought was a masterful understatement.
Bryta read some more, muttering. “How can that be possible? I don’t believe it.” Nose still buried in the book, she groped for the door handle.
“Bryta, wait.” Riana waited until she had her full attention. “You don’t have any problem reading it?” Somewhat belatedly, it had occurred to Riana that the other woman shouldn’t have been able to translate the old text.
Bryta paused as if unsure how she should take the question. Finally, one slender shoulder lifted in a shrug. “It’s somewhat archaic but not so different from the high language our priests use that I can’t make it out.” She glanced back down at the book. “Umm, if there isn’t anything else—”
Riana waved. “No, go ahead.” More and more she was convinced this was the ancestral planet.
Bryta, taking her at her word, tucked the book close against her chest and scurried out the door.
Well, there was no going back now. She put the rest of the toys back in the sample case and headed for the Midnight Mischief. For better or ill, she had now set things in motion.
Chapter Thirteen
Darias spun about on one heel and confronted Riana when she opened the heavy door to the bedchamber. His face was strained.
“You lied to me.”
Riana tossed the small bag in her hand onto a chair and rested one shoulder against the door, surveying him wearily. It was clear he was furious.
“How, exactly, did I lie to you?” She really was too tired for this. With Darias, it was one tiny step forward and then a giant leap back.
“You told me that what happened in the office wasn’t about punishment. What would you call it, if not punishment, to leave me unfulfilled? In front of my warriors?” A muscle jerked rapidly in his cheek.
“Bad timing?” She gave a slow smile as it sank in why he was enraged. “And so will you before the night is over.”
He stared at her as if she had lost her mind. Riana was beginning to wonder the same thing. Zethra, she was slow. With the history between them, she should have expected this. Straightening away from the door, she removed her cloak, tossing it on the end of the bed.
His expression turned distinctly wary.
She sighed inaudibly. It occurred to her that nothing she had said earlier this afternoon had made a lasting impression on Darias.
One step at a time, she reminded herself, it would take one step at a time before she could ever hope to win his trust.
“I’m sorry you thought that. That was never my intention.” She touched the tips of her fingers to the pulse throbbing in the side of his neck.
He flinched and turned his face away.
“No? The first time you punished me, you made certain my shame was paraded before all. Today you made certain everyone knew I had been called into my…your office and then you aroused me until I couldn’t think straight and put that…thing in me. You left me in that condition for all to see.”
The sheer raw power in the low words raised the hair on the back of her neck. But it was the pain buried beneath the harsh whisper that caused her heart to ache.
“Darias, I’m sorry.” She cupped his cheek in her palm and slowly, steadily turned it toward her.
His eyes were shuttered but betrayal radiated out from every pore of his being.
“Truly I am. I wouldn’t have left you if my duties hadn’t intruded. I admit I had a plan, but it had nothing to do with humiliating you.”
His expression remained unyielding.
She drew a deep breath, hoping to loosen the knot in her chest. She had to get him to believe her. While she loved being able to make Darias submit in the bedchamber against his deeply ingrained instinct to dominate every situation, she gained the most satisfaction from the knowledge that he wanted it as much as she did. If she couldn’t convince him of the truth of h
er words, something infinitely valuable would be gone from their relationship.
“Look, when you first captured me, you made no secret of the fact that you had punished me. When you punished me in the garden, you demanded I come to you in the Great Hall. The clothes you forced me to wear hid nothing of my state and the ordeal I’d suffered. You wanted everyone to know I’d been punished as a further humiliation and as a warning not to transgress again. You made sure that the women knew I’d been punished. A way to keep them in line, but you also made sure your warriors knew. Proof that you could keep your slave in line.” She rubbed her thumb over his bottom lip.
“I think I hated you then. I know I wanted to kill you. Instead I decided to reverse our roles. You were to suffer everything at my hands that I had suffered at yours. Including the complete and devastating knowledge that while I couldn’t control my response, you were indifferent.”
“That was a mistake. The practice should never have been instituted,” he said, his voice tight.
The frank admission surprised Riana. “You mean that?”
“Yes. I…realized the first night in the garden just what kind of damage the suppressant caused.”
She drew his bottom lip down, rubbing the pad of her thumb over the soft interior. “Progress. If you can admit that, then you should also be able to admit that you suffered no more at my hands than women have suffered at the hands of the men of Nexar for centuries. I stayed within Nexarian rules when punishing you. The rules of Nexar men and the rules of their Supreme Chief. Well, part of the time anyway.” She tried a small smile.
His expression never lightened.
“Those rules were never meant to apply to men,” he ground out, eyes blazing pure gold.
“And they never should have been applied to women,” Riana snapped back, anger getting the better of her for a moment. “I don’t know what they were meant to accomplish in the beginning, but I do know that over the years they evolved into a practice no woman could hope to live up to. Any transgression, even the smallest, was punished. And to make it worse, transgressions were whatever the man decided they were. The woman had no way of protecting herself. The man, on the other hand, had absolute power. The system corrupted the relationship between men and women. Haven’t you ever wondered why the men of Nexar make rules women can’t help but break? That maybe, just maybe, it has something to do with the fact that the full experience of sex is reserved for punishment.”
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