by Cerise Noble
“Is there a reason you like to be beaten?”
Waves of hot and cold crashed back and forth over me. Fortuna? How do I answer that question?
I bared my teeth in a snarl. “Is there a reason you like to beat people?”
He didn't appear to be accustomed to a woman snarling at him. “We'll have philosophical discussions later. Right now you're getting the whipping you have coming to you.”
He yanked me up, and my cunt clenched. His grip was rough, and somehow that recalled all the best of my memories being a whore for rough men in Aluet. I was shoved over the table in a little room in the guard's building, and then I flinched when his sword scabbard clunked down onto the table inches from my face. Ice water in my veins, I understood exactly what that meant. He doubled up the broad leather sword belt in his fist and whipped it down. I shrieked. He didn't even pause. The leather strap was hard and heavy, and every line of fire was replaced with a throbbing welt.
I groaned and whimpered, and he completely ignored me, the rise and fall of the belt never even hesitating. I began to cry. I kicked my legs as best as I could with them bound so tightly together, and I wiggled my fingers. My chest heaving with sobs, my ass was lit on fire, while my skin prickled with the war inside my body over the desperate arousal every heavy strike engendered. I was limp with submission before he finished with me. My whole body ached, my eyes were full of tears, and my face hurt from jerking my head back and forth, bruising my cheeks on the wooden table each time I banged against it. His big hand gripped my buttock and squeezed hard. I wailed. He is far too strong, Fortuna. I can't bear it. He squeezed the other, the soreness excruciating.
“Jacqueline, come here.”
I blinked rapidly, a hitch in my crying as I realized she was there. Had she been there the whole time? Did she see my whipping? I wondered if it upset her. Turning my face to the right I saw her. She was pale and trembling, and she dropped to her knees.
“Please, master, I beg you, have mercy. My daughter is missing. Katherine is missing, sir. How would you feel if it was Jillian?”
That name. Jillian. Hm. He didn't speak, and I looked up. Fury and absolute despair clouded his face, and I realized he was close to a breakdown. She shouldn't have mentioned the name. I wasn't sure why, but he was close to either blowing up and destroying her, or destroying himself. I considered attracting his attention. He could beat me harder than he could beat her, I was certain. But I had already taken a hefty dose, and I wasn't sure I wanted to risk taking another on top of it.
As it turned out, I didn't have to. A woman with straight, dark hair stepped in front of Jacqueline. She was the same woman I'd seen on the island and had kissed before I'd run away to hide in the cellar. She wore the same sort of dress, red panels open at the sides and bound by a chain belt, and there was a chain around her throat. She winked at me, and for some reason I felt my lips stretch into a grin. She was a powerful one.
“I opened the door.”
“You did?” He wasn't stupid; he didn't believe her. But he was willing to entertain the possibility. “Why in hell would you do that?”
“I wanted to see what this one would do.” She walked around him, reached out and caressed my damp face. “You are a clever little bitch, aren't you?”
I smiled wider. Oh, Fortuna, I think I like this one. She reminded me of Madame Bon, in how powerful she felt, but while madam didn't seem to personally care for her slaves, the woman in red seemed to have a personal stake in protecting Jacqueline.
Roy slapped my ass hard—a thunderclap of pain—and I grunted, whimpering as it ricocheted against my nerves. “What the hell is she grinning about?”
The woman purred close to my face. “I think we should find out.”
He slapped my ass again, and I gasped. “And how do you propose we do that?”
Already his temper was receding in the face of the curiosity she roused. She leaned close, closer, closest, her red lips brushing mine. I closed my eyes, melting in the tenderness there, and then she bit me, hard. I jerked away as far as I could, given my bonds, and my eyes narrowed at her.
She grinned. “You know more about William than you're letting on.”
“Of course I do. You think I tell everything to one who can't even keep me in prison?”
Ah, Fortuna, save my ass, please. He resumed spanking. The belt still lay on the table, but his hand was nearly as big as one of my ass cheeks, and just as hard, if not harder, than the belt. I wailed.
Inadvertently, I remembered kissing Michala, Madame Bon's little slave, when she was bent over in this position, and the rush of shame that slammed through my chest when the woman in red kissed me nearly took my breath away. Her voice was sweet and cruel.
“Master, I think she just accused you of being negligent with your prisoners.”
The spanks increased in speed and strength, and I decided I might just hate her, after all. Of course, the juncture of my thighs was slick with desire for him and her, both.
Wouldn't you know it, Fortuna? She understood that. I felt her hot breath on my ear, and then her words sent shivers down my spine.
“Would you like for master to fuck you? Would you like my tongue to drive you mad? Don't answer yet, pretty little prisoner. All the attention in the world means only so much torment, if you aren't allowed to come.”
I grunted, and my cunt clenched. There was nothing I'd rather do than feel her tongue, feel his cock, or even his thick fingers. I moaned, wondering what would happen if I begged for it, and deciding that no matter how they tried, they wouldn't be able to keep me from enjoying an orgasm.
“Please, lady?”
How madam would laugh to see me beg now. Bitch. I remembered Aleksei, how he married her without a second glance at me, and found he had faded out of my mind. The woman in red was so much more tempting.
She laughed, a cruel laugh, and pinched my lower lip. I ran my tongue against her fingers, and she smiled at me.
“What a little wanton you are. Master, I want to play with her.”
My second spanking stopped abruptly, and I shivered with the throb in my nates and the volcano in my cunt.
His voice was rough, but he was far more in control of himself than he had been previously. “Stephanie, you still deserve a spanking for loosing her in the first place.”
“Surely you jest. She was recovered in time. She's proven the guards at this outpost are observant and quick witted.”
I heard a round murmur of approval, and realized I'd forgotten we were still in the middle of a guard building.
“You disobeyed a direct order,” he said.
“I didn't. You only ordered Jacqueline to stay away from her, not me.”
She was digging a deeper hole deliberately, and I wondered why. Though his temper seemed less uncertain now, he was dealing with a known quantity.
“You damn well know better than to let one of my prisoners loose.”
Suddenly, she was contrite. “I'm sorry, sir.”
“Gods, you're such a brat.”
She walked around the table and took her place over it, next to me. Her eyes fluttered closed, and then blinked open again. He lifted her skirt, picked up the sword belt again and began to whip her. She was just as gorgeous as Michala had been when she was spanked, but Stephanie was more so, to me. She'd walked straight into the punishment purposefully, as a way to save her—what? Lover, friend, slave, wife? I didn't know what Jacqueline was to her, but it was obvious she cared for her deeply. She grunted and clawed at the table, bucking until Roy slapped a hand on the crest of her buttocks and pressed down, forcing her hips to stay still while he whipped her with the belt.
I admired her strength. I couldn't see Jacqueline anymore, but I wondered if she realized just how much Stephanie had spared her. I lay still, watching her cry and flail and fuss, dramatic and beautiful. He whipped her systematically, and when he finished, his fury was spent. He rebuckled the sword belt around his hips, the scabbard back on it, and turned to the m
an who'd come into my cell earlier.
“Devon, Jacqueline needs a thorough spanking, as well. I don't have time to give it; I have to see what this one is about. But Jacqueline ought to know that my word is law in this House, and if she forgets it so easily, maybe it's time for her memory to be refreshed.”
Devon answered, humble and relieved. “Yes, sir. Of course.” He caught a handful of Jacqueline's hair and pulled her to standing, then they left the building.
Stephanie was weeping beside me. I stared at her tears, wondering what it would taste like to kiss her now. Her lips turned up, and then she reached for me. Her hand smudged over the tears on my cheeks, tangled in my auburn hair, and then she was sliding my face closer, sliding me closer—but that was it. We touched noses, and I made an inarticulate protest. She sneered through her tears.
Fortuna, she's a bitch like you.
Roy leaned over us, caught me by the ropes holding my arms behind my back and her by the scruff of her neck. “You two. Sit down and stay out of the way.”
He dropped us into chairs by the wall, and we both squeaked in protest at the impact of wooden seat on our roasted buttocks. The rest of the night was spend dozing in hard chairs while Roy and the more senior soldiers went into another room and discussed information, strategies, all sorts of things I usually ignored. Fortuna, I'm not much for the details. Point me at a target and let me go.
At times there was only one soldier in the first room where we were, alternatively keeping one eye on the gate and one on us. When he wasn't watching, I leaned on Stephanie, and she permitted me to do so. Gradually I sank lower and lower until my head was pillowed on her thigh. I can smell her arousal, Fortuna. And she was stroking my hair.
“Such beautiful hair for a terrible brat.”
I wasn't sure if she intended me to hear the murmur or not, but I answered, anyway. “I'm not a brat. I'm a soldier.”
“Oh?”
I wanted to shock her, scare her. “I kill.”
She continued to stroke my hair. “That's nice.”
I knew she did it on purpose, but it needled and made me angry. I twisted away from her, but it was difficult in my trusses. She tugged me back down to her lap and tightened a fist in my hair. Her voice beside my ear was savage.
“Keep a mind on who and where you kill, or you'll find yourself on the wrong side of a blade.”
I snarled back. “I have kept a mind, thank you very much. I swore to William I would not harm a one of your citizens, and I have not!”
She yanked on my hair to focus my attention, and I whimpered. “Good. Keep it that way, or you'll have more than William to contend with.”
“Who could be worse to disappoint than William?”
“Tobin. Roy. Me.”
I half-shrugged, intending it to pique her this time. “What could you do to me?”
She chuckled, a nasty sort of sound. “You obviously don't know me.”
Fortuna, why does that send even the tiniest thrill of fear through my spine? And why does that, in turn, arouse me?
The night wore on, and eventually we both slept, leaning on each other like puppies. The dawn light gradually shone in my eyes, and I flinched, startling her awake. We pushed away from each other.
I hurt. No one had released my limbs yet, and I was afraid they'd lose circulation if it lasted much longer.
“Stephanie?”
“What?”
“My hands are cold.”
She frowned at me and began checking the pulse points. “Your hands feel fine to me.”
“Please? I'm so stiff.”
She nodded, and began unfastening me. The newest soldier at the post found himself watching us as she painstakingly untied one knot. Then, impatient, she removed a blade from an inside pocket and cut the ropes the rest of the way. He cleared his throat when the bits hit the floor.
“Please, uh, Stephanie? I don't know if you uh, were aware, but the prisoner is not to be allowed a chance to escape.”
She glared at him. “She won't.”
The hell I won't, Fortuna.
Chapter 8
She told me to stay put when food was brought to the guardhouse, and I obeyed. Fortuna would see to the turning of the wheel. I ate the porridge with fruit and nuts, grateful for her generosity in both feeding me well and leaving me unbound. The guard kept sneaking glances at me. The tunic they had originally given me in the dungeon was soft and worn, and as such clung to my curves. Every once in a while his eyes widened in appreciation of Stephanie, but there was circumspection there that wasn't in his looks at me. Interesting.
She stood close to the guard. “Make sure Marri stays put while I go check on our master.”
He glanced at me. “Of course.”
She went into the other room, and I stretched, slowly, deliberately. My ankles were still locked together, but my arms were free again. The young man eyed my tits as they pressed against the tunic.
I smiled sweetly at him. “Can I sit closer to you?”
“Uh, sure.”
He patted the chair beside him. Fortuna, that's a green soldier as will get a whipping when Stephanie realizes how quickly he forgot her instruction, if she actually has the power to order him. I wonder if she does?
“Thank you.” I sat next to him and looked out the window. “Roy wields a nasty belt, doesn't he?”
“I, uh, wouldn't know.”
“Well, he does.”
I squirmed for emphasis, and his eyes were drawn to the tops of my thighs, visible under the tunic's short hem, and to the dull red marks where the belt had partially wrapped around from the back to the sides of my thighs. I leaned back, pretending I didn't notice his eyes following the curve of my inner thighs when I propped one bare foot on the ledge under the window. He stood up and began to pace, carefully checking out each of the windows. I stayed put, leaning back in the chair and sinking into the continuous throb in my ass and legs. It was more than enough to keep my arousal level high, and I wondered what it would be like to be fucked by Roy. He was big, heavily muscled, and solid. I wondered if his cock would follow suit or contrast. It was hard to know; some did, some didn't.
I found myself fantasizing about Stephanie's mouth, the way her cruel smile turned me on. And then I sat up straight and gave myself a shake. I am not here for my pleasure, Fortuna. I'm here for the betterment of the House. Stephanie hadn't come out yet. I wondered why Roy had spent the night here, when there was an army practically on their doorstep.
And then I saw them. A pair of enemy scouts moved stealthily though the forest. The guard was eying my thighs again. I opened my mouth to warn him, but then I saw the strangest thing.
There was movement to the scouts’ flanks. They were extremely hard to see, so difficult I hadn't noticed them the entire time I'd been watching out the window, not until they started moving. I stood up and leaned close to the window, and then the guard noticed, also. He grinned, pride in his people suffusing his expression.
“It is rare to see them in action.”
“Who?”
“Watch.”
As we watched, the silent ones came closer to the scouts, and before either scout could shout a warning, they were dead. Most of the action played out behind the trees, and I longed to have a better view. The silent ones faded into the forest again, and even I couldn't track them. I breathed a sigh of awe and pleasure.
“How many of them are there?” I said, and he shrugged. “Your master must have a most deft touch, to command such ones.”
“He does.”
“What are their orders?”
“To kill any enemy scouts that pass within a certain space of our territory.”
Hm, Fortuna. I wonder what they think of me. I've been passing quite often through the outskirts of their territory.
Stephanie returned. “Blake! I told you to make sure she stays put!”
He grimaced. “I'm keeping an eye on her.”
“She's not one of ours, not yet. She shouldn't be see
ing things, listening to things that don't concern those who aren't part of our House.”
“I am not your enemy,” I said.
She caught my jaw and tightened her nails into my skin until I winced. “That remains to be seen.”
“It's been seen! I could have killed dozens of yours by now.”
“And you'd be dead, yourself. What would have been the point?”
“I would not be dead.”
My certain tone belied the creeping curiosity as to whether or not I really would have survived this long, not knowing about his silent ones.
She snorted. “Get her ass back to the dungeon.”
Blake looked around. “My lunch relief is in another hour. I'll take her myself, then, or I can call for someone else if you want her gone now.”
“Take her yourself when you’re relieved.”
Fortuna, I was hoping she'd say so.
“Sure thing.”
She swept out.
For a long time, Blake and I sat watching the quiet forest. I found ways to move closer to him until we sat with our thighs touching. I wondered what Roy was doing in the inner room, but my first priority was escape. I began to lean on the young man, my hair tickling his face when I rested against him.
He touched my shoulder. “Marri, why don't you just surrender? Become one of ours? I could look out for you, if you did. If you don't, you'll be run through the regular system, and one of the judges will decide what happens to you, whether you'll stay here, or be sold, or what.”
I looked up at him through my lashes. “You would do that for me, Blake?”
He blushed, my breath on his warm skin. “Yes. I would like to do that, very much.”
I looked down. “I didn't think anyone would want to care for me. I have been alone for so very long.”
He touched my chin, and lifted my eyes to his, then his lips brushed mine. I felt my libido stir. He was no governor, but he was available, and he wanted me. I reached for him, running my fingers through his thick hair, and then I shifted towards him, swung my knee over his and straddled his lap. The cuffs on my ankles kept me perched precariously, so I leaned forward to keep from pressing too hard on his thighs. I purred against his jaw and then fitted myself against his chest.