I squeezed my eyes tightly shut and listened as Luca, Kai and Rex got their things together and set off, back the way we had come, towards the greener slopes where they could hunt for food. Once I was sure they had gone, I opened my eyes a crack, peering through my eyelashes. There was Taka, just a lump under a dark cloak that rose and fell with his steady breathing. Was he asleep? He sounded asleep. I waited what felt like a very long time, listening to his rhythmic breathing and watching for any sign that he might still be awake. Cautiously, I reached out for a small stone lying near me and threw it so it rattled against the rocks. No reaction from Taka.
Now, I moved fast. Rex had tied me tightly to a nearby rock, but I had little fingers and had always been good with knots. It only took a minute or so for me to free myself. Of course, my hands were still bound together and I had no way of undoing that knot, but that was a problem that could wait until I had put some distance between me and my captors.
With frequent glances back at Taka as I went, I ran on uphill, making for the rockier areas – impassable by horse and filled with good places to hide. Everything Taka had said had been true, of course; I was in the middle of nowhere with no friends and no idea where home lay, with dangers surrounding me.
On the other hand, I was free. I might never get another chance to get away from these men and back home, and getting back home was all that mattered to me. Where was the use in being alive if I couldn’t hug my parents and tell them I was safe? If I never saw Bren and my friends again?
I clambered further into the crags, struggling to keep my balance as my bound hands made my escape a rather ungainly one. As the route became steeper, my inability to use my hands became a more serious issue and I stopped on a little plateau of bare rock to fix the problem before it became a fatal one. I had come a reasonable way now, and gone deep into the maze of gullies, boulder fields and cliffs – the men weren’t finding me any time soon.
Skirting around the cliff wall, I soon found what I was looking for; a ridge of sharp rock, worn to an edge by wind and rain. I began to work my leather bonds against it and was delighted to see the leather start to fray almost immediately.
The bonds broke and I unwound the length of leather from around my wrists, rubbing at the raw skin where they had dug in. Now, I could be on my way. I turned around and gave a startled cry at what I saw behind me.
The cave bear had probably been there awhile, snuffling around for something to eat. But my cry clearly startled it as much as it had startled me, now it reared up onto its hind legs, towering at least eight feet. Its eyes narrowed as it looked at me and it let loose a bloodcurdling roar.
I couldn’t help myself; I screamed back.
The bear snarled, dropped back onto all fours, and lumbered towards me. I had seen cave bears before in the crags near my home, but usually from a distance – they had never looked this big. The only one I had seen close up was a big male that had wandered down to take a closer look at our village. The men had gone out to drive it off and Bren and I – though we had been strictly forbidden from going out – sneaked out to watch. It had been huge, but nothing like this. It was not just tall, it was broad – heavy-set – its paws seeming to pound the ground as it came at me. Its jaws were parted and I saw jagged yellow teeth framing a red maw, its slathering tongue trailing drool as it ran. An ugly scar cut across its snout, below the small black eyes, rimmed in red that stared at me with hatred.
I knew I had to run, but I just stood there, frozen to the spot. I’d never been so afraid in all my life.
“Get back!”
As the bear seemed almost on me, a rock hit it, bouncing off its thick skull and clattering on the ground. The bear swung its massive head about and I looked in the same direction to see Taka scrambling down from the rocks. He hurled another stone, this one landing at the bear’s feet but with force enough to make it shuffle back, grunting in angered bemusement. Taka ran across the plateau towards the bear, brandishing his spear and yelling, urging the beast back, drawing its attention away from me.
Now that I was no longer in immediate danger, I found my legs were working again and started to edge back away from the animal, which showed no sign of going anywhere.
Banging the hard ground with the butt end of his spear, Taka put himself between me and the bear. “Go on. Get out of here.”
The bear growled and swatted at the spear with a paw bigger than my head. With lightning fast movements, Taka twitched his spear out of the bear’s reach and brought the wooden shaft down sharply on the back of the paw. This seemed to infuriate the bear and it swiped again, only to get the same treatment. Again it tried, and again Taka was too fast, this time following up the blow to the paw with a sharp rap on the animal’s snout. That was enough for the bear, it growled fiercely and reared up on its hind legs once more, seeming even bigger to me now as it managed to dwarf Taka. Yet, he still did not take even half a step back, determined not to show any fear. The bear roared down into Taka’s face, and received another rap on its snout in reply. The startled animal took a step back and then, seeming to decide that it was done taking shit from some insignificant human, lashed out at Taka, first one paw, then the other, claws bared.
The shaft of his spear spun in Taka’s skilled hands, blocking first one paw then the other. He dropped to one knee to avoid another slash and planted the butt of his weapon into the bear’s belly, pushing the big animal backwards. The bear roared again, in frustration as much as anything, as if Taka was a mosquito buzzing about its head. It lunged at Taka, jaws wide, but the staff of the spear caught it under the chin, shutting its mouth before shoving it back again, this time with a blow to the chest.
“Go on.” Taka urged the animal back, taking a step forward each time the bear lost ground, the spear spinning in his hands, a blur of wood and metal before the bear’s eyes, confusing it.
Without warning, the spear suddenly came out of its spin, the butt landing in quick succession on the bear’s snout, chest and hind paw, coming down hard and forcing the animal back onto all fours. It swung its head a moment, shifting weight from side to side, torn between anger and bewilderment, the latter finally winning out. With an irritated grunt, the bear wheeled about and lumbered off, glancing back at Taka with an expression on its face that seemed to say ‘what just happened?’.
Taka took another step forwards, making sure that the bear did not slow down in its tactical retreat, then, as the creature vanished off into the rocks, he stepped back again, relaxing and letting the spear rest on the ground.
“Poor thing,” he murmured.
“Poor thing?” I could barely believe what I was hearing. “How about poor me?”
“She was…”
“That was a she?”
“A female defending her cubs,” Taka clarified, taking the bear’s part the same way he had taken mine against Luca. Sucker for an underdog.
But I was in no mood. “I was just minding my own business and the damn thing attacked me. I don’t care who she’s defending. Aren’t you going to go after her?”
“Why?” When you were on the other side of this argument, then Taka’s easy responses could be quite infuriating.
“Next time it attacks someone, they might not be lucky enough to have a man with a spear come to their rescue.” I didn’t really want him to kill the poor animal, I knew that wasn’t right, I was just so angry with how casual Taka was being about the whole thing. But even when he was irritating me, I couldn’t help noticing how very handsome he was. He had turned up to save me like a white knight, and had insisted on doing so without hurting a dumb animal. How could anyone fail to be attracted to a man like that?
Taka shook his head. “Everyone wants me to kill something today. I’m not punishing the bear for protecting its young. It’s done nothing wrong. You, on the other hand.”
As he spoke, Taka’s hand snaked out to grab my wrist, holding me fast. He set his spear to one side and sat down on a convenient boulder, dragging me with him, twistin
g me as he did so and pulling me to lie face down across his lap.
Chapter 5
I squealed in shock as Taka yanked my skirt up, baring my ass to the cool mountain air. Surely he wouldn’t. I was twenty years old, far too big for this kind of punishment. But such comforting thoughts were short-lived as Taka’s hand descended on my bum with a report that echoed about our rocky surroundings, his broad palm flattening the rounded cheeks. I bit my lip, forcing myself not to cry out as Taka’s hand came down for a second time, just as hard and finding the exact same spot as his first smack. Suddenly, the cold of the mountains wasn’t enough to cool my burning backside and I struggled, trying to get away.
Taka pulled my arm sharply up into the small of my back, pinning me down. “Take your punishment and you’ll get twelve. Try to get away from it and I’ll make it twenty-four.”
There was, in any case, no way for me to escape Taka’s strength and I resolved myself to my fate, lying as still as I was able across his lap as numbers three, four and five landed with pinpoint accuracy and metronomic timing on my burning bottom. Taka spanked me the same way he did everything – calm, collected, unemotional. He wasn’t angry, as so many of the people who spanked me in my youth had been, he wasn’t taking out his rage on my undefended ass. I had done something wrong and he was punishing me – that was all there was to it. Because emotion did not enter into it, that meant there would be no remission. He would not take pity on me as his anger faded and let me off, I was here until I had been taught a stern lesson.
On the other hand, it also meant that he would not get carried away and would not punish more than the crime warranted. Taka was an impressively strong man, his arms thick with muscle – this was harder than I had ever received, but I had no doubt that it could have been harder. As it was, the force of the individual blows was remarkably consistent, as was the timing, the smacks arriving with the rhythmic certainty of a heartbeat. Despite their unvarying nature, each one hurt more than the last as they landed on my glowing ass cheeks. So by the time six, seven and eight had cracked down, I was screwing up my eyes and clamping my teeth shut, trying to suppress the cries that came out as muffled squeaks and squeals.
“You can scream if you like,” said Taka, still not breaking rhythm as number nine landed with a loud thwap.
I sucked in a breath and bit my lip again. I wasn’t going to scream and I wasn’t going to cry. That was what little girls did when they got spanked. I was a big girl now, and if I was going to get spanked, then I was at least going to take it like a woman.
And suddenly, I was starting to feel very much like a woman. I had been spanked many times before – I could remember one week when I had been spanked everyday by seven different women in my village, each time for a different misdeed – this was different.
Partly, because I was older, partly, because Taka was stronger, but mostly because Taka was Taka.
It was with a shock of surprise and some confusion that I felt a new sensation below my waist that had nothing to do with pain.
Unconsciously, I pushed up my ass, as if I was reaching for my punishment. And when number ten whacked down, it made my insides bubble. Number eleven smacked my sizzling cheeks and I could feel myself getting wet. Number twelve landed on my tenderized ass and I choked out a cry. Taka probably thought that it was one of pain – which it probably should have been - but it was my arousal that I was unable to silence.
“And one more for luck, my dad used to say,” muttered Taka. His voice was low and thick, almost a growl. I had been so focused on what had been happening to me – both painful and unexpectedly wonderful – that I had not noticed the increased rate and volume of Taka’s normally measured breathing.
It sounded ragged, as if he had just run a mile. I had seen this man working on the chain gang, shifting heavy rocks without breaking his composure, his breathing unaffected – why was he struggling now?
With a swish of air, I heard his hand rise and heard the grunt of effort as he brought it down like the wrath of the gods. For the first time, I felt his anger, as if that last merciless spank was him trying to vent something from within, taking out some pent-up frustration on my scarlet ass cheeks.
“Ahh!” I hollered, as a mixture of sharp pain and mounting pleasure roiled in my belly.
For a moment, Taka said nothing, leaving me sprawled across his lap, half-hoping that he might go for the full twenty-four. Involuntarily, my hips ground against his and the resulting pressure nearly made me cry out.
Taka clearly took notice as labored breath sawed in and out of his lungs until, finally, he spoke.
“Get off. Go on. Misbehave again and you’ll get the same.”
He pushed me none-too-gently off his lap and I landed heavily on the ground in an ungainly heap, regaining my breath.
My ass must have looked like a pair of ripe tomatoes, but that wasn’t what was bothering me now. Towards the end, a fire had been kindled inside me that had set my whole body burning with desire. I didn’t know why this should have aroused me so, but it had, to the point where I was tingling with the need for more, with the need for completion. But at the instant when I hoped to achieve satisfaction, Taka had instead pushed me aside, leaving me unfulfilled and helplessly aroused. I looked back at him. His face was red, his breathing still heavy and he would not meet my gaze.
“Taka?” I breathed.
His eyes flicked to mine, only for an instant, and I saw a heat in them that I felt sure was mirrored in my own. He really was a desperately handsome man, so dominant, so masculine, so… I didn’t know where this heat was coming from – perhaps it was just that I had never been with a man before. But suddenly, I knew one thing. I needed him inside me, and I needed it now.
I stood and without hesitation, fastened my lips to his before he even knew what I was doing, my hands groping across his body.
“What the hells are you about?” Taka pushed me away by my shoulders as I stretched my neck out towards him, desperate to taste him and not caring about the consequences.
“I want you.”
Taka gave my ass a firm slap and tried to look angry, but there was a strain in his voice as he fought his own desire. “You want another twelve?”
“Maybe,” I whispered, huskily. “But I can think of more fun things we could do.”
My hand delved under his tunic and, to my excitement and relief, found a thick bulge in the loose prison pants he still wore. He might fight against it, but his body was betraying him.
I tugged hard at him and my eyes widened as I felt him surge and swell even thicker in answer to my rough treatment.
“I’m giving you one last chance,” growled Taka, as I worked my eager hand up and down his length, rubbing the rough material against the sensitive organ beneath. “Stop behaving this way or you’ll regret it. You’re hardly more than a child. What could you know about lust, Keira?”
He was probably right, and I might have wondered if it was his decent desire not to take advantage of someone ten years his junior that held him back. But I didn’t wonder that, I wasn’t wondering anything or thinking at all. My mind was overwhelmed with a passion that I had never felt before. I had felt desire for boys and desire for sex - it had been powerful and I had succumbed to both without regret.
But this was so much more. Comparing the desire I felt for Taka to that I had felt for the boys back home was like… well, it was like comparing those boys to Taka. There was no comparison. And there was no holding back.
I lunged at his mouth again, kissing him aggressively, grinding my small, feminine body against his, and this time, there was no doubting his response. His mouth opened to admit my questing tongue, his hands lightly, reluctantly, cupped my body and I felt his hips thrust forward to meet the pumping action of my hand.
“Damn you,” he muttered as we kissed. “But if you want it, then I guess you’re going to get it. And I hope you don’t regret it.”
I didn’t think there was much chance of that as I clung to
Taka, so tightly it was as if I was trying to force my body inside his.
Moving awkwardly, as I still refused to let him go, Taka managed to take off his cloak and throw it to the ground. Gently, he eased me down onto it and I spread my legs to allow his body to press right up against my core. I whined with fierce desire as I felt his erection grind against me. I wanted him more than I had ever wanted anything, and I kissed him harder still, biting at his lips and tongue with my teeth.
I felt one of Taka’s hands slide down my body and begin to gather up my skirt, baring my legs, and responded in kind, untying his leather belt and hauling his tunic over his head so I could admire his fabulous physique. Taka’s body was not that of a man who wants to look good, it was that of a working man, a musculature acquired for a purpose. In Taka’s case, that purpose was staying alive. Here and there, the hardened muscle was dented and strafed by old scars, the mementos of a tough life. I felt a sudden, hot desire to kiss them, running my tongue along a lengthy groove that cut across his left pec, dabbing my lips at a star-shaped stab wound in his side.
I was denied the delight of tasting Taka’s chest when he pulled back from me, but the rewards were ample. I might have been able to remain largely silent while Taka spanked me, but I wailed like a banshee when his tongue slicked the length of my pussy, lighting fresh fires in the tingling flesh. Taka buried his face between my legs, his tongue penetrating me, lapping at me, seeking out every sensitive spot, while I oohed and aahed and whined. Some of the village boys had gone down on me before, and it was always a slightly embarrassing experience, as they knew they were supposed to do something, but were uncertain as to the details.
An experienced man like Taka knew exactly what he was doing; he knew how to make my clit pop from its shell and how to tease it till I was panting; he knew how to locate that one spot with his fingers and apply just the right level of pressure; he knew when to delve forwards and when to pull back; when to lick, when to suck and when to nibble; he knew when the moment was right to apply a light but firm pressure to my ass to push me over the top. I arched my hips up from the ground, rolling them against Taka’s face, desperate for more.
Her Mercenary Harem Page 4