by Loki Renard
Her outraged reaction told him that she was most certainly not used to any kind of physical discipline. Her cries were frantic as she began pleading with him to stop, telling him that he was most certainly going to kill her. “Calm down and take your spanking,” he growled, pausing the onslaught for a moment when her struggles became too extreme.
“Please stop!” Zora cried. “I can’t take it!”
“You’ll be surprised what you can take,” he said, redoubling his efforts and slapping the underside of her cheeks with quick, searing strokes. The continued spanking after the brief respite made Zora break down completely. Tears coursed down her cheeks as she sobbed in frustration and pain. Savage didn’t kid himself into thinking she was learning her lesson, he didn’t expect her behavior to magically reform after a single spanking, but at least she’d know in the future that she wasn’t untouchable.
When he determined she had enough, he reached down and pulled her pants up over her red bottom and stood up, keeping her firmly in his grasp. She was sniveling, her eyes were red and tears were streaming down over her cheeks. He hadn’t hurt her that badly, there were far more severe ways of imparting discipline after all, like canes or belts or even slippers. No, a hard hand spanking alone didn’t cause this kind of reaction, the realization that one could be punished for being an insufferable brat did.
Taking her by the hand, he lead the weeping Zora out of the exam room and walked her back to the room she’d been put in on her arrival. No words passed between them, he was not in the mood to offer comfort. Savage wanted her to truly feel the consequences of deliberate disobedience. He ushered her inside with a hard slap to her bottom that made her squeal. “Get yourself together. I will be back for you this afternoon,” he said sternly before shutting the door and bolting it firmly.
***
Left alone in the little room, Zora threw herself onto the bed and cried harder that she could remember crying since she was a child. Her bottom hurt terribly, even if she lay perfectly still she could feel it aching and throbbing. She could not believe what Savage had done to her. One moment they had been talking, the next moment he had been hitting her. Such a possibility had not crossed her mind until it had happened.
Who did he think he was to hit her because she wouldn’t do what he wanted? It wasn’t fair. Somehow he’d managed to make her bottom blaze and burn for ages after the fact. When she reached back timidly to see if it really was as swollen as she thought, she found that it was radiating warmth. She didn’t even need to touch the skin to feel how hot he’d managed to make her bottom.
She did not know how long it took to stop crying, she only knew that when she did she had a headache in addition to her sore bottom. Homesickness was also beginning to overwhelm her. She was tired of the place with the people who never said more than one or two words to her and the bully who hit her when she didn’t do what he wanted. She’d never felt so lonely or so desperate before.
It was something of a small relief when someone came for her later on. It was a relief because she was leaving the solitude of the maddeningly small room and because the ‘someone’ who had come wasn’t Savage. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to see him again. She didn’t know what she would do if she did. She was torn between dying of shame immediately and rending the bully limb from limb.
To her disappointment she was returned to the exam room. Like the previous time, there was only one spot light in the room that lit the table and chair. This time she didn’t bother to sit on the table, she stood leaning against the wall, lurking in the darkness as the mechanical voice informed her that the testing sequence was beginning. An equation was fired at her, but she did not answer it. She didn’t bother to respond at all. With her arms folded over her chest, she stared at her toes, which were clad in silly white tennis shoes she didn’t like in the slightest. Where her own shoes had gotten to was one of the many mysteries she had been confronted with during her stay.
A couple more questions went over her head before the lights went on full once more. The door of the room opened and she saw Savage filling the door frame. Immediately her heart skipped a beat as adrenaline began coursing through her body. Instinctively, she shuffled towards the corner of the room, her hands reaching back to cover her bottom as he approached. He looked taller and meaner than ever before. She was suddenly struck by how foolish she had ever been to provoke him. What had she been thinking?
“This is unfortunate, Ms Matthews, I thought you would have learned your lesson.” His voice was laced with a very real sound of disappointment.
Shaking her head and pressing back into the corner Zora looked for some way out of the mess. “What are you doing?” She gasped as he walked up to her and took her by the arm, leading her back towards the chair. She dug in with her heels, but the smooth floor offered no resistance and she simply slid in his wake.
“We are going to be repeating this morning’s treatment,” Savage said, pulling her over his lap once more. Zora was not a small woman, but she felt positively waif like when he handled her so easily, as if she weighed nothing at all. In mere moments she was settled over his hard thighs, totally at his mercy once more.
“No! Why? Please don’t,” she begged as he pulled her pants down, baring her recently spanked bottom.
“You aren’t answering the questions.”
A deep sigh emanated from Zora. “Fine. Five million, four hundred thousand, three hundred and sixty two point five. Eight thousand and six. Negative two thousand, nine hundred and forty six. X equals 5.00, positive 1.00i and negative 1.00i.”
Savage paused, his hand in the air poised to come down hard on the bare cheeks positioned across his lap. “Excuse me?
“Five million, four hundred…”
“No,” he slapped her bottom to stop her speaking, but he did so lightly this time. It got her attention, but did not cause her undue pain. “What are those numbers?”
“The answers to the questions from this morning,” Zora said.
“Is that right?” Savage was not addressing her, but instead he was looking at the mirrored wall.
“Those are all correct,” the mechanical voice confirmed.
“Okay,” Savage nodded. “Keep going.”
“What? Let me up!” Zora appealed, squirming around to look at him. He simply shook his head at her and gave the order to proceed.
Zora found herself in the horrible position of being asked questions whilst she laid over Savage’s lap, her pants around her knees. He did not strike her any more, he simply laid his large palm on the small of her back and remained silent as she stammered out answers as quickly as she could. She had no desire to be kept in that humiliating position a moment longer than absolutely necessary.
“All correct,” the voice declared. “Sequence complete.”
To Zora’s relief, she felt Savage pull her pants up for her and ease her up from his lap. The moment her feet touched the floor she skittishly made her way to the far side of the table, feeling far safer with something solid between her and the man who had uprooted her from her life and made her bottom burn.
“So you can do it,” he observed.
“Yeah I guess I can,” Zora shrugged. “I guess this means I’m not going home.”
“Not yet, no,” Savage confirmed without the slightest bit of sympathy.
Tears prickled at her eyelids and she turned away from him, not wanting to let him see her cry again. She hated for anyone to see her cry and she’d already cried twice that day. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, willing them to stop.
His hands descended on her shoulders and she felt herself being turned around to face him. She hadn’t heard him get up, hadn’t heard him move at all, but he was behind her, half sitting, half leaning on the edge of the table in a way that brought his eye level down to hers. “Zora,” he said firmly. She met his gaze uncertainly, not knowing what to expect. “It is alright,” he said, squeezing her shoulder.
She sniffed. “It is not alright,” she mumbled.
She was confused. She wanted to hate this man for hitting her, but the same hands that had visited pain on her bottom were now making her feel safe. His gaze was not exactly warm, but it was direct and honest.
“Come with me,” he said, not bothering to argue with her. Wiping her tears on the back of her sleeve, she followed him out of the room and through the rabbit warren like corridors. They entered an elevator and went up a couple of floors. She found herself looking at the buttons on the elevator with curiosity. She still had no idea where she was being held and Savage wasn’t going to tell her, but the elevator could be a way out, she surmised. There were twelve floors on the interface, split into two separate columns marked numerically. The rows were marked alphabetically. They had gotten in at level 1-C and they were going to 2-B.
2-B, Zora was interested to discover, was much more pleasant than 1-C. Instead of ‘burn your retinas out’ fluorescent lighting and plain walls, somebody had invested in a deep brown carpet and paneling on the walls. The light fittings were tastefully inset into the upper walls. It looked more like a hotel than a military base. She stopped dead in her tracks and looked around in confusion. “Where are we?”
Savage smiled slightly. “Same place, different place,” he said simply, approaching a door and pushing it open. Zora looked around the frame of the door to see what was clearly a bedroom. It was twice as large as the one she had left and though it was furnished simply it somehow felt homely. She couldn’t put her finger on what made it feel that way until she approached the bed and saw that the pale blue blanket laying over it wasn’t coincidentally like the one she had at home. It was the one she’d had at home.
“What the?” On an impulse, she turned to the wardrobe in the corner and opened it. Inside it were a bunch of clothes, some were hers, some were new. Every new piece was suited to her tastes however, something she would probably have bought herself if she’d had the time or the inclination. With her mouth open in surprise she turned to see Savage leaning up against the door frame, watching her. “What’s going on?”
“It’s your room. You’ll be more comfortable in familiar surroundings,” he explained simply.
“Since when has my comfort mattered? Zora asked, unconsciously rubbing her bottom as she asked the question.
“Since you behaved yourself and did as you were told,” Savage said rather bluntly.
Zora wandered about the room, exploring it, but avoiding the doorway where he stood. All her personal effects appeared to have been delivered to her, not that there were many of them to begin with. She’d never been much of a ‘things’ sort of person, preferring the ability to come and go as she pleased without worrying about looking after a bunch of possessions. She was pleased to see that the flat screen television she’d dropped a bundle of cash on was installed on the wall. In another corner of the room, there was a small fridge. When she opened it she found it stocked with water and healthy snacks that made her nose wrinkle. There wasn’t a beer or a piece of candy in sight. Closing the fridge once more, she turned to Savage. “What happened to my apartment, my job?”
For once, he gave her a direct answer. “You resigned from your job three days ago and you paid out the rest of your lease. Officially, you moved to Germany to brew beer.” The slight smirk on his face as he finished the story showed that he appreciated the wit that had clearly gone into it.
“Germany? Three days ago?” Zora frowned. “But I hadn’t done any of the tests then. What would have happened if I’d failed them?”
Savage returned her gaze, but he did not answer the question. “Get some rest,” he said. “You’ve had a long day.” He left the room, and after the door closed, Zora heard a buzzing, clicking sound that surely indicated an electronic lock. Her cage might have been more homely, but she was just as much a prisoner as ever.
Alone once more, Zora felt anxiety brewing in her belly. Totally isolated from anyone she knew or cared about she was at the mercy of the man who had no qualms about striking her if she did not please him. His stern expression gave nothing away when he did not wish it to and she was left feeling very uncertain about her future.
Turning on the television, she laid on the bed on her stomach and tried to comfort herself. The news came on with its usual fare of mayhem, but she couldn’t quite find the wherewithal to cynically mock it as she used to do. The outside world she’d taken for granted no longer existed for her, she was stuck in a nightmare that made some of the situations on the television look positively comfortable by comparison. She’d take a twenty percent rise in the cost of milk any day over finding herself at the mercy of a hard handed soldier with a secretive agenda.
Her mind wandered as she laid there, remembering how casually he’d pulled her over his lap, especially the second time. Then he’d just sat there whilst she answered the questions as if having a half naked female draped across him was a completely normal sort of thing. What kind of man was that comfortable stripping a woman of her self possession? She’d heard of spanking as a kinky kind of foreplay, but there had been nothing amorous about the way she’d been treated by him, he’d been entirely matter of fact, pulling her pants up and down when it suited him with no concern for her feelings at all.
She hated to admit it, even to herself, but she’d responded to him. As the ache and pain of the spanking went away, the warmth began to spread down between her thighs. She was getting aroused. She didn’t want to be, but she couldn’t help it. She was only human after all, and the touch of a strong, undeniably dominant man had set off a chain of biological reactions. That’s all they were, she thought, distancing herself from the growing moistness, just biological reactions. They didn’t mean anything. With a soft moan, she reached down between her legs, under her scrubs and tentatively touched herself, rubbing her clit the same way it had rubbed against the rough fabric of Captain Savage’s pants when he spanked her. Entirely incidental fantasies of strong hands roving over her flesh took hold as she allowed herself to sink into much needed, thoroughly meaningless, release.
Chapter Four
Once Zora proved her abilities beyond all shadow of a doubt, things began to happen. Her first days had been spent bored out of her mind in detox, but with the early challenges cleared, Savage informed her that she was expected to work.
She assumed that meant she was finally going to get to do whatever it was that they had yanked her out of her life to do, so the news was somewhat welcome. Hopefully she could get the job done and go home. As nice as the room she’d been assigned was, it wasn’t the same as her own apartment that she was free to come and go from as she pleased.
Early one morning Savage roused her from bed and brought her back down to the C levels. Level 3-C turned out to be a large room filled with computers. There were several military personnel at work, but she didn’t have a chance to see what they were working on, the moment she tried to see what was on their screens she was tugged onwards to a far corner that was empty save for one eccentric figure.
“Zora this is Ethan. He’s in charge of communications and intelligence for our team,” Savage said by way of introduction. Ethan was reclining with an outrageously nonsensical pair of sunglasses on his head, wearing a psychedelic tie dyed shirt apparently designed to make him stick out like a sore thumb. His long beard had been parted in twain and fixed at the ends with colored beads. It was almost enough to make him look older than he really was, but his clear rosy cheeks showed that he couldn’t have been any older than his mid twenties.
“Nice shirt,” Zora smiled.
“Thanks,” Ethan grinned.
“Ethan is going to give you a crash course in systems and codes. Pay attention,” Savage ordered in no nonsense tones.
“Righto,” Zora pretended to be amicable. When Savage left she sighed and slumped down in her chair. “That guy is such a fucking hard ass.”
“You get that around here,” Ethan agreed sympathetically. He held out his box of candy cigarettes. “Smoke?”
Zora took one with a smi
le. “So they don’t let you smoke here?”
“They do not,” Ethan confirmed.
“Don’t let you drink either I guess.”
“Well, not officially,” Ethan looked around shiftily, then reached under his desk and pulled out a hip flask. He handed it to Zora, who unscrewed it and took a tentative sniff. The aroma that rose from the flask was a heavenly blend of sherry aromas mixed with something darker.
“What is this?”
The reply came in lowered, secretive tones. “Home brewed bourbon.”
“Nice,” Zora purred appreciatively. “May I?”
“Go ahead,” Ethan winked. “Just don’t get caught.”
Zora sipped at the brew and found it just as delicious as it smelled. Almost immediately the warming sensation in her stomach made her feel at ease and she tool a long draught. “Oh god I needed that,” she sighed happily as the fire water ran through her veins, restoring some of her lost sense of normality.
Ethan slid the flask back into its hiding place. “More later, lets run over the codes first, okay?”
The taste had made Zora yearn for more, but she agreed. It wouldn’t do for Savage to discover that she hadn’t done anything all morning. God only knew what kind of punishment he’d dole out then. She applied herself to learning the codes with as much enthusiasm as she could possibly muster under the circumstances. They were easy enough, but there were a lot of them. Fortunately for Zora, her memory had not been affected by the small amount of alcohol in her system and she had no trouble learning them quickly. Numbers had always come more easily than spoken language to her.
“Impressive,” Ethan said when they ran through them a few minutes later.
“That’s how I got here,” Zora shrugged. “I’m good with numbers.”
“Yeah I know, I saw your video online and showed it to Savage…” Ethan trailed off as Zora’s expression became suddenly vicious.