by Loki Renard
“You’re going to cane me? Okay. I guess I have no choice but to obey you.” Mustering all the nerve she had, she turned around with her back to him and slowly undid her pants then pushed them down over her hips, arching her back as she did, making sure that her bottom slowly slid into view in the most tantalizing way possible.
Savage growled a low growl. “What do you think you’re playing at?”
“I’m being obedient,” she said in her best innocent, good girl voice. “That’s what you want, isn’t it, sir?” She let her hips undulate in a deliberate movement. All those evenings in clubs had not been a complete waste of time, Zora had learned to grind and dance with the best of them. She knew very well that the movement of her hips would translate to an erotic rolling of her bottom.
“Zora…” Savage’s voice came out in a low growl that turned into a groan.
“Want my panties down too?” She hooked her thumbs into the waistband of her panties and teased at pulling them down, sneaking them down just a little until they sat across the middle of her cheeks. It was a wanton display of sexuality, but she didn’t really expect him to take her up on the offer of her body, rather she wanted to throw him off balance and if at all possible, reduce the penalty for her misbehavior.
“You little minx.” His voice came from directly behind her. He’d approached noiselessly and as he spoke his large hand descended on her bottom, squeezing it as he tugged her panties down below her bottom. “You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?” His hand slid around to her hip and pulled her bare bottom back against the cloth of his crotch. She felt his erection through his pants as he leaned over her body and used his other hand to take her by the hair. Her efforts at arousing him had obviously been successful. He pulled her head back gently but firmly using his grip on her hair, making her arch her bottom against him as he murmured in her ear. “Be very, very careful what you wish for, girl.” He was calling her bluff and she whimpered, feeling his raw masculine power. “Are you sure you want to do this? You want to play this game?”
She shook her head. “Nossir.” Fingers of fear tickled up her spine. Savage was probably just as hard in bed as he was anywhere else. She would not get off more lightly if she teased him erotically, she would only end up deeper in his control. Already her body was responding to him, doing its best to shut off any remainder of common sense. She wanted to melt into his arms, to let him have his way with her. Only her fiercely independent streak was making her pull back from the edge.
“Wise girl,” Savage purred. He stood up, but he did not let her go. His fingers remained wrapped in her hair as he walked her over to the table and bent her forward over it. She stayed in place, even when he tapped the cane across her bottom. “Time for you to answer for your misdeeds,” he intoned. It could have been considered an overly dramatic statement in other circumstances, but in that moment Zora didn’t find it overly dramatic at all. She whimpered with genuine fear. She’d gambled and lost, and she knew very well that once the punishment was over, the can of worms she’d opened with him was not going to close itself again easily.
The almighty sting of the cane was almost welcome as it drove thoughts of erotic embarrassment out of her head, replacing them with pain. She didn’t struggle or fight during the caning, she stayed in place, accepting her punishment. He brought the cane down six times, laying each stroke below the previous one. It hurt with a blazing pain that captured her entirely and made her its slave. She barely held position, but whatever instinct that made her submit to the punishment in the first place kept her there just barely clinging on.
It was one of the harsher punishments she’d ever endured, but she didn’t cry or pout. She stayed in place, breathing heavily as the sensation sunk into her bottom, melting into the arousal that had proceeded it. It didn’t hurt as much as it should have done. Intellectually she knew that her bottom was lined and welted, but the hot pain was like a liquid fire in her lower belly, spreading between her legs. She didn’t want to speak for fear of giving away how she was feeling.
“You can pull your pants up,” Savage said from somewhere behind her. His voice was deep, gritty and it went through her, every word teasing her with promise of dark pleasures.
Breathing deeply, she backed away from the table and reached for her pants. Erotic pleasure pain or no, it was not pleasant dragging the material up over her bottom. She would not be sitting any time soon, that was for sure.
“Zora.” His voice floated through the discomfort, sonorous and low. She looked up at him, hoping her confusion and desire were not evident in her eyes. She was burning for him. He looked at her with a curious expression. “Are you alright?”
She nodded quickly. “Yessir,” she said, looking at a point just over his left shoulder. She didn’t want to meet his eyes.
“Hm,” he lifted the cane up and looked at it in surprise. “This is more effective than I thought.” She smiled a little and shrugged, wincing as her bottom throbbed. The silence stretched out between them.
“You’re quiet,” he observed. Usually the aftermath of a punishment at his hands involved a whole lot of yelling and screaming. She didn’t much feel inclined to do either in that moment, she felt strangely subdued, aroused and not inclined to bemoan her lot. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”
She blushed. There was no way she was telling him what was going on in her head. Thankfully, Steve chose that moment to exit the bathroom. Zora muttered an excuse and took the opportunity to dash inside the one room that offered any kind of privacy at all. After locking the door and checking it twice, she pulled her pants back down and checked her bottom in the mirror. It looked much as she had imagined it would. Six perfectly parallel lines traversed the skin from the middle of her cheeks to the bottom. The lines were red and raised and a little bit of bruising was starting to show. When she ran her hand lightly over the marks the skin was hot and taut. He’d thrashed the hell out of her and she was sure that it would soon be very, very sore indeed. Not yet though. At that moment, all the heat and pain was being channeled into quite a different sensation.
She leaned up against the wall, keeping her bottom away from the hard surface and slid her hand down to the soft place of her arousal. Closing her eyes, Zora let her imagination run riot with all that could have been if they had not been out here with Steve in the next room. If they had been alone he could have pulled down her panties instead and slid inside her. The memory of the hard ridge of his arousal pressed against her bottom remained strong as she worked herself towards an immensely satisfying climax.
Chapter Eleven
Impossible. Surely it was impossible for a man to affect a woman this way, to change the pulse, the breath, to send rushes of chemicals flowing through the body with the merest flicker of a glance. Zora thought it impossible, yet it was happening to her and like a disease taking hold, the effects grew stronger every day. The Pandora’s box unlocked when she’d tried to seduce Savage most outrageously had been thrown wide open and there was no putting back what she’d unleashed.
She sat on a hard wooden bench, material hard enough that she could feel the lines of her most recent thrashing sting when she moved slightly. He was at the head of the table and the rest of the team were assembled all around. They may as well not have been there. Zora didn’t see them. She saw nothing but him. It was a briefing for something or other. Zora hadn’t been listening. She didn’t hear words anymore, instead she felt the rumble of his voice, luxuriated in the waves the sound made as they washed against her senses.
Every part of him had become magic, from the roughened skin on the back of his knuckles to the dark curl of his eyelashes. He leaned over the table and slid her a piece of paper. She didn’t even look at it. She locked her eyes on him instead, swooning inwardly at the curve of his lips, the slight stubble creating a shadow around his chin. There was not a part of him that was not pure masculinity. There was not a part of him she did not desire. She imagined how it would be to feel that stubbl
ed cheek pressed against her own, to hear words spoken breathlessly against her ear.
“Ms Matthews.” He was only a couple of feet away from her, but when he spoke the sound seemed to float to her from far, far away.
She shook her head like a dog, her hair flopping from side to side with the exaggerated movement. “Huh?”
“If you would care to join us.” The corners of his lips spread slightly as he smiled an ever so condescending smile. His tone put her in mind of a sarcastic teacher reminding a wayward student to pay attention, as did the soft titter of amusement from Anja.
“My pleasure,” Zora replied evenly, meeting his gaze without shame. Her voice was slightly husky, as if she were getting a cold. Savage’s expression grew serious for a moment as he gave her a quick, searching look. Perhaps he’d find her attitude lacking. She hoped so. That would probably mean another private interview with him, his hands on her body. She’d gotten cold feet when he’d responded to her initial advances, but she promised herself she would not do that again. The days since the caning had been ones filled with a wicked kind of regret, the regret of a prime sexual opportunity missed. Life was too short and uncertain to be afraid of fulfillment.
His eyes swiveled away from her and a brief pang of loss shot through her body. This was how far she was gone. She craved his attention so badly that even losing eye contact hurt. He was talking again. Something about the mission, something important. She tried to force herself to pay attention.
“…enter the facility and secure it at key points. Zora will enter the codes that will disable security. Once that’s done, we’re out and the other teams go in.”
“That’s it?” Zora interjected inappropriately. It was hard to keep the smirk off her face when his eyes snapped back to her.
“That’s it. The other teams will secure the missile, we’ll be out by that stage.”
She slouched across the table channeling all her petulant energy. “We’re doing all of this so I can walk into a room and punch codes into a computer?”
“We’re doing all of this so you can walk into a room, punch codes into a computer and come out alive,” Savage said, fixing her with a stern look.
“Ah. That makes sense. Carry on,” she waved at him airily. It was a small power play, a tiny power play, but the thrill she got from it was great. She was fizzing inwardly with the joy of testing her mettle against his.
The conversation continued on around her, various team members confirming their understanding of their roles. It was of course, a great deal more complicated than it sounded in summary, but she did not concern herself with the nitty gritty. She didn’t understand it and she didn’t need to. Savage would keep her safe, she was certain of that. Well, fairly sure anyway. She returned to reality just long enough to catch the tail end of an announcement that made her heart race for a completely different reason.
“… leaving today to make the final preparations to ship out,” Savage announced. “So get packed up and lets get out of here. Dismissed.”
That was the cue for the team to burst into coordinated activity that had been drilled into them over the years. They made for the items they were responsible for with calm haste and began packing. Zora hadn’t even begun to absorb the information before the sleeping bags had been packed away, with the exception of hers.
“Hop to it,” Savage said, resting his hand on her shoulder and waggling his eyebrows meaningfully in the direction of her sleeping bag. A few minutes earlier his touch would have brought a near orgasmic flood of pleasure, but the news that they were leaving had interrupted the pleasure party in her imagination.
“We’re really going?”
“Yes, we’re heading to a base for deployment. We’ll stock up on what we need there and then wait for the final orders to ship out. I’m thinking three days, but that could change.”
Nodding mechanically as she took in the news, Zora obeyed the order and began packing away the few things she had. She was glad that there was something to do, it kept her out of everyone else’s way and it meant that they didn’t notice how very pale she’d suddenly gotten and how much her hands were trembling. It was real. Really real and it meant leaving behind everything she’d ever known and risking everything she had.
Though they’d only been at the cabin for a couple of weeks and it was crowded and annoying, it was starting to feel like home. There was something cozy about being packed in there so tightly, getting on one another’s nerves. Now they were on the move again and just like that the atmosphere of the place had changed completely. She tried to convince herself that it would be fine. Her job was the simplest of them all, just walk in to a room and do some sums. Nothing to it. But if there truly was nothing to it, why was she suddenly so very afraid?
She was quiet as they all piled into the van, chatting amongst themselves quite calmly. Whilst everyone’s backs were turned to her, a sudden impulse took hold. She slipped away from the van and back to the empty cabin. It felt hollow now that nobody was there. It was hard to believe how much had happened in that space, that now seemed so very small. She looked over at the wet back fire, remembering how the flame light had gleamed off Savage’s naked body. There was the platform where they’d all been sleeping for days, lined up like a row of puppies. Then there was the table she’d been bent over. Would she ever return to this place? Would she live long enough to do so?
The door creaked open behind her and Savage’s hand descended gently onto her shoulder. “Ready, Ms Matthews?” His voice rumbled through her, calming her. He was still here. She still had him. It wouldn’t be too bad as long as he was there.
“Yeah,” she agreed reluctantly.
He squeezed her shoulder. Perhaps he understood a little of how she was feeling. She allowed him to lead her out to the van and put her into the front of it with Brian, who was driving. She sat in the middle seat whilst Savage took the passenger side. Looking from Brian to Savage and back again, she felt an odd sense of deja-vu. “That’s weird,” she muttered. “Feels like we’ve done this before.”
“This is pretty much how we took you in,” Savage said, smiling slightly as Brian started the van. “You want to vomit in memory of that event?”
Zora stared at him for a long moment before she realized he was joking, though she probably had thrown up all over him at some point. “You’d deserve it if I did,” she said. His chuckle made her smile in spite of her nerves and the twinge of sadness that peaked as the van turned to head down the hill and the cabin went out of sight entirely. She tried to distract herself by being flippant. “So are we there yet?”
“It’s a long trip. Ten hours at least, depending on traffic.”
Zora wriggled in her seat. Brian and Savage were not small men and they didn’t leave a lot of room for her. She was pretty much forced to be pressed up against one of them, and as Brian was protected by the gearbox, Savage got the honor of her warm and cuddly presence.
With the soothing motion of the vehicle, and the solid feeling of being pressed up against a couple hundred pounds of muscle, some of Zora’s amorous feelings began to renew themselves. In a spirit of mischief, she sneaked her hand back behind their bodies and tried to stick her fingers down the back of Savage’s pants.
“What do you think you’re doing?” He growled the words, but he wasn’t really mad. He reached back, closed his fingers around her wrist and extracted the offending digits from their close proximity to his backside.
“Nothing,” she grinned.
“You’re getting very handsy, Ms Matthews,” Savage noted, returning her hand to her her lap. She felt the lingering warmth of his fingers on her wrist and silently treasured it.
“Well you’re pretty handsy too,” she pointed out with a playful smile.
“I see.” His jaw was set firmly, but his eyes were warm with a stern sort of amusement. “It’s been too long since your last spanking.”
The casual reference to her getting her ass tanned made Zora’s jaw drop. She cast a horr
ified glance over at Brian, then back at Savage. “He can hear you, you know.”
“Well then imagine what he’s going to see if you keep this up,” Savage mimicked her horrified tone, sending her into an almighty pouting session. She determined not to speak to him again if he was going to be so immature. Her resolve might have held if the journey had been a short one, but ten hours is a long time to drive, especially with a bunch of hyper focused military types who don’t do bathroom breaks lightly. After just a couple of hours, Zora was whining about wanting to stop, even though she didn’t really want to go.
“I want ice cream,” she declared, leaning over Savage to press her face against the window as they drove by a perfectly good rest stop.
He grabbed her by the collar and moved her back to her seat gently. She knew she was pushing him. That was kind of the point. Maybe it had been too long since her last spanking. Maybe she was scared about deploying to save the world, maybe she was just a contrary little wench by nature. Maybe she really wanted ice cream. There were a million different reasons, but none of them really explained why she decided to lunge across him once more and try to open the door whilst they were moving.
“Zora!” This time the growl was not playful, nor was the hearty slap she got on her wrist. She yelped and withdrew her hand quickly. “This is not the time to get silly. You’re a grown woman, not a little kid. Start acting like it,” he lectured harshly.
The words stung Zora somewhere deep inside. What he said was true, but that didn’t make the scolding more effective, it only served to strip away the tentative feelings of submission she’d been feeling and slam her abruptly back into her original rebellious state of mind. If she’d been behaving childishly it was because she’d felt safe with him, secure. His aggressive reaction shocked her out of that place, sent her scrambling for emotional refuge.
“Fine,” she said, her tone very icy, very grown up. She did not look at Savage or speak to him again for the rest of the journey. Eventually Brian and Savage struck up a conversation about football players, which she ignored pointedly. When they did stop for food she refused it. At one time she would have used the opportunity to try to run away, but in the spirit of being a mature woman, she instead stayed in the van, fuming silently.