“What is wrong with you?” I scream at him. “You are as talentless as the rest of us, and without a talent, you’re not welcome at the tree. Don’t you want to find out why we have no talent? Find out how to get a talent?”
He looks at me and slowly stands up. Even with my extra fluff, he makes me feel petite with his height and muscle. He slowly walks up to me, looks at Warren and Puck, “Take a flight, Aislin and I need to have a talk.” Warren and Puck look at each other and then at me. I can see them wanting to stand up with me, but also fear of Orrin in their eyes. I nod my head at them.
“Are you sure?” Warren asks, doubt on his face. I nod again. “We’ll go start the dinner fire, not too far off the road, close to the woods.” He gathers the carry chair, and they take off.
Once alone, I question my decision to let them leave. My security net is gone, and Orrin can do whatever he wants. I am, again, reminded of a bully squashing ants. I have no desire to be one of those ants.
“Now that we’re alone, we need to decide who will be in charge.” Orrin is suddenly in my face, so close I can feel his breath waft over me. His hands grasp my biceps firmly, and I find myself being turned and pushed into the seclusion of the Armarillia Cape, its long purple hair follicles blocking us from view.
A part of me wants to fight him, to stand my ground, but the larger part of me is excited by this side of him and wants to see what he’ll do. Maybe he isn’t as indifferent as he seems.
My back hits the stem of the cape with a jolt that has my head thrown forward and then back. As soon as my back hits the cape, Orrin has my wrists clasped in one of his and pulled over my head so that I’m almost on tiptoes. His other hand grabs my breast and kneads it while his mouth crashes into mine and kisses me. The onslaught of sensations is too much, too fast and tears trickle down my face.
Finally sensing my withdrawal, Orrin took a step back and looked at me. “God, I have wanted to touch you, kiss you, since the Dust Ceremony.”
I don’t understand him. All he has done is treat everything about me with disdain. Yet here, he can’t keep his hands off me. I start to speak, but he kisses me again, gentler this time, but still controlling.
“No, you’re not ready for my brand of love. But I couldn’t take one more minute of not touching you.” He slowly lets go of my hands and takes a step back. Without thought, my hand reaches out and slaps him across the face. I stand there, my hand still raised, my jaw hanging slightly open in shock.
Rage fills his face, and before I know it, he has grabbed my wrists and twisted me around so that I am bent over his raised knee. With his free hand he pulls my leggings down and bares my pale white ass.
“What are you doing?” I try to squirm, to move, but he’s too strong.
He moans as his hand kneads the flesh and then his hand smacks down on one cheek. I scream.
“You do not slap me,” he says. His hand comes down again on the other cheek. “You use words when you are angry.”
By now, I am enraged. I try to move my body away from his reach, but he uses his leg to pull me close and imprisons my legs between his.
SLAP!
SLAP!
SLAP!
SLAP!
By now, my ass is starting to really sting, and I’m getting angry with his high-handed treatment. But at the same time, I’m starting to feel warm and tingly, a sensation that I don’t understand.
He slaps my bottom two more times with extra firm hits, and then massages the sore skin. “So hot and pink. Next time you hit me, it will be more than my hand heating your bottom.”
He works my pants up with one hand, not letting go of my hands that he holds with the other hand. Probably, a good thing as I am so mad at him that I might hit him again. I have never had my bottom spanked before, and the embarrassment is enough to make me want to hurt him.
He pulls me to sit down next to him, and it’s slightly uncomfortable. “I’m sorry for spanking you. But you don’t hit me for any reason, do you understand?”
I nod my head, not trusting myself to speak. His hand rubs over my back, soothing me. I almost forget that I’m mad at him, not only for spanking me, but for the way he kissed me and touched me.
Finally, I find my voice, able to speak without wanting to kill him. “What did you think to gain, kissing me like that? How should I react when you treat me with disdain and then suddenly attack me like a man starved?”
“I’m sorry. I guess I should explain. I’ve been attracted to you since the minute I met you. But my personality is one of . . . dominance. I was afraid I would scare you away, knowing you’re an innocent. So, I treated you with disdain. But you being in charge, it has incensed me to the point that I couldn’t take it anymore.”
I sit quietly next to him and think about what he’s said. The one word that keeps circling around in my head is dominance. A part of me thrills at the thought, but a larger part of me is angered by his high handedness. “What is so wrong with me being in charge? Someone has to be, and no one else really seemed to be taking the roll.”
He looks at me. “It’s not just you in charge. It’s any woman in charge. Women are meant to be cared for, to be coddled. Men should be the ones in charge.”
I look at him as if he has grown two heads. How can he have grown up in the same tree that I did? Our entire society has been based on women being the leaders. Men still have roles of authority, but Ren is our queen and the ultimate authority.
“How can you think that with how we all grew up? Ren, the head of our whole kingdom is a woman!”
“Not everyone feels that things are being run as they should be. Things will change in the future.”
“I think you’re off your rocker, but once we’re back on the island, you can believe as you will. Right now we need to come to an agreement so that we can get through this quest and find out why our talents are going missing.”
“Fine. Since Warren and Puck will never listen to me, I’ll allow you to be in charge.”
I stand and look down at him. “‘Allow’?”
He stands and towers over me. “Yes, ‘allow’. I will follow your lead as long as it’s sound. But have no doubt, I will argue with you if I need to. And if it comes to it, I will gladly bring you over my knee again.”
I feel my face heating as other parts of my body tingle at his words. “You will do no such thing!”
He brings his face close to mine and holds my chin as he whispers in my ear, “Darlin, I will not only bring you over my knee, but once this trip is over, I will spend a whole night showing you my form of enjoyment of your body.” He lets go of my chin and pinches my nipple through my shirt. Then he bows, and with one arm holding the Armarillia Cape hairs back says, “After you.”
Without a second glance, I walk past him and out across the field to where I can see the small tendril of smoke from the fire that Warren and Puck have made.
Chapter 13
RIGHT BEFORE WE REACH Warren and Puck, Orrin grabs my arm and pulls me to him. “Don’t say anything of our conversation or what happened between us. They wouldn’t understand.”
I nod once at him and jerk my arm away. Does he really think that I would speak to them about something as demoralizing as being spanked, or about my body’s odd reaction to it?
“That smells delicious, Puck,” I walk into the small clearing. It looks as if it was designed to eat in. A log had fallen and been cut into large pieces that make nice seats when arranged in a circle around a small fire pit.
Warren looks up, a worried expression on his face. “Everything okay?”
I look at him and smile. “Yep, just needed to have a heart to heart.” I try to look normal, to not have my face turn red or to appear as embarrassed as I feel. My bottom tingles in memory of Orrin’s hand warm and firm on it.
I look over my shoulder and see him smirk, a knowing look in his eyes. Quickly, I look back at Warren, “So, we about ready to eat? I’m starving.”
Puck smiles, “Yep, about five minu
tes. I found some wild chives to go on them. With the nuts and berries we have, it should be a delicious meal.”
“Tell me what I missed while we flew? While in the chair I can’t see anything.” I pout at them and Warren laughs.
“Much of what we flew over was forests and fields. This is the Selkie kingdom, so their city is closer to the sea. We saw the occasional small home along the river, but nothing of interest.”
“Oh!” I had always thought that seeing the mainland would be thrilling, but so far besides the Brownie kingdom, this has been boring. “Isn’t this the beginning of the Mhularuka Kingdom?” I ask. The map is packed somewhere in my bag, but I don’t want to dig it out.
Orrin speaks up for the first time. “It’s on the other side of this forest. It was designed to be an impregnatable divide between the Mhularuka, Selkies, and Brownies. Here it looks like a normal forest, but in the center are three lines of large trees that are magically grown to intertwine together creating a living wall. The only way to get around it is to travel to the sea and go by boat, or to fly over it.”
I look at him in surprise. He hasn’t given any input at all in this trip, and now he comes out with a geography lesson?
“What? I like geography and history. I’ve spent a lot of time in the library reading.”
“Sorry, you just don’t seem the type of guy who would like that kind of stuff,” Puck says.
“I have to agree,” I say. “I always saw you as more of the athletic, outdoors type guy.”
“I like to be outside and to stay fit, but I really like the history more. One thing about this trip I look forward to is seeing how accurately we’ve painted the other kingdoms.” Orrin looks at each of us, almost as if challenging us to find fault with what he enjoys.
We all sit down around the fire and quietly eat the delicious fish that Puck has prepared. Once we’re done, we sit for a few more minutes relaxing in our own thoughts. I pull out the map from my pack and try to figure out where we can stay the night.
“Okay, so if we are about here,” I point to the a spot near the woods just a little ways from the bridge, “and if we need to go here,” I point to the Dark Briar Forest, “then maybe we should try to sleep . . . here.” I point at a spot not too far from where we are that would line us up with a direct flight to the Briar Forest. It looks like we would avoid the Mhularuka city, but would be on this side of the tree wall.
Orrin starts shaking his head immediately. “No we don’t want to go that way. Where with the Selkies, the open lands and over the river are dangerous for us, the Mhularuka live in the trees, so flying over forests would be dangerous. We want to fly over as much open spaces as we can.”
He leans over the map I have spread out, and his finger traces a path that zigzags over the countryside. “That is how we should go. And we should sleep, here.” The spot he points at is further than I would have picked, but is on the Selkie side in a forest. “We should be safe from the selkies and Mhularuka here.”
I nod my head in agreement and pack the map away. Warren has gotten the carry chair out and set it up, so I settle myself in it, and wait for the guys to take off. It doesn’t take long, and we reach the area that Orrin had found to sleep. Once they have settled me onto the ground, I jump up to start getting our tents ready.
But when I see the space Orrin found, I see a problem. Fairies are one of the smallest of the magical creatures in Empyrean. The tallest of us is about thirty inches tall, which means we can fit in pretty small spaces. The area that we are in has a large open space with a thick wall of trees on one side, and two of the other sides are fairly open with branches high up or pointing away from the clearing. The final side of the clearing has one large branch about three feet off the ground that protrudes into the area. Any other branches are too thin to hold a blanket.
“Um Orrin, did you see anywhere else we could sleep?”
He looks at me and shakes his head. “No, this was the only clearing I saw for quite some time. Maybe we could walk into the forest and find a couple trees close to each other that would work?”
I shake my head. “No, it would make it more difficult to figure our direction out, and nothing says we would find a spot where we could make four beds. We’ b ll just have to make one large tent, and you boys will have to behave.” With the last statement, I shake my hips as I carry my pack over to the one lone branch that would support a tent weight.
I pull my tarp out and lay it out over the branch so that the edge of one side just rests on the top of the large branch, and the rest of the tarp drapes over the smaller branches until it finally reaches the ground. Warren brings his tarp over and repeats the process on the other side. Puck’s tarp goes over the top of the two tarps and Orrin’s goes underneath the tarps for us to lay on. I climb in with my pillow and blankets and decide to sleep in the middle. I know it might be awkward, but being on either end weirds me out.
My spot staked out, I go to brush my teeth and change for bed, bras are not meant for sleeping in, especially those designed to keep the girls looking perky. I find a nice large tree and bush that I can change behind. I quickly take my shirt and bra off and put on a long loose shirt that comes to my knees. I shimmy out of my leggings and go back to the tent. I quickly climb into my blankets and wait for the guys to come in. One by one they come in, and I find myself sandwiched between Warren and Orrin.
Positive that sleep won’t come, I lay stiff as a board, barely daring to breathe, until I feel Orrin shift behind me. His warm body, pressed against mine, sends my tired body the signal that it’s safe and okay to sleep.
Chapter 14
I SLOWLY WAKE UP AND startle to the realization that I am the Aislin in a Lin sandwich. Warren has rolled so that he’s facing me, one leg thrown over mine, his hand resting on my boob, his mouth open, and drool slowly dripping out onto his pillow. Behind me, I can feel Orrin, his body pressed into mine, a certain part shockingly hard, pressing into my bottom. His arm is protectively around my waist, his hand resting on my hip bone.
Do I move? Do I stay still? Unsure how to respond or even what to do, I pretend to sleep in hopes that one or other moves.
“I know you’re awake, Lin.’ Orrin whispers in my ear. His hand starts to move in slow circular motions, slowly moving lower and lower. “Sleeping like this, snuggled close to you, is an exquisite form of torture. Can you feel what you do to me?”
I’m frozen, unsure of what to say, only knowing his forbidden whispers are making me want to move. My legs are restless, but if I move them I will wake Warren. I don’t even know if I like Orrin. I don’t know if I want to have a relationship with him. Yet, his words have me feeling things that I don’t understand.
“One day, I will show you what it means to submit to a man, what real pleasure is,” he whispers in my ear. “Maybe I will take you over my knee and turn those sweet white cheeks a nice rosy red just for fun.” My bottom tingles in memory of his hand slapping my bottom yesterday. It’s all I can do to not moan out loud. What has he done to me, for me to find that kind of talk a turn on?
Suddenly, his hand stills, and his breathing returns to that of sleep, and I almost think I dreamt the whole conversation. Warren’s arm quickly moves off my chest, and I look up to see him swiping at the drool on his face, his cheeks an endearing red.
“M-Morning.”
I smile at him and gently nudge my leg at his groin, “Morning.” I’m amused as his face turns even redder as he quickly moves his leg off of mine.
“Sorry about that.”
“I’m not. I slept rather well. All safe and secure with you guys protecting me.” Yeah, maybe I am laying it on a bit thick, but he’s so dang cute when he blushes. I have yet to move my knee from his groin, where I can tell that he has a nice response to me or he’s just happy to see the morning.
He takes his hand and runs it up and down my leg, massaging it from knee to thigh. I groan and push my leg into him for more, which has the added effect of pushing my bottom into Orr
in’s groin. A grunt behind me tells me that he’s awake.
Oblivious to the goings on in our side of the tent, Puck sits up, “Morning guys, ready for some breakfast before we go? I brought ingredients to make coffee, and an extra water flask for coffee.
We groan but not for the reasons he thinks. Warren is the first to roll over and get up. “I’ll start a fire. We should be safe here, as long as we keep it small and get into the air as soon as possible.”
Once he leaves, I wait for Orrin to get up, thinking he will be the gentleman and let me have a few minutes of privacy before getting out of bed.
“Oh no, darlin, I’m waiting for you to get up. I want to see that gorgeous ass as that nightshirt rides up.” He pulls me back against him, “And I really want to spank that ass for teasing me. But instead, I will leave you with this.” He pinches each of my nipples, just hard enough that I gasp as liquid heat shoots down to my center. “Now let me see that ass.”
I don’t know what makes me do it. If I like the way he talks to me, that he makes me feel sexy, like no other guy has, or if I want to try to shock him. But instead of kneeling and making sure I am covered before leaving the tent, I pull the covers down to my waist and sit up. From there, I get on my hands and knees, ignoring that my nightshirt is gathered around my waist, leaving my whole southern area exposed, and crawl out of the tent. Just before I get to where Warren and Puck would see anything amiss, I turn and look over my shoulder at Orrin, and smooth my nightshirt down. I stand and go to grab a change of clothes and find my tree for my morning ablutions.
BY THE TIME I GET BACK, the coffee is about ready, and Orrin is up. He has taken the tent down and neatly folded the tarps and blankets to be put back into our packs. I glare at him as he leans over my map that he had to have gotten from my pack. Instead of saying anything, I pack my things into my bag and get everything ready to go.
Finding Her Wings Page 6