She raked her hands through his hair. “You have beautiful hair,” she whispered, nibbling his earlobe. “I love it when it’s wild like this.”
Her warm breath on his neck sent a shiver down his spine. That was the other signal he’d been waiting for: that she wanted more than just the release of a spanking. She wanted him, his cock. His seed inside her.
He covered his lust with a light chuckle. “It’s late and we have to be up early tomorrow. What must be at last should happen soon. Now in fact. But not here. My bedroom is a better place for what is to follow.”
With that, he lifted her into his arms and, holding her tight, raced upstairs. She relaxed, yielding to him with a compliance that he couldn’t wait to test. In the bedroom, he set her on her feet.
“Stay there. I want to undress you but first, let’s warm the room a bit.” He put a match to the stack of kindling and logs that waited on the grate. He walked up behind Pepper and wrapped his arms around her waist, savoring the way she leaned her head back against his chest.
They stood like that for a long moment while the fire flickered into life. When the flames leapt around the logs, Quinn eased the pins out of Pepper’s hair. The band of roses fell to the floor and he ignored them. He teased her lovely striped locks around her shoulders before unzipping her dress.
“You looked beautiful tonight,” he said, lowering her gown to the floor so she could step out of it. “I was the envy of every man and many women there.”
She stood, staring straight ahead as he laid the dress across a chair. Silent. He liked this quiet, unquestioning obedience. Her stiffening nipples announced that that her silence didn’t signal a lack of response.
He approached her from the front, his hair darkening as he admired her in the black lace lingerie. He knelt beside her to ease the shoes off her feet.
Shoeless, she brought her legs together, but he nudged them apart. “Don’t get uncooperative now, my sparrow.”
He undid each garter and peeled off the silk stocking with great tenderness, only lightly grazing the soaked crotch of her panties once. She purred at his touch.
When he undid her bra, her breasts sprang free, standing high and pert, begging to be touched. He left her panties on.
As he removed his own clothes, he said, “I’m not going light on you because you said you wanted this spanking.”
She nodded, trembling slightly. Her nipples hardened to small pebbles.
By the time he’d stripped, looking at her as he did so, his hair was jet black with lust. The blue of his complexion had darkened. His cock stood thick and rigid.
“Tonight, little sparrow, you’re going to look me in the eye as I spank you.” He took her hand and led her to his bed where he pulled back the blankets and helped up onto the high mattress. He eased a pillow under her head.
She looked up at him, wide-eyed with anticipation and worried curiosity.
“Lift your knees to your chest and hold them there.”
She did as she was told but exclaimed, “This is terrible, sir.”
He smiled, pleased that she remembered to be respectful at a time like this.
“But I like it,” he said. “I can see your face as I spank. This is called the lifted leg pose. Remember that in case you are told to assume it. It puts extra tension on the skin of your bottom, meaning I only have to work half as hard for full impact.”
To demonstrate he smacked her bottom, locking her stare with his.
Her eyes widened even more. She spluttered, “That’s the worst. Please, could we do this some other way?”
“Not tonight. Tonight, I get to see you in a very different way. If you put your legs down, I promise you a reminder you will never want to experience again.”
He had allowed her a false sense of security by leaving her panties on. That was for his benefit. He wanted to drink in the alluring contrast between her pale skin and the black lace panties. He spanked her several more times and watched her face register the relief that the slaps were mere pats.
“That was the appetizer,” he said. He hooked a thumb into the waistband of her panties and, putting an arm under her bent knees, lifted her buttocks off the bed. He swiped off the panties before throwing them across the room. The next slap was the hardest one of all, delivered to her stretched, bare bottom.
She gasped. “No! That’s too hard.”
His hand ran lightly over her freshly warmed skin as he lowered her legs. His fingers traveled up her cleft, stopping to tease her slick folds. “Your labia are very swollen, my girl.”
At that her eyes sparkled, as if her welcoming pussy was a special surprise she’d prepared for him. “Do you like that?”
“I love it.” He lay on the bed, his head cradled by her thighs, which he nudged farther apart. “I can’t wait to taste your honey.”
He licked her labia before opening them with gentle fingers. “This is what I’m after, the pearl in the oyster.”
He stroked it with his forefinger briefly before diving back down to tease it mercilessly with his strong, greedy tongue.
When she started to moan, he stopped.
“Why did you stop?” she asked, the ache of desire in her voice. She was on the brink.
“Don’t come yet, little sparrow,” he cautioned. “I stopped because I was going for dessert before I had the main course.” He slid off the bed, back to standing position, wrapping a single hand around her ankles and lifting them higher, raising her buttocks off the bed. “You know what I’m having for main course?”
“No.” Her voice was tiny.
“Rump roast.” With that he started to spank her, slowly and hard. One slap to each thigh. Many on her round exposed buttocks. A few shocking ones to her inviting pussy. Not overly hard but unexpected. She didn’t fight but neither did she weep. At the most painful ones, a mist of sweat broke over her skin and she cried out but didn’t try to get away.
With every stroke he met her eyes. When she closed them against the pain, he waited until she opened them again before he continued. He didn’t stop spanking until she was crimson from her top of the thighs to her rounded bottom.
“Red is my favorite color,” he said, lying beside her. “You may put your legs down now. Are you more relaxed?”
“I am. Thank you, sir.” She blew out a sigh that sounded like tension releasing.
“Was that a thorough enough release to help you stay calm tomorrow?” He traced her lips with his fingertip.
“Not quite, sir.” She grinned.
“What else could you possibly need?” He widened his eyes with feigned innocence.
She rose up on an elbow and reached a pale hand toward him. Her hand traveled down his arm, across his belly, and grasped his hard cock.
“I need this, sir.” She curled over and took it in her mouth. “And I think this needs me.” She flicked it hard with her tongue, laughing when it bounced in her hand.
“Wicked girl.” His strong hands encircled her waist and lifted her back beside him. “Are you sure you deserve that?” He clamped his hot mouth over hers because he didn’t really want an answer.
* * *
They writhed on the bed, hands exploring, groping. His fingers tweaked and punished here and there but Pepper’s moans weren’t an attempt to stop him. She moaned the way she wanted to moan at the concert: in delight.
He sucked one nipple and then the other, his mouth and teeth rushing her from rapture to despair and then back again. Her fingernails scraped lines of ecstatic appreciation down his back. He squirmed down and licked her soaking pussy and returned, bringing her sweet taste to her own lips. His hands were everywhere, on her breasts, caressing her face, snaking into her cleft. When he teased her butthole, he asked, “Have you ever been fucked here, little sparrow?”
She shook her head wildly, her hair flying across her face.
“A virgin hole. How lovely,” he said. “I will have to prepare you first. Otherwise I might tear you and we don’t want that, do we?”
/> She mewed, not knowing whether he was making a promise or a threat. When his finger, lubricated with her own juices, slid into her back passage, she tried to wriggle away for the first time. He rolled her to her side and smacked her bottom soundly many times.
“That is not submission, sparrow. If you’re going to stay here, as my partner, you’re going to have to improve your skills at compliance. If I want you, your mouth, your pussy, or your ass, you will give it to me immediately, do you understand?”
Grateful that his finger was no longer invading that most private of places, she murmured, “Yes. Yes, sir. I understand. Whatever you want, whenever you want it.”
“You’d say anything right now to keep my fingers out of your ass, wouldn’t you?” He started laughing.
She joined him. Lying to this man was impossible, even if she wanted to. He saw her true naked soul like no one ever had. She was lost with him and she was found, all at the same time. She wanted him so badly she’d walk across hot coals barefoot for a single kiss.
Her very few sexual encounters before this had been with a young Kedrant who wasn’t so well endowed.
As if reading her mind yet again, he laid her out on the bed, on her side, and flattened his body against hers. She gasped as he plunged into her, grateful that he’d started with a position where his massive cock wouldn’t harm her the first time they coupled.
Her hips rolled back to take him as his beautiful staff nudged her g-spot. He began with a slow walking rhythm, covering her neck with kisses. With one hand he fisted her hair. He pulled it tight and then loosened his grip, bringing her to his tempo as if guiding her through a dance they’d shared since the start of time.
His other hand roamed up and down her body. He ran his fingertips over her face, as though memorizing every plane. Abruptly he became rough again. He pushed her lips apart, plunging his fingers into her mouth, whispering suck me in a way that commanded her joyful obedience.
She wrapped her tongue around his fingers, pulled them deep into her mouth, savoring the salty flavor. When he drew his hand away, she sighed with disappointment.
His fingers, slick with her saliva, traveled down her throat, rested lightly on her trachea, and moved to her breasts. “These beauties are mine,” he said.
In response her nipples pebbled between his thumb and forefinger. Her breasts swelled as he hefted and squeezed each one. All the while his hips pounded against her stinging backside, reminding her that he would possess where and when he desired. Her fisted hair tightened and released as he rode her.
When he reached down to her treasure spot, she moaned, a half whimper of protest, a clear plea for more. The palm of his hand covered her mons and he spread her velvet folds. She pressed back into him, opening her thighs. His long fingers circled her pearl, teasing it mercilessly. She lost the last scrap of control she had. Her body shuddered. Her pussy spasmed.
Caught in spiraling ecstasy, she uttered a long howl of rapture. Her vagina widened and elongated to accommodate the brawny size of him. Rejoicing in her surrender, he thrust faster. Her hips rotated in hungry response as she neared her peak.
“Wait for me.” His voice was husky.
He paused for a teetering second before the wave of his orgasm sent his hips crashing against her. Cymbals clashed at the top of the crescendo of their private symphony.
Her back arched as he continued to tickle her clitoris. Her vaginal muscles clenched. Her toes curled. With a long growl of ecstasy, he spilled his seed into her. They ascended to the stars together.
He tenderly gathered her into the protection of his strong arms. “I love you,” he whispered.
A contented glow infused the room as they lay in blissful silence. Quinn’s three words echoed in Pepper’s head. I love you.
She loved him too. She’d known it from the first spanking in the forest, but she’d been fighting it all this time. He pulled the blankets over the two of them and held her close.
As she lay waiting for sleep, she realized it was the night of the Harvest Feast and Bonfire and she hadn’t thought about Rosemoor or Lily once all day.
She wanted to wake Quinn and ask him to let her call. Realizing that Brinley would probably be asleep at the other end, she let that idea go.
She was suddenly, unaccountably anxious for Lily.
Chapter Eighteen: Visiting Royalty
Quinn and Pepper were sleeping soundly when his alarm buzzed the next morning. They’d made love several times during the night, which, instead of tiring Pepper as she expected, had rejuvenated her. Already her body was adapting to his size. In his hands, she was easily aroused. When he touched her, her pussy quickly lubricated and stretched. The sex ed lessons she’d had in school had prepared her well for life with a Devmaerean man.
She didn’t want to mar the gentle mood of the morning by mentioning her worry about Lily to Quinn. If there was an emergency, Anna and Brinley knew where to contact her.
To her delight, the storm that had dumped rain on Rosewyld since the day of her arrival had lifted. From Quinn’s bedroom window she admired the freshly washed trees in the green belt, scattering their golden leaves in the morning sun. If she hadn’t been full of joy from her night with Quinn, the beautiful sunny day alone would have lifted her spirits.
“If you stand there one more minute,” Quinn said, coming up behind her. “I’m going to drag you back to bed and that would make us late for our honored guests.” He kissed her neck. “Then I’d have to spank you for making me late. Wasn’t last night enough of a reminder for you?” He grinned.
Pepper stretched up to kiss him back. She waited until his tongue was exploring her mouth and then she skipped away to the shower. Quinn joined her and they washed each other’s bodies with impatient care. They tried, but failed, to avoid arousing each other so they made love quickly one more time before finishing their bathing and dressing.
Quinn wore the same dress uniform as the night before. Pepper put on the purple dress that had been a gift on her arrival in Rosewyld. Her black dress from the concert was too formal for the occasion and while more modern women might have said the purple one was too casual, she liked it. Compared to the shapeless regulation midi she wore in Rosemoor, it was elegance itself. She topped it with an elaborate headscarf just in case the rules of modesty in Senne were anything like those in Elsinania’s Handbook.
After a quick breakfast, they went to the harbor to watch the fleet of six ships sail in. Two were cargo ships, carrying the first shipments of the prakinroot herbs that were said to ease the symptoms of the Waking Illness. The other four were naval battleships, an escort to ensure the safe arrival of precious cargo. The country between Senne and Elsinania, Silvelea, was a lawless, wild land, home to pirates and smugglers who hijacked anything of value that wasn’t protected.
Quinn and Pepper arrived at the harbor in time to see the Senne fleet sail into the port. The freighters were big and Pepper hoped and dreaded that they were loaded with prakinroot elixir. The last shipments from Senne had been hijacked at sea, which was why these freighters had a full military guard. No one dared count on the arrival of this shipment, not until it actually landed in Elsinania. There had been too many false hopes.
Even though Pepper wanted to see people freed from the debilitating symptoms of Waking Illness, she feared she’d no longer be needed in the capital city. It seemed unthinkable that she would go back to her old life now.
The battleships that accompanied cargo ships had with guns forward and aft. Each had a helicopter strapped down to its deck.
Pepper studied the helicopters, wondering if they would fly over Rosewyld. She’d only seen those true flying vehicles in movies. Hover-cars were the closest thing anyone in Elsinania saw to an airplane, jet, or anything in between.
A small smile teased the corners of her mouth. Too sated by sex and too tamed by Quinn’s firm spanking to be nervous, she savored the privilege of standing at his side publicly like this. Being beside him felt like her natural plac
e in life and if she only had these few days to enjoy it, she would.
One possible answer to Elsinania’s Waking Illness epidemic was arriving. Quinn had mentioned it once, with no comment on how it might mean the end of her usefulness. Shunting that thought aside, she let the brilliance of the morning sun brighten the smile on her face.
This first visit by a member of the Senne royal family had everyone vying for a chance get as close as possible. Security guards were everywhere, checking identification of people trying to drive into the wharf district, sorting people according to priority to decide who was allowed to go to which viewing areas.
Today all the guards were armed. The shadows of snipers crept across the surrounding rooftops while on the docks the mood was festive. A brass band at the far end played the Senne national anthem. Food carts that filled the air with the fragrance of coffee and hot donuts were doing a booming business.
In the area cordoned off for the executive members of the Tribunal, Pepper greeted familiar faces from the symphony the night before, as well as from her treatment room. Some of them looked at her with harsh, appraising eyes. Others seemed amused by the simplicity of her dress, barely concealing their smiles as they took in the plain purple frock topped with the elaborately embroidered head scarf.
Pepper returned the unkind glances the same way she returned the friendlier ones: with an enigmatic smile.
Daedra was the only one bold enough to sidle up to her and say, “It looks like you and the commander have developed a close friendship. I hope that means you will be staying in Rosewyld?”
Her simpering smile was more frightening than her usual scowl. Her eyes blazed with curiosity.
“No one has talked to me about how long I will be here,” Pepper said, hoping her anxiety over the question didn’t show.
Daedra had had many appointments with Pepper, taking more of her fair share of the treatment time available. On every visit she quizzed Pepper on how and why Quinn had appeared in Rosemoor to bring her to the capital. She drilled Pepper on her relationship with the commander. “Is the commander planning on making your position here a permanent one?”
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