Wynne slurped tea noisily before continuing. “The next morning, we all pretended to be as hungover as Ellery so your mother offered us all a massage. Three of us accepted. Afterwards, we decided it would be best if Elsinania didn’t lose her talent. Then it was just a matter of what to do, how we’d separate them.”
“And?”
“We drugged their midday meals. Heavily... The afternoon Ellery Saar Thornback was put on a transport to Silvelea, along with other malcontents who’d challenged authority once too often.”
“Mama?” Pepper didn’t care how childish her voice sounded.
“To the Healing and Rehabilitation Camp.”
“They’re both alive?” Pepper dug her nails so hard into the palms of her hands, she knew she’d drawn blood.
“Dunno. Once they’ve been eliminated from general population, I’ve done my job. It’s up to someone else to keep an eye on them after that but I haven’t had a report of your mother’s death from the Healing and Rehabilitation Camp so there’s a chance she’s still around. Your father? That’s anyone’s guess. Silvelea is ruthless country, or so I’ve been told. Everyone who is transported there is issued a handgun and a long arm to take with them. The Tribunal Guards sail them to a place within hundred or so yards of shore and put them in a rowboat and leave them there. After that, who knows?”
“Mama can’t be alive.” There was a hitch in Pepper’s voice.
“What makes you so confident?”
“If she was alive, it wouldn’t matter if she was on the sun, she’d have gotten a message to me.” Pepper swallowed a sob. “She would have.”
“Maybe. But some people just give up when they reach the camp. They don’t want to risk the safety of their loved ones by letting them know where they are.”
“I don’t believe you,” Pepper said stubbornly, not wanting to cling to false hope. “They were taken by a rogue wave. I saw the death certificates.”
“The wave was based on truth. There was a rogue wave that hit the island the same time your parents were there, but we’d had plenty of warning. It made the timing perfect.” Wynne gave a sour smile. “We always base our cover stories on facts. Death certificates? They’re not hard to get when you have the right authority.”
Pain twisted through Pepper as the deception became clear. For three years she’d believed a lie. Blinking back tears, she asked in a trembling voice, “You create stories so people’s families don’t go looking for them?”
“In a nutshell, yes.”
“Who does the dirty work? Who takes them away?”
“That’s the work of a special branch of the Tribunal Guards. I just make the recommendations and, once I have the authority, I give the orders for removal.”
Wynne stood, dropped the recovery blanket, and slid her robe back on. Her hand touched the handle of the door to the patient lounge.
“Wait!” Pepper said. “I need to know more.”
“Make it fast,” Wynne said. “I’ve got places to be.”
“Where is the Healing and Rehabilitation Camp?”
“That’s privileged information.” Wynne opened the door.
“Okay, then, after you recommend removal, who gives the final authority?”
Wynne gave a deep, throaty laugh. “Who do you think?”
Chapter Twenty-One: Different Directions
Long before Pepper went upstairs, Quinn sensed her agitation. He told himself she might be nervous about going home again. She’d been less than thrilled about Lily’s mating. There was also the news about her friend disappearing, but people were taken to the Healing and Rehabilitation Camp on a regular basis. It was the only way of keeping the rest of the population safe.
She’d packed for Rosewyld in less than twenty minutes so that was exactly how long he waited before he followed her upstairs. He found her in the small bedroom where she hadn’t slept since the night of the concert.
That night had changed everything. Without either of them discussing it, she’d joined him in his bed the following night as well. He’d gone from being her guardian to being her lover. Now he wanted to protect her and look after her more than ever.
When he appeared in the doorway, she jumped, letting out a single shriek.
“Oh, my god, you scared me!” She clapped her hand over her mouth self-consciously.
He wanted to believe that he’d just caught her by surprise, but the way she avoided his eyes, folding and refolding a single scarf, raised his suspicions. He let a stilted silence settle between them as he stood watching her.
Finally, he made up his mind. “I’m going to run a bath,” he said. “When you’re finished packing, come and meet me in the bedroom.”
He saw the struggle on her face at his words and waited for her protest. None came so he left her there. She was hiding something and whatever it was had to do with the message star from her sister the night before. As Quinn started the water running, he considered what he’d learned from that: Lily had sworn vows, had committed to a partner without so much as a by-your-leave to Pepper. The two girls were all that was left of the Thornback family and Pepper was clearly hurt by Lily’s actions. There was nothing Pepper could do about it now.
Vows in Elsinania were binding for four years, except in cases of cruelty, neglect, or infidelity. Lily hadn’t had a death sentence, but he was sure Pepper didn’t see it that way.
That narrowed his focus to Pepper’s concern about her friend Anna. Pepper’s reaction to the news that Anna had been taken to a Healing and Rehabilitation Camp hadn’t surprised him. People always worried about things they didn’t understand.
As he processed those thoughts, he undressed. He wrapped a towel around his nakedness and went to fetch Pepper. She was already on her way of her bedroom, wearing the nightgown she’d brought from Rosemoor. With long sleeves, a high neckline, and voluminous skirts, it complied perfectly with the Handbook. The best part of that nightgown was taking it off her.
“This way.” He took her hand and led her to the armchair in front of the fire. Sitting down, he eased her onto his lap. Her weight was deceptive. With her slender wrists and ankles, she looked frail at times, but her body was muscular and toned in all the right places. He liked the solidness of her, the true heft, when she sat on his lap.
“What is worrying you, little sparrow?” he asked, stroking the soft cotton of her gown.
“Nothing.” She forced a smile. “Why?”
“Why do you lie to me?”
“I’m not.”
“Lies upon lies. This is not good.”
She tried to stand but he held her in place. “There’s something going on with you. Your worry crackles off you like an electrical current. This is your last chance: what is it?”
She bent her head, still mute. Her hair hung like a curtain, masking her face. The first sense he had that she was truly distressed was when a fat teardrop landed on his hand. He drew her close. “You can talk to me, Pepper, I will listen, I promise. What’s going on?”
“Nothing special,” she said between sobs. “Life has changed so much. I’ve just started to get close to you and now you’re going away and I’m going away and maybe we’ll never see each other again. I’ve lost people I love before. I don’t want to lose you too.”
A tear hung like a pearl on her eyelashes and he kissed it away. “There’s no way I’m going to let you go on a permanent basis. Not now. Not ever. You can’t escape me that easily.”
She shook her head, swallowing hard. “I’m being silly. I’m sorry.”
“You’re not silly. You’re expressing the perfectly natural concerns of someone who has found something valuable and doesn’t want to lose it. If you’re telling me the truth that is.”
She stiffened slightly. “Of course,” she said. Something in her voice said no, she wasn’t.
He brushed a lock of hair behind her ear and turned her face to him. “You better be,” he said. “I want to help you, but I can only do that if you’re honest with me.
Are you?”
“Always,” she said. Her eyes slid away again.
“Well, I’m going to give you something to remind you to stay truthful.”
Her eyes widened and she mewled.
“Yes,” he said. “A reminder spanking.”
“I’ll remember. I promise. That’s not necessary.”
“I know you’ll remember. I’m going to make sure of that. You’re not the one who decides what is and isn’t necessary. I know you well enough that if your bottom isn’t stinging with a recent reminder to obey me, you’re likely to think you can do what you please. Assume the position. You know how this goes.”
Pouting, Pepper slid off his lap. Lifting the hem of her nightdress, she lay across his knees slowly. At the sight of her nakedness, Quinn’s cock stirred. The spanking was necessary.
He hated people keeping secrets from him.
Elsinania was a country buried in secrets, all enforced by the rules of the Handbook. That was fine for the greater populace. In fact, that strict code of containing and classifying information was a necessary way to keep peace in a country that had been ravaged by war for a hundred years before Garrick the Elder ended all the fighting.
But Quinn was the commander now. He wasn’t prepared to accept secrecy from anyone, certainly not from this little minx who’d won his heart. After a very short time in the city, Pepper thought she knew its dangers. Ha. She didn’t even know what the dangers were.
Whatever she was holding back tonight was dark and troubling. He wanted her to share it, not make tissue-thin lies about losing him.
He rubbed her lovely round white globes as he decided exactly how much reminding she needed. He delivered the first swat, striking upward on the cheek, making the soft flesh wobble invitingly. She tensed briefly but then relaxed.
He wanted more of a reaction than that, so he smacked her hard, right across the sit spot. She gasped but held her position.
Her barriers were up. Her resistance to the spanking told him she needed it longer and harder. She needed him to break through the wall she’d built around herself. He spanked her a dozen times, hard and fast, so she couldn’t steel herself for what was coming next.
This time he opened his hand flat and smacked with full force.
She hissed out a breath along with a small chorus of ows and ouches. When he spanked the tops of her thighs, she said, “Please. No more. I won’t forget this lesson. Really I won’t.”
“Are you being completely truthful with me? Are you simply worried that you may not see me again?”
“Yes, that’s all. I promise.”
“And yet I find I don’t believe you. Why is that?”
“Because you’re suspicious of everyone and everything?” She spat out her words.
Quinn understood for the first time that he was indeed the cause of her worry, only not for the reasons she said. He wondered who’d been talking to her and what seed of doubt they’d planted.
He didn’t care. She was his now. She’d learn to do as she was told, starting with telling him the truth about any monsters being fed by her healthy imagination.
“Would you like to expand on that topic?” Quinn asked. “What makes you think I don’t trust people?”
“This isn’t a great position for conversation,” Pepper complained.
“It’s good enough for you to tell me what’s on your mind.”
“I already told you. I have nothing more to add. I don’t know what you want from me.” Her voice was angry rather than pleading. A bad tone to take with him when she was so vulnerable.
“You have nothing more to say? Well, I’ll let this new bedroom helper do the talking. It’ll speak directly to your beautiful, padded tush.”
With that he reached into the cushion beside him and pulled out a paddle. It was round, highly polished, and had a circle of holes drilled through it to reduce wind resistance. He held it where she could see.
“Say hello to our new bedroom friend,” he said.
“No! You can’t use that on me.”
“Kiss it,” he said.
She shook her head.
He lifted it away from her face and brought down smartly on her bottom. She howled. He held it in front of her face. She kissed it without further prompting. After that he kept the rhythm brisk but delivered each spank with moderate strength. He didn’t want to break her. All he was after was a truthful admission of whatever was worrying her.
* * *
Pepper’s whole body tingled from the spanking. She wanted this punishment for release. It was what she deserved for holding out on Quinn, for not being honest. But she just couldn’t be; he wanted the impossible from her.
When he’d asked her what was wrong, she’d given him the chance to tell her that she hadn’t lost her mother, that Mama was alive but cloistered in the camp. He knew she was afraid of losing people she cared about. She’d told him.
He hadn’t taken the hint and reassured her. Now there was no way she was going to ever be able to ask him if he knew where her parents were. If he said he didn’t, she wouldn’t know whether to believe him or not.
If he said yes, she’d hate him. For a short dizzying time, she’d lived in the cocoon of his love, being protected by him and his sisters. She thought he was being more honest with her but not honest enough. She’d take the spanking. It would be worth it. She’d taught herself how to zone out during punishment, to just ride the waves of the pain and not let it break her.
Then he showed her the paddle. With the first swat, she writhed in desperation. It was the most painful thing he’d used on her so far. Once it started to slap her well-warmed bottom, she couldn’t hold in the moans and yelps that jumped to her lips. He continued to paddle her ruthlessly.
Not once did she ask him to stop.
I can bear this, she told herself over and over. It won’t kill me. She’d take whatever he dished out. Her submission to the spanking was her penance for keeping a secret.
Fresh anger over what had happened to her parents burst in Pepper’s chest, making her twice as determined not to cry or give Quinn the easy submission he wanted. She resisted the spanking, mentally and physically. She squirmed and kicked but his one arm, cinched around her waist, made her efforts futile.
The sound of the paddle falling deafened her own cries and protests.
When the paddle stopped, her body was trembling, her pussy was drenched, and her conscience was almost clear. She’d paid the penalty. Now she didn’t have to tell Quinn anything. By spanking her, he’d lost the right to know what was truly upsetting her.
Once again, she found herself in his arms, being comforted with soft kisses.
“You’re mine,” he said. “And I want to know your deepest darkest fears. I want to blow them away and keep you safe.”
“Thank you,” she whimpered, nestling against in and inhaling the sunny scent that comforted her so much.
“Are you ready to tell me now?”
She shook her head.
“But you admit there is something you’re not telling me?”
“Yes,” she murmured. She could only be so dishonest, only withhold so much.
“Then I will allow you the few days we are apart to make a better decision. I want you in my life for now and forever. But that isn’t going to work if we’re hiding things, is it?”
For now and forever. Pepper shivered at what those words meant. She ran her fingers through his long hair and drew his mouth to hers. When their lips met, her tongue pushed past his hungrily. She wanted to devour him. He pushed her away gently, into a standing position.
“You’re mine,” he repeated, lifting the nightgown over her head. His towel dropped, pushed off his hips by his twitching cock. He took her hands and wrapped them around it.
“Like this,” he said, showing her how to stroke him to further hardness. He sat down in the armchair again. Pointing to his tool, he said, “Suck it.”
Pepper dropped her knees, delighted to wrap her lips around t
hat fearsome rod that transported her to heaven. When his pre-cum started to ooze out of the tip, Quinn lifted her to her feet. “To the bed.”
Once there, he laid her down but Pepper decided she needed to take charge. She waited until he tried to lie on top of her and rolled away. Before he could protest, she straddled him. Holding her breath, she raised herself to her haunches and eased herself onto his pole. He moaned in ecstasy. She gyrated her hips slowly to tease him. His hands clamped onto her breasts, teasing and tweaking her nipples.
With her warm, throbbing bottom grazing his stomach, her arousal intensified.
Every move was a reminder of the spanking she’d just endured. Pain and pleasure mixed in a kaleidoscope of sensation. In seconds, she was back on the edge of the cliff about to jump into the pond.
“Come for me, little sparrow,” Quinn ordered, his voice terse, not to be denied. “Suck me dry with your fantastic sheath.”
All was lost. Pepper tumbled over the edge, into that heavenly pool that waited below.
Her orgasm went on and on. Quinn held back as long as he could but her squeezing pussy undid him. He paused, savoring that pre-orgasmic moment when all the joy and sweetness of life beckoned.
Then he gave into it, filling her pussy with a volcano of cum.
* * *
Afterwards they bathed together. Pepper was so worn out by the spanking and fucking that she could barely keep her head above the water in the giant bathtub.
Quinn cared for her with loving ministrations. He washed her feet, between each toe even, before soaping her legs and splashing the water off. Her intimate area commanded the most thorough attention along with the amused remark, “I think I might want to eat your pussy. I better make sure it’s good and clean for me.”
His hand dipped lower, finding her back passage. Before she woke to what he was doing, he’d slipped two fingers into it. She froze, staring at him wide-eyed.
“You’ve opened very nicely for me.” He grinned.
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