Текст книги "Closed in Chains"
Автор книги: Sharon Green
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Текущая страница: 2 (всего у книги 7 страниц)
2
“Do you think it’s safe to untie me and take off this blindfold now?” Tain finally forced herself to say, letting a hint of disdain color the words. “If you’re afraid I’ll attack you, I can always promise not to.”
“Before I untie you we need to get the ground rules straight,” Killen answered, sounding a lot less disturbed than Tain had hoped he would. “I’m in charge this time, not you, so we’ll be doing things my way. There are a number of reasons why I’ve been put in charge and told to stay there, not the least of which is the fact that you’re not entirely your old self.”
“I’m also not completely and totally under the influence of the drug, something you ought to know,” Tain countered, getting more unhappy by the minute. “If not for that fool female I was saddled with—But that’s beside the point. The fact still remains that I can do what I have to even with that drug in me.”
“But not nearly as well as you normally can, and there’s no getting rid of the drug until we’re back where we belong,” Killen stated, his voice taking on a hardness Tain didn’t like at all. “You can’t go back to being an upper class woman, not when there’s a chance someone will say something to show you do have the drug in you, so you have to stay a slave. That means doing as you’re told, not whatever you care to.”
“That’s garbage,” Tain said, making the mistake of moving in annoyance. The movement started that insertion to working on her again, and having to lie absolutely still to calm the thing again multiplied her annoyance. “If I’m dressed as an upper class woman and you’re acting as my protector, everyone we met would talk to you rather than me. You’re just trying to—”
“And if I don’t happen to be around every minute of the day and night?” Killen interrupted, still with that hardness in his voice. “All it would take would be one bit of bad luck, and then the game would be over. Do I have to remind you what’s done to slaves who pretend to be free?”
Tain had parted her lips to snarl at the fool, but his last words left her with very little to say. She did know what happened to slaves who dared to pretend they were free, and to say the fate wasn’t pretty was to understate by a mile. Death was a happy thing compared to what would be done to her…
“And where do you think I would get the clothes and other requirements of an upper class woman?” Killen went on after only a very brief pause. “My character is nothing but a mercenary, and even if there were stores to go into where the clothes and things could be bought, how could I explain why I was buying those things? And then there’s my companion, who’ll be joining us in a short while…”
“What companion?” Tain asked automatically while her mind scrabbled around looking for a way out of the mess. A way she could live with… “Who are you talking about?”
“We’ve managed to recruit one of the natives of this world who’s willing to work with us,” Killen said. “Tandro is smart enough to know that enslaving women is bad for his world, so he’s going to try to help us change the practice. But he grew up with the rules this planet operates under, and he knows I just bought you at the slave auction. He’ll expect you and the girl to be treated like any other slave, at least until we get you both back to where you came from.”
“The girl,” Tain said, knowing the place Killen meant was the very well-concealed base they operated out of. And that had to mean he’d been at the base when her tracer and Ennie’s had shown they’d been taken. “Are you telling me your friend is the one who bought Ennie? And I thought I’d be rid of her for a while.”
“I couldn’t very well let her be sold into real slavery, now could I?” Killen asked, amusement having entered his voice. “Tandro bought the girl and I bought you, and we each left the compound with our slaves and headed in a different direction. Tandro will circle around and meet us here, where we’ll camp for the night. First thing tomorrow we’ll all head back, he and I taking care of our assignment on the way. The assignment shouldn’t take long, so this will all be over almost before you know it.”
The amusement had strengthened in Killen’s voice, and Tain didn’t have to wonder why. He sounded like a used-car salesman, trying to talk someone into buying one of his lemons.
“Come on, Kitten, be reasonable for once,” Killen urged when Tain didn’t say anything for a moment. “We have no real choice here, so why fight the inevitable? And this will be the first time we’ve ever worked together. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been curious about how we’d do if we teamed up.”
Sure, teamed up. With him being the owner and her being the slave. But even beyond that there was a reason she’d never agreed to work with the man, and that reason hadn’t changed.
“I won’t let you take advantage of this foul-up to treat me like a slave,” Tain finally stated, wanting him to know how firm the decision was. “It isn’t ‘reasonable’ to let people walk all over you, especially when the mess you’re in was caused by someone else. But if you don’t like what I’m saying, you don’t have to go along with it. Just untie me and turn your back for a minute, and I’ll take care of getting myself home.”
“And run the risk of getting caught as an escaped slave?” Killen countered at once with a snort of scorn. “I don’t think so. You seem to believe that your not being in charge will mean the end of the world, and it’s time you learned that that isn’t so. If you want to do it the hard way, then that’s the way we’ll do it.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tain demanded, finding it impossible not to react to his belligerent tone, but the fool didn’t answer in words. A gasp escaped her when she felt his hands on her body, hands that caressed her breasts and then moved to the place between her legs.
“These are my orders to you, slave, and you’ll obey them completely and absolutely,” he said in that very hard voice as Tain lost the fight not to squirm. “To begin with, you won’t obey anyone else’s orders but mine unless I tell you to. If I’m not there and someone tries to command you, you’ll humbly explain that you’re not allowed to obey anyone without my permission. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Tain gasped out, agreement forced on her by the damned drug she’d been given. And with the louse’s hands all over her, she couldn’t even control her thoughts well enough to make mental loopholes she could take advantage of later.
“My second order is that you’ll obey me completely and absolutely any time I address you as slave,” Killen went on without taking his hands away. “If I call you by some other name, the decision about whether or not you’ll obey is yours—with the firm awareness that if you don’t obey me you’ll be punished. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Tain repeated, writhing and pulling at the leather on her wrists. The insane need she’d felt earlier was back, and his every touch made the fire burn hotter.
“The third thing you need to be told is that you’re not to take off on your own unless something happens to me,” Killen said, giving her no rest. “No matter how unhappy you are, you’ll stay with me until we get where we’re going. Do you understand?”
This time Tain’s answer was more of a grunt than a word. If he didn’t ease her soon she would die, and she wanted to die!
“And lastly, for the moment at least, you’re to tell me every time that insertion dissolves,” he said, his voice sounding kind of far away. “The thing takes a while to dissolve, but as soon as you feel that it isn’t influencing you any longer you’re to let me know. Do you understand?”
Tain wasn’t capable of anything but mewling as she tried to nod in answer, but that response seemed to satisfy him. The next thing she knew he was between her knees again and entering her, and then there was nothing for her but sensation. Explosions wracked her body again and again, and when the very last release came, exhaustion took her down into blackness.
Jake lay still on the blanket for a few minutes, unwilling to lose the feeling of satisfaction too quickly. Making love to this woman was something he’d wanted to do since the first time he’d seen her, but her own reaction to meeting him hadn’t been the same. She was the department’s fair-haired girl despite having dark-brown hair, their top agent, and most of the people she worked with were intimidated by her in one way or another. Either they tried to be as good as she was or, failing that, they tried to be invisible.
But I never did the same, and wouldn’t have even if we’d worked together, Jake thought, getting up on one elbow to look down at the woman who was lost to exhausted sleep and stroke her hair. I don’t need to prove how good I am at everyone else’s expense, and if she’d wanted to be in charge, as she usually was, I wouldn’t have minded. But Coleson would never give us the same assignment, and even though he refused to say why I had the definite feeling the refusal was her doing.
Even though Jake didn’t know why she’d refused to work with him. The refusal might have something to do with her nickname, Tain, a less-than-usual shortening of “captain.” Her unofficial rank was captain, but he’d earned the rank of major before he’d left the armed forces to work for the department. Could she resent him for something as petty as that? He didn’t like to think so, but it was always possible.
Jake sighed as he reached for his body cloth, stood, and began to put it back on. Only the upper classes wore more than the scantiest of clothes on this world, and even they stripped down when they weren’t in public. His role as a mercenary let him be as comfortable as possible in the heat, and Tain would be even more comfortable as a slave. At least as far as clothing went. As far as the rest of it was concerned, this woman would get exactly what she’d asked for.
Annoyance got a good grip on Jake as he crouched next to the sleeping girl, removed the short strip of leather from her arm and the bush, then began to untie the leather holding her wrists behind her. Anyone else in her place would have seen the need to be reasonable, but not the mighty Tain. She had to have everything done her way, even if her way put her life in more danger than usual. Any slave caught pretending to be free or proving to be a runaway was tortured to death slowly and horribly, but that was not going to happen to this woman. No matter how unhappy the restrictions he’d put on her made her.
And the time just might teach you a needed lesson, Jake thought as he stood straight again to look down at the sleeping woman. In your own way you’re as much of a brat as that girl Ennie, and Ennie will definitely be taught better before this is over. And who knows? Maybe the time we spend together will make something grow between us in spite of your unhappiness. As soon as you learn to relax and let someone else be in charge…
Tain made a sound of unhappiness as she moved just a little on the blanket, then she sank back into sleep. As soon as Jake was certain of that he left her and went to the pack horses he’d hidden in these trees before going into the slavers’ compound. One of the horses had been carrying his possessions and the other had had Tandro’s things, but both horses had been unburdened and put on a grazing line before he and Tandro had left.
The pack horses had pretty much grazed as far as they could by now, so Jake shifted their positions before carrying his tent and stuff into the clearing. He’d already taken care of his saddle horse, so he put up the small tent and then went to gather wood for a fire. It was somewhere around noon right now and his stomach told him it could do with a meal, and Tain would certainly be hungry when she woke up. Not that she was likely to enjoy what she was given, but that was just too bad about her. If she’d been reasonable…
But she hadn’t been reasonable, and Jake had decided to make her regret that choice. Maybe someday the lesson would help to save her life…
Tain woke up feeling confused, most especially since she couldn’t see anything. For a minute she didn’t understand, and then she realized that although her wrists weren’t tied any longer she still wore that blindfold. It took only a minute to push the cloth up before pulling it off, and then she was able to see again.
But the return of sight wasn’t the comfort it should have been, not when she saw Killen sitting by a dying fire drinking from what looked like a water skin. It was fairly obvious that he’d also eaten, something that made Tain very aware of the hollow in her middle. But she’d rather starve than ask that man for anything, so if that was what he was waiting for—
A hiss forced its way out of Tain’s throat when she thoughtlessly tried to sit up. That miserable insertion felt smaller than it had originally but it was still inside her, something she’d found out about when she’d tried to sit in the normal way. Perching on her hip was about all she could do, a humiliating position that the amusement in Killen’s very light eyes said he knew all about.
“I’m glad you’re awake, Kitten,” Killen said as he put aside the water skin. “Come over here and have your lunch, and then you can do some cleaning up and wood-gathering. You’ll want to be ready when it’s time for you to make supper.”
“Thanks anyway, but I’m not very hungry,” Tain said, forcing herself to ignore his stare. “Since I’m the slave around here, I might as well get directly to work. Show me what needs cleaning, and then I’ll get the wood.”
“You’ll do as you’re told, slave,” Killen said, his tone having turned as hard as the look in his gray eyes. “You’re not in a position to decide what you will and won’t do, something you ought to know but obviously don’t. Let’s see if I can make the point absolutely clear for you. Come over here.”
Tain tried to resist doing as he said, but the drug in her system made his orders completely undeniable. The best she could do was move slowly as she got to her feet and walked over to where he sat, but the slowness of her pace seemed to make him even more annoyed.
“Stubbornness has its place, but the trick in using it successfully is knowing when not to use it,” Killen said, reaching up and pulling her down across his folded legs. “The next few minutes might help in teaching you which time is which, and if it doesn’t then we’ll just keep doing the same over and over until you do learn. Keep your hands and arms right where they are.”
Tain’s hands had gone to the ground beyond Killen’s leg, so she didn’t understand his order until she felt a really hard smack on her bottom. Her first reaction was to gasp and try to protect herself with her hands, but only the gasp actually worked.
“Did you like that?” Killen asked while Tain fought not to squirm because of the growing sting in her seat. Not squirming was absolutely essential because of what the last of the insertion was doing to her, that smack waking it up with a vengeance. “Answer me, slave. Did you enjoy what you were just given?”
“No,” Tain was forced to say, the single word pulled past the growl in her throat as her hands turned to fists. She wasn’t being allowed to defend herself in any way, and that was lousy, stinking, and—
“How about that one?” Killen asked after giving her a second hard smack that almost made her cry out. “Did you enjoy the second any more than the first?”
“No,” Tain choked out again, too busy with trying to control her reactions to ask what the hell he thought he was doing. Besides starting to slowly drive her crazy…
“I have a theory about why you aren’t enjoying this,” Killen said while the ache built higher in Tain’s bottom. “I think you aren’t enjoying the spanking because you don’t know how much good it will eventually do you, so you aren’t able to really appreciate it. What I intend to do is keep spanking you until you appreciate the effort enough to thank me, and I expect those thanks to be sincere. Let’s see how long it takes.”
And then his hand smacked her bottom again, just as hard as the first two times. This third smack, though, landed on a seat that was already aching, which meant Tain wasn’t able to keep from yelping just a little. As the fourth and fifth and sixth smacks landed in turn, the yelps grew in size and volume until Tain was almost shouting. In addition to the flaming heat growing inside her, the ache in her bottom was flaming almost as high.
At one time Tain would have sworn that she was able to take anything anyone could dish out, but she quickly learned that a hard spanking wasn’t part of the anything. Every time Killen’s hand landed on her bottom the situation got worse, finally forcing her to admit that stubbornness might not be the best of ideas right now. She would rather have died than give the louse any satisfaction at all, but since dying wasn’t even a faint possibility…
“Thank you!” she found herself suddenly blurting as she fought to swallow her howls of pain and need. “I really want to thank you!”
“Oh?” Killen said, and happily that hand hadn’t come down on her bottom again. “You’re thanking me? What are you thanking me for?”
“I’m … thanking you … for—Ow!” Tain yelled when another smack reached her tender backside—probably because she was talking too slowly. “I’m thanking you for giving me—ow!—this spanking! Thank you for—oh! teaching me what I need to—ouch! know!”
“Not bad,” Killen allowed, and even while Tain writhed she noticed that he’d stopped spanking her again. “You do sound somewhat sincere, but I’ll need some proof of that sincerity. Ask me to finish the spanking in a proper way.”
Tain almost asked what he meant by “a proper way,” but she cut the words off just in time. Questioning the man in any way at all would cast doubt on her “sincerity,” and that was something Tain very much wanted to avoid.
“I … would like you to … finish the spanking in a … proper way,” she got out through gritted teeth, hating herself for being such a coward but helpless to do anything else. “And I’d … like to … thank you … in advance.”
“You’ll also thank me once it’s finished,” Killen said, and then an even harder smack to her bottom made Tain howl louder than ever. There was a pause between each of the following smacks, so after the fifth it took Tain a short while to realize that the spanking was over.
“Now you can get to your knees and give me those thanks,” Killen said once Tain’s wildness had calmed just a little. “That’s right, move backward off my lap.”
Tain had no interest in moving at all, but it still wasn’t possible for her to refuse. Small pain sounds were forced out of her throat as she backed off Killen’s lap and to her knees, humiliation covering her like a blanket.
“Thank you for … finishing the spanking properly,” Tain said once she’d settled into a position that brought the least amount of added pain to her bottom. She wasn’t able to look directly at Killen, and surprisingly he made no effort to get her to do it anyway.
“There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” he asked instead as he used one finger to wipe at the tears streaming down her cheek. “I know the time wasn’t pleasant for you, but you have to learn not to act any differently than other slaves. As long as you’re a good girl and do as you’re supposed to, you probably won’t have to worry about being spanked again. Now take this food and eat it.”
Killen put a wooden bowl into her hands, and despite the fact that Tain had no appetite whatsoever she used the crude wooden spoon to swallow down the plain cereal the bowl contained.
“Good girl,” Killen said once she’d finished the “meal.”
“Next time you’ll eat as soon as your food is ready so it won’t be cold the way it was just now. And if you’re a really good girl, we’ll see if we can’t find berries or something to give the cereal some sweetening. Now you can rinse the bowl in the second bucket of water that’s a little farther away, and then you can go and collect firewood.”
Tain was about to protest that she needed easing first, but one glance at Killen’s expression said that she’d be wasting her breath. He really was determined to treat her like a slave and make her act in a way he considered proper. Even with no one around, he obviously wasn’t prepared to budge an inch.
Tain had trouble getting to her feet, and once she was standing she had trouble walking. The ache in her bottom flared high with every step and motion, and the heat inside her made her want to moan. But none of that was allowed to keep her from doing the chores assigned by her owner, a man who seemed to be watching her every move. And washing the bowl proved to be the easy part. Once she put the bowl aside and headed into the trees for the firewood, she found out just how bad it could get.
A small armful of wood had already been collected when Tain moved behind a tree to gather what was on the ground. As soon as sight of Killen and the camp was cut off, her mind automatically went to the possibility of escape. It would be so easy to slip off into the deeper woods and head for the base, keeping to the wilderness the entire distance. She knew how to stay out of sight, how to feed herself, how to make sure no one had the least idea she was around…
But taking the first step proved to be impossible. She’d been given very strict orders about staying with Killen, and even though she fought with all her strength she couldn’t break the hold those orders had on her. It was maddening, infuriating—but there was nothing she could do about it. She’d been tied hand and foot without a single length of leather touching her.
By the time she had all the wood she could carry, Tain was completely miserable. Her bottom ached and throbbed, the need threatened to send her screaming to her knees, and she felt so hemmed in that the emotion nearly reached the level of phobia. She hobbled back to the campsite and put the wood she’d gathered on the ground near where the fire had been, deliberately not looking around at anything. She hated being so tied down, and the hatred made her uninterested in everything but itself.
“That’s a good start,” Killen said from where he lounged on the ground, callously intruding on Tain’s need to brood in silence. “We’ll need more wood than what you have there, but before you go back out for it there’s something I have to do. Come over here and kneel down.”
Tain would have hesitated quite a while if she’d been able, but only a short hesitation was possible before she just had to obey.
“Good,” Killen said when she was on her knees, and he seemed to be pretending that she’d obeyed him enthusiastically. “You’ll need some help, and the slavers were kind enough to make sure I could give it to you. No, don’t worry, you’re not about to be spanked again.” Tain had stiffened and almost struggled when Killen took her across his lap again, and she wasn’t entirely sure that she could believe what he said. It wasn’t all that long since the last time she was bottom up across his lap, and the experience was one that would be remembered for quite a while. Then she gasped as she felt his hands parting her thighs, and gasped a second time, louder, when two of his fingers put something inside her.
“This cream is designed to soothe your inner parts and make it easier for you to do your duty toward your master,” Killen said as he moved his fingers in a way that made Tain moan. “I know the treatment is hard on you right now, but we can’t do anything about rewarding you for acting properly until you’re in a condition to appreciate that reward. Is the soreness being eased?”
With speaking completely beyond Tain, all she could do was nod spasmodically. She hadn’t really been aware of the soreness inside her, not with everything else she’d been made to feel, but she was aware of the way the cream had first eased and then banished the soreness.
“Okay, all done,” Killen said, no longer using one hand on her thigh to hold her still. “You can get up now and go back to gathering wood. Your body needs time to absorb that cream completely, and there’s no sense in your not doing something constructive while we’re waiting.”
While we’re waiting, Tain thought bitterly as she found that getting up was almost as hard this second time. Her body was now screaming for relief, and the thought of how long she still had to wait made Tain want to blubber or tear her hair. She was almost to the point of being willing to beg, and it wasn’t just the knowledge that she’d be ignored that stopped her. If she ever begged Killen for anything she really would want to die…
Tain fought not to squirm as she walked back into the woods, and the fact that she probably failed miserably wasn’t one she cared to consider. There were now two compact tents in the small clearing the campsite had been erected in, with a few feet distance between them. The second tent reminded Tain that Killen had said his friend Tandro would be arriving, and the thought that the native would get here in time to see her being humiliated was a devastating one. Not to mention that Tandro would have Ennie with him…
The picture in Tain’s mind of her moaning under Killen while Ennie laughed in ridicule was so vivid that she didn’t realize she had all the wood she could carry until she dropped the latest branch she tried to add to the rest. The realization that she’d completed her chore sent her directly back to the campsite, her body refusing to listen to the reluctance in her mind.
Tain nearly held her breath until she saw that Killen was still alone, but that sight didn’t bring the relief it should have. There was no telling when the other man would arrive, but it suddenly came to her that using one of the tents ought to take care of the problem. For that reason Tain hurried to put the second load of wood with the first, but before she could say anything Killen had his own say.
“And now it’s time to give you your reward,” Killen told her with a grin, and his rising to his feet showed Tain that he’d moved the blanket and had been sitting on it. “No, don’t say anything right now. I’ve been looking forward to your getting back and I don’t want the mood spoiled.”
The mood spoiled. Tain’s mood was one of frustration that made her want to scream, most especially when Killen came close to lift her into his arms. The heat inside her flamed higher at the touch of his hands and body, but her mind’s reluctance also grew as he carried her to the blanket, went to one knee, then put her down on the cloth.
“Just to make you feel less alone, I was given a cream for my own use,” Killen murmured as he put himself beside her on the blanket. “Now we’re ready to make beautiful music together instead of whimpering piteously. Aren’t you glad?”
Tain tried to shake her head vigorously, but Killen held her head still with a fistful of hair and began to kiss her. At the same time his free hand caressed her wherever it could reach, increasing her need so badly that Tain thought she would die. She writhed in his grip and made sounds of desperation, and after an eternity his lips left hers long enough for him to remove his loin covering.
One glance showed Tain that Killen was just as ready as she was in spite of the way she had to use her feet to keep her tender bottom off the blanket. She watched him move between her knees, taking her thighs in his hands, and then he was presenting his rampant demand to her own desire. If she could have she would have screamed for him to hurry—and then she was suddenly in a lot less of a hurry.
“Oh, yes, how deliciously tight you are now,” Killen exulted while Tain choked over the impression that he was pushing a tree trunk inside her. “We’re going to have much more pleasure this time, we certainly are.”
Tain would have wanted to show her disagreement with that opinion, but she was much too busy thinking about how long it would take for her to break…
