by Raven Dark
“Not even Sheriff?”
“Not even Sheriff.” His thumbs made circles on the backs of my hands before he led me over to a flat rock beside the waterfall and sat me down. “Kitten, you have to know, if Sheriff didn’t think of you as his, the same way I do, he probably would have let me punish you. Sheriff always protects what’s his, including the Grotto. That’s why he will discipline you.”
Looking up at him, I tried to understand. Somehow, I didn’t see the General feeling anything but the deep, mistrust and hatred he’d shown for me yesterday. I forced myself to nod.
“When you get to know what I need from you better, you will want a place to be by yourself,” he said. “After tomorrow…” He looked away for a moment and released my hands, looking suddenly awkward. “Well, anyway, enjoy.”
Staring at him, my heart felt like it had grown too big for my chest. “Thank you, Master. Thank you for the gift.” I stood up and hugged him, resting my cheek against the warmth of his chest.
Hawk rubbed my arms. Then his fingers tipped my chin up almost gently. His lips covered mine.
By the time he pulled back, the worries over tomorrow seemed a lot further away. “I wish I could join you, but I can’t, Master.” I rubbed his chest with my palms.
“Your back.” He pushed my hair gently over my shoulder. I nodded. “I won’t be long.”
He gave my hands a squeeze, then walked over to the waterfall. Every move he made caused his muscles to ripple, and I loved watching them bunch and flex as he made his way up a few flat rocks where the water splashed down.
For a moment, he disappeared into the waterfall. Blurred by the cascade of water, I saw him wash quickly, using shampoo and soap sitting on a rock shelf behind the falls. He tilted back his hair and rinsed, giving me a fabulous view. I had no problem sitting on my rock for a few minutes, taking it all in.
When he was done, he put the shampoo back and then carried the soap over to me.
“What are you doing?”
“Cleaning you up.” He knelt in the shallow water. My mouth watered at the look of his thick cock, half-hard and long in the low light. “Take this off.” He pinched the material of the frock between his fingers.
I stood, stripped the frock off and set it on the rock beside me. His gaze heated, traveling over every curve. My stomach danced.
“So beautiful.” He lathered his hands up with the soap, then worked the soap over my feet, my legs, my thighs. With his hand lathered, he worked the moisture over my stomach, my waist, my backside, the plump mounds of my breasts, ignoring where I needed them most. A low, ache lit in my sex, but he continued to work his palms and fingers everywhere else.
“Want something, slave?” he murmured, noticing my watching the movements of his hands, the way they avoided certain places.
I bit my lip. “I want what you give me, master.”
He gave a low, rumbling laugh. “Good girl.”
In reward, his fingers slid between my legs, stroking over my clit, my folds, slicking up my core. “Such a perfect, pretty little kitten.”
I spread my folds for him, giving him better access. He cupped the water in his hands, pouring it over me and washing the soap off. When all the soap was gone, he sat me back on the rock.
“Spread your legs.”
I leaned back on my elbows, spreading my knees while Hawk positioned himself between them. His fingers stroked me slowly once, twice more. Then his head was there, mouth and tongue everywhere at once. I groaned and laid all the way back on the rock, losing myself in the sensations. Hawk knew exactly how to use his tongue, swirling my clit, lapping at my core, spearing my center and teasing my entrance until I panted and had to will myself to stay still.
“You’re learning.” His mouth was relentless, his hot tongue lashing everywhere, never staying in one place long enough for me to grow accustomed to his touch. He moaned, and the sound vibrated against my clit.
“Master…” I threaded my hands through his hair. He didn’t stop me.
“Let go, kitten. Come on my face.”
My eyes slid closed, his need to please me sending my own need sky high. I groaned and gripped his head, rocking my hips. He spread my knees wider and sped up his strokes until I was rutting against his face, fucking his tongue.
I went over the edge with a thrash and a scream, convulsing against his face. The waves of pleasure kept coming and he let me ride them, teasing them out with just the right strokes until the last of the ripples died down. By the time he lifted his head, I was panting hard, my chest heaving. I gazed up at him, dazed.
“Liked that?”
I nodded and looked at him, his cock jutting up wickedly from between his legs. It looked so hard it must have been painful. I reached for him. “What about you?”
“You’ll repay the favor later. You needed to let go and just feel. I could spend hours hard, thinking about all the things I’ll do to you when I’m ready.”
I hoped I wasn’t imagining the satisfaction in his eyes, satisfaction at his having pleased me. No one had ever gotten me off so selflessly, thinking only of my pleasure. I sat up and cradled his hard face in my hands, wiping the moisture from his lips and cheeks with my fingers.
He hauled me to him, mouth crushing mine. The scent of my own musk made my head swim, intoxicating. I lost myself in him.
We didn’t leave the cavern for a long time. The worries of tomorrow might as well have existed in another world, because right then, it felt like there was nothing but us.
Afterward, I let him lead me out to Cherry’s place. Once at the slave quarters, he gave me a long, toe-curling kiss and said goodnight. He waved at his guardsmen standing sentry at entrance, then walked away in the darkness.
“Good,” Cherry said. “Smartest thing that man’s done yet.”
I turned to see her leaning against the entrance to the tunnel, arms crossed over her chest.
“Violet, let’s get you to bed. You look like you’re about to fall down.”
The soft golden light shining from inside the tunnel behind made her red hair look like it was on fire. I smiled at her and went inside.
“I’ll make you up a bed in the alcove outside my room. You can go behind the curtain over there and change, wash up, get ready for bed. There’s a toothbrush and water on that shelf.”
I sat in a chair while she gathered fresh sheets and a hand towel. She placed them on the empty cot she’d set out, then knelt down at my feet.
“Violet, what you did today… No one’s ever done anything like that for me. Well…” She paused and turned her head away, her gaze far off in another time or place. “Once, someone helped me like that. But it was a long time ago. I barely remember.” She said the last part in a whisper. She looked back up at me, her face softening. She was truly beautiful. “What I’m trying to say is thank you. You saved my life. I’m not the easiest person to deal with, I know. I have my reasons. I’ve been an ass to you from the moment you got here, and I’m sorry for it.”
“Cherry, you don’t—”
“No, let me talk. I don’t know why fate put someone so kind and innocent in this shitty ass world, but what you did today?” She shook her head. “I don’t ever see true goodness like that, Violet. Why in the world you saved my ass is beyond me, but from here on out, I’m here if you need me. Like a…big sister or something.” She grinned. “That doesn’t mean I’m gonna start braiding your hair and shit, and I’m still going to call you Violet. But I got your back.”
My eyes misted. I’d never had a friend. I’ve never had anyone speak like that to me, so full of sincerity. Even Damien couldn’t have pulled that off, no matter how much I thought he spoke from the heart.
“I’m just glad you’re alive and okay, Cherry.” I grabbed her then and hugged her, ignoring the pain it caused my bandaged back.
“Well, enough of this mushy stuff. I’ll get a clean shirt for you. I’ll leave it on the bed.”
She got up and started making up the bed for me w
hile I washed up behind the curtain. Once I was done, I undressed, pulling on the clean shirt. Cherry extinguished some of the torches, dimming the lighting.
“Goodnight, Violet.”
“Goodnight, Cherry.”
She left me alone and went into her room. I laid down and pulled the crisp, clean sheets over me. His Light, this day was long. Finally, I was alone. I had Hawk to thank for that. How had he known what I needed? I remembered his face when he sat me down at the pool this afternoon, the protective concern in his eyes. The Hawk I’d been with then wasn’t the same man I met when I woke up on the sofa that first night in the Grotto. Was it possible for someone to change in such a short amount of time? Or had he always been like that, and I was just getting to know him?
Even Sheriff wasn’t the man I thought he was. Earlier today in his office, I saw the leader in the man, the wisdom, the planner. As crazy as his words were, I couldn’t deny he made sense. He’d asked me what I’d do if I were him. I didn’t know. Would I think I was a spy too?
I thought back to the night of the auction. Like the memories were pages in a book, I searched each one, seeing that night with different eyes. I remembered all the guards, what seemed like hundreds, hired-out for that night. How could anyone have ever gotten away with stealing me? The audacity alone—well, Pretty Boy and Steel had that in spades—the skill, the planning…there was no way anyone could have pulled it off. And yet, I remember hearing Damien say something, outside the branding room, something about VIP and seating.
“Oh no. Was this a set up?” I said into the dark room. I scanned my mind, looking for missing pieces, but came up with nothing.
Then I distinctly remembered Damien mentioning that it was Talak that had the VIP.
I let out a deep breath, relief filling me. No. There was no way Pretty Boy and Steel had fallen into a trap. I wasn’t a spy. I laughed aloud at my own paranoia.
So the question now was, did Sheriff still believe I was? And if so, what would he do with me? And more importantly, would he use tomorrow’s punishment as an excuse to do away with me?
Chapter 15
Someone Else’s Penance
Something woke me up, a murmuring, something that almost sounded like—
“Oh, oh, yes.”
Cherry?
I sat up and looked out toward the other cavern, trying to decipher the time. The light was hazy but looked like dawn wasn’t far away. I laid back down. Maybe Cherry was having a dream. I closed my eyes again, trying to find my way back to sleep.
A giggle drifted from the next room, followed by a man’s low mumble. Cherry wasn’t asleep, and she wasn’t alone.
“Crash, no, not that! Shhh be quiet.” Her soft voice had a trace of laughter behind it.
I smiled, a pleasant, warm feeling settling in me for my new friend. Crash seemed like good fit for her. I didn’t envy him, though. She was going to give him a lot of grief. The thought almost made me giggle.
I fell back to sleep with a contented sigh.
What couldn’t be more than five minutes later, someone was shaking me awake.
“Violet, wake up, sleeping head. We’ve a big day ahead of us. Let’s get some breakfast. Crash is going to escort us to the common room.”
I gave her a sleepy look, then sat up, surprised at the light pouring into the hall. I must have slept longer than I thought.
“Morning. Yeah, I’m up.”
Realizing what lay ahead of me, the sleepy smile slid off my face. Punishment. My stomach dropped to my feet. Thoughts of Sheriff and spies, fires and pain, swirled around in my head like gnats.
I took a steadying breath. I can do this. Light, give me strength.
Dressed and ready to go, I met Cherry outside. Crash was standing there with another man, someone in a guardsmen’s cut. Cherry gave me a half-smile, sympathetic.
Crash waved us on, and we walked the pathways up to the commons room. Once inside, I spied Hawk sitting at our regular table.
As soon as I was in reach, he stood and grabbed me around the waist, pulling me close.
“Mmm…I’m missed my kitten. Did you miss me?” His yellow gaze circled my face, taking in my features. The corners of his mouth pulled up in a lazy grin. I noticed his dark circles were back again.
“I did, Master. And you didn’t sleep well, did you?” Brazen of me, but I didn’t care. I did miss him. Maybe it was the sleep or the alone time, but something in me had changed over the night. I was determined to just let the pieces fall where they may, and know that whatever happened, I was at least true to myself.
Hawk kissed my head but ignored my question. “Go sit down and eat. You didn’t eat much of anything yesterday.”
As soon as we’d eaten, and I drank my tea with iris root, I said goodbye to Cherry and Crash. Hawk escorted me to Sheriff’s office, getting us there fifteen minutes before nine. The whole way there, he said nothing and barely looked at me, to the point where I wondered what I’d done to make him so distant all of a sudden. Then, at the closed door to the office, before he knocked, he spun me to him and his arms crushed me to his powerful frame.
“What—”
His lips smashed against mine, cutting me off. His tongue gave one brief, hot sweep against mine. Surely, I imagined the protectiveness in his kiss.
Lifting his head, he knocked on the door, then released me.
“Enter,” Sheriff said from inside.
Hawk opened the door. When I looked at him again, his hands were clasped behind his back, his face that stoic, stony look, as if there was nothing between us. He gave the smallest nod—of reassurance?—and I turned and walked into the office, trying to will my nerves to settle.
It didn’t work, especially when I forced myself to focus on Sheriff.
When Hawk had opened the door, I noticed the General had been sitting at his desk, writing something on a piece of paper, his head down. Now he’d put the pen down and sat back, eyes on me as I crossed the room to him.
For all that he’d said yesterday that he and his men were not kings, he sure had the presence of one. The leather chair, framed in ornately carved wood, held a certain masculine air, but seated with his long, ring-covered fingers folded in front of his mouth, indigo eyes sharp and intent on me, he made that chair seem like a throne, a look his tattooed arms and leather cut somehow did nothing to diminish.
Hawk, Steel, and Pretty Boy all seemed a million miles away, and as much as they were my masters, I held no illusions; this man held all the power over what happened to me now. I cleared my suddenly dry throat. Never had I wanted a drink of water so much as I did then.
“Master, if I may ask, what’s going to happen to me now?”
Sheriff’s eye-lids dropped a little and he relaxed into his chair. “You’re looking for reassurance from me?”
When he put it like that, the question sounded so stupid. Of course, he wouldn’t tell me. His eyes dropped to my hands, and I realized I was fidgeting. I threw my hands behind my back. Some Yantu Warrior’s slave I made.
“Are you afraid of me, sweetheart?” Sheriff asked quietly.
There was no good way to answer that without lying, so I said nothing. The delight that sparked in his eyes made my stomach clench. He stood from his chair.
“Tell me what kind of punishments you’ve had.”
I drew one, then two measured breathes, hating how vulnerable it made me feel telling him such a personal thing. Quickly, I went over the disciplinary actions Damien’s people had doled out on me. None of them had been physical, choosing instead psychological punishments. Time in isolation, hard labor, long periods without food or sleep, and once or twice, strange things like having me stand in a corner for a whole day or preventing me from using a latrine until I couldn’t hold it anymore. Damien had his people do the last one so often I’d trained myself to hold my bladder for up to six hours, even when they made me drink.
While I listed off my experiences with discipline, Sheriff leaned with one hand on his desk, head
down so that I couldn’t read whatever emotion might have been on his face. When I finished, he said nothing for a long moment, seeming to weigh my words. What would he do with what I’d told him?
“Damien has deprivation fetishes. That’s…interesting.” His lip curled. “I’m guessing he put you in that well thing he has on his grounds?”
Oh, Merciful Light. I shuddered at the memory. How often had he ordered someone to keep me in that tiny stone well at the back of his grounds, sometimes covering it over with a wooden slat while I sat in there, stomach growling with hunger, bladder too full, nothing but days of darkness for company? I hated that thing.
Would Sheriff lock me up somewhere in the dark alone for hours or more? Was that what he had planned?
“What else?” Sheriff asked, snagging my focus.
“What do you mean, Master?”
His eyes flicked to me on the word Master, but he said nothing about that. “He never had you whipped? Spanked? Flogged?”
My blood rushed to my head, eyes on his large hands, imagining a flogger or a whip there. “No, Master. He…um. He insisted on never damaging my skin or leaving marks anywhere.”
At the time, I’d thought he’d been protecting me in some way, but now I knew it was just to preserve the perfect look Violets were prized for.
For some reason, his lips pulled into an almost smile before it vanished again. He circled me, stopped when he stood at my left shoulder and ran his thumb along my upper arm. My skin tingled at his touch.
“You do have gorgeous skin. Like white marble.”
Then his hand dropped, and he went to the door of his office, leaving me to stare after him.
“Come with me.”
Confusion and fear tugged at me. I’d fully expected him to carry out my punishment in his office. With all the strange questions he’d asked about my past experiences, my mind spun, wondering what he had planned for me.
With a steadying breath, I followed him out of the room. He led me to a tunnel near the office door, one that burrowed into the back wall of the waiting room.
