“I agree, but maybe in a few weeks we can send a group that way again. I’d be happy to lead that one.” Lucian reached down and lifted a bowl up, holding it towards her. “Em, can you grab me some more water?”
His hand hovered in the air, and she dropped her plate on the ground. “Are you kidding me?”
Lucian turned to look at her, surprise flitting across his face. “What?”
“You’re asking me to get you water?” Emmie laughed, standing up. “Fuck you, Lucian! Why don’t you have one of your friends here get you water, because I sure as hell am not getting you anything.”
“Emmie.” Lucian’s voice was serious, and the area near her had gone uncomfortably quiet. “Sit down, and let’s talk.”
“You just asked me to fucking talk to you, and you brought me over here to listen to you talk about hunting deer! I’m not going to just sit down every time you or Mathias demand it.”
He stood up, facing off with her and she hated that to meet his eyes she had to look up at him. “Don’t do this,” he whispered, but her rage overflowed from that hollow place inside her, filling her to the brim.
“Shut up, Lucian.” Emmie turned to walk away from him, and the collective gasp from a few people around her should have been warning enough that she’d gone too far, but it was made clear when he yanked her back by her hair.
“You do not get to speak to me that way.” Lucian pulled her back against him, his fist twisting in her hair until the pain made her eyes water. “I warned you,” he hissed into her ear, and she remembered his threats from a few days before.
“No, no, Lucian —”
“Quiet. You’ve lost the right to speak. You’ll earn it back once you’ve been punished.” His voice was like iron as he pulled her with him through the gathering of people to a nearby tree. “Someone bring me some rope!”
“Lucian! Don’t do this, don’t —”
He shoved her forward against the tree and pressed himself against her back. “Be glad I’m not stripping you naked for this.” Lucian spoke low, and she could hear the anger in his voice. Someone must have brought him rope because he grabbed one of her arms and a rough loop slid over her wrist. “Move and it will be worse, I promise.”
When he stepped away from her, her first thought was to run, but he was already wrapping the rope around the tree, and then he had her other wrist in his grip and the rope was being pulled tight. Emmie couldn’t see what he’d done, but when he appeared next to her, she couldn’t move back. “I’m sorry —”
“No. You’re not.” Lucian’s voice was hard as he reached between her and the tree to unbutton her pants, jerking them down along with her underwear despite her efforts to close her thighs. “But you might be after this.”
“Please…” A furious blush made her whimper, but he didn’t even react as she twisted to look at him.
Ben brought over a narrow piece of wood that had something that resembled a handle at one end, which Lucian took. It shone in the firelight, clearly smoothed from use, or someone had spent a good deal of time making it look like it was. “Count each stroke, Em.”
“What?” she asked, and then the wood landed in a hard swat across her ass. The pain was unlike anything else, both brutal and sharp, and she howled and scraped her arms against the tree in an effort to break free. There was silence all around her, and then she heard Lucian sigh.
“You have to count. Each strike, say the number.”
“Why are you doing this to me?” Emmie screamed.
“Because you were disrespectful. You earned this punishment. Now count.” Lucian’s voice was steady, but the next swat of the paddle-like implement made her scream through gritted teeth. His voice rose up sharply. “Count!”
“Two!” she cried, and she heard a few laughs in the crowd, which only made the tears burn her eyes.
“That was one. They only count if you do, but I’ll give you that as one. This will be two.” His voice was still too calm, and she wanted to beg, to plead with him to stop, but a third sharp swat landed just where her thighs met her ass. Pain echoed inside her, and she tried to stifle the scream.
“Two…” she whimpered, and he stepped close beside her.
“Louder. So everyone can hear you.”
“TWO!” she shouted, pressing her forehead against the tree, and he stepped back from her.
“Good. Again.” This time when the paddle landed, she lifted onto her toes, crying out as the ache spread across her backside. “Emmie?”
“Three! Fucking three!” Her voice felt raw, and she hated how loud her breaths sounded in the sudden quiet of the village.
Then another crack of the paddle against her ass, and she clenched her teeth in an attempt to stifle her scream.
“FOUR!” she shouted.
“Why are you being punished?” Lucian still sounded infuriatingly calm, almost bored, as he asked. She wanted to hit him in the face. Again. “Emmie.”
She bit the inside of her cheek, refusing to answer, and then the paddle landed harder than before. Her skin felt blistered, hot and aching, and she groaned loudly even as she tried to stifle it. “Five!”
“Tell me why you’re being punished.”
“Because you’re an asshole!” That was something she was happy to shout, but again there was mumbling and a few gasps.
“Count.” Lucian’s growled response made her quake, and she dug her nails into her palms on the other side of the tree.
Another strike. “Six!” Another wave of vicious pain. “Seven!” Again, harder. “Eight!” Again, and she was sobbing as she tried to press herself away from the paddle. “NINE!”
“Want to tell me why you’re being punished?” Lucian’s voice was dark, and the steady, bruised pulsing of her backside was encouragement enough to make it stop even if he hadn’t sounded so angry.
“I was disrespectful!”
The paddle landed hard again, and she screamed this time, unable to even suppress it. His voice came behind her. “Count, Em.”
“Ten! That was ten! Are you done?”
“For your actions this evening, yes, but not for your actions earlier. Five more.” He was serious, and she pulled against the ropes hard, squirming to try and get her hands free, but the knots seemed to only tighten as she struggled until her wrists ached and she could feel her pulse in her fingertips. “Keep counting.”
The next strike had her screaming again, her skin was too sensitive for more, she knew it. “Please, Lucian, stop, please…”
“I said keep counting!” His hand landed in a sharp swat across her ass, and it was considerably less painful than the paddle, but it still lit up like fire.
“That was eleven! Please!”
The next three came almost too fast for her to call them out, but she tried even as her knees threatened to buckle under her.
“Twe- Thir… FOURTEEN!” Sobs shook her as she pushed herself onto her tiptoes, trying desperately to ease the fiery pain that throbbed from where her thighs began to the top of her ass.
“Say you’re sorry, Emmie. For being disrespectful to me and Mathias.” Lucian’s voice felt like a life raft in a sea of pain and she grabbed on.
“I’m sorry! To both of you, I’m so sorry I was disrespectful, please just make it stop!”
“One more. Make sure to count.”
She groaned, pressing herself hard against the tree to try and avoid it, but the strike landed and she screamed, sobs choking her off. “Fifteen, fifteen! Please, stop, please, I’m sorry!”
Lucian’s hands ran up her thighs as he tugged her pants up, but the fabric was its own torment against her skin and she yelped and begged again. He whispered against her hair, “Shhh, I’ve got you. It’s done.”
“I’m sorry!” Emmie whined, and the strength of him as he wrapped an arm around her waist was welcome, because otherwise she was pretty sure her knees were threatening to give out.
“Untie her wrists, I’ve got her.” Lucian pressed his lips against her shoulder
as she felt someone unbinding her from the tree. As soon as her wrists were free, her legs collapsed, but Lucian caught her and swept her up into his arms. “Go on, all of you. Back to your evenings.”
She felt them moving and though she could hear the steady hum of voices around her, she kept her eyes clenched tight. Too embarrassed to open them.
“I told you she just needed —” Mathias’ voice appeared to their right, and she flinched.
“Stop. I handled it. Now drop it.” Lucian was seething, the trembling of his muscles causing her to shiver as well.
“Well, maybe she’ll actually behave. You should have done it day one.”
“Go,” Lucian demanded, and Mathias must have left because they moved forward a few more steps and then she heard the familiar groan of his door. He laid her gently on her side on his bedding, and then stepped away to shut the door. Silence reigned between them, but Emmie could only focus on the ache of her backside, and the humiliation of having everyone in the village see what he’d done. “Em?”
His voice was soft, but she couldn’t force herself to respond. She had shouted out the numbers he had demanded from her, and that was enough.
“I want us to talk about this. Just us.” Lucian crouched beside her, and although she much preferred having her hair in her face as a barrier, he pushed it back out of the way. “Emmie. Talk to me.”
“You hurt me,” she whispered.
He flinched, but then the pained expression was wiped away. “I punished you, and it hurt, yes, but I warned you last time that if you did something like that in public again, I couldn’t ignore it a second time.”
“I don’t want to talk to you.” She closed her eyes, bringing her hands up to cover her face, and she heard him sigh.
“Why did you do that tonight? And why in the hell did you say those things to Mathias earlier today?” He made a noise of frustration.
“Why didn’t you stand up for me?” The question was soft, but he cursed loudly and she peeked between her fingers to see him sitting on the floor a foot away with his head in his hands.
“Em, you can’t just do whatever you want here. I can’t just let you.”
“Rules,” she mumbled and watched him nod.
“Rules.” Lucian took a deep breath, scrubbing his face with his hands before he looked up at the ceiling. “You earned that punishment, more than earned it with that outburst in Mathias’ meeting earlier today, and then you cursed at me and shouted at me to ‘shut up’ in the fucking village commons. Did you really think there wouldn’t be consequences?” He was looking at her, but she kept her face hidden behind her hands.
“I wasn’t thinking about consequences.” Emmie swallowed, licking her dry lips. “I was angry.”
“That was obvious.” He groaned. “I never wanted to have to do that, Em, ever. I thought we were past this shit.”
“Past what?” she asked, lifting her head to look at him.
“Past you throwing temper tantrums.” The words hurt, and she clenched her teeth in an effort to stop the tears that burned the edges of her eyes.
“I have a right to be angry that Mathias brushed me off like I didn’t give him the idea to move quickly. I have a right to be angry that none of you would even listen to me about getting into the city, especially when I just escaped!”
“No one knows that, Emmie!” Lucian laughed bitterly. “Why did you think I was trying to make you stop talking? I was trying to protect you, I was trying to keep your secret!”
“So, your solution was to tell me to sit down and shut up?” Emmie sat up fully, immediately regretting it as her sore backside took the brunt of her weight.
“I was going to handle it! I did handle it!” Lucian reached over and threw a bowl against the wall. “Fuck! Em, after everyone left I told Mathias everything. All of it! And he’s adjusted his plans, they’re going in where you told them to, but you didn’t even let me have a chance to do something! I was going to tell you tonight, but you —”
“You told Mathias?” She winced, and he let out a frustrated shout.
“Of course I told Mathias! What did you think was going to happen when you basically told his entire council what to do?”
“So, he hates me now? Because of who I am? That’s why you did this?” Even as the words left her mouth, she knew it wasn’t true, but she knew it would hurt him, and she had an urge to hurt him regardless of whether or not she had earned the punishment screaming at him in front of the village.
“Mathias has been telling me to punish you, in public, since he tied you to that damn tree naked!” Lucian pushed off the floor and paced across the room, his fist tight in his hair. “He told me that day to whip you at the tree! To make you answer him, us, in front of everyone! And did I?”
“You did whip me!” she shouted, standing to relieve the pressure on her backside.
“I used a switch, in the privacy of my house, because you were lying to us! Cursing and disrespecting both of us! I have never lied to you, and I expect the same in return!”
“Then admit that you wanted to punish me tonight! Admit that you liked it!”
He froze across the room from her, and when his eyes finally lifted to hers, they were crystalline clouds, heather-gray behind the shine of unshed tears. “You don’t want that answer, Em. Please, don’t ask for it.”
“Will you tell me? Tell me whether you liked it?” The ache of the welted skin across her ass was too fresh, too new to ignore, and it urged her forward even though she felt like she was laying her heart out in the open.
“Em, please…” he begged.
Lucian, the powerful leader of the exiles, begged her, and part of her wanted to run. Wanted to escape before he spoke the words she knew would come next, but she had to know for sure. She had to hear him say it.
“Answer me.”
He held her gaze for too long, until her own tears almost spilled down her cheeks, and then he spoke. “I liked it, Em. I enjoyed it. Enjoyed hearing you cry out, hearing you beg. I enjoyed being the one that made you scream. I enjoyed watching your ass turn red. But I hoped more than anything that I wouldn’t need to punish you tonight. Is that what you want me to say?” His last words cracked, and he ran his hands over his cheeks as he turned away from her.
I don’t love him. I don’t love him. I don’t love him.
“I’m leaving.”
“Em, wait!” He turned around and she wiped at her own cheeks to scrub them of the fresh tears. “Please, stay tonight. Let’s just talk some more, I swear I didn’t —”
“No.” She shook her head, holding up a hand as if it could even remotely stop him if he really wanted to keep her. “I’m leaving. I can’t stay here tonight.”
“Please, we can do this. I know we can.” The pain in his voice made her own chest ache, and she hated that. Hated that somehow they were inextricably linked and hurting him felt like tearing out her own heart.
As painful as it was, she made herself speak. “I don’t think we can.”
“Emmie!” His voice was raw, but she turned away from him and pulled open his door to step out into the night. It was cold, making the tracks on her cheeks impossible to ignore, but she welcomed the chill, hoping it would dig deep inside and numb the pain.
Because this hurt, more than she had ever expected.
Chapter Fifteen
There were still plenty of people in the village center, but she kept her arms wrapped around her and her head down, ignoring the way that a bubble of awkward silence seemed to follow her as she passed through. When she finally made it to the path that led to the stable, she was grateful that it was blissfully empty.
No guard. No Clara.
Just empty night to match the hollow ache in her chest.
Lying down on the thin bedding in the stable made her immediately question her decision to leave Lucian and his warm, soft bed. All of the decisions she had made that day were questionable and as each one surfaced in her mind she thought of how different it all mig
ht have gone had she just learned to hold her tongue.
She probably wouldn’t be sleeping alone on this miserable bedding.
The steady pulse across her ass was impossible to ignore, and she wished it would cease for just a minute so her mind could settle because it was still spinning.
He liked hurting me.
Emmie groaned, unsure of how she felt about it, but it wasn’t like it was a real surprise – she just hadn’t expected him to say it out loud. To admit it. Yet, Lucian had never been shy about it before. Not with the lines from the switch, not with the way he got hard spanking her… why had she expected this to be different?
The truth was she hadn’t, and she knew it. She was just embarrassed, and angry, and ashamed that he’d punished her at all. Ashamed that she deserved it after revealing Mathias’ painful secrets just so she could make a point. It had been cruel, selfish, and underneath all of her righteous anger about him brushing her off – she hated herself for hurting him. Hated herself for embarrassing Lucian when he had been doing his best to let her actions with Mathias slide, once again breaking his own rules. For her.
What was worse was that she had grown wet as he had paddled her ass, in front of everyone, and even in that moment, her clit seemed to have the same heartbeat as her backside. Why her body responded to Lucian’s rough actions, his punishments, she couldn’t explain. It was ridiculous that as angry as she was at all of them, all she wanted was to feel his hand between her thighs so she could sleep.
If you hadn’t stormed off like a child, you’d be in his bed right now.
Emmie whined, reaching over to Alice’s old bed to snag an extra layer to cover up with. If she really wanted, she could walk all the way across the village and back into Lucian’s house. He would let her in, they could talk through the mess of the day, and then she could sleep in his arms. But they both needed space, they needed to think about whatever they were, and whether they really could work.
Taken by the Enemy Page 19
