by Dinah McLeod
Sarai faced the chair with hesitation. But knowing that he would be back any moment, and fearing what would happen to her if she wasn’t exactly as he’d told her to be, she placed her palms flat on the surface of the wooden chair and bent over, her butt pushed out. She was shaking—from fear, from exhaustion, from the pain that radiated in her rear. Whatever the cause, her arms trembled as they held her up. She begun to wonder if she’d even be able to endure three lashes when Binnix returned. When she caught sight of what was in his hand, a lump rose to her throat as her heart began to beat triple-time.
She wasn’t sure if it was the fact that she’d never seen a flogger before, or if they were just a horse of a different color on this planet, but either way, what she saw terrified her. The implement was long—perhaps two feet in length, but thin. It was clear plastic, yet when light caught it, it seemed to shine with a somehow sinister light that made her know that her trembling was from fear alone.
“Please,” she said, before she was even aware that the plea was crossing her lips. “Please, don’t.”
“I’ve told you before, Sarai,” he said, with the patience of a man speaking to a child. “I do not make promises that I do not keep. You’d do well to remember that in the future.”
Oh, she’d remember. How could she forget? She doubted that once struck with that thing she would ever recover, and he expected her to somehow manage it three times! Strike that—he didn’t expect anything, he demanded. And if she failed… a shudder ran through her as she remembered that promise.
“Are you ready?” he asked politely, as though he was inquiring if she were dressed to attend a play.
“And if I tell you that I will never be ready?”
“I would remind you that this only happens to people who disobey the rules, and tell you that you have approximately one minute to get ready.”
Unforgiving taskmaster! Sarai turned back around, unable to look at the awful implement for even one minute longer. She took several long, deep breaths, and continued that way, trying to calm her racing pulse. She’d hate to have a heart attack while she was waiting to be whipped. She was making good progress, too, but the minute she heard him step behind her, all her work was undone and her heart beat a furious tattoo against her chest.
“I will begin.” No sooner had he spoken, Binnix brought his arm down and the implement landed across her bottom.
Sarai was confused. She’d felt it tap against her skin, but for all its ferocious appearance, it fell feather-soft against her bottom. How strange.
No sooner had she thought it, a scream wrenched itself from her lips. Oh, the pain! It felt like every nerve in her butt had been doused in gasoline and set on fire. Every place that he’d spanked her previously was awash in familiar heat that was even more intense than what she’d experienced before.
The second tap was delivered just as softly, though even the slightest pressure hurt when it was against her burning flesh. And then another fresh wave of pain washed over her, strong enough to bring her to her knees. She was well on her way to kneeling on the floor, until she remembered yet another promise he’d given her: move, and they would start over. The idea was even more unbearable than the pain she was in, which was the only thing that kept her on her feet.
The third and final stroke was delivered. Before the newest wave had even crested over her tender, aching, on-fire bottom, she was already sobbing. These weren’t the quiet sobs of a repentant girl—no, they were all-out wails as hot tears streaked her cheeks and snot dripped from her nose.
“We are done,” Binnix pronounced. She could hardly hear him over the sound of her bawling. “You may sit down, if you wish.”
Was he kidding? She didn’t think she’d ever be capable of being able to sit again, and even if she was, she knew for certain she’d never want to!
Sarai continued to howl, and he didn’t say or do anything to stop her. Her hands flew to her bottom and she danced around the room as she rubbed it, as though that would somehow ease the pain. It didn’t. Not one single iota. Yet, she continued doing it, wishing desperately for a bucket of ice she could ease her punished backside into. She knew that she must look like an idiot. If there was one thing that she couldn’t abide, it was a woman of her intelligence looking foolish, but right that moment, she just didn’t care. The only thing that occupied her thoughts was how to make it stop hurting.
Apparently, he tired of watching her do the spanked-butt-spin, because Binnix gathered her up into his arms and sat back down in the chair. She craned her head to see what he’d done with the flogger and found it leaning against the table. She glowered at it and wished for the ability to make it burst into flame so that she could have the pleasure of watching it turn into a lump of useless plastic. Before today, the ability to fly would have been her chosen superpower, but now she’d definitely want the ability of shooting fire from her eyes. It would certainly make living on this planet more bearable.
“You did well,” he told her, his voice gentle.
Sarai shocked them both by clinging to him and burying her face in his chest as she continued to sob.
***
The small, alien creature was so vastly different from anything or anyone he’d ever known before. She could be defiant to the point that it belied her small stature, and yet, she was clearly so very frail. He’d meant to punish her, and well. He hadn’t expected to feel anything when it was over except for the satisfaction of a job well done. But, much to his surprise, he felt concern for her as she continued to howl long after a child of Pra’kir would have recovered. He began to wonder if he would have to take her to see the doctor. But perhaps there were more than just a well-warmed rear that was the problem.
“Are you all right, Sarai?”
“No,” she mumbled into his chest.
Why did he feel a sudden warming to this creature? It was strange, but he found that he quite liked the feeling of her clinging to him. Perhaps it was strictly parental, he mused. Having never had children, he didn’t have the faintest idea what it would feel like to have spawn of his own.
“I’m sorry,” the girl-child murmured as she shifted on his lap.
In answer, his cock began to rise. No—whatever his feelings where toward her, they definitely were not parental.
“I shouldn’t have tried to run away,” she sniffled. “But you clearly don’t want me here.”
“That’s not true,” he surprised himself by answering when, in fact, just an hour ago he would have been in complete agreement with her.
She looked up at him with those beautiful blue eyes, shiny with tears. “It’s not?”
That hopeful voice was doing something to him. His cock was growing larger still—surely she could feel it pressing against her. “I just meant…ah…” It wasn’t like him to get tongue-tied, but for the life of him, he couldn’t think of a good way to answer her.
“You’re just being nice,” she said, sniffling again, seeming resigned. “Well, if I could go back, I would.” She leapt up from his lap. “Can you show me to my room?”
“Your what?” he asked, regretting the loss of her warmth.
“Or, my cell? I was hoping to get some sleep, so as long as there’s a bed, I don’t care.”
“No, I have a room for you. Come, follow me.” He led her through the house until they came to his spare room. It was furnished exactly like his own room—barren stone walls and aserviceable bed that was made up of pristine, white sheets. A single window was the only decoration.
“The prison was more colorful,” he heard Sarai mutter. Since she clearly hadn’t intended for him to, he didn’t comment, but he found himself wondering what she meant. Was she accustomed to a more colorful dwelling? Was it important to her?
He shouldn’t care—nor should he feel that what was important to her would be important to him. His emotions were behaving most strangely ever since punishing the Earthling. Perhaps they had magical powers of some kind? Binnix consider
ed this as he observed Sarai walk into her room. It was possible, he decided. He would have to watch her carefully and see. Yet, even the idea that she might be somehow altering him from his normal collected, rational self, did not make him want to throw her out.
Perhaps he needed to lie down as well.
***
There was no door to her room. She’d asked Binnix about this before he’d left, and he’d told her that he chose not to separate the rooms of his house with doors. He claimed it was in lieu of the way his ancestors had done things. They didn’t use doors so that when they were hosting a guest wouldn’t even have to get out of his room to ask for something he might need. Without a door to hinder anyone from hearing, he could simply ask and whatever he needed would be brought to him.
“My people are very dedicated to hospitality.”
“I can tell,” she’d replied drily, but if he’d taken her meaning, he’d hid it well behind a blank expression that she was growing used to. She needed to get out of here, and fast, before she began to assimilate.
The only question was, how? Clearly, she needed a vessel that could get her back to Earth. But that was a job of enormous proportions. Not only was constructing such a vessel a huge undertaking, but she was also at a huge disadvantage because she was on a planet she knew next to nothing about. What if she couldn’t find materials comparable to the ones she’d need? What if they didn’t even have them on this planet? Given the fact that she was under house arrest made the task even more daunting.
It was ironic, she reflected. She was on a planet she didn’t want to be on, whose people didn’t want her on it, either, and yet, to punish her, they were keeping her trapped against her will. She would be happy to share that little nugget of satire with Binnix, if she thought he was capable of humor. But given what she knew about him, it was doubtful. In fact, with her luck, she’d probably end up right back over his lap, and that was definitely one place that she knew with certainty that she didn’t want to be.
She shuddered to think of the punishment that he would plan for her if he ever found out that she was going to try to escape. Given what she’d just endured, she knew that she simply couldn’t be caught, which was easier said than done when her captor seemed to have unnatural instincts for sniffing out the truth.
Overwhelmed by what she was about to undertake, and the fact that, most likely, she wouldn’t be able to pull it off, Sarai began to feel very sorry for herself. She hated this planet! They didn’t’ even sleep on mattresses, for Heaven’s sake! She gingerly lowered herself onto the pallet, reluctantly noting that it wasn’t uncomfortable.
Not that it detracted from her mood which was rapidly becoming sour. Add her throbbing butt to everything else and it was just too much for any one person to bear. Sarai threw a blanket over her head and pulled her knees to her chest. Once she felt safely hidden, she began to cry.
I never should have come here, she thought miserably. When she’d boarded the vessel, she’d thought she was in the middle of a dream come true. As it turned out, it was a nightmare, and one that she wasn’t going to be able to wake from anytime soon.
Stop feeling sorry for yourself. You’re not helping anything. Think about something useful—like how to get out of here. Taking a deep, quavering breath, Sarai did her best to stop crying and turned her thoughts to other, more important matters. If she really was going to try and escape, she needed a plan. She’d need to study the atmosphere—clearly, it must be comparable to Earth, or she wouldn’t be able to breathe. But she needed to know about their stars, their solar system… a tall order indeed. She began to make a mental list and it was already as long as her arm before her eyelids slid shut and she fell asleep.
***
Binnix shook the alien girl as gently as he could, wondering at the fact that her eyes remained firmly shut and that there was a little line of drool coming from the corner of her mouth. She hadn’t expired, had she? It would be most embarrassing for such a thing to have happened on his watch.
“Sarai. Sarai, it is time to get up.”
Much to his relief, she groaned and turned over after trying to bat his hand away. Normally, such behavior would be cause for his ire, but in this case, he was willing to overlook it, seeing as how he’d thought her dead only moments ago.
“Sarai.” He shook her firmer now. “You must rise.”
Finally, her left lid squinted open and she glared at him. “I’m tired.”
“It will be time to sleep soon. But right now, you need sustenance. Please join me in the eatery.”
“I thought that the reason you built your house without doors was so that you could bring things to your guests,” she grumbled.
“Yes, that is true. However, in this case, that would not be appropriate.”
The girl’s eyes flew open quite suddenly and she regarded him with an expression that seemed to be a mixture of triumph and annoyance. “Ha!”
“Ha?” he echoed, wondering what the strange word could possibly mean.
“You just admitted it!”
“Admitted what?”
“That I’m your prisoner!”
“I said no such thing,” Binnix denied.
“Maybe not in those words, but it was your politically correct way of saying it. You don’t need to treat me as a guest, because I’m not one. Right?”
“Right,” he agreed, somewhat reluctantly. Though it might be the truth, he had a feeling it was going to spawn a conversation that he didn’t want to have.
And yet, much to his surprise, once he’d admitted that Sarai got out of the pallet and said nothing more on the matter. Binnix was already learning to be suspicious of peace where these creatures were concerned, but he thought he would wait it out and see what happened.
When the alien female got to the eatery, she wrinkled her nose and then proceeded to pinch it with two fingers.
“What?” he asked, waiting for her to sit down. Hospitality dictated that she would need to sit before he could, and he was hungry.
“What is that smell?”
“Ah. That would be the stew.”
“It smells terrible!” she announced as she wrinkled her nose. “What kind of stew is it?”
He wondered what word they used on their planet for delicious, fresh-caught meat. He’d taken down the bento himself only an hour ago when she was sleeping. He’d made quite certain of it before he’d risked leaving her alone. Not that she would have had many places to go even if she had awaken before he’d returned. Still, he’d wanted to be certain.
“It is quite tasty and full of protein,” he informed her.
“I’ll take your word for it,” she replied. “But there’s no way I am putting that anywhere near my mouth.”
Binnix’s brow furrowed. “You are refusing to eat?”
“I’m refusing to eat that.”
“I’m afraid that I cannot allow you to do that.”
“Well, you can’t make me,” she fired back.
Binnix arched a brow at her, which seemed to be enough to take the fire out of her expression. Perhaps she, like he, was remembering the flogger. “Please sit down,” he requested with all the politeness that he could muster. His stomach was beginning to rumble.
“Fine,” she grumbled, sitting in the chair in front of a bowl of steaming stew.
He took his seat also, and picking up his spearing utensil, he began to eat. He was starving after a long day—he’d enjoyed disciplining his alien, as well as the hunt, but both had been tiring. He was enjoying his meal with a relish that almost rivaled arousal when he noticed, out of the corner of his eye, that Sarai hadn’t made one move to eat.
With a sigh, Binnix set down his spearing utensil which still had a hunk of delicious roasted meat on it. He gave it a mournful look before turning to her. “You’re not eating.”
“I told you that I wouldn’t,” she replied stubbornly.
“I have to tell you, while I admire your determinat
ion, you have to know that this is not a fight that you are going to win.”
“I don’t see why we have to fight about it.”
He picked up his glass of water and took a long swallow before setting it down again. “Because you are my charge. I have been entrusted with your care—” Here, she snorted, and he magnanimously decided to let it slide—this time. “And as such, I have to ensure that you are cared for. This means that you have lodging, clothing, and food.”
“I don’t want to eat it.”
“What you want does not matter.”
“Clearly,” she mumbled, her eyes narrowed into slits.
“Tell me, does everyone on your planet have such a sullen attitude?”
“Only when being kept like a prisoner against their will.”
He could feel his ire at this creature rising. Was she being deliberately stupid, or was it simply that she didn’t have the capacity to be anything more? “You are not a prisoner,” he began, wanting to choose his words carefully so that she might come to understand. “Though you are not allowed to leave, that is for your own safety, as well as the safety of our people.”
“I wouldn’t hurt anyone,” she protested.
“Ah, but you have hurt people. Your vessel killed three when you landed here.”
“How many times do I have to tell you that that was an accident?”
He frowned at the sound of her angry, raised voice. “Please remember yourself, Sarai. I do not like to be shouted at. I won’t remind you again.”
She opened her mouth as if to make a reply, then shut it again, satisfying herself with glowering at him.
“Though it might not have been your intention, people were killed. Others were injured. And thousands were frightened by a sudden appearance of aliens that we previously did not know existed. So intention—”
“Yeah, I know, I know,” she grumbled. “My intentions don’t matter.”
He met her gaze without so much as blinking. “I’m glad that you have the ability to retain information. You’d do well to retain the fact that, in addition to being yelled at, I don’t like to be interrupted. It would be in your best interests not to anger me with these things.” He was pleased to see Sarai shift uncomfortably in her chair. While he suspected that the pain from the whipping he’d given her had begun to fade, the memory surely hadn’t.
