SurrendersMischief (24 page)

An intrigued expression flashed across the other woman’s
face.

“I’ll consider the suggestion.” Bryta paused at the office
door and threw an impish smile over her shoulder. “Tomorrow.”

“Bryta?” She waited until she turned back and threw her
second-most favorite novel to her friend. “Here. Read this. It might give you
some ideas.”

Bryta caught it. She glanced uncertainly at Riana before she
opened the book and skimmed it. Riana thought the other woman couldn’t get any
redder. She was wrong.

“People write about
this
?” Bryta squeaked.

“Uh-huh. Quite popular too,” she said in what she thought
was a masterful understatement.

Bryta read some more, muttering. “How can that be possible?
I don’t believe it.” Nose still buried in the book, she groped for the door
handle.

“Bryta, wait.” Riana waited until she had her full
attention. “You don’t have any problem reading it?” Somewhat belatedly, it had
occurred to Riana that the other woman shouldn’t have been able to translate
the old text.

Bryta paused as if unsure how she should take the question.
Finally, one slender shoulder lifted in a shrug. “It’s somewhat archaic but not
so different from the high language our priests use that I can’t make it out.”
She glanced back down at the book. “Umm, if there isn’t anything else—”

Riana waved. “No, go ahead.” More and more she was convinced
this was the ancestral planet.

Bryta, taking her at her word, tucked the book close against
her chest and scurried out the door.

Well, there was no going back now. She put the rest of the
toys back in the sample case and headed for the
Midnight Mischief
. For
better or ill, she had now set things in motion.

Chapter Thirteen

Darias spun about on one heel and confronted Riana when she opened
the heavy door to the bedchamber. His face was strained.

“You lied to me.”

Riana tossed the small bag in her hand onto a chair and
rested one shoulder against the door, surveying him wearily. It was clear he
was furious.

“How, exactly, did I lie to you?” She really was too tired
for this. With Darias, it was one tiny step forward and then a giant leap back.

“You told me that what happened in the office wasn’t about
punishment. What would you call it, if not punishment, to leave me unfulfilled?
In front of my warriors?” A muscle jerked rapidly in his cheek.

“Bad timing?” She gave a slow smile as it sank in why he was
enraged. “And so will you before the night is over.”

He stared at her as if she had lost her mind. Riana was
beginning to wonder the same thing. Zethra, she was slow. With the history
between them, she should have expected this. Straightening away from the door,
she removed her cloak, tossing it on the end of the bed.

His expression turned distinctly wary.

She sighed inaudibly. It occurred to her that nothing she
had said earlier this afternoon had made a lasting impression on Darias.

One step at a time, she reminded herself, it would take one
step at a time before she could ever hope to win his trust.

“I’m sorry you thought that. That was never my intention.”
She touched the tips of her fingers to the pulse throbbing in the side of his
neck.

He flinched and turned his face away.

“No? The first time you punished me, you made certain my
shame was paraded before all. Today you made certain everyone knew I had been
called into my…your office and then you aroused me until I couldn’t think
straight and put that…thing in me. You left me in that condition for all to
see.”

The sheer raw power in the low words raised the hair on the
back of her neck. But it was the pain buried beneath the harsh whisper that
caused her heart to ache.

“Darias, I’m sorry.” She cupped his cheek in her palm and
slowly, steadily turned it toward her.

His eyes were shuttered but betrayal radiated out from every
pore of his being.

“Truly I am. I wouldn’t have left you if my duties hadn’t
intruded. I admit I had a plan, but it had nothing to do with humiliating you.”

His expression remained unyielding.

She drew a deep breath, hoping to loosen the knot in her
chest. She had to get him to believe her. While she loved being able to make
Darias submit in the bedchamber against his deeply ingrained instinct to
dominate every situation, she gained the most satisfaction from the knowledge
that he wanted it as much as she did. If she couldn’t convince him of the truth
of her words, something infinitely valuable would be gone from their
relationship.

“Look, when you first captured me, you made no secret of the
fact that you had punished me. When you punished me in the garden, you demanded
I come to you in the Great Hall. The clothes you forced me to wear hid nothing
of my state and the ordeal I’d suffered. You wanted everyone to know I’d been
punished as a further humiliation and as a warning not to transgress again. You
made sure that the women knew I’d been punished. A way to keep them in line,
but you also made sure your warriors knew. Proof that you could keep your slave
in line.” She rubbed her thumb over his bottom lip.

“I think I hated you then. I know I wanted to kill you.
Instead I decided to reverse our roles. You were to suffer everything at my
hands that I had suffered at yours. Including the complete and devastating
knowledge that while I couldn’t control my response, you were indifferent.”

“That was a mistake. The practice should never have been
instituted,” he said, his voice tight.

The frank admission surprised Riana. “You mean that?”

“Yes. I…realized the first night in the garden just what
kind of damage the suppressant caused.”

She drew his bottom lip down, rubbing the pad of her thumb
over the soft interior. “Progress. If you can admit that, then you should also
be able to admit that you suffered no more at my hands than women have suffered
at the hands of the men of Nexar for centuries. I stayed within Nexarian rules
when punishing you. The rules of Nexar men and the rules of their Supreme
Chief. Well, part of the time anyway.” She tried a small smile.

His expression never lightened.

“Those rules were never meant to apply to men,” he ground
out, eyes blazing pure gold.

“And they never should have been applied to women,” Riana
snapped back, anger getting the better of her for a moment. “I don’t know what
they were meant to accomplish in the beginning, but I do know that over the
years they evolved into a practice no woman could hope to live up to. Any
transgression, even the smallest, was punished. And to make it worse,
transgressions were whatever the man decided they were. The woman had no way of
protecting herself. The man, on the other hand, had absolute power. The system
corrupted the relationship between men and women. Haven’t you ever wondered why
the men of Nexar make rules women can’t help but break? That maybe, just maybe,
it has something to do with the fact that the full experience of sex is
reserved for punishment.”

“Then why are you perpetrating what you consider an
abomination?” he shot back, snatching her hand away from his mouth.

“Because it is your system. Why should the women be the only
ones to suffer? Why shouldn’t men have to experience what life as the ruled is
like here on Nexar?” Her chest heaving, Riana paused to rein in her emotions.
She continued more slowly this time. “And because I wanted revenge.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but Riana rushed to continue.

“Did you really think the women accepted their way of life
without ever questioning whether they deserved their lot? That thoughts of
revenge never entered their minds? Women didn’t respect the men of Nexar. They
feared them. Putting the women in charge, allowing them to mete out punishment
in accordance with the laws that had ravaged them, gave them the opportunity to
get even. More than that, it let men get a taste of what it was like being
totally without power.”

He turned and wrapped one large hand around the bedpost and
stared down at the sheets. “So the scene in the office was just another way of
getting revenge?”

Pure frustration shot through Riana. His head was as hard as
a
krakel
lizard’s. “No! Revenge had nothing to do with my actions this
afternoon.”

He looked back over his shoulder. “Then why did you want my
arousal to be public?”

“I didn’t even think about that aspect at the time,” she
said with complete honesty.

But she should have. She should have remembered how
repressed Darias was about sexual play. Though it hadn’t been her intention, she
had left him aroused for all the keep to notice. A cool breeze blew in from the
open doors leading to the garden. The sweet, spicy fragrances gave her an idea.

Riana held a hand out. “Come with me.”

“To where?”

“The garden.”

He stiffened, the hand about the bedpost tightening until
his knuckles turned white. “You intend to punish me.” It was a flat statement
of fact.

Riana kept her hand out. “Answer me this. When I punish you,
is the pleasure from the beginning tinged with pain? Oh, not physical but mental.”

His glance questioned her meaning. “You know it is. Even
though the acts themselves inflict no harm, the stimulation quickly becomes
intolerable. As it is meant to.”

“Exactly. Now answer me this. This afternoon, was anything I
did to you painful? At least a pain you didn’t crave?” She ignored the dark
flow of blood that tinted the high cheekbones. “Did I take the suppressant
before starting to caress you? Did I hold myself separate from you?”

“No.” Some of the resentment faded from his eyes as doubt seeped
in to replace it.

“Have I demanded that you stand in the Great Hall displaying
your arousal to the court?”

“No.” An indefinable relaxing went through the massive
frame.

“Then take my hand and trust me. If only for tonight.” Her
breath lodged in her throat, she waited.

He looked into her eyes then looked down at her hand. Taking
one step forward, he reached out and his hand, large, hard and calloused,
engulfed hers.

She released the breath she’d been holding in a tiny rush.
Feeling light, almost giddy, she led him to the garden door. On way past the
chair—the same one she had first spanked him over—she picked up the small black
bag and then led him outside. She still felt tension in his body, but at least
he was following her willingly enough. It would do for now.

Night had cloaked the garden in shadows, letting the more
bashful shrubs and flowers scent the air with a delicate enchantment that went
unnoticed during the day, when the magnificent trees and flowering bushes
reigned supreme. Their feet made a slight crunching noise on the path leading
to the Punishment Stone. The closer they drew to the stone, the more tension
stiffened Darias.

“Trust me.” She sensed his conscious effort to relax. Next
to the stone, she drew him to a halt. Placing the bag at the base of the carved
white rock, she put the palm of her hand over his heart. It was pounding inside
his chest.

“Privacy shield.” The muted crackle of the electrostatic
shielding sounded like a roar of thunder in the silence.

His heart actually stopped.

“Sound shield.” Beneath her palm, his heart began thumping
again. She leaned forward, putting her mouth over his nipple and sucked,
drawing silk and flesh into her mouth. “You’re wearing your tunic,” she
whispered, before latching on to his nipple again.

Darias knotted his hands at his sides and threw his head
back. “I wasn’t until three hours ago.”

Against the soft skin of her stomach, his cock stirred.

A tiny grin lifted the corner of Riana’s mouth at his
defiance. “I’ll forgive you this time.” She stepped back, anticipation of the
night ahead tightening the muscles of her lower stomach.

Darias groaned. “No, not yet.”

“Don’t worry,” She leaned down and ran her hand over the
stone to activate it. “I’m not going anywhere.”

The stone became luminescent.

In its gentle glow, every expression that flitted across
Darias’ face was easily visible, yet they were still wrapped in the intimacy of
the night, safe from prying eyes or ears.

Her hands went to his leather harness. She unbuckled it,
sliding it off his shoulders until it dropped to the ground with a soft plop.
Next she drew the silk tunic up, over his head. The small, masculine nipples
hardened as the breeze, cool compared to the dry heat of the day, brushed over
them.

“I love your body. So strong and warm. Sleeping next to you
is like basking in the summer sun.” She flicked her tongue over the center of
his magnificent chest.

Chills that had nothing to do with being cold chased across
his skin.

She smiled against his chest. She worked her way down his
chest, stopping her to taste his small, male nipples, there to drag her tongue
down the ladder of his ribs until she reached his navel. Dipping her tongue
inside the small indention, she mimicked the act of love.

His hands came up to fist into her hair.

Turning her head until her cheek rested against his muscled
abdomen, she inhaled, bringing his scent deep into her lungs. He scent was so
pleasing, so arousing—wild, clean, male. Taking one last deep breath, she sat
back on her heels and unlaced his breeches and slipped her hand inside, cupping
him intimately.

He pulsed and throbbed in her palm, a subtle promise of
ecstasy to come.

She slid the breeches down over his muscular buttocks
without resistance.

Darias stood clad only in another gold thong and
sun-darkened skin. He made an abortive move toward her when she stood. His arms
dropped back down to his sides, his fingers twitching. His chest expanded and
contracted with each rapid, shallow breath.