Under the Lash (7 page)

Just like that he ordered her to assume a state she hadn’t been in except to bathe since she was a toddler. A state that she had been taught was shameful and inherently wicked, and yet he expected that with just a snap of his fingers she was going jump to do his bidding.

And with good reason, considering how much she already knew about how the fact that she never wanted to give him cause to punish her again, although it didn’t seem that it took any cause at all, since he’d declared she was going to be spanked at certain times whether she wanted it or not. So with a loud, resigned sigh, she sat up, just about as slowly as she was physically able to, and put her hands to her throat, slipping first one arm then the other out of the rip at the top of her dress with excruciating care, as if it was made out of a material that might dissolve if she moved too quickly.

Anjel was already nude, but some kind of unusual, gentlemanly urge was bidding him to don a nightshirt, which he never wore, and which would have to go hunting through his chest of clothes to find, so he pushed those thoughts to one side. Nightshirts were a waste of material as far as he was concerned, especially since he would have taken it off as soon as he got into bed.

So he returned to stand at the end of the bed to find that she had just barely managed to slip her other arm out of its sleeve. She apparently had no idea just how completely she was wearing on his patience, but he was of a mind to help her find out.

Anjel walked up to where she was sitting on the edge of the bed and proceeded to rip the dress entirely, all the way down the front. Then he reached for her chemise, but her hands covered his as she heard herself being reduced to begging, “No, please, I’ll get out of it right away, Sir.” She couldn’t countenance the idea of having to sit around here entirely naked all day. It just didn’t bear thinking of.

“See that you do,” came the clipped reply. He took exactly one step back and crossed his arms over his chest, staring down at her, waiting for her to comply with the order that, as far as he was concerned, should already have been long behind them. “And I don’t want to hear another word out of you.”

Cassie stood, letting the remnants of her dress fall to the floor, then allowing the chemise to do the same. Without her bloomers, she found herself standing in front of him completely naked, and entirely unable to suppress the urge to cover herself with her hands and arms as best she could. It was then that she realized that she was shaking all over, that the hand that was splayed over her left breast and the one that was doing its level best to keep her womanhood from his demanding gaze were trembling, and not slightly but quite violently.

“Put your hands at your sides, Cassie,” he said, so softly that it could almost be misinterpreted as tender, “and don’t move them again until I give you permission.”

Although she was doing her best to obey him as tears splashed down onto her upturned breasts, her limbs seemed to have a bit of a mind of their own, and as soon a she got them where she knew he wanted them, they would creep back immediately.

Chapter Five

Anjel took a step forward, closing the distance between them and insinuating himself tightly up against her, his hand spread wide over her burning bottom, keeping her in place, giving those naughty hands nowhere to go to protect her as he lay his body up against hers. It felt wonderful to him to let his turgid manhood nestle against her soft belly, but it surprised him to no end that he couldn’t keep his head from dipping to take a first almost tentative suckle at her left nipple, then her right, switching back and forth between them as if he couldn’t decide which was sweeter.

Cassie looked down at the dark, devil’s head where it lay against her breast, doing her best to fight the rise of unfamiliar ecstasy that rose with every aching tug of his lips on her already upstanding nipples. It was almost enough to help her to stop trembling, and indeed, concentrating on the unbearable sensations he was creating within her did slow her shaking quite considerably.

Anjel looked up as soon as he felt her relaxing some, catching the back of her head in his big palm as he held it still for his kiss. It was a softer, more tentative one than he had intended at first, but he found himself softening slightly towards her in the face of her stark fear.

That wasn’t quite what he had been aiming for. He wanted her to obey him, and he knew that a certain amount of concern about reprisal was necessary for obedience in her just as it was in his crew. But he hadn’t intended on making her quite so fearful. She had been quaking like a virgin with her first man, and that couldn’t be right.

Anjel kept his eyes locked with hers as his lips descended to hers for the first time, hoping to make it a less aggressive, gentler kiss, but as soon as his lips met hers, he nearly lost all control. What was it about this woman that sent his libido skyrocketing even more than it already was? It seemed he just had to be in her presence and he was alarmingly close to being unmanned on the spot, and kissing her...he never wanted to stop. No woman had ever excited him so, on so many levels. He found her shy reticence in regards to pursuits of the flesh to be quite refreshing, considering her profession, and she had an indomitable spirit, as attested to by the number of times he had already had to discipline her. She seemed well spoken – what little he’d heard from her, anyway – and very well mannered.

Perhaps she had been trained to be more of a courtesan than a common whore. That made sense. It would explain a lot of the intriguing puzzles of her behavior, her speech and the quality of her clothes.

Regardless, Anjel found he was less able to control himself, less patient with her very tentative responses to his more amorous forays. Her mouth was still closed beneath his, and he wasn’t about to put up with that much longer. Instead he slanted his mouth across hers, leveraging hers open, then slipping his eager tongue between her lips to coax her own into heated play.

As he kissed her, his free hand roamed up the generous curve of her hip, dipping in to the natural curve of her waist to follow the bones of her ribcage to its own reward; her more than ample breast nearly overflowing even his large palm as his forefinger and thumb began twirling a nipple that he was incredibly gratified to find was already hard and he only encouraged to become just that much harder with his almost too rough plucking and intermittent gentle twisting.

Cassie could barely breathe, especially with his mouth claiming her own so aggressively. And his hand at her breast! She desperately wanted to push it away, but knew that doing so would probably only serve to earn her another trip across his lap, and she was finding that, to her dismay, she was more than cowardly enough that she would do nearly anything to avoid that fate.

But what was worse was that she quickly realized she had allowed herself the freedom to get to the point where she didn’t
want
him to stop! In fact, she found her back arching to press herself even more tightly up against him, to encourage that hand to do with her what it would, but to please keep plucking at that sensitive tip, regardless of whatever else he did.

The ache he was creating in her wasn’t capable of simply existing within that tender bud, though, and it had already made its way to the very spot he had forced her to discover the truth of earlier, rekindling the same strange longing that had her wishing she could clamp her legs shut, but he had skillfully managed to place one broad, bare thigh between hers, denying her that avenue of relief as he continued to flick and rub and torture her nipple.

But soon he bent her further back of his own accord, over a strong arm across her back, forcing her to present and display both of her glorious breasts to him, as if beseeching him to do with them what he would. But Anjel had found that what got him hotter than simply pursuing his own pleasures was encouraging hers. He knew she had no idea just how loudly she was responding to him, or he had a very good idea that she would have done anything she could to repress it, the contrary chit.

He decided to concentrate on her, tightening that arm another notch around her waist and forcing her to thrust herself into even more prominence while he claimed one nipple as a delightful mouthful and continued to worry the other as incessantly as he had begun, feeling himself awash in her mewls and groans, bathing him in her reluctant cries of the pleasure he was forcing her to experience.

Suddenly, it was no longer enough to stand with her and address one beautiful inch of her at a time. Anjel reached down and lifted her onto the bed, bearing her down onto the luxuriously thick mattress and chronicling her descent with his more than eager lips and hands, claiming every naked part of her he could reach, leaving wet trails from breast to breast and goose flesh wherever his curious fingers cared to dally.

Just in case she got a disobedient notion into her head, which he had already learned wasn’t at all an impossibility, he murmured as he nibbled teasingly at a firm breast, “Keep your hands at your sides, Cassie. You don’t want to add any more to the spanking you’re going to receive before I let you go to sleep, now, do you?”

Her guttural groan was his answer. She had wholeheartedly hoped that he would forget about that, but she guessed she shouldn’t have gotten her hopes up. This man never seemed to forget anything that had to do with humiliating her, and he was used to an instant obedience that was anathema to her character.

He certainly knew how to make her regret that character flaw and conjure an exquisite stinging in her backside, but right now she was just as concerned about how easily he had managed to bring her to her knees with a bliss so strong it was almost more frightening than the man who brought it to her. Cassie didn’t know what to do with it any more than she knew how to handle the absolute devastation of being punished by him. The feelings were uncomfortably close in nature, and she felt powerless to handle either of them.

And she wasn’t at all sure which was worse. Dealing with a sore, swollen bottom that was created in a manner guaranteed to make her feel embarrassingly like a naughty child, or being subjected to this overwhelming, undeniable ecstasy that seemed to radiate from any lascivious, heretofore private part of her helpless body that he decided to explore, reducing her in a humiliatingly short amount of time to a common tramp who craved that kind of attention from him.

Indeed, she was self aware enough to realize that despite any protests she might have lodged – however nonverbally – that if she were allowed to speak, she might well not have been able to prevent herself from begging him to continue his sensuous exploration of every possible nook and cranny of her person.

As it was, all she could do was moan and writhe, and not even in a manner that conveyed any modicum of protest, but with an alarming amount of encouragement in her tone. She couldn’t prevent herself from arching her breasts into the fingers that tugged determinedly at her already aching nipples, nor could she stop herself from kissing him as he had taught her just a few minutes earlier, welcoming his deeply probing tongue and daring to meet it – however tentatively – with her own.

Anjel found himself getting an inordinate amount of enjoyment from watching her blossom beneath him, hearing and seeing her give way to his will and the ecstasy he knew was building inside her. He could no longer keep himself from drawing her tight to his side, holding her virtually immobile as he kissed her, hoping to prevent any affronted outburst as he allowed his hand to trail down from where it had cupped her jaw, along the delicate column of her neck, across collarbones that were too visible for his tastes, then over the damp, swollen tip of each breast to center itself on its journey down over her flat tummy, culminating at his ultimate goal as that big paw forced her to accept its presence in the very place she least wanted it to be – cupping the red gold curls between her legs as if he owned them.

And he was quite sure that he did.

“Open your legs, Cassie,” he ordered huskily against her lips.

She was again letting him know in the only way he would allow that she was supremely unhappy at his audacity, struggling slightly within his hold and screeching as best she could behind his mouth.

But she had learned not to delay her response – at least not as much as he knew she wanted to. Her legs began to part immediately, if slowly, and he eagerly claimed every new inch of her as his, even more so, he bet than she ever had herself, if her reluctance was any gage, and he was beginning to think it might well be.

Was she a pampered virgin slave? Perhaps of someone who had much the same designs in mind for her future as Rory had had? He didn’t know, and he didn’t care. She would never be any but his now, he vowed. He wanted – demanded – to know every inch of her, to teach her the pleasures of the flesh himself, and he would settle for nothing less.

There it was
, he thought as his big broad middle finger sought and found the undeniable evidence of her own desires. Even with a bottom that was burning as badly as hers must be – if the evidence of her moans when he had set her down on the bed few minutes ago – and the threat – nay, promise – of another crisp spanking before all was said and done this evening – or perhaps more accurately
because
of it – to say nothing of his intimate exploration and invasion of her most sacred, womanly parts, she was still able to gift him with her dewy nectar, fairly drowning him in it until he had wet his finger most thoroughly and brought his treasure to the place he knew she would appreciate it the most.

That first self confident stroke of his well slickened digit over that not so tiny any more bump had her arching up from the mattress, nearly grinding herself against him in the heat of her response, making him chuckle softly at her eagerness which unfortunately seemed to break the spell he’d conjured for her.

Cassie swallowed hard as tears dribbled out of the corner of her eyes at how far she had fallen in so short a time. It was only with supreme effort that she managed to keep her arms at her sides. Her hands literally ached to cup him where he was, silently encouraging – begging – him to continue those teasing traces around that spot only he seemed to know she possessed.