“Do you wish to be punished again?”
It was a more complicated question than he must have realized, she thought. Her instinct was to say no, but her body quivered in reaction to his words, to the dark promise lurking within them. Did she wish to feel the hot sting of his hand on her already-sore bottom, and then feel him run it again, driving the heat to the center of her body? Maybe he would touch her again, relieve this longing…
She had no matrix for how to act in the situation. No pattern of behaviors to follow for being kidnapped, stripped, brought to climax, then vaginally inspected by aliens. She’d been lustfully humiliated, and worse, she liked it.
Suddenly, she realized how exhausted she felt from the whole ordeal. So tired she didn’t even care what happened next. She shook her head slowly, giving Rychor his answer: a hesitant, tempted, no. She did not wish to be punished again.
Not now,her heart added as an afterthought.
“You require rest,” Rychor said almost immediately, as if reading her mind.
She looked up at him sleepily and let her head fall in a loose nod. “I think so, yes,” she replied, grateful he had sensed her exhaustion.
He walked over to the wall and did his hand-wave thing again. The lights dimmed instantly, changing back to the deep blue from before.
Her eyelids lowered and an irresistible drowsiness pulled her toward sleep.
Rychor walked back over to where she was sitting. He put a hand on her shoulder and guided her onto her side on the platform where she’d been examined. As he touched the surface the rock shifted again, the sides of the platform rising up to cocoon her. She startled when it softened as well. She pressed two fingers against it and gazed at the impression they made. The sides came up and wrapped over her, creating a warm nest around her.
“Whatisthis?” she marveled, her voice filled with wonder. The sequence had been as dream-like as her examination.
“Sleep,” Rychor said. “There will be time for questions later.” He turned and walked toward the exit.
She was asleep long before he had left the room.
CHAPTER6
She woke to the sensation of her body cooling. The strange, spongy material ensconcing her was peeling back and flattening, so she was once again lying on a platform of what felt increasingly like hard stone. Her eyes fluttered open. She saw Rychor’s bulky frame striding through the room.
Then came the embarrassing realization that she was still nude. Her body was still exposed and vulnerable. She put an arm over her breasts as she sat up and squeezed her thighs together to protect what little dignity she had left.
Rychor came to stand in front of her. He stared down at her for a long time without saying a word. Memories were coming back to her in waves, and when she recalled his instructions not to act without his permission, she started to lie back down.
His steady, stern gaze made her blush and look to one side as she did so. He extended an arm and touched her shoulder, pulling on it slightly so that she returned to a seated position. His eyes wandered over her body, analytical as ever, but she thought she saw something else in them now. Hunger? Desire?
A warm sensation, unbidden, began to twist in her gut. Her own eyes flitted over the body of her alien captor, over the raw strength in his muscles, the shape of their bulges casting light shadows in the valleys of his solid, mountainous flesh.
“Do you feel rested?” he asked.
Surprisingly, she did. She felt more refreshed, in fact, than she had in a long time. “I… think I am,” she said. Her voice was hesitant; confusion and questions were filling her mind as she recalled the events leading up to her restful sleep. Awkwardly, she asked, “How long was I asleep?”
It struck her as funny, asking that. Somehow, she took comfort in the banality of the question. Something she might ask a bunkmate on the orbital. Back when her life was still normal.
“If you are rested, then long enough,” he said.
Her gaze wandered around the chamber. Everything she saw made her think of new questions. She looked up at Rychor. He was staring at her with the same intensity. This time she managed to hold his stare. She dared herself to ask him another question.
“Can I have some clothes, please?”
He hesitated, pondering the request, glancing to one side of the chamber, then back at her. “You may,” he finally said. “But only when we are alone.”
This gave Sonya pause. It seemed strange, but she didn’t dare probe him further. Everything Rychor did created a mountain of questions.
He walked over to the side of the chamber he’d looked at and drew a hand over the wall. It parted and he reached in. When he pulled his hand back out, he had two pieces of the same dark fabric that covered his mid-riff. He walked to where she was sitting. “Raise your arms,” he said.
Fighting through her shame, she did.
He pressed one piece of fabric against her breasts. It parted and wrapped around her like it was alive, covering her chest.
