I use all my strength to stay still. Sweat beads on my temples. The lock hums harder, making my thighs quiver.
At last, a low tone chimes through the chamber. Rafe nods. “Crawl.”
“Sovereign?”
“Crawl,” he clarifies. “You will circle each goddess. At every pedestal, you will bow until your breasts and head touch the floor. You will present yourself as an offering. And you will do this silently.”
Heat scorches my cheeks as I begin. The stone floor bites into my knees, and I have to crawl like a wounded animal with my wrists bound.
At the first pedestal, I rise up on my knees and then lower myself, pressing my breasts against the cold stones. My nipples harden instantly, shame burning hotter than the ache between my thighs. And I almost lose my balance trying to get upright again. I don’t think I have the kind of core muscles to be able to do this twelve times.
“Lower,” Rafe orders. “Forehead to the floor. Submit properly.”
I obey. My ass rises high, fully exposed.
Lorian rubs the paddle against the curve of my hip. “I don’t think she will be able to do this twelve times.”
I move to the next goddess. And the next. At each, I bow deeper, my body trembling harder. By the sixth pedestal, my whole body is in agony and covered with sweat. Every movement hurts.
Lorian leans close as I press my chest against the seventh pedestal. “Do you feel them watching you, Eve? Twelve divine witnesses. And you? Just a wet little heretic, crawling around the floor in circles.”
Tears sting my eyes, but I keep crawling.
Eight.
Nine.
Ten goddesses. I’m almost there.
At the eleventh, my legs give out. I collapse onto the cold floor with a sob.
Lorian strikes the paddle across my ass, making me yelp.
“Up,” Rafe commands. “Finish. Your. Punishment.”
Somehow, I do. I drag myself to the twelfth pedestal and press my breasts and forehead against the floor one last time, shaking, bound, and humiliated.
When I finish, I stay collapsed on the silver crest, too weak to rise. My nipples ache. My knees throb. The lock hums mercilessly, vibrating me closer to an edge I know I won’t be allowed to cross.
Rafe steps forward, looking down at me. “You have completed your circuit. But you have not earned release.”
No shit,I think.
Lorian crouches beside me, brushing damp hair from my face. “Remember this, my wicked human woman, the holographic shadows you begged to fuck you last night didn’t demand anything from you. But we do.”
“Your sexual pleasure is a reward. Not something you can just access at any point in time with anyone,” Rafe says. “Do you understand that now? Or should we continue with this punishment?”
“I’ve learned my lesson, Sovereigns.”
“Tell me what you’ve learned out loud,” Rafe says.
“I must learn to control my instincts.”
“And?”
“And that my sexual release belongs to my Sovereigns.”
“Good.”
