The flogger sliced through the thick silence.
Nila screamed.
I jolted.
Raw redness bloomed as the lash licked across flesh.
Her skin was so delicate; blood welled instantly.
I stumbled at the sight. My heart shot from my chest and lay beating and mangled on the floor. Images of hunting and killing flurried in my mind. Drawing blood was not new to me. But drawing it from a woman I’d developed feelings for was.
It felt...
...
Fuck, I don’t know.
Strange. Exotic. Not entirely distasteful but not fully delectable either.
A realm of uncertainty.
Nila slouched against the post as pain washed through her system. She panted, moans ragged in her chest.
I’d done my part, but she’d yet to do hers.
“Count!” I roared.
Flinching, she stood taller. Sniffing back unshed tears, she yelled, “One!”
Her voice hijacked my body; my cock throbbed.
I’d been prepared to do everything that I’d been ordered. After all, Iwantedto. I’d been taught to crave this control. To hurt others.
But in that second, I craved something entirely different. I wanted to feel the heat of her whipped back against my front as I slid into her tightness and fucked her. I wanted her to scream for an entirely different reason.
Goddammit, what the hell is happening to me?
I struck again, sending the flogger flying. The soft leather bit into her back. “Count!” I snapped. Causing her pain helped ease a little of mine. This woman had the power to ruin me. That would never be permitted.I have to ruin her first.
She screamed again. “Two!”
My muscles already ached from being tense and on edge. My balls disappeared inside my body with the urge to come.
How the fuck will I get through this?
Two down.
Nineteen to go.
The number was written in the logbook of the county enforcer. Twenty-one lashings for Frank Hawk on account of thievery. His son, Bennett Hawk, was the stable boy who wrote up the Debt Inheritance.
Frank had been bleeding and left to freeze. Twenty-one oozing cuts turning to red frost before being deemed repentant for providing for his family.
Like for like.
Debt for debt.
That was my purpose.
