“Dammit, Sigvid! What in the Goddess’s name is that for?” Shedemands, using her ‘Queen’ voice to deflect the conflicting thoughts raging inside her like a violent storm on the South Sea.
He chuckles. “Answer me, Avina. How did that feel?” He mocks her tone with his own ‘Lord Commander’ voice.
Before she can retort, she hears the leather slice through the air and smacks her ass again. This time, she hisses through the sting that mingles oddly into a feeling she is unsure she wants to vanish.
His belt connects with her behind ten more times in rapid succession. Each is as torturous as the last. After a while, she abandons all sense of control, and her moans dance with her shrieks in a strange cadence around them.
“If I am hearing correctly,” he leans over her shoulder with a crooked smile. “You seem to be enjoying this.”
All she can do is breathe. Her backside feels tender enough to cook an egg while the area between her legs aches with a need.
Gods, why do I desire his member as if it is necessary to live?
He bites over the shell of her ear. “I am going to strike you, Avina.” He growls. “I will whip you for every minute I was forced to question whether I would see you alive again.” His hand curls around her neck. “You ran from me, and now you will pay the price.”
Chills creep over her bare skin.
“Do you care why I needed to escape you?” She chokes around her tightening throat.
“After I cut open one of my own Drengr for threatening your life, what makes you think I would ever allow harm to befall you?”
Her own protection has never been the primary concern. Not when she was a little girl growing up in the Sapphire Palace or as Rendel’s Queen. And especially not as Sigvid’s whore. But she loathed the idea of living as his trophy from the war he could tug around like a pet. No matter how secure her life will become.
Her long silence only infuriates him. “Answer me!”
“Your strength of arms was never in question.” She spits.
“Then what?” Each intonation of his gruff voice has her cowering.
“I am still your captive!”
“You and I both know that’s bullshit,Your Highness.” He sneers the honorific. “I agreed to your deal to be released at the WinterSolstice. Two months. I have given you my bed, my food, and soon clothes fit for a fucking Queen.” His face is so close to hers that she can hear the quiver of his inhale. “Why did you try to leave me?”
She huffs, wondering how he can not see it. Humiliation burns her cheeks as she refuses to admit the truth. “Because you cannot give me what I need.”
Companionship, affection, respect.
All things she desperately wants yet is never worthy enough to claim.
He meets her gaze for several heartbeats. “I will allow you one chance to get out of the pain you will suffer at my hands.” His lips press against her neck, his teeth scratching along her column. “One chance to end your punishment. Apologize for your disobedience and admit who owns you. Say those little words, and you will stop my hand.”
What? Apologize? After everything we have gone through, and he expects me to drop to my knees? Say sorry for escaping captivity?
“What will it be, Avina?”
She spits in his face, and his eyes darken.
“Want to try that again?” He squeezes her cheeks together, pushing her lips out as he lowers himself until his breath caresses her mouth.
“Give me your best shot, Sigvid.” Avina’s shaky courage falls flat from her quivering knees.
His mouth devours her lips. Their teeth clack together with a fierce, savage desire. With her head a giant haze of passion, he pulls away to spit onto her tongue. She can feel the inside of her thighs growing stickier by the moment.
“Taste me.” His order seeps into her soul, hooking her with the intensity of his longing.
Her yearning for this man overtakes her senses. Watching his piercing eyes, she swallows his spit. The inferno in her abdomen burns bright.
“Your punishment has only begun, my little Queen,” Sigvid smirks as he raises his belt again.
