“I know you are angry at me,” Victoria noted when Kelsie and the floor were both cleaned up.
Leo's mood had become quite grim since hearing her lecture. At first he had been outraged by Kelsie's behavior, but by the time Victoria had finished with her, he pitied her as much as he pitied anyone.
Victoria knew how to be stern with others, but she never seemed to understand that the same standards also needed to apply to her. Fortunately she did not protest when he took her by the elbow and drew her outside, away from the resting young woman. Leo figured it was better they had their quarrel in some semblance of private.
“And why should I not be angry, Victoria? Kelsie did not ask to be drawn from her little village and now she bears a weight on her conscience no young woman should have to bear. I know that weight. That guilt. It changes a person.”
“Good,” Victoria said with an unrepentant toss of her head. “She needs to change.”
“You are a cruel mistress,” he said, glowering. “And Kelsie is not the only one who needs to learn control. You set this in motion by leaving her side because of your ego. You left your apprentice unattended and in harm's way. If anything, the deaths of those people are on your head. Not hers.”
“You are, of course, right as always, Falkroy,” Victoria admitted glibly. “But what good would it have done to tell her that? She must learn responsibility. She must not give in to attractive demons. They will come again, Leo. And when they do, she needs a reason to reject them. I'll warrant I will not hear her proclaiming to be a witch again.”
“Maybe not,” he said. “But you may also not see her smile again, or laugh. You may see her crumble under the weight of a hundred corpses and turn darker still. You owe her an apology and a full explanation, Victoria. And I will ensure you will give it. But before that...”
His hand came down across Victoria's rear with a slap hard enough to make the sorceress gasp.
“... I will deal with you.”
He tugged her further away from the cottage, not quite so far that Kelsie was left entirely unattended, but far enough for him to put hand to the switches he had cut while Victoria tended to Kelsie. The young woman was settled properly in bed sleeping away her misery and would, with any luck, not come to investigate what was about to take place.
“I suggest you hold your tongue,” he growled, holding her firm as he hauled her skirts up. “Unless you want your apprentice to know precisely what is happening to you.”
He put his leg up on a fallen tree and using a mere fraction of his strength, tipped Victoria over his thigh. She fell quite gracefully, perhaps a little too willingly for his liking, her skirts rising over her back at the behest of his strong hand. Once her shapely rear was bared, he placed the first of the switches in his collection against her cheeks and, holding her head in place with his other hand, began to whip her rear with fast, powerful strokes.
Almost immediately, Victoria's cheeks bloomed into heat, a multitude of strokes marking her pale skin. To her credit, she took the discipline quite stoically, making barely a murmur as he whipped her deserving rump. He knew in the back of his mind that nothing was taking place without her leave. She was humoring him in some way, but he intended to make an impression nonetheless.
“You told me once you were not certain if you were equal to the task you had before you with Kelsie,” he lectured. “I tell you now, Victoria, I believe that you are, but you will not succeed if you continue to put self before others. You cannot chastise Kelsie for giving into demons when you yourself are constantly giving into the demon of your quick temper, your penchant for impulsive revenge...”
He continued to whip her as he spoke, his practiced, strong arm moving the switch up and down her cheeks so that every part of them from the prominent round crown to the curve where they met her thighs was marked a blushing red.
She remained so silent and stoic throughout it all, so much so that he began to wonder if he was making any impression at all, or if she was using some trick of magic to shield herself from the worst of it.
“Do you understand, Victoria?”
She nodded, her face hidden by merit of her position. It was not enough.
“Tell me what it is you understand,” he insisted, grasping the hair at the back of her head to pull her up a little.
She let out a sob.
In all his very long life, Falkroy had never heard nor seen Victoria Varys shed a tear. He had not thought her capable of such a thing. He was so surprised that he stood her up completely simply to see if she truly was contrite. What he saw when he did amazed him. Her eyes were filled with tears, her face flushed almost as red as her rear.
“You are right, Leo,” she said in tremulous tones. “I have failed Kelsie. I have failed you both. I do not think I am capable of this task. I should have left her in that village. At least there she was only at risk from butcher's boys. Now she has lost her innocence to a demon. Take me back over your knee, Falkroy. Whip me until I bleed. I deserve nothing better.”
Leo felt a sudden impulse to take her in his arms and kiss away the tears now slowly beginning to trickle down her face, but he restrained himself. If she was truly contrite, he wished for this very long overdue lesson to sink in.
“You have not failed either one of us. Not yet,” he said. “But you will if you do not learn from this. We were fortunate today. There will be other times, other demons, other dangers. You must not become one of them.”
Victoria nodded. “Of course not,” she sniffed. “I will not let Kelsie out of my sight until I am sure she is able to protect herself. Or at least willing to try. She did not even try, Leo. She allowed herself...” Victoria pursed her lips together and fell silent.
“I am not well pleased with that either, but perhaps I had some role to play,” Leo admitted, reaching out to brush Victoria's tears away.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean before I left, I punished her. She was refusing to stay and wanted to come with me to find you. I was tired of disobedience from both quarters, so I took my hand to her rear and lit a fire on her rump.”
“And?”
“And I may have left her heated in more than one regard...”
Victoria put a hand back to rub her sore rear, her frown perhaps attributable to the ache or the revelation. “You're saying she was aroused by you.”
“Don't be jealous, Victoria.”
“Oh I'm not jealous,” Victoria said with a subdued little laugh. “No. After all, what's not to be aroused by? She found herself in close contact with a man several times her age, in the prime of physical form, providing much needed discipline. And you weren't to know that you were leaving her in a demon's lair. It was all unfortunate circumstance...”
She looked away from him. Leo gently directed her gaze back in his direction, his thumb and forefinger on her chin.
“You are the only one, Victoria,” he said softly.
“What do you mean, Falkroy?”
“I mean nothing has changed between Kelsie and I. She is your apprentice. You are the only one I am interested in.”
“That is a lie,” Victoria laughed. “You are a red blooded male. Surely you cannot be immune to the charms of a shapely girl.”
“I am not immune to anything, but I am in love with you,” he repeated, his voice gravelly and deep. “It is you, Victoria. It has always been you.”
“And it has always been you,” Victoria replied softly. “Has it truly taken us all these years to come to that conclusion?”
“I think we knew from the moment we laid eyes on one another,” Leo said, drawing her into his arms and sliding his hand under her skirts to rub her welted cheeks. He dropped his head to kiss her, feeling her mouth open to receive him as they melted into a passionate embrace that took them both to the forest floor and saw his breeches come down, his cock freed to plunge between her spreading thighs.
They made love forcefully, Leo thrusting himself roughly inside Victoria's tight sheath over and over, plunging himself as deep as he could go and feeling her inner walls grasping him in their hot, silky embrace. There was nothing like coupling with Victoria Varys, her charismatic gaze locked on his as she writhed against him like a nubile serpent, her slick juices coating his flesh sword with each and every eager stroke.
“Mine,” he growled as he pounded her against the forest floor, their hearts beating as one faster and faster as they approached a desperate orgasmic peak. This woman was his life force, had been since he had lost himself in the battle for her heart all those years ago. They were truly one flesh, and joining with her was more than an erotic interlude. It was like coming home.
***
Afterward they lay together on the mossy ground, having exorcised more than one demon between them.
“Will you stay this time, Falkroy?” Her voice was soft as she asked the question.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean will you stay with me. Help me guide Kelsie. Prevent further blood from being shed in our name.”
“Is that why you want me, Victoria? To help you with your ward?”
“I have always wanted you, Leo,” Victoria said softly. “But we are not easy people and we have allowed ourselves to be driven apart, into the arms of more compliant lovers. I don't want that to happen again.”
“Then you must mind me,” Leo said. “You must consider your actions – and their consequences before you undertake them. I will not spend the rest of my days chasing after you, ensuring that your particular brand of mayhem does not destroy the seven kingdoms.”
“You know that is precisely what you will be doing,” Victoria said with an almost impish smile. The question is... will you do it for me... and for Kelsie? I cannot bring her through what is to come on my own. This demon, it is only the beginning, and I almost lost her. I know magic. I can command the wind and the rain. I can turn a man into a minotaur, but I don't know how to care for her as she needs to be cared for.”
“You are selling yourself short, Victoria,” he said. “Besides, I do not know what to do with her either.”
“And yet she lights up for you. She goes to you for comfort. She feels safe with you. She is an entirely different creature in your presence, Leo. She has been from the beginning. So please. For me. Will you stay a year or two at least, and help me in this task?”
Leo knew how hard it had to be for her to ask such a question. She had never asked him for anything. Her pride had never allowed it. But she was setting pride aside for something that mattered more, and he had never admired her as much as he did in that moment.
He cupped her rear and pulled her close, kissing her thoroughly. “You know I will. Assuming Kelsie can stand the sight of me.”
“She will forgive you,” Victoria said. “Once she has forgiven herself.”
***
Kelsie slept a very long time, all night and well into the next day. Victoria and Leo decided to leave her to her slumber and took turns keeping watch over her while she rested to ensure that there were no ill-effects from her encounter with the demon.
The sun was tracking toward the horizon, Victoria was fast asleep inside and Leo was sitting outside, cleaning his sword when Kelsie woke. She came out to see him, her color much better than it had been the day before. She no longer looked pale and ill and he was glad to see that there was some warmth in her cheeks and life in her eyes.
“Hello there,” he greeted her.
“Hello,” she said shyly, hovering nearby.
Leo kept working on his blade, waiting for her to find the words she was clearly intending to speak.
“Uhm... Lord Falkroy...”
He glanced up at her. “My full title,” he said with a half smile. “This must be serious.”
“I owe you an apology,” she said haltingly. “I cursed at you for slaying that demon, but I know you were just trying to protect me. And... I owe you even more of an apology for what I did... uhm... before that.”
“No apologies,” Leo said, putting his sword to the side. “This place was charmed. You were not yourself.”
She bit her lower lip and nodded. She looked so innocent again, those big brown eyes fastened on her toes. It was as if the demon had never touched her at all.
“Leo...” she said softly.
“Yes?”
“The demon... I was myself with him. I was charmed, but I wanted it. I liked it. A lot. Do you think I am evil?”
“No,” he said. “Come and sit next to me, Kelsie.”
She sat down on the bench, carefully choosing to put as much distance as possible between them.
“It's not a surprise you liked what the demon did,” he said. “You were supposed to. There's nothing evil in taking pleasure in what feels good.”
“But Lady Varys said...”
“Lady Varys was disappointed in herself, as was I. We failed to protect you.”
“But I didn't want to be protected.”
“Of course not,” he said with a snort.
She blushed furiously, squirming where she sat. She seemed to have found her sense of shame again, a good thing given how she had behaved when uninhibited.
“You're going to want what's bad for you,” he continued. “Learning to resist it is the difference between being a witch and a sorceress.”
“I don't want to want demons,” she said. “I don't want to... but if another one comes, I don't know if I will resist.”
“You'll resist,” he said. “Because next time, it won't feel as good. Next time you'll remember this time. You'll remember what happened in Samilton. You'll remember how it was to have to face me. How it was to feel the sting of Victoria's tongue. You'll learn, Kelsie. We'll make sure of it.”
A little smile appeared on her lips. “We?”
“Victoria and I have decided to ally ourselves,” Leo said. “So you will not be rid of me soon.”
Her face lit up with joy and relief. “I was so sure you would have left,” she exclaimed. “When I saw Victoria alone in the cottage, I thought you must already have gone. I was so rude to you.”
“I am accustomed to rude sorceresses,” Leo rumbled. “I am also getting very practiced in switching the ones who don't learn to tame their tongues.”
Her gaze fell back to her boots. “You wouldn't do that to me again. Not after how I was...”
“Kelsie, you were being flooded with magic,” he said. “If I ever have cause to punish you again, you very much won't be. Believe me. You'll take no pleasure in what I do to you if you cross me.”
“What a promise,” Victoria drawled from the doorway. How long she had been listening, Leo was not sure, but Kelsie jumped up as if she had been scalded and backed away from him, her hands raised as if to prove she had not been doing anything untoward.
“M'lady,” she gasped. “We were just talking.”
“I know that very well,” Victoria replied. “I know that the way I know everything. Believe me, my girl, there is not a breath you take I am not aware of. Do not worry about being unable to control yourself around demons. I will have you so busy for the foreseeable future a pack of demons could be down your britches and you would not have time for them.”
“Yes, m'lady,” Kelsie said, lowering her eyes.
“And do not worry about Falkroy. He is fond of you, Kelsie. He would be devastated if you became too timid to play cards with him. And he can control himself, even if you can't.”
“M'lady, please, I beg forgiveness,” Kelsie stammered.
“There is no need, girl,” Victoria replied with a loving look at Leo. “I know where his heart lies. Now, let us speak no more of the matter. You are my apprentice, and his ward. You will learn at my knee – and you will go over his if necessary.”
Kelsie blushed furiously, but the little smile on her face visible a moment before her hair covered it revealed how pleased she was.
She needed someone to look after her. She needed both a firm hand and someone to balance out Victoria's caustic temper. But this was not all about Kelsie. In truth, Leo and Victoria needed her just as much as she needed them. She had softened the sorceress, made her vulnerable in a way she had never been before – and that vulnerability had finally made it possible for Victoria to drop her persistent facade of being utterly infallible and admit that she needed Leo too. Finally, Falkroy had his woman, and he owed much of it to the scrappy little sorceress' apprentice, whether she was good, bad, or very naughty indeed.