The hunting lodge was a basic, log building, carefully constructed to nestle into the natural alcove of a cliff, so it was sheltered from the weather. Riding there, slung across Jax's lap, bouncing uncomfortably up and down, had not been fun, and was made still less so as I was forced to wonder what he had meant when he said that I would regret him saving me. He didn't elaborate as he rode, in fact, he did not say one word. When we got to the lodge, all he said was, "Get in there and get a fire started. You'll find dry clothes in the cupboard."

He then went to stow the horses in the little stable attached to the lodge. I hurried to carry out his instructions, not wishing to make him any angrier than he already was, though I was not sure that was possible. In a small bedroom, I found clothes which fit as poorly as the ones I had on but were at least dry. I then went back into the main room and began building a fire. One good thing about the temple was that you did learn how to do things, especially if you were punished with menial chores as often as I was. I kept my eyes trained on the fire as I heard the door open and then slam closed, followed by the sound of stomping footsteps crossing to the bedroom and another slammed door.

Still not a word. He was furious.

As I got the fire up to a decent blaze, Jax re-entered in new clothes and crossed the room to me, still not speaking.

"I've got the fire..."

Jax grabbed me by the arm and dragged me across the room towards the couch.

"What are you..."

What was he going to do? Had he saved me just so he could kill me in his own time?

"I'm sorry..."

He sat down heavily on the couch and dragged me down across his lap in the same position as I had been on the horse, facing the floor with my rear stuck in the air.

"Jax...?"

The possibility of what was about to happen permeated my fear. Jax grabbed the hem of the skirt I had put on and yanked it up over my back, leaving me naked from the waist down.

"Jax, no. You can't. You wouldn't!"

Jax's right hand raised and then descended on my bare bottom like the wrath of god, landing with a crack that sounded like a firework going off.

"YEOW!" I squealed as much from shock as pain, though there was no shortage of that, either. Bare bottom beatings at the temple were reserved for the wickedest girls, so I had, of course, had them on more than one occasion. But this was different. This wasn't a punishment meted out by my keepers in front of the other girls to show them that the gods' retribution was swift and terrible. This was a man for whom I had some decidedly unresolved feelings, doing it in privacy and seclusion.

A second well-aimed blow, landed on the fleshiest part of my bottom, the resulting smack echoing around the little room.

"Owowow!" I cried out again, my face already flushed hotly red from embarrassment as much as anything else. I scrabbled to escape from his lap but Jax grabbed one of my arms and twisted it into the small of my back to pin me in place.

The next spank was aimed just at my left cheek and the concentrated area seemed to make it hurt even more. I kicked my legs frantically but to no avail.

Smack on the left cheek again. Left. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left, left, left in quick succession. Both. The unevenness was almost as bad as the pain, and I found myself longing for him to really lay into my right cheek, if only to give the burning left one a break.

Like a girl possessed, I thrashed about on Jax's lap in a frenzy, kicking, screaming, clawing at him with my free hand, twisting my hips to try and keep my bottom out of reach of his spanking hand. But nothing was stopping Jax from finishing what he had started, he would mete out the punishment I deserved and turn my bottom into a scarlet ball of fire.

Exhausted by my escape attempts, I flopped into my tormentor's lap as his hand continued to rise and fall at a steady, unfaltering pace. It was then, as I resigned myself to my shameful fate, that I felt a wicked surge of delight. There was no escape, so I had no recourse but to lie there and enjoy it.

Enjoy it?

What was I thinking? There were tears streaming down my face and my backside was nothing but pain. I had been beaten enough times to know that I did not enjoy it.

But this wasn't one of the Caretakers. This was Jax. A dominant and gorgeous man giving me a pasting I richly deserved. It hurt - Jax was strong and was holding back nothing - but there was no denying the liquid pleasure welling up inside me, insidiously creeping through my body, making my core as hot as my bottom. Each firm smack of Jax's hand on my backside made sharply arousing sensations pierce into me. The pain came with a keen edge of pleasure that I couldn't understand but wanted more than I wanted my next breath, turning my insides to liquid. I didn't know if it was right or wrong, normal or weird. I wanted it to stop and at the same time wanted him to spank me forever. I was confused and happy and pained and ashamed and desperately aroused all at once, my body not knowing what it was doing but reveling in the shame of the moment. Maybe that was it, not so much the spanking itself but the idea of it, the idea that this man was punishing my bare behind. Whatever it was, it felt painfully wonderful and I urged my rear up to meet his descending hand.

As I moved, to better receive my punishment, I felt something against my belly. Jax was hard, his rock-solid cock poking into me. The next spank carried with it an extra thrill as I allowed myself to be pressed into his stiffness. He was enjoying this, as well, and I could hear his breath coming short and fast between the loud reports of his palm walloping my ass.

Without meaning them to, my cries and squeals had become breathier, more like moans, as the building pleasure in my loins had to be expressed somehow. As my arousal increased, I twisted in Jax's lap, no longer from the need to escape, but now to feel him beneath him, I wanted every bit of contact with him I could glean, above and beyond the delicious and relentless smacking of his hand on my reddened bottom. Wantonly, I ground myself against his furiously hard cock, no longer pretending it was accidental but actively seeking the feel of it moving hungrily against me. The knowledge that he wanted me as much as I wanted him burned inside me.

Apparently, this was too much. With an angry growl, Jax pushed me off his lap to the floor.

"You've had enough."

I wasn't sure I had, though my backside disagreed. Deprived of the pleasure of Jax's touch, the pain seemed a lot sharper. But so did the desire. I was hotly frustrated, desperate for more, the front of my skirt soaked with my juices. I looked up at Jax, heat in my eyes, and saw him looking back at me. He almost looked afraid, and I guessed it was fear at his own desires.

"I hope that taught you a lesson," he snapped, his voice petulant with his embarrassment that I had discovered his obvious arousal.

I nodded. I had certainly learned something, though I doubted it had been what he wanted to teach me.

"What you did was incredibly stupid."

As he spoke, I pushed myself up onto all fours, still weak and trembling.

"You could have been killed."

Something in the tone of his voice made me speak. "You were worried about me?"

He immediately looked angry, but I saw the truth in his eyes. That knowledge finally broke the dam behind which all my pent-up desire had been building. Without warning, I flung myself at Jax, not really with any intent, but just wanting to touch him and to have him touch me. I bit at his face, tore at his clothes and pressed my body hard into his. I ground my hips down into the hot hardness of his crotch and heard him growl in response. His reply matched mine for violence, ripping the clothes from my body, kissing me roughly, his teeth tugging on my lower lip.

I twisted out of his grasp, dragging the remaining tatters of clothing from his body, and dived for what I wanted. His weapon was straining upwards, bloated with desire, satisfyingly huge. It looked as masculine and powerful as was Jax himself and I gulped it into my mouth, sucking hard and then biting down on the tender skin.

Jax grunted in pain and whacked my bottom in revenge, the shock of which made me bite down harder, earning me another smack.

Dragging me off his saliva-soaked cock, Jax grabbed my legs and flipped me onto my front, pinning me face down on the couch. I gasped as his tongue slicked the length of my nether lips, whimpered as I felt his brutish member press against me, then cried out as he sheathed himself inside me in one hard thrust. Jax cried out, too, as much from relief as pleasure. However unconventional our foreplay had been, it had left us both wanting and needing this release.

Jax planted his hands on my shoulders, holding me down as he set up a punishing rhythm pounding into me. His hips smacked against my defenseless ass cheeks, already as red as a pair of cherry tomatoes and now under attack again. I loved every second of it, reaching back to claw at his fast-moving hips, urging him on by drawing my nails down his thighs. As I scratched harder, I heard Jax wince and one of his hands left my shoulder for long enough to administer an admonitory spank to my bottom. I dug my nails in harder. Jax leaned back to take his weight on his knees, never slowing in his strong thrusting rhythm, taking hold of my hips with one hand to keep me steady while his other rained down fresh smacks on my bum cheeks even as they bounced against his hard stomach. I buried my face in the cushions and screamed as the pain-fueled pleasure overwhelmed me.

But I wasn't keen to just be the passive party here. As Jax began to tire, I pushed up on my hands, hurling myself back and knocking him off balance so he lay back on the couch while I sat up straight, facing his feet, straddling his hips. From here I began to pound myself up and down on his straining cock, grinding my hips in tight little circles that made my core throb with delight. It seemed to please Jax, as well, though he had trouble keeping control. He grunted, gasped and cried out as I used him for my own pleasure. At one point, he tried to grab my hips to regain control, but I batted his hands away then slapped his inner thighs as hard as I could as punishment. If he had wanted, he could have easily made me do whatever he wanted, but that would not have been playing the game, and he lay back passively, allowing me to do whatever I wanted to his body, while he grasped the couch with tight fists, fighting to maintain his slender self-control.

I leaned back to let his shaft rub against my Devil's Doorbell, leaned forwards, twisted side to side and bounced straight up and down as hard as I could, using his fabulous organ every way I could dream up, every way my frantically aroused body screamed for. My orgasm was fast approaching and Jax's was, too, based on the desperate noises coming from behind me. But I didn't want this to end so easily.

Without warning, I bounced up off of Jax, his swollen cock rebounding against his flat stomach with a hard smack, making him groan either with disappointment at being denied his long-deferred orgasm, or relief at no longer being my personal sex toy. I stalked towards the bedroom, not looking back as I went but hearing Jax spring to his feet to follow me. Tossing myself down on the bed, I was in time to see Jax enter the room, his straining cock pointing the way before him. As he looked down at me, I saw in his eyes more than the heat, hate and desire that I had seen in them before.

"Jax?"

For a moment, he looked totally lost, but then he threw himself down on top of me.

"Oh, Jax!" I cried out as he entered me again. I dragged my nails down his back, making him grunt with pain and forcing him to look me in the eye. It was the first time we had been eye to eye since this had started and a look of desperate intensity passed between us. We didn't have long left, neither of our bodies could keep this up much longer, but that intensity also came from a deeply emotional place. Whatever had made the sex like this, so violent toward each other and toward ourselves; whatever had made us want to be treated this way by the other and reciprocate in kind, it was something we had both needed.

As the moment passed, the heat returned. Jax pulled out and then rammed his full length back into me, making me yelp like a dog. Again. Then again. Then over and over. I spread my legs across the bed, turning myself into a target for him. I grabbed his churning hips, pulling him into me.

"Harder... Harder..." I gasped, not sure I could take it or he could give it but wanting it nevertheless. "Now. Oh, Jax, please, now."

Our eyes locked and as Jax thrust into me once more, my mind exploded. At the same time, I felt Jax explode within me, pouring his hot seed into my body, crying out as he came. We collapsed on top of each other, both spent, and neither really knowing what had just happened.