Chapter Three
It was not a reaction to pain that caused the intense anger to zip through Taryn’s veins. Although the bullet had drawn blood as it grazed his flesh, it had done him no real damage. What he was incensed by was her waving a potentially lethal weapon around when she obviously had no clue how to use it properly. The gun belonged in a museum, not in the hands of a frightened young woman. If it had been a human who walked in here instead of him—one of her friends, perhaps—she might have killed them. If the gun had misfired, she might have killed herself.
“Sir, is everything alright?” One of his subordinates ran along the corridor toward him, his weapon drawn in anticipation of trouble.
“Yes, Jaxon, all is well.” Taryn’s tone was tinged with impatience as the other man appraised the situation. “Return to the vehicle and wait for me there. I have something to take care of.”
Having dismissed Jaxon, Taryn turned back to the quaking female who stood before him. Her eyes were wide, her mouth open in an almost comical illustration of the shock she must feel. There was no need to disarm her. She’d dropped the gun the instant it went off. As he stepped toward Lucy, intent on shaking some sense into her, she held her hands up as though begging him to stay back. He paused for a moment, considering how best to deal with such a skittish creature. She looked terrified, and well she might. Her actions had been extremely careless and warranted a punishment.
“I d-didn’t mean to do that,” the petite blonde stammered. “I’m s-s-sorry.”
“Oh, you’re going to be,” Taryn told her, his tone matter of fact rather than threatening.
As her eyes scanned the room, apparently searching for an escape route, Taryn moved swiftly, grabbing her around the waist and swinging her up into the air. He pulled her back down over his lap as he took a seat on the camp bed, his movements seamless. Before she could utter a single word of protest, he had her positioned perfectly over his knee. Her legs dangled down behind her and her head hung toward the floor, her golden hair creating a thick veil that hid her face completely.
He drew her thin cotton slip up and her white frilled panties down to expose the lush, peachy skin of her bottom. There was no time to appreciate her sensual curves. He had a punishment to administer.
“What are you… ow!” she cried indignantly as his palm connected with her perfectly rounded butt cheek. She kicked her legs out and Taryn placed a firm hand on the back of her thighs as a warning to her to stop. She seemed to understand the instruction but protested anyway. “You can’t do this. Let me up.”
The demanding tone in her voice was actually quite cute, considering the helpless position she was in.
“Not until you’ve learned your lesson,” Taryn said. “Now, hold still or I’ll keep you here all night.”
It was no empty threat. They would stay here, just like this, for as long as it took for her to realize the error of her ways. As she finally ceased her wriggling, Taryn resumed the spanking, raining carefully placed blows down on her upturned bottom.
It was gratifying to see the redness bloom on her skin. From the way she lay there quietly, in apparent acceptance of what was happening, he deduced that she was no stranger to spanking. Her initial reluctance, then, was probably due to embarrassment over who was disciplining her and not how he was doing it. As the spanking continued, she offered very little reaction, even though she must surely feel some pain. Perhaps he would have to be more forceful in his chastisement of her if he was going to get his message across.
“Why are you being punished?” he asked.
“Because I shot at you.”
Even though he couldn’t see her face, he knew that she’d responded through gritted teeth, that she was angry to find herself in this position.
“And?”
“And what?” She sounded genuinely puzzled. Did she really not understand that he was angry that she had taken an enormous risk with her safety?
“And you put yourself in harm’s way by attempting to sleep in this place,” Taryn informed her.
“I was perfectly alright until you got here.” Defiance screamed from her.
Taryn shook his head. It amazed him that she still didn’t want to acknowledge she’d been in danger. He needed her to understand how serious her actions had been. When he’d received the news from his men that she still hadn’t returned home by the time the sun had set, he’d known immediately that he would find her here. This building was less of a secret than she probably imagined it to be. Several of her friends had already been apprehended by his men as they came and went and he was quite certain that agents of the High Council knew about this place as well. He couldn’t believe that Lucy was so reckless as to try to spend the night in this ramshackle old building by herself. That alone would be cause enough to punish her, but when he added her use of the gun to his reckoning, she would be lucky if he ever let her off the hook.
“Stand up.” His tone was stern, but his touch was gentle as he helped Lucy to her feet.
She stood in front of him in sullen silence. Her downturned lips wobbled as though she might be about to cry, but the look in her eyes was one of defiance. It disappointed him that she seemed not to be learning a lesson.
“Bend over, hands on the bed.” he instructed.
“What?” Lucy seemed startled by his command.
“You heard me.”
“But…” She reached back and rubbed her bottom as though to suggest that she’d already been punished enough. Her eyes widened as Taryn stood and unbuckled his belt, slowly drawing it through the loops in his pants, giving her time to fully comprehend what was about to happen.
“You didn’t think the punishment was over, did you?” Taryn asked as he weighed the leather strap in his hand. It should make more of an impact than his palm but would do no permanent damage to her delicate flesh. “That was just a warmup. You will now receive six strokes of the belt. Now, do as I say and bend over the bed.”
When she didn’t move, he took hold of the back of her neck and pushed her downward, taking care to exert his will without actually hurting her. As he bent her forward, her hands shot out to brace herself on the bed. When she was in position, he lifted her slip over her waist to reveal her pretty pink bottom. There was a tell-tale glistening of moisture on her inner thigh that told him she had been aroused. That was certainly interesting. He wondered whether she had been turned on by being placed over his knee or by the spanking itself.
“That’s a good girl,” he praised as he took a step back and she remained in position. “Now, stay like that and the punishment will soon be over.”
* * *
Lucy closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she waited for the belt to fall. She pushed her bottom out a little, hoping that her compliance would please the alien warrior. His grunt of what she took to be satisfaction told her it had worked. She thought it best to try to get on his good side and get this over with as quickly as possible. She had endured spankings before, but only with a paddle wielded without much force by her elderly father, and always with her underwear firmly in place. Standing there with her naked flesh on display and her panties around her ankles was a new and humiliating experience, especially as she suspected the evidence of her arousal was visible. She had no idea why she’d felt such a surge of desire as his palm connected with her bottom and it had taken everything she could muster not to cry out in ecstasy. It was deeply troubling, and she hoped she wouldn’t embarrass herself any further.
The leather belt the alien grasped in his hand looked thick and heavy and she imagined it would deliver a powerful blow. She braced herself for the pain. A swoosh of air was the only warning she got before the belt landed with a crack across the left side of her bottom. Her eyes sprang open, all hopes of maintaining a serene pose flying out of the window as her mind registered the force of the impact. That had hurt. It had really hurt. Lucy let out an anguished whine and jiggled from side to side, not knowing quite how to alleviate the stinging sensation.
“Hold still, pet.”
The warrior’s tone was not unkind, but Lucy grimaced at his use of that particular endearment. It seemed to signal that he was staking his claim on her. She understood now that the moment he took her over his knee, something had changed. Her life had ceased to be her own. Whatever choice he had given her about the future was now gone. She was going to be his and she would just have to make the best of it.
As the belt landed again, striking her right butt cheek, she tumbled forward onto the bed. The blow had not been delivered with any greater force than the first one, but she hadn’t readied herself for it and had been thrown off balance. A savage burn in her flesh made it hard not to reach back and try to rub away the discomfort. Her mind told her not to, but her hand drifted behind her to soothe her inflamed buttocks nonetheless.
“No,” the alien said sternly, “none of that. Put your hands back on the bed.”
Lucy pushed herself up and resumed her original position. The alien tapped the insides of her ankles with his foot and she understood that he wanted her to spread her legs wider. She shuffled her feet as far apart as she could with her panties limiting her range of movement. It was so humiliating. No man had ever seen the most intimate parts of her body before. She could feel the power of his gaze and the flesh in her bottom seemed to throb even more intensely. Her face flushed, and she wondered if it was possible to die from sheer mortification.
“That’s good,” he praised, his deep, soothing tones acting as a balm for her injured pride.
The next two lashes of the belt fell in quick succession and Lucy cried out. Tears rolled down her cheeks and the thought that she should beg him to stop passed fleetingly through her mind. She took a deep breath and managed to get a hold of herself. There were only two more to go. She would bear that.
As soon as the leather smacked across the full width of her bottom, all thoughts of being stoic deserted her.
“Ow!” she shrieked as lightning zapped her flesh. “Please, don’t. It hurts.”
“It’s supposed to hurt.” Was it her imagination, or did he actually sound amused? “That is the point of a punishment.”
The final stroke of the belt across the back of her thighs made Lucy cry out once more. Sobbing in earnest now, she collapsed in a blubbering heap on the bed. That had been an intense experience in more ways than one. It had hurt, there was no denying that, but it had also awakened something in her. She’d felt her body come alive in a way it had never before.
As she wailed pitifully, strong arms lifted her, and she found herself being held tight against the reassuringly solid wall of the alien’s chest. He said nothing but let her cry until all her tears were spent.
As she gave a pathetic sniff, she looked up into eyes that were filled with concern. The stern warrior gave her a slight smile and a strange but pleasant sensation tickled her insides.
“All will be well now, pet,” he assured her. “Now, let’s get you home.”
“Home?” Lucy asked, a note of hope in her voice.
“That’s right, pet, you’re coming home with me,” Taryn said. “You’re mine now.”