SurrendersMischief (20 page)

“Remove your clothes.”

Surprise flashed across his face. He started to speak then
stopped. She could see the wariness in his eyes as he tried to guess what she
meant to do. She let him wonder. Piece by piece, his clothes dropped to the
floor until he stood before her splendidly naked.

“Do you mean to make me walk naked to the Great Hall?” The
words sounded torn out of him.

“We’re not going to the Great Hall.”

Tension seeped out of the massive shoulders.

“We’re going into the garden.”

The tension returned. “Punishment will be private then?”

“Not quite.” He opened his mouth, but she forestalled him.
“No more questions.” She crossed to the bed and laid the case on it and opened
it. When she turned, she held a paddle, about half a meter long and the width
of his palm. She motioned for Darias to go into the garden. He headed for the
alcove without further direction.

Even though the night was warm, almost hot, chill bumps
lined his skin. It was amazing the way she could almost see into his mind, hear
his thoughts. She didn’t have the slightest doubt what was going through his
mind right this minute. He was wondering if anyone was watching him walk naked
to his punishment. For a Nexarian, that was the ultimate humiliation. As a race,
they repressed their sexuality, only letting themselves explore the more
adventurous aspects of sex during punishment. It was even more restrictive for
a warrior. Warriors were forbidden to embrace their sexuality. All their
energies were directed toward work and fighting, not the weakening emotions of
passion.

How would he handle what she intended to do next?

Was she pushing him too hard? Would he break his oath to
obey her?

Stilling the flutters in the pit of her stomach with a
surreptitious deep breath, Riana could only wait and see.

Her bond on Darias was mental, not physical.

Would that bond hold?

Affecting a confident air, she stopped in front of the
Punishment Stone. Unlike the first night she’d punished him, tonight the moon
was full. She smoothed a hand over the warm stone. “Lights.” Immediately, a
muted glow radiated from the stone, supplementing the moon’s brilliance.

“You Nexarians are amazing. Somehow, you’ve crafted a stone
that is malleable, able to take whatever shape is needed. Yet, you created it
as an instrument of punishment instead of pleasure.” She shook her head,
knowing that the light of the moon and the artificial light of the alcove found
the red highlights in her long hair and turned it into a waterfall of liquid
fire.

Now that she was here, her doubts fled. She felt confident
and in control.

“Tonight, that suits my purpose.” Adjusting first the
wristcuffs and then the ankle cuffs, she patted the seat of the smooth, white
rock.

Lips a tight line, Darias started to slide onto the stone.
Riana quickly corrected him.

“No. Not on the Punishment Stone, over it.”

He went still then licked his lips. “Over it?”

“Yes.”

When he was lying facedown over the end, she fastened the
wristcuffs so his arms were pulled taut over his head. Next she moved his legs
so they were spread far apart, feet planted firmly on the grass, and then
cuffed his ankles.

“What of the privacy shield?”

She heard a note of panic that she knew he wished wasn’t
there. Good. Perhaps before the night was over he’d realize she was up to any
challenge he threw out.

“Not tonight. Tonight your punishment remains open to all
who wish to see or hear.” She canted her head to one side, a bit of her anger
from this afternoon resurfacing. “What do you think? Will the women stand in their
gardens in hopes of a glimpse of your punishment? Will they bring their men
with them? Or will the garden, itself,” she swept her hand in a circle,
“protect you?” Only she knew that everyone was within shouting distance of the
Great Hall, waiting for her to bring Darias down. Let them wait and let Darias
wonder.

He didn’t answer.

She fought to subdue her anger. Rage would not rule her. She
would not injure Darias this time. Picking up the stim paddle, she calibrated
the controls on the handle. Darias thought he knew what to expect, but this
stim was different in one very important aspect from the paddle she’d used on
him in bed play. That stim paddle was designed for pain-pleasure. This paddle
was designed for those who gained their pleasure from pain. It stimulated the
pain nerve endings alone.

She finished fiddling with the controls and double-checked
her settings. Satisfied that it was on a level where she could use enough force
to heat his backside without bruising it while still keeping the neuro-pain
below an intolerable threshold.

“You asked to take Gaith’s punishment and Bryta agreed to
leave the manner of that punishment up to me. This is what I choose.” She stood
behind him and slightly to one side. Riana took a moment to admire the picture
he made with the taut, muscled buttocks bared for her pleasure. The internal
light from the stone backlit his heavy sac. Shaking off the need that swelled
to life at the sight, she made her voice brisk. “I will give you ten strokes of
the stim paddle on this setting before giving you ten more on one-quarter
setting higher.” Still within safety margins, but the results were sure to stay
with Darias for days.

That was all the warning Darias got. At the first stroke, he
gritted his teeth to hold back a startled yelp. Krel, this was much worse than
the previous play with the stim paddle. This burned like fire without the
mitigating rush of pleasure to follow. By the fifth stroke, he was panting in
an effort to contain the pain. By the eighth, his palms were biting into the
smooth stone of the armrests.

Ten. He only had to get through two more. He could do it. He
was a warrior.

Then it was over. His breath caught in his chest at the
sharp jolt of pain when she laid one hand on the curve of his ass. Just as
quickly, she removed it.

“You may rest.”

Neck muscles aching from strain, he let his forehead dropped
to illuminated stone as he breathed in through his nose in measured breaths. He
squeezed his eyes and then blinked rapidly. Getting his ass beat was bad
enough, but the dispassionate tones Riana was using cut far deeper, inside
where it didn’t show.

Always before, under the commands, under the anger, he could
sense her arousal, her enjoyment of his response to her. Not tonight.

And he didn’t like it.

The sharp crack of the paddle hitting his ass caught him off
guard.

“
Shevet!
” The curse hissed from between his teeth.
Pain radiated up his spine and down to his toes. Four more strokes in rapid
succession had him biting down on his lip, determined not to make another sound.
That satisfaction he would not give her.

The last five strokes followed in short order. Somewhere, in
the haze of pain, he realized that unlike the first ten, these strokes had not
been delivered in an even-spaced, deliberate manner.

In silence, she unfastened the cuffs and went inside.

Darias was much slower to follow. Every movement was
reflected in renewed fire in his ass. When he entered the chamber, the lights
were off and Riana was in bed. Darias stretched out on his stomach on top of
the covers. Part of him expected Riana to move next to him, cup his ass in her
palm and soothe him even as she aroused him. She didn’t. He fisted his hands in
the bedding to keep from touching her.

Hours later, she slipped from bed and left the chamber.

For the first time since Riana arrived in Nexar, Darias once
again felt totally alone.

* * * * *

“Darias, Nexar needs the Far Islands. They have a viable,
expanding economy and are eager for new trade partners. Furthermore, unlike
Trinearia, they are not looking for an excuse to invade. You know as just as
well as I do, if not better, that if Trinearia senses just how bad the
situation is here, they will declare war.”

“We can manage them. We always have,” he argued, frustration
clear in his midnight voice.

“That’s why you did no more than make the most tentative of
contact with their representative?” she challenged, bounding out of the chair.
Stubborn, stubborn man. It had taken her less than a day to see that Darias,
for all of his talk, had been reluctant to respond to Trinearia’s overture.
Hands on her hips, she dared him to speak plainly.

“If you had more experience in negotiating trade contracts,
you’d understand my strategy,” he drawled, making her want to smack him.

“Understand the art of negotiating,” she snorted. She’d cut
her teeth on the life of a trader. “Look, I have more exper—” A knock on the
door cut off her sharp retort. The door opened and a woman walked in. “Sharri!
You made it.”

“You rang?” An impish smile lifted the brunette’s lips.

She hurried around the desk and hugged her friend. “Thank
you for coming,” she whispered, fighting back an unexpected rush of tears.
“Come, let’s go to my chamber.” She grabbed the brunette by the arm then
stopped at the door to level a hard glance at Darias.

“We’ll finish this conversation later, Darias.”

Riana was excruciatingly aware of the Sharri’s worried
glances as they traversed the stairs and long hallway leading to her chambers
but, for the first time in their long relationship, didn’t try to make light of
her friend’s concern, Once inside her chamber, Riana hesitated, not sure of the
best place to hold the type of talk she needed. Then, with a mental shrug, she
decided she might as well go for broke and have it in the garden—the site of
her and Darias’ most tumultuous encounters.

She needed to someone to talk to, to sound out her jumbled
thoughts so she could make some kind of sense of them, and there was no one
better than her best friend.

Sharri looked around with appreciation. “I can see why you
wanted to stay. This place is incredible.” She touched one tiny flower, its
translucent amethyst petals chimed with a clear crystalline note as she stroked
it. She bent down and inhaled the sweet, spicy fragrance that was released.
Walking a little farther down the graveled walk, she stopped and cupped a
spectacular red blossom in her hand. Her eyes were bright when she turned
toward Riana. “So, are you going to tell me what’s going on? Your message
sounded odd, but when I hurry here, I find you…”She waved a hand around. “Amidst
this.”

“I’m not sure where to start.” Riana scuffed the toe of her
boot in the gravel, making intricate designs in order to avoid meeting her
friend’s eyes. How could she hope to explain that she’d allowed herself to not
only be captured but kept as a slave? Restless, she began walking toward the
back of the garden. Sharri caught up with her.

“You can start by telling me why they call you Supreme
Chief.”

“I won the right to rule Nexar in a battle with Darias.”

“That magnificent specimen I barely had a chance to glimpse
in your office?” She sounded amazed. “I don’t believe it. You battled him?
Hell, girl, with a man who looks like a fallen god, you are supposed to make
love, not war! Besides, he’s built like a Hsadian battle cruiser. It’d take a
sun going nova to defeat that man.”

Riana felt a hint of humor lighten her mood momentarily. “I
told you the lieutenant was teaching me a combat technique.” Her smile became
an outright grin. “He was a very good teacher.” Her smile faded when she came
abreast of the path leading to the hidden alcove.

“I bet,” Sharri said dryly. “The next question is what were
you doing battling him?”

“Remember when you told me that my gut instinct was going to
get me into trouble one day?”

Her friend nodded, dawning understanding in her brown eyes.

“Well, one day arrived with a crash.” She took a deep breath
and stiffened her spine. Sharri was her best friend in the whole galaxy, but
revealing even to her what had taken place in this garden was, well, it was
humiliating. Chewing on her bottom lip, she seriously considered turning around
and going back inside. Before she could give in to the urge, she headed down
the path to the Punishment Stone.

Her friend followed then came to a startled halt. “What is
that?”

“That is a Punishment Stone.”

“It looks like something from the fantasy room in Madame
Bulivae’s pleasure palace.”

“Trust me. It’s no fantasy but a fantasy warped into a
nightmare.” Birds sang cheerfully from the concealing foliage, mocking Riana’s
memories of Darias’ punishment of her. Broodingly, she stared at the white
stone. She thought punishing him here would make the memories go away.

It hadn’t.

Shaking off the unpleasant recollections, she sat on a
weathered boulder. That blasted stone symbolized everything that was wrong and
twisted in Nexar—pleasure used as punishment, an entire half of a population
bound and forced to be submissive to the other half. Even their economic
policies were subjugated to their beliefs that women needed masters.

“So tell me.” Sharri traced the curved seat of the
Punishment Stone.

Riana could see the question in her friend’s eyes as she
fingered the leg cuffs.

A sigh worked itself up from her depths. “Right after
talking to you, I got caught in an ion storm and crashed near those mountains.”
Riana tilted her head, indicating the range of mountains to the north. “To make
a long story short, Darias found me and made me his slave.”

“You? A slave? How in the name of the Zethra did that
happen?” Sharri held up one slender hand when Riana opened her mouth to speak.
“Do not give me the abbreviated version. I want details.” A wicked grin curved
her lips. “I especially want to know what being the slave of that magnificent
specimen entails. Is he well hung?”

“Sharri!”

She was unrepentant. “Well, is he?”