SurrendersMischief (23 page)

To both their satisfactions.

She heard him swallow. “Permission to speak, Mistress?”

“When I ask you a question, you may answer without first
asking permission.”

“Yes, Mistress. Spanking. I deserve a spanking.” Heat and
embarrassment laced the deep, rich voice, roughening it and sending it spiking
straight to her clit.

She squeezed her thighs together.

“Hmm.” She cupped one cheek of his ass, the tips of her
nails digging into the crease. A silent threat of punishment if he didn’t
please her. “I think you are right. A spanking to warm your butt and to remind
you to remember the rules in the future.” She landed a solid blow with an open
hand.

He grunted, and the smell of hot, male musk swirled and
mingled with the scent of the garden in the warm, heavy air. Not until his ass
was a pleasing shade of vermilion did she stop.

His heavy breathing resounded in the room.

Riana licked her lips, struggling to get her own arousal
under control. Blood thrummed in her veins, hot, heavy and filled with life.
“Spread your legs,” she commanded, her voice deeper than normal.

He swallowed audibly then slowly moved his legs apart.

“Present yourself.”

His breath hitched. “Mistress?”

“Do it, Darias.”

His hands shook as he slowly moved them to the cheeks of ass
and spread them. His face stayed turned toward the window, his hair hiding his
expression. The back of his neck turned bright red, a shade almost deep and hot
enough to match his ass.

She traced the flush with a touch meant to both soothe and
arouse. Leaning down, she pressed a kiss to the small of his spine then to the
tender spot where buttock and thigh met. Her lips felt the heat from her
spanking.

Sitting upright, she poured the oil she’d retrieved from the
desk into the palm of one hand. The heady scent filled the air. Tilting her
hand over the start of the crease separating the heavy muscle, she let it
trickle and run down to his tight ring of muscle.

The muscles of his ass clenched and his fingers dug into the
well-spanked cheeks. “That’s it,” she praised, her voice husky with desire.
“Don’t move. You are so beautiful. You shouldn’t be embarrassed.” She dipped
her fingers in the oil and swirled one around that forbidden hole. “You belong
to me. Everything. Here.” She kissed his neck, all the while rimming the tender
ring with the tip of her finger. “And here.” She nipped the heated swell of his
haunch. “And most definitely here.” She pressed an intimate kiss to that dark,
hidden spot, allowing the tip of her tongue to stray out and stroke him.

He jumped.

“Riana!”

“Don’t move,” she reminded him. She rested her cheek on the
back of one of his hands, and tipped the bottle of oil, pouring a bit more. As
she let the lubricant dribble from the bottle, she pressed the tip of her
finger inside. The oil followed.

Hot.

So hot.

He tightened around her finger, an instinctive resistance to
the intimate invasion.

She used sharp edge of her teeth on his inner thigh, right
next to his heavy balls.

He jumped, startled from her bite, and relaxed his muscles.

She slipped the small device she’d retrieved into his anus.

Immediately, he tightened, but it was too late. The small
anal egg was in.

Riana sat up and patted his butt.

“Mistress, may I speak?”

“You may.”

“What the Krel is that?”

A chuckle slipped out. “That, is an amordildo. Unlike other
anal eggs, once inside the body it expands to fit the wearer.”

He stiffened.

She patted his butt again. “Don’t worry. Not in an
uncomfortable way.” She grinned. “But you will definitely feel its presence.”
Unable to resist, she tugged on one of several small chains attached to the egg
resting in the crack between the cheeks of his ass.

He jolted, a tremor running the full length of his spine.

She gave another, lighter tug, loving the way his buttocks
clenched and released and his shoulders twitched. “These remain outside your
body.”

“What,” he licked his lips and started again. “What…? I
mean, it feels like every nerve in my body is being shocked.”

“Does it hurt?” She tugged on a different chain, already
knowing the answer.

His body arched. “No,” he moaned. “Feels good.”

“Each chain is a different length and at the end of each
chain is a small sensor that resonates to a person’s bio signature.” She leaned
down and nipped the curve of his ass. “Your bio signature. It’s designed to
tease with varying pulses of energy, never bringing you to culmination but on
the edge of it.”

“You mean it’s designed to torture,” he ground out, his hips
flexing on the soft, burgundy carpet.

“Exactly.” She smiled against the heavy muscle then sat up.
She gave his luscious ass a swat. “You may turn over and open your eyes.”

He turned and settled carefully onto his back, avoiding her
gaze by covering his eyes with his arm.

Riana chuckled. She probably should make him quit hiding and
face her, but she decided he’d had enough unusual experiences for one
afternoon.

Besides, the fifteen minutes were nearly up.

She gathered her clothes and began dressing, unable to sneak
a peek at Darias. He was on the floor, one muscular arm still flung across his
eyes, his flagrant erection reaching almost to his bellybutton.

“I have to leave. Stay here as long as you need. I’ll leave
orders that no one disturbs you.”

He didn’t speak, but his lips tightened.

Riana knew just how he felt. Moisture slipped down the
inside of her thighs and it was all she could do not to squeeze her legs
together. Putting the oil back in the desk drawer, she saw the soft leather
folded inside. She fingered it. In the back of her mind was the half-formed
thought to give it to Darias. She shook her head decisively. No, she wanted the
time to enjoy his reaction. And his appreciation.

Hand on the doorknob, she said, “Wait for me in our chamber.
I’ll be there as soon as I can get away. And, Darias?” His chest stilled as he
waited for her to continue. “All I want you wearing is your skin.”

* * * * *

Bryta cornered Riana as she started up the winding staircase
several hours later. Her head throbbed. She was in no mood for any more crises.
She’d settled a dispute between two women—each insisting they had sole right to
the same man—before it came to actual bloodshed. The man in question had been
quite smug over the fact that women were fighting over him until he realized
both harbored some very significant grudges, and then he’d been glad to have
Riana decree that neither woman owned him. He’d gone, displaying amazing
gratitude, with Jayna, Riana’s new captain of the guards.

Then there had been bickering over whose house sat closest
to the Supreme Chief’s chair during the meeting Riana had hastily called in
regards to Trinearia’s insistence on continuing trade negotiations. After that
had come the meeting with Myrta. Riana pinched the bridge of her nose between
two fingers. Zethra. That woman was a born trader.

Riana rubbed her temples and waited impatiently for Bryta to
catch up. “Whatever it is, can’t it wait until morning? It’s after two in the
morning and I’m tired.” And Darias was waiting in their chamber.

“What in Quaral’s name did you do to Darias? Punish him
outside your chambers?” Bryta sounded scandalized as she stopped directly in
front of her.

“Of course not.” With a hard stab of guilt, she remembered
the day she forced him to present himself in the office. It took a considerable
force of will to subdue the flush that tried to stain her cheeks.

“You did something to him. I saw Darias and Gaith speaking
outside your office. It was obvious he was in,” she paused delicately, “some
discomfort. Discomfort that wasn’t there when he went into your office.”

Riana sighed as she realized what had the other woman so
agitated. She glanced about and realized they couldn’t have any privacy where
they were. She sighed and, taking the blonde by the arm, steered her back down
the stairs and into the office. Once inside, she shut the door behind them.
Motioning to the scroll-backed chair in front of the desk, she made her way to
her own chair, casting a longing glance at the spot where she and Darias had
started to make love. Seated, she leaned back and eyed her friend. “Bryta, let
me ask you something. It’s personal,” she warned.

“You may ask what you like. You’re my Supreme Chief,” Bryta
said, her straight back, telling Riana loud and clear that she was not about to
be easily mollified.

“I’m not asking as the Supreme Chief, I’m asking as your
friend.” Riana rubbed her eyes and wished she was in bed with Darias. “Do you
enjoy sex with Gaith?”

The blonde’s face turned fiery red.

“I don’t mean to embarrass you,” she hurried to assure her
friend. “It’s just that I’ve not noticed any particular,” she hesitated,
searching for the right word, “closeness between the men and women here in
Nexar.”

Bryta cleared her throat and studied her locked fingers. “I
enjoy sex the nights after punishing Gaith.” She peeked at Riana from between
her lashes.

“Not any other time?” Dismay and sadness for her friend
lodged in Riana’s throat.

The blonde shook her head. “No. Once or twice, while I was
still Gaith’s woman, I almost did. But then Gaith would finish and I’d be left
more frustrated than before.”

Her blush deepened until Riana wondered that it didn’t scald
the other woman’s cheeks.

“What do you mean about closeness?”

“On most worlds sex, or making love, is something to cherish
and anticipate. For men and women.”

Bryta looked astonished. “You’re joking. Women actually look
forward to that?”

“That,” Riana confirmed dryly, “is not usually associated
with punishment. Until I came here, sex was joyous.”

“You’ve had other lovers?” Awe echoed in her voice.

“That’s not the point. My point is the men of Nexar have mucked
up a perfectly natural act.” She drummed her fingers on the desk as she
considered how to go about righting the situation. The running of the
country-state and her battle of wills with Darias had consumed all of her time
and her plans to educate the women of Nexar had somehow fallen by the wayside.

Well, it was time she remedied that.

Riana leaned down and opened a drawer in her desk. She’d
gotten some items out of the hold of the
Midnight Mischief
after her
encounter this afternoon with Darias, hoping to entice him into trying them
out. That was after the nooning meal and before she had to deal with another
petty squabble between two houses.

One by one, she began putting the items in the drawer on the
desk.

Bryta’s eyes opened wider and wider at the obvious use of
some of the articles.

Riana smothered a grin, not wanting her friend to think she
was laughing at her.

Bryta touched a long string of metallic spheres with a
tentative finger.

Riana got the feeling if she yelled “Boo”, she’d have to
scrape the other woman off the ceiling.

“What are these?”

“Wa’Shin balls. They can be used for men or women. They
vibrate, enhancing pleasure.”

Bryta’s mouth dropped open in a perfect O. She closed it
with a snap. “You don’t mean you… I mean, you aren’t telling me that you put
them…” She shook her head.

Riana nodded solemnly. “That’s exactly what I mean. Here,”
she tossed the Wa’Shin balls toward Bryta. “Try them. You might even want to
let Gaith experience them.”

“And this? What is this for?” Her shyness forgotten, Bryta
sat forward, prodding a squat glass jar containing a thick blob of gel.

“It’s
goldjel
. It shapes itself to the man and
pleasures him.”

“You mean it’s alive,” she yipped, yanking her hand back.

“Don’t worry,” Riana soothed, “
goldjel
is harmless.
If you’re uncomfortable with it, why don’t you choose something else? Perhaps,
the sonic nipple clamps or…” She held up an iridescent blue-and-green feather.
“This. Go on,” she encouraged, “experiment.”

“Oh, I couldn’t. I wouldn’t know how.” But she cast a longing
glance at the array on the desk.

“I’ll tell you a secret.” Riana leaned over the desk and
lowered her voice. “Use the same repertoire as when you punish Gaith, only
instead of taking the suppressant and remaining detached, participate. Bring
both yourselves to fulfillment.”

“Are you sure it’s allowed? I mean, isn’t it forbidden?” She
looked torn.

A smile curved Riana’s lips because she knew then that half
the battle was won.

“It was. Under the men. However, the men are no longer in
charge. I don’t see why we can’t change things to suit ourselves. Do you?”

A slow smile of agreement spread over the other woman’s
face. “You’re right. You are absolutely right. We now run Nexar. We can invent
a new custom if we wish. Zethra knows, they didn’t hesitate to invent a new
rule whenever it suited them.” She took a deep breath. “You weren’t punishing
Darias, were you?”

“No,” Riana confirmed gently, “I wasn’t.”

“Did he mind? Outside of the bedchamber, I mean.” Her face
turned almost painfully red.

“No, I don’t think so, but I let the choice be his. He had
to agree or I would have stopped.” Riana didn’t intend to say more. Some things
were private between a man and a woman.

Awareness crept into Bryta’s eyes, and she nodded. The
small, fragile-looking woman stood, hesitated a moment and then scooped up the
Wa’Shin balls, the sonic nipple clamps and reached for the container of
goldjel
but paused, hand in midair. “Are you sure you want me to have these? They are
yours.”

Riana waved her hand. “Take them. I have a whole hold full
of such things. You know,” she said slowly, as the thought came to her, “you
might even consider starting a new business with me. After all, I have a hold
full of cargo and Nexar has a country-state full of new clientele. Why
shouldn’t we go into business together? Just think of the possibilities,” she
urged.