Chapter Fourteen
Shock Waves
Erin
––––––––
I COULDN’T BELIEVE what was happening. I’d been at the door, ready to fucking leave, and then suddenly, he was on me, his vice-like grip making it clear I had no option but to come to heel.
Gasping when his hand struck my upturned cheeks a second time, I could hardly think, but the muscles at the apex of my sex clenched at the debilitating idea of my submission. Eli had brought me to heel. There was no greater demonstration than the humiliating ordeal he was putting me through at that moment. I should have been fighting to be free, yet for some reason, I was just sprawled there, accepting the supposed punishment.
Why?
The question pinballed in my head just as his palm struck me again. He hadn’t been joking when he said he wouldn’t be gentle; the latest swat forced my lips to open and release the air I’d been inadvertently holding.
“I want to help you, Erin.” His voice thundered over me as though he were a dark god.
Pushed unceremoniously over his thighs and the edge of the damned chair, I guessed in a strange way, that was exactly what he was. Trapped between the insufferable weight of my indignity and the brunt of his hand, there didn’t seem to be any way I could change his mind.
Perhaps I could have kicked and screamed to get away. I could have tried to rise and fight him off, but I wasn’t an idiot. I’d seen some of his body, and even in the half-light, I had made out significant biceps and pectorals. The impact of those muscles was currently still reverberating around my poor ass, so I, better than most, acknowledged how strong he was.
I’ll never be able to overpower or outrun him.
Resistance is all but useless.
The weight of his free hand at the small of my back warned me just how futile the protest would be.
He would catch me, and then what would happen? My throat dried as yet another smack landed on my poor defenseless ass. If he reacted to me shouting at him with an impromptu spanking, then what would the penalty be for an attempted ‘escape’?
A shiver rushed through me as I contemplated what that meant. The idea that I even had to escape chilled me to my bones, but there I was, face down on his lap and receiving my so-called penance.
“And I will help you.” His voice rumbled through me like the resonance of an electric bass guitar. “But there are rules.”
Rules?
What did he mean by that? A torrent of fresh smacks rained down on me, obliterating the question as my fingers clawed at the wooden floor.
Fuck, this hurts!
Writhing over him, one of my hands rose to try and protect my behind, but the palm pressed against my back caught my wrist and hiked it up toward my shoulder blades.
“Please!” I didn’t know what I’d expected when he’d pulled me down and promised me a spanking, but it hadn’t been pain as intense as that. Whatever I’d done, I didn’t deserve it. “Please, Eli!”
“You can’t be begging again already.” He sighed theatrically, delivering a succession of fast swats while I thrashed over him. “We’re nowhere near done yet, little girl.”
Wait, what?
I stilled in the haze of my discomfort and embarrassment. Had he just called me ‘little girl’?
That couldn’t be right, could it? I was closer to fifty years old than forty, and while I’d once been a slim young thing, there was definitely nothing ‘little’ about me anymore. I was a grown woman with curves in all the right places.
“I can’t hear you.” His hand struck me again, that time focusing the hurt on the place where my ass met my thighs. I inhaled at the change of tack. Somehow, the new location hurt even more. “Are you begging me?”
“No!” I screamed, trying to twist and catch his gaze. In truth, I had been pleading, but I wasn’t going to bloody admit it. “But it hurts!”
“Good.” In the brief moment I caught sight of him, he looked irritatingly smug.
Fucker.
My hands balled into fists as I slumped back over him. I loathed that he had the strength to behave that way, but in the short term, I had no choice but to bear it.
“It’s supposed to hurt, little girl.” His chuckle ratcheted my growing mortified disdain.
“Don’t call me that!” Kicking my boots against the floor, anger ruminated in my blood.
How dare he do this to me?
I hadn’t consented to being assaulted. I didn’t say it was okay to be flung over his lap. Hell, I was the one who’d wanted to leave. He had no right to do anything.
“I’ll call you whatever I choose when you’re being spanked.” He sniggered, as though there was anything even vaguely amusing about the way he was treating me. “It seems you’ve been in need of this for a long time.”
Fuck you!
The words screamed in my head, though I dared not speak them.
Fuck you, and your spanking, and your rules.
I hadn’t signed up for any of it. All I’d done was go hiking with my friend, and if I hadn’t, I’d still have been tucked up in bed at home.
“Oh, God! Just stop!”
I bit down before anything further could escape my lips, closing my eyes as another barrage of hard spanks peppered my vulnerable backside. Tears brimmed, conveying how difficult I was finding the nightmare, but I blinked them away. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing how far he’d pushed me, couldn’t let him know that if it wasn’t for the relative protection of my leggings, I didn’t think I’d have survived.
“First, you revel in the benefits of sharing a bed with me.” He landed an exceptionally sharp spank, temporarily stealing my breath. “You use my body heat and ride my fingers to orgasm, and then you fall asleep before I can even enjoy you in return.”
Shit. Somehow, I knew that little faux pas would return to haunt me.
“I’m sorry about that.” I despised my pleading tone, but I couldn’t hope to get through much more of the onslaught he was delivering. “It wasn’t intentional, I promise.”
“I’m sure.” He rested his palm over my sore backside, my first reprieve since the ordeal had started. “But I can’t say it didn’t sting, little girl.”
There was the odd name he’d contrived for me again, my toes curling at how horrifying it sounded. I wasn’t a child and didn’t appreciate the comparison.
“I’ll make it up to you.”
Wait, what was I doing trying to appease him? Making promises I had no intention of keeping would only end up exploding in my face.
“Really?” He squeezed both of my cheeks in a way he had no right to do, but then, he had no right to do any of it. “And how would you do that?”
Bloody hell, I had no idea how. I’d have said just about anything to get him to stop spanking me and try to regain an ounce of my dignity.
“I don’t know.” My honesty might not have been appreciated, but I had to say something . “What do you want?”
“Sir.” He applied a little more pressure to my hand held in the middle of my back. “You can start by referring to me properly. It’s ‘what do you want, sir?’”
Unable to believe what I was hearing, my brows knitted. He wanted me to call him ‘sir’?
Was he fucking joking?
One swift swat to my backside assured me he was not.
“Okay!” Beaten, I ignored my tears as I ceded. “What do you want, sir ?”
My hand balled into fists at the utter humiliation of the task. Eli was nothing but a tour guide. How dare he demand my deference? I didn’t owe him anything.
“A little more contrition won’t do you any harm.” He tapped my ass lightly, and I could hear the smile in his voice.
“I don’t know what you want me to say!”
Hysteria wavered in my voice as I articulated my desperation. As if the torment of the spanking wasn’t bad enough, I was demonstrating how awful it was just by speaking.
“Sir!” His voice was harsh as his palm left my ass again and landed another unrelenting spank.
“Sir!” I spluttered out the response, willing away my burgeoning headache.
“I want you to tell me how you’re planning to make it up to me.” His tone was softer then, reminding me of the seductive purr he’d employed in bed.
“You want your orgasm.” It was more of a statement than a question. “Sir.”
I added the final word begrudgingly, knowing mollification was my fastest route out of the tribulation, but I hated myself for doing so. I intentionally didn’t dwell on the implications of my words or what that meant for me. On some level, I accepted them, but my stinging ass refused to allow me to linger on the details.
“That would be a start.” Splaying his enormous palm over my behind, his thumb rubbed tiny circles into my leggings. “But I’d like more, little girl.”
More? Squirming over him, I dared not ask what that meant.
“Do you have any suggestions?” He was clearly enjoying himself, his tone relaxed as he stroked me.
“No,” I squeaked. “Sir.”
Lifting my hand, I rubbed at the throb in my temple.
“Shame.” Releasing my left hand, he guided it to the floor before he leaned over me. Relief emanated from my shoulder, and time protracted as his warm body doubled over mine. “I enjoyed making you orgasm, Erin. I don’t think you’d loathe returning the favor.”
My pulse sped up as something light skimmed over the curve of my ass, and based on the fact one of his hands was still holding down my back and the other had grazed along my thigh to the back of my knee, I could only imagine it was his lips.
I held my breath.
He’s kissing me?
After the recent brutality, the sudden show of tenderness made even less sense.
“But it’s okay.” The hand at my knee brushed along the back of my leg. “I understand this has been a lot, so I’ll make you this offer.”
An offer?
The pounding in my head was clouding my ability to think clearly.
“You give me what I want, and not only will the spanking end, but I’ll even promise to make you come even harder than you did last night.”
Make me come? I rasped for breath. Hanging over him in the most ungainly way, the last thing I was thinking about was pleasure.
“What do you want me to do, sir?” As if I couldn’t guess.
“I want you on your knees, begging for my cock.”
My brows knitted at the ignominy of what he described. “Begging?”
“Yes,” he enthused. “And once I’m happy with your effort, you’ll take my cock in your mouth and pleasure me.”
That much I had been expecting. The strange thing was, if he hadn’t flipped me over his lap and put me through the latest test, I’d have happily opted to fellate him myself.
“Okay.” The word was a sigh from my lips.
I wasn’t crazy about the begging part, but perhaps, once I was there and willing to offer him hedonism, he’d forget my pleading and just revel in his supposed victory.
It was worth a shot.
“Okay?” He chuckled at my reticence. “Is that all you have to say?”
“I’ll give you what you want, sir.” I swallowed at the insistent degradation of having to refer to him that way while still being upturned over his thighs. Goodness only knew how I’d ever look him in the eyes again.
“Yes, you will.” Apparently pleased with himself, he patted my rump again. “And two more things...”
Tensing, I groaned. Whatever else his ‘deal’ was, I thought we’d accepted the terms. The idea of throwing in more conditions was perturbing.
“More things?” My nails grazed over the dirty floor.
All the time I remained there with him, caught in the dreadful game of cat and mouse was time I wasn’t tending to Chelle’s needs. Whether my visions of her were a mental delusion or not, she was still my friend, and I needed to know if she was okay.
“Two more.” He spanked me lightly twice to reinforce the point. “I’ll need two more things from you for the pact to stand.”
“But I thought...”
My voice trailed away as I accepted what should have been obvious from my current position. There was no benefit in trying to negotiate. Eli held all the cards, and whatever I did or said was only likely to exacerbate the outcome for me.
“Something you want to say?” His tone was imperious.
“No, sir.” Wilting over him, I couldn’t believe how pathetic I’d become. Spanked and no closer to getting to Chelle, I was utterly demoralized.
“I’ll press on.” His hand stroked over my ass, his fingertips sliding beneath the waistband of my leggings. I froze at the development, unsure what the caress meant but certain he wouldn’t leave me waiting long to find out. “To sweeten the deal, I’ll be delivering ten final spanks.”
“What?” I hadn’t meant to speak, but his audacity was fucking breathtaking. “You said the spanking would be done.”
“It’s done when I say it’s done.” Lifting the waistband from my skin, he ran his fingers along the small of my back. “And I say you need ten more.”
But why?
I managed to hold that plea back, but I sensed new tears, inspired by my frustration. The blowjob was supposed to be in exchange for the end of the spanking, not something offered in addition.
“Furthermore, I’ll deliver these final ten without the protection of your leggings, little girl.”
“Oh, come on!” Contorting my body to see him, I couldn’t hold back the rage swirling in my veins. “No way! None of this was the original deal!”
“This is still the original deal.” Devils danced in his gray gaze as he leaned closer. “And if you can’t remember how to talk to me, we can make it twenty strikes without your leggings.”
“No!” Floundering, I turned back to glance at the floor. Being draped over him was becoming increasingly difficult to tolerate. I wanted it over with as soon as possible. “I’m sorry, sir. I’ll take the ten strikes.”
Once again, I detested the way I succumbed, cringing at my complicity, but equally, I accepted there was no other way. Not in the short term. Not until I could get up and think.
“Yes, you will.” His conceit sent a shiver along my spine.
Eli had demonstrated his domineering side both in the forest and in bed, but the arrogant sense of knowing was something new—something I liked considerably less.
“You’ll take them, and you’ll thank me.”
Thank him?
“Yes, sir.” I couldn’t believe his nerve.
“And before you pleasure me, I want the fire going again, so once your cheeks are reddened, you’ll wait against the wall while I see to that task.”
Nothing he said seemed to make sense anymore.
“Against the wall?” I couldn’t have heard him correctly, but I knew I had.
“Yes.” His laughter reverberated over me, jarring the pounding in my head. “With your nose to the wall, little girl. Once the fire is going, you’ll give me what I want on your knees.”
The purported deal was getting worse by the second.
“That’s a lot, sir.” Self-pity swirled in my despondent tone, reminding us both who had won that twisted exchange.
“It’s the least I deserve.” His tone was curt. “And I will have what I deserve, or I promise you, the repercussions will be much worse.”
What was worse than having to be spanked by a stranger before giving him head in the crappy little cabin I’d once foolishly assumed was a sanctuary was beyond me, but strewn over him, I didn’t have the courage to ask.
I had little choice but to do what he said, little choice but to accept the completely unwarranted physical punishment and endure the ordeal, but as I processed the truth, something hit me. There was a part of me—a tiny and clearly fucked-up facet—that was leaning into his command.
It was a relief not having to think about what came next. I’d never much liked having to lead, but running a business on my own meant there was little choice. But then, from out of nowhere, Eli had blown into my life, much like the snowstorm had fallen from the skies, and in the frenzy of losing James, Miles, and then Chelle, and then finding the cabin, the dynamic between the two of us had shifted. He’d always been in charge of the tour, but from the moment we’d stepped foot in the hut, he’d been in charge of me.
The man humbling me was a bolder, steelier version of the rugged guide I’d met, and I, for my part, was being compelled to rediscover what it was like to let go of the reins. The strangest part of the whole exchange was, for all my honest protests at the way he was treating me, I’d rarely known serenity like the kind that was crashing over me.
I loathed that he could treat me that way, yet at the same time, I sensed myself softening, the same way I’d done when he’d slid his finger into me in bed.
Oh, God.
My rational mind was having trouble comprehending, but deep down, I accepted something I’d never acknowledged before.
It could be sexy to cede.
“I’ll assume your silence is approval.” Flicking the waistband of my leggings back against my skin, he squeezed my left cheek roughly. “And that we’re agreed?”
Was that what we were—in agreement?
Shell-shocked, I still couldn’t decide how any of it had happened, but there I was, bartering sexual favors to the man who’d been paid to look after me.
“And I’ll take that as a yes.” His smug laughter whipped around me as both of his hands moved to the top of my leggings. Holding my breath, I winced as one hard tug forced the fabric down, exposing my ass. “Let’s get this show on the road.”