Chapter Eleven Consequences
Chapter Eleven
Consequences
Selena
The dull, comforting roar of the falling water drew her steadily from the welcoming arms of her slumber. Bleary-eyed, she rolled over, reaching for him.
But she got only a handful of the moss.
He’s gone.
Waiting a moment, listening intently for any signs of him nearby, she worked the options. That moment might be her only chance at finding something, anything that might give her a sliver of hope of escape, of finding her crew.
Of beginning the process of pretending what happened was only some fevered, vivid dream.
But it was already a losing battle to try to convince herself she even wanted that.
Rolling slowly, she scanned the cavern for him, not wanting to appear to be making any sudden movements on the off chance he was merely nearby, observing from concealment.
Which would be ironic, considering that was exactly how she’d first seen him, the Gambier Bay’s rovers watching him surreptitiously from the jungle.
But he was nowhere to be found.
The most logical way was the outflow of the river.
She slipped off the mossy rock, dipping below the surface for an instant, then extending her body, swimming underwater as long as her lungs allowed, surfacing away from the rock, her long sidestroke the stealthiest way of moving through the water.
She constantly watched either bank, hyper alert for any signs of him, the vision of his hugely muscled physique, those horned shoulders, the devilishly magnetic visage.
The dark eyes that saw far more than he let on.
That cock.
Thinking about that magnificent cock was the last thing she should have been doing, but even in the cool embrace of the river’s flow, her pussy spasmed at the remembrance of the delicious stretching, the pain and pleasure of opening for his arrogant advance, the way her cunt jealously clutched the girth that seemed on the very edge of fucking her very life away.
She’d never had an orgasm that way. Not ever. Even Langley—who’d been generously endowed himself—had never, ever fucked her anywhere near the way Malcolm had imperiously plundered her body.
Stop it, you fucking idiot! Focus.
First, she needed to get off the goddamned planet. Then, and only then, she could lament the fact the best fuck of her life had come when she’d been essentially taken against her will.
Then she could contend with the fallout of the knowledge that the best fuck of her life might have been because she’d been taken against her will.
But not now.
Letting the gentle current take her along, she bobbed in the water, treading water gently, just enough to guide her toward the far bank as the water passed into the gaping opening.
The temperature instantly lowered, the noise of the flowing water somewhat louder, echoing slightly.
The light was much dimmer there, and for a moment, she feared that if she floated much farther, she might find herself in an area with no light at all.
Finding the bottom, the rocks there slimy, but gripping her soles enough to allow her purchase, she boosted herself up onto the far bank.
It formed a very narrow ledge against one wall of the tunnel, but it was enough to walk along.
The rivulets of water coursing down her skin made her shiver a little, though thankfully, the air inside the tunnel was still comparatively warm, much as the cavern had been.
The tunnel twisted and turned, and now and then, the low amber light seemed to wax and wane, something she wrote off as an illusion caused by the varying patterns of rock along the tunnel walls.
Eventually the river reached a fork, turning away to the left, another tunnel continuing on to the right at roughly a forty-five-degree angle.
Did she follow the water, or chance the alternate tunnel, in the hopes it might lead her back to the surface—or perhaps intersect with the entrance passage the matakee matrons had led her down?
Then you’d be right back in trouble, you idiot.
The alternate tunnel was out. She would follow the river.
But not a hundred meters along, the river narrowed, then seemed to almost vanish, the hollow sound of falling water growing suddenly much louder as she drew near, the tunnel ending in a dead end.
Chills ran down her spine as she beheld the very thing she’d feared. The water cascaded down into another inflow cave, like a cistern in an ancient well system, its inky black maw spelling certain death for anyone caught in that water as it flowed in.
Shit.
She’d have to backtrack and find that other tunnel after all.
But when she walked back, the tunnel was pointing in the wrong direction, at the opposite forty-five-degree angle from when she’d initially encountered it.
“That’s impossible, Selena,” she barked. “It’s just not the same tunnel fork. Pay attention.”
She didn’t know how she could have missed it, but in the low light, it was possible she’d just mistaken this cave for a simple depression in the rock, rather than the exit into another tunnel.
She continued on, following the river back the way it had come, until she came to the funnel fork she remembered.
“Thank God,” she whispered, setting off, this time on dry rock.
As she followed it, careful where she stepped in her bare feet, the tunnel widened and began a slow, subtle upward climb.
A good sign. I hope.
Fifty meters later though, the tunnel dead-ended, reducing to little more than a spider hole in a pile of boulders.
“Fuck.”
She spun around, trying not to panic at the very real possibility she could get lost in the faceless tunnel complex.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Shit!” She scrambled backward, catching her heel on the rocky floor and falling back on her ass. She winced as her sore bottom smacked the unyielding surface.
Malcolm towered over her, seeming to materialize out of the low light. His eyes flickered with a glow, reflecting the displeasure in his voice. “You could have been hurt. What were you thinking walking off without me?”
“That was the whole point—to get away from you.”
“I see I haven’t gotten through to you yet.”
“Fuck you—oh, no, no!”
He scooped her off the floor, one arm wrapped around her waist, the other grasping her legs.
Slinging her up and over, for a split second, she feared he meant to impale her upon the curved horns atop his shoulder.
Instead, he laid her over that shoulder, tucking her hip against the smaller of the two horns there.
Then he carried her out like the proverbial caveman, having bagged a fresh—and very naked—woman to bring back to the campsite and have his way with at his leisure.
Such an image infuriated her, but it did more than that too.
Has to be something in the air here.
Whatever it was, it seemed to keep her arousal on a slow boil, instantly spiraling higher whenever she was in the mere presence of this being.
Alien, you mean.
“You’re going to learn—once and for all—that when I tell you to obey me, you will. You won’t like how you learn your lesson, little human, but there’s nothing for it now. You’re going to learn it the hard way. Remember that this was your choice. Your foolishness that forced my hand.”
It was particularly infuriating to hear him say those words when at that very moment one of his hands—the one not holding her kicking and twisting legs—smacked her upturned bottom briskly.
She yelped and cursed.
Then he did it again.
Having the sense to understand further protest was going to be fruitless, she lay limp, silently lamenting her decision to run off. Perhaps staying and trying to negotiate with him might have been the wiser course of action after all.
But the urge to flee—the same one that had taken her from Langley—had been in control. The same impulse to run from the truth, to avoid confronting a part of her she neither understood nor openly acknowledged.
The part that wanted to stay with Langley, that liked what he did to her.
It was the same traitorous, insane part of her that had whispered to her that she should have stayed with Malcolm, should have knelt at his feet just as Langley so enjoyed.
That little voice that told her submitting, giving in, surrendering her body and her will were what she was born to do.
In what seemed like mere moments, he swept back into the immense cavern.
Kicking and screaming, she was pressed face down into the moss.
This time, he laid her flat across the rock, letting her legs dangle into the water, presenting her ass at the edge of the rock.
The moss’ fragrance amplified for a moment, and she drew in a breath, loving the smell of it.
But she wasn’t given time to savor the wonderful scent, Malcolm’s great hand descending with a vengeance upon her bottom. The cavern filled with the sounds of her spanking, her increasingly shrill cries and curses.
He took each cheek in great, bounding strokes, the fire sinking into her flesh with each one, sending her writhing. She tried to scramble fully onto the rock to try to get away from it, but his hand pinned her down at the middle of her back, driving the breath from her lungs in a loud grunt.
“You will be punished, each and every time you disobey me. You’re going to have a very, very sore bottom, if you keep going at this rate.
” He smacked her with a flurry of several more, lifting both buttocks on brutal blows, the pain digging in still deeper.
She cried out even as he continued talking, his words a low growl.
“Don’t for a moment think I won’t bend you over for another correction just because your bottom is already red and swollen. You misunderstand me badly, if you think that would ever stop me from punishing you, little human.”
Alternating cheeks now, he lifted each one to stretch the skin, exposing the tender creases, then peppering each of them there with repeated searing smacks that had her yelping once again.
Oh, God, it fucking hurts!
Then he stopped, but rather than pause to soothe her burning bottom, comforting her, he flipped her over.
Literally.