Chapter 20

Zazie

As soon as I grabbed that bracelet, the precipice that held it shattered like it was made of sand. A great rumble in the floor let out underneath us, and not a gentle one. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have thought we were going to get run over by a train.

Murtagh and Caspian turned and looked back at me just as the bracelet was in my hands, and their expression was incredulous. I half expected them to ignore the fact that the chamber was collapsing in on itself and scream, ‘What the fuck are you doing?’

They didn’t. Caspian tucked me against his chest and tried to run me the opposite way out of the chamber. Murtagh transformed and continued forth, trying to reach the top of the steps where a very large, uncut diamond sat on a huge bust of ballast.

“Fuck!” I heard Caspian overhead as he leaned over me—he had been hit by a particularly large piece of the ceiling.

I could barely breathe; the amount of dust in the air was overwhelming. I had to pull my shirt up over my nose and mouth, there was still a bunch of shit in my eyes, and the ceiling seemed to be coming down faster than ever.

When I looked to my right and left, it seemed like the floor itself was shifting and moving, burying the treasures with sand and dirt and rubble.

“Move!” Caspian yelled in my ear, trying to drag me out of the room, but I was blind, I had no idea where I was going, and the moving ground was making it impossible to walk.

“Fuck!” he said again and transformed, but as he transformed, he pushed me down on the moving ground. A huge, soft wing laid under me, and then he shielded me with the other, his huge dragon body looming over me as the ceiling came down.

I could barely breathe; the air was hot, and the noise around me was deafening. It sounded like a hurricane was right outside; the rubble still got into my area, dust covered me, almost asphyxiating me. I put my hand over my eyes and another over my head.

Then I felt like I was vibrating out of place with the shaking, and before I knew it, I was falling into the sand beneath Caspian’s wing.

I couldn’t cry out for help; I couldn’t cry out at all. Before I knew it, there was sand and rubble falling everywhere around me, burying me.

I felt like I was being crushed by intense pressure all around me even though the rumbling had stopped.

I couldn’t breathe, but I couldn’t move, couldn’t scratch free for air. There was no surface to go to. In fact, I wasn’t even sure what direction the ‘surface’ was.

And then, all of the sudden, the rubble around me stopped crushing me, was gone completely, and I was lying on the ground, trying to breathe.

Murtagh and Caspian shouted my name, I think. There was sand in my eyes, and my blood sounded like it was rushing through my ears in a strong current, but I felt their arms around me as I tried to cough up dirt so I could take a breath.

I did, and every time I coughed and hacked up what could only be called mud for several minutes, I could breathe more.

“What are you doing?” Caspian asked above my head.

“Getting her a clean cloth, asshole,” was the firm reply. He came behind me, bare chested, and used his torn-off t-shirt to clean all the dust off my face, helping me clean my mouth and nose so that I could breath, and my eyes so I could try opening them.

“Is that better, baby?” Murtagh asked me, probably around the same time he could see my face.

I looked up at him, my eyes burning. He just looked like a blob of color.

“Thanks,” I rasped. I felt like I had just ingested enough dirt to farm potatoes in my stomach.

Caspian shook out his blond hair and a plume of dust went into the air. “I hope that bracelet was worth it!” he growled at me, not at all pleased.

“How was I supposed to know that it had a cave-of-wonders set up?” I asked, harkening back to Aladdin where, admittedly, I might have just pulled an Abu.

I looked up at them, realized that they hadn’t seen any kids’ movies ever, so I explained patiently, “I didn’t know!”

“That’s why we don’t touch! We don’t touch things if we don’t need to touch things! I almost got skewered by a spear not an hour ago because I accidentally touched something I wasn’t supposed to touch!” Caspian immediately cried, infuriated apparently with my faux pas. “You’re smarter than that! What were you thinking?”

“Hey! This bracelet was destined for me!” I said, showing him my wrist where, yes, I had put it on. And I had no plans of taking it off, either. It felt amazing. I swear its sapphires went right to my pussy. Maybe ‘destined’ was too strong; but the sapphires, I felt, had a definite ‘come hither’ look to them.

Neither Murtagh nor Caspian looked very impressed with the bracelet, or with me. Murtagh put his jacket on over his shoulders, his torso exposed to the cold air in the room.

I deflated a little. “Did you get it?” I asked Murtagh, feeling a little silly now.

Murtagh sighed and went back to his leather jacket, picked it up, and put it on his body before pulling something the size of a baseball out of the pocket.

My eyes blinked, since the shape before me looked kinda diamond-like, but it couldn’t be. Because there was no way that diamond was that large. But it was.

It was the largest fucking diamond I had ever seen.

It was gorgeous; glorious. I wanted to swaddle it and put it to sleep in a crib by my bed.

“Can I touch it?” I asked hungrily, sticking out my hand.

“No,” he replied firmly, putting it back in his jacket pocket. Not easily, either. It barely fit in there, he had to turn it several times. His tone was very ‘You’ve been a bad girl, and now no cookies for you.’

And I did feel a little bad. Honestly, I could see where I could have been blamed for the whole treasure chamber falling down. I was the one that lost the game of treasure-hunting Jenga, as it were. But still, it wasn’t like there was a sign saying, Don’t touch! Actually, there probably was, but in an ancient script that only four scholars in the world could read, me not being one of them.

Yet, in my defense, we went into that treasure room to grab something, so I had felt like grabbing things was an okay thing to do.

“Are you alright? Uninjured?” Caspian asked very crisply, like he hoped I was a little bit injured.

Unfortunately for him, I was mostly fine, except for my lungs and eyeballs burning from the two thousand years of dust. And they burned so, so very badly. I felt like I had almost been crushed. I felt like I was definitely going to be looking a little bruised for a few days, but for what had happened, I had come out unscathed. “I’m okay.”

One of them hauled me up to my feet and then picked me up into their arms. I was okay with this; my eyes were watering like crazy, and every sinus I had was now clogged with dust.

“Thank you,” I wheezed.

“You’re not gonna thank me when I get you home. You almost got us flattened. Not to mention—” I heard Murtagh seethe.

“I thought you guys didn’t get killed that easily,” I said, listening to his tone despite that I was still rubbing my hands over my eyes. He had been scared; I could hear his voice rattle.

“You can get killed, Zazie. You have human in you; that makes you much more vulnerable, in ways we can’t foresee, ways we don’t know,” I almost felt him jerk my whole body with upset. “We can’t replace you. And if we can’t trust you to stay safe…” He sighed, not finishing that sentence, which was great, because if he stopped talking, then I felt like I didn’t have to defend myself. Defending myself was becoming very annoying when I was going blind. “And honestly, Caspian and I do need air, so getting trapped under a few feet of debris would probably do the job.”

“Let’s just get her back to our hotel,” Caspian growled from somewhere near us.

It was a very long walk back home, obviously, because it had been a long, hard walk to get there. Murtagh seemed up for it; he didn’t even readjust my weight in his arms with discomfort the whole way.

It was quiet, but that was fine with me, because I still had dirt in my ears, too. Or maybe they’d just gone deaf after all the noise during the collapse. It was hard to say.

“My phone’s broken,” Caspian finally growled.

“Who would you even be calling right now?” Murtagh sighed.

“Lots of people, actually. First Miles, since he’ll be worried after we went down into an underground palace about five hours ago with no word since. It’s the middle of the night, and he’s probably pacing around.”

“How’d he know we were going inside?” Murtagh asked.

“I told him before we did. Mostly in case the whole thing collapsed, and we actually got trapped. You know, like what very nearly happened,” Caspian replied tersely.

“Yeah?” He was quiet for a moment. “I should probably buy a cellphone,” he sighed.

“Yes. You should,” agreed Caspian. “It’s good to keep in constant contact, Murtagh. Especially when you’re with our mate, who apparently has the self-discipline of a two-year-old and is likely to get in trouble for it.”

“I have…” I stopped talking there, because my record with self-discipline was very, very bad. Even according to Zach, and previously my grandmother, it was definitely my greatest weakness. I made a weird sound as I chewed down the words. “I’ll work on it.”

“I would if I were you,” Caspian replied firmly.

I quieted for the extra hour it took to finally walk into our villa, where Miles launched into a tirade, one which was surprisingly full of expletives. “What the fuck happened to you? Couldn’t you have called? I almost had the fucking consulate on the phone, and then I was like, is that even who I should call? Who should I call? More than a text next time with proper directions, please, before you almost kill yourself in some hole out in an unknown city?”

“The good news is we have the diamond,” Murtagh muttered. He set me on my ass and I heard the sink turn on. He leaned me backwards, and I could tell I was lying on a counter of some kind because he said, “Put your head back.”

I did.

He very carefully washed my face and eyes. It was a long time before I was able to see again. My eyes were traumatized.

Miles was giving us shit from somewhere over my head. “Did you roll in dust or something? Oh, Christ! Look at her eyes!”

“Don’t worry, Miles,” Murtagh grumbled as he continued to wash out my eyes. The dust seemed to have settled thickly into places that I didn’t even know that dust could get into. “That’s what it looks like when she’s in a gem fit because she has probably too many karats on her,” he grumbled. “Zazie, take off the bracelet.”

“I don’t really… want to?” I said after a long silence, my voice full of apology. I was going to take off my bracelet and take the Byzantian ring off my finger. I had no business walking around with what was probably a hundred million dollars worth of gems on me.

But it felt so good. I was certain that if I wasn’t wearing it, I’d actually feel like a complete asshole for putting it on in the beginning. Right now, the gems were my friends, like little birds on a princess’s finger in a Disney movie. They had almost made the mountain of shit I had gotten into my eyeballs and lungs tolerable.

Murtagh, with a sort of firm response, grabbed my wrist, pulled the bracelet right off with a very rough tug, and put it somewhere away from me.

“Murtagh, geez!” My voice was whiney, probably unbearably so, but I wasn’t emotionally prepared for that to go. It almost felt like I’d just been pantsed.

Pain was suddenly flowing into my eyeballs. My body thrashed.

“Fuck this!” I said, moving my hands to my eyes and then immediately regretting it, because they were so dirty that as soon as they hit the water, I just got fresh mud in my eyes. “Owww!”

“It’s finally running clear,” Murtagh announced from somewhere over me. He turned off the water and sat me up, then passed me a folded towel.

I crushed the towel into my eyes and then looked over at Murtagh. He was still a little fuzzy, but he was top-to-bottom brown with probably an inch of dust.

“Where’s Caspian?”

“Showering.” He turned his head towards the bedroom, where we could hear him and Miles in a very animated conversation. He turned back to me and pulled me off the counter, leaving a streak of dirt on every inch that I had been lying across. “Which is what you and I are going to do right now.”

I looked around for my bracelet, and as soon as I had it in my hand, he yanked it right back out of it and put it in his pocket before pulling me behind him towards a nearby bathroom.

He did not undress me nicely once inside the bathroom. He turned on the shower, and while that was getting hot, he turned to me and started to yank off my clothing in a manner that was very far from romantic.

“Hey, I feel a little sore, so how about gentle?” I asked after he pulled my shirt over my head like it was on fire.

“You want to know how I feel? I was just pummeled with falling rocks!” he snapped at me, ripping my jeans open and shoving them down my legs.

I felt like a very bad puppy. I stepped out of my jeans and watched as he glared at me while he undressed.

“I’m sorry,” I assured him. I felt very naked. Sure; we’d had sex a few times, he’d seen me naked. But right now… I felt like my nakedness was a vulnerability. “It was an honest mistake.”

He put up his hand like he couldn’t hear me talking any longer. Even his shoulders went up, like the sound of my voice was becoming painful. He took my wrist and pushed me into the shower, following closely behind me.

Mud came out of our hair.

“Honest mistakes,” he said finally in retort, “Are accidentally cutting someone in line, or dropping keys down a drain. We were in a very dangerous place, and you seemed to understand that, and then you just reached over and grabbed something.”

“You grabbed shit from the wall, like the torches. You lit all the lanterns in the place! What if there was an explosion? What if lighting a torch sent a giant boulder chasing after us or some such shit?” I argued.

“We needed to see, for starters. For seconds, torches are normal for these sorts of finds! They used them for centuries. Including when I came to this stupid realm!” He argued back, sluicing the muddy water away from his angry face. “You just grabbed that bauble for no reason.”

“You don’t know what it’s like being me!” I assured him because I didn’t feel like there was no reason. I really wanted that thing. I wanted that diamond, too. It was hard to imagine that it was just sitting in Murtagh’s pocket somewhere on the bathroom floor. So disrespectful. And this was one of the men who wanted children with me? What? Would he leave a baby on the floor?

“We are like you. We’re one hundred percent from Daconia, while you still have human blood. Don’t you think we might feel it more than you? Trust me, we get it. But I had more self-discipline than you did when I was seven,” he assured me firmly. “You don’t even try to control yourself. Now come here,” he said, pulling me under the water and washing my hair out.

He could have been gentler. I didn’t know if he was scrubbing my skin to be thorough or if he was trying to punish me, because his scrubbing felt painful. By the time he turned off the shower, I was clean, but I felt like my skin was scrubbed off head-to-toe.

“I don’t know why you had to scrub that hard,” I pouted as I grabbed a towel from the bar on the wall.

“Because what fell on us was probably an ancient crypt, and I don’t want any bone-dust on you,” he growled, yanking a towel off the wall as well and putting it around his waist.

And now I was grossed out. “Urgh!” I said, cringing.

I tossed the towel aside and got back under the water. I washed myself again as he got out of the shower and got dressed. In fact, I kept scrubbing myself until he came back, fully dressed in clean clothes, and turned off the shower.

I didn’t realize how upset he was until he grabbed my arm and marched me out of the bathroom. Because the diamond—his diamond, the diamond that we did all this shit for that he needed to get back home with—was still in his coat. On the floor. He was leaving it.

Because he wasn’t thinking about diamonds.

He wasn’t thinking about going home.

He was thinking about dealing with me.

And I was in trouble.

Suddenly, I tried to backtrack. I yanked my arm away from him and turned to run, but he snatched my wrist and jerked just hard enough for me to lose my balance. I fell towards him, and he swept me off my feet and carried me while I was kicking and screaming to the bed, and still I fought.

“You and I are going to have a discussion about self-control,” Murtagh began, and I gulped.

“We don’t have to talk about anything. I think we’ve talked just enough!” I tried. For a moment, I escaped his hold, but then he grabbed me again, and somewhere in the scuffle, I lost my towel, which left me completely naked.

“I’ve been gentle with you so far, Zazie-girl, but I think it’s about time you learned what a real punishment at my hand is like,” he warned, and my insides felt like they were suddenly my outsides as my stomach plummeted to the bottom of my toes.

“Listen. I get it. I shouldn’t have grabbed the bracelet. There. End of discussion,” I said, but Murtagh shook his head.

“That’s not how this is going to go, little girl,” he replied, his voice dark and full of painful promises.

A nervous shiver raced down my spine, and I tried to pull away from him again, but the effort was futile. He pulled me between his thighs and my nipples chose that exact moment to harden into tight little points. My clit pulsed like an annoying, goddamn little traitor, and I ignored it the best I could manage.

I was naked, and utterly exposed.

He was fully dressed. The dichotomy between us was so vast that it seemed insurmountable.

This was so not fair.

The fact that I was turned on made it even worse.

I didn’t know why I was even admitting that to myself. I didn’t want to be turned on. This was undoubtably about to culminate in a spanking, so I didn’t understand why my body was reacting this way. I shouldn’t be getting aroused by the fact that Murtagh was about to punish me.

“Murtagh,” I whined.

“You’ll call me sir when you’re about to be punished, little girl,” he replied and immediately my insides clenched. I couldn’t help it.

My thighs tensed, and that was when I realized that I was wet and not just a little wet. The kind of wet where it was dripping down my inner thighs.

This was not good.

Not good at all.

My breathing quickened, and Murtagh leaned forward, his breath hot against the shell of my ear as he whispered, “Answer me properly.”

I gulped before I could stop myself, the sound loud enough for him to hear. Eventually, I managed to open my mouth and mutter the words he wanted.

“Yes, sir.”

“That’s my good girl. Now, tell me in your own words why you’re about to be punished,” he coaxed, and I turned my head, unwilling to say anything at all, at least for now.

I knew why.

I was going to be punished because I’d put us all in danger by ignoring any semblance of self-control and grabbing the bracelet because it was pretty and shiny.

It had been a stupid thing to do, and I should’ve known better.

That didn’t mean I had to say it out loud.

But when his hand landed across my left ass cheek, the crack echoed off the walls of the room, and I jumped, the sting catching me by surprise.

“Don’t make me repeat myself, little girl,” he demanded, and I shuffled back and forth from one foot to the other while I tried to accept how exactly I’d gotten myself into this situation again without really even meaning to.

“Because I grabbed the bracelet,” I muttered.

“And what else?” he coaxed.

“I put us all in danger,” I whispered, feeling smaller and smaller by the second.

“You put yourself in danger, and I cannot allow that,” he continued.

“Can’t I just promise not to do it again?” I tried, knowing full well that it wasn’t going to work, but needing to try anyway.

There was a pregnant pause as he ignored me, and then he asked, “Are you ready for your punishment?”

“No, but that doesn’t matter,” I answered.

“You’re right. It doesn’t.”

His fingers traced the sides of my hips, up and down, and I gasped, fiery tingles of desire racing straight to my clit. I chewed the inside of my cheek.

“Come here,” he said softly. He took my hand and gently pulled me into his lap. I hesitated for a moment, then allowed myself to melt into his embrace. As I settled into his lap, the clean scent of his skin enveloped me—a comforting blend of soap and a hint of something distinctly him, perhaps the faint trace of his cologne. It was calming in a way that made me feel altogether safe.

I could feel his heart beating, a steady and reassuring rhythm against my ear. Each thump seemed to echo softly in the quiet room, syncing momentarily with my own erratic heartbeat.

His breathing was calm, a soothing cadence that brushed against my hair with every exhale. The rise and fall of his chest was a gentle motion, one that I found myself synchronizing with as time seemed to slow around us.

I was confused.

I didn’t know why he was holding me.

I thought he was going to spank me.

Then, he started speaking. “When I saw everything collapse around you, do you know how I felt?”

“Frightened,” I answered, my voice small and soft.

“Very much so, yes, but it was more than that. I was terrified that I might lose you. If it wasn’t for that summoning rune, there was no way I would have gotten you out of the rubble in time.”

I could feel the fear and anxiety in his voice, a slight tremor that sent a shiver down my spine. His words hung in the air for a moment, filling the silence as he continued, “I never want to feel like that again.”

A massive plume of guilt billowed up from the pit of my soul.

I had been reckless.

I hadn’t thought about what could’ve happened.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, unable to find the words to express the full depth of my remorse.

“Now, little girl, why are you about to be punished?”

“Because I put us all in danger,” I responded.

“And because?”

“Because I grabbed the bracelet without asking.”

“Why is that so important, little girl?”

“Because I could have gotten seriously hurt, and you could have lost me.”

“Good girl. You are about to be punished, but you need to know that I love you very much. I’m going to spank you, and it’s going to hurt,” he warned, “But know that I’ll be there to hold you after it’s all over.”

A shiver of fear coursed down my spine, and I drew my lower lip in between my teeth, trying to remain brave even in the face of what was to come.

“It’s okay to be scared,” he murmured.

“I’m not,” I lied.

“You should be,” he warned.

Then he shifted, and I got the bad feeling that our cuddle time was over, and my ass was soon going to be very sore. Without any preamble, he turned my body so that I was lying face down over his thighs. With my stomach pressed against his firm muscles, I drew in a startled breath before I reached back and covered my vulnerable ass.

With ease, he captured my wrists and pinned them behind my back. Then, he eased me forward over one thigh and used the other to scissor my legs into place, effectively pinning mine with only one of his.

He hadn’t used this position before, and I didn’t know what to make of it. A bit tentatively, I tried to kick and squirm, but I hardly moved an inch.

I was trapped, with my bottom bare and vulnerable, about to probably get the hardest spanking of my entire life, and I couldn’t do anything but lie here and take it.

Then, the first swat fell.

It was far harder than I’d expected it to be.

He landed it across the center of my bottom, and the sheer impact of it caused the air to rush from my lungs and my body to stiffen. Then, the sting followed, and it was so intense that all thoughts of anything else immediately fled from my mind.

Another followed, and then another and another.

With the position he had me in, the way the sting seemed to deepen and radiate across my entire bottom became my entire being. He spanked all over my bottom, from the tops of my cheeks all the way down to the underside of my ass where my thighs began, and then he punished a bit lower.

The ones to the backs of my thighs stung the most.

“I want you to remember this, little girl, the next time you think about putting yourself in danger and almost getting yourself killed. I want you to think about how much you scared Caspian and I, and how much sorer your disobedient little ass is going to be if we need to have this discussion again,” he scolded.

And then, the real spanking began.

He started with slow, deliberate spanks that covered every inch of my ass and upper thighs, making sure that he didn’t miss an inch. His big, warm hand fell rhythmically, sending waves of stinging heat across my skin that were so intense they took my breath away with every single swat.

“It hurts!” I wailed.

“It’s supposed to, naughty girl,” he chided, and then without any warning, the spanking got even firmer.

His hand fell quickly, peppering every inch of my backside. I screeched before I could stop myself, but I slammed my lips shut as quickly as I could, vowing to keep quiet and take this as gracefully as I could at least until it was over.

I did.

For a few moments.

It was hard though, the pain radiating across my scalded ass. The stinging agony was like getting stung by a million bees at once. His hand was so broad that it almost covered an entire side of my bottom with one swat, which made each subsequent one that much harder to take.

It was a lot, and it hurt, and I wanted to cry out. I had to do everything in my power to hold back.

But then, one swat landed a bit lower, and the sharp slap was a little bit harder than the others, and a small gasp escaped me despite everything I tried to do to stop it. I tried to bite my lip to keep quiet, but then the spanking somehow got even harder, and a shrill cry fell off my lips.

There was no keeping quiet after that.

He punished me harder, his hand falling a little bit faster. He was spanking me everywhere. My ass. The backs of my thighs. My sit spots.

My entire backside was burning, and I couldn’t make it stop. No matter how hard I tried to kick or squirm or rock my hips to avoid every hard smack, it was no use. He had me thoroughly pinned in place, and there was nothing for me to do other than survive my punishment until he decided it was over.

He stopped, and for a second, I thought that was it, that he was done, and the spanking was over. But then I felt his hands on the backs of my thighs, pulling them apart, and the moment his fingertips skimmed my swollen folds, I knew I was really in trouble.

The flats of his fingers stilled against my pussy, and then his hand lifted up and swatted back down.

Really fucking hard.

“Oh please!” I whispered.

“You don’t like the sting of my hand when it lands on your naughty little cunt, little girl? Is that what I heard just now?”

“No,” I whined.

“That’s a shame. You’re going to feel it anyway,” he warned.

“Please, Murtagh, I learned my lesson,” I pleaded, but my words were met with a loud silence before his hand spanked between my thighs once again.

If I had thought his hand across my ass was bad, a spanking on my pussy was even worse.

The pain was sudden, a stinging sensation that seared through me like scalding fire, as if I had unwittingly brushed against the seething embers of a campfire. It was an all-consuming kind of pain that seemed to singe every nerve across my pussy, leaving me breathless and disoriented. The intensity of it was overwhelming, a merciless inferno that threatened to consume my entire being.

But as quickly as it had flared, the pain began to ebb, replaced by an unexpected and uncontrollable wave of desire. This new sensation flooded me with a different kind of heat, leaving me reeling and breathless.

And then he smacked my pussy with the flats of his fingers once more, much more firmly, the sharp pain so much more intense, and yet the sensation seemed to send a tingling heat all the way through my center, down to the tips of my toes and the roots of my hair.

He spanked me a fourth time, his hand falling a bit lower, slapping against the wetness pooling at the very apex of my thighs. This time, the pain seemed to reverberate through my whole body, causing every nerve ending to tingle and pulse.

He thoroughly spanked my pussy after that, using the flats of his fingers to punish my sensitive flesh until I was on the cusp of tears. They welled in my eyes before I could stop them and spilled down my cheeks.

“Please, sir, no more,” I begged, but instead of listening, he gave my pussy two more hard smacks.

“Your punishment is far from over, little girl.”

“Oh please!” I gasped, the reality of his words crashing over me like a tidal wave.

He wasn’t even close to being done.

He spanked my pussy three more times, and sobs wracked my body. I was crying now, the hot tears streaking down my face and dripping onto the bed beneath me. He didn’t even give me a moment to collect myself. Instead, he spanked my pussy again.

Panic welled up from my center, and my core squeezed tight. Tears dripped down my cheeks.

“I’m so sorry, sir,” I cried. “I promise to be good. Please, stop. My pussy can’t take it.”

“I’ve barely begun to spank your naughty cunt, little girl, and you’re already begging me to stop,” he warned, and I bit my lip, trying to stop myself from crying, but to no avail.

The pain was so much worse when it was focused on such a small area. He wasn’t spanking my pussy as hard as he had been my bottom, but the fact that his hand kept striking my most sensitive flesh soon felt like too much.

He didn’t care. I’d been a very bad girl, and I was getting spanked like one.

His hand rained down over my pussy again and again, punishing the very lips and center that were aching for him. Each stinging smack caused a fresh wave of tears to fall, and soon, I was openly sobbing over his knees.

Finally, the smacks seemed to slow, and then they came to a stop.

His fingers dipped in between the folds of my pussy, and he groaned at what he found.

“Little girl, you’re dripping wet.”

My scalded, swollen folds stung at his light touch, and there wasn’t much I could do to keep my hiss of pain quiet.

“I’m sorry, sir,” I cried.

“I know, little girl. You took the first part of your punishment so very well,” he whispered, and I stiffened, a fresh wave of panic spiraling through me. As it was, I could hardly bring my thighs together because my pussy stung so much, not to mention the raging fire that was still searing across my naked ass.

“First part?”

I felt his nod, and he answered, his voice a bit gruff.

“That’s right, sweetheart. Your punishment is only just beginning. This next part is going to hurt a lot more, but you’re going to come good and hard for me like a naughty girl should.”

“I’ve been punished enough,” I muttered, my lower lip protruding in an admirable pout, or at least I thought so.

“Not nearly enough,” he corrected.

“Why are you doing this to me?” I whined.

“Because you need to learn that actions have consequences. And because I want you to understand that every decision you make matters. I’ve been lenient with you, little girl, but I need you to understand that the next time, I won’t be.”

“Yes, sir,” I pouted.

“Now, I’m going to hold you, and then when you’re ready, you’re going to bend over the bed and ask me to punish your naughty little asshole with my cock,” he said darkly, and a sharp cry escaped my lips.

Without another word, he wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me. In no more than a moment, I was cuddled on his lap. My ass burned when it brushed against his thighs, but it was my pussy that stung the most.

My clit pulsed, and I fucking loathed myself for it.

It was like my mind and my body were at odds. The constant battle between the two was almost more than I could bear, but I knew I didn’t have much of a choice.

My sobs ebbed and my tears slowly dried. He held me close, his chest pressed tightly against my back. His heartbeat thumped steadily, a reassuring rhythm that calmed me as I settled into his embrace. His lips pressed gently against my cheek, a soft kiss that soothed the pain coursing through me.

For a little while, I just enjoyed being held.

The gentle rise and fall of his chest became my anchor, each breath he took a subtle reminder that I wasn’t alone in this vast, often overwhelming world, and that he cared about what happened to me. The longer I thought about potentially losing them both, the guiltier I felt and the more I understood why Murtagh was being so harsh with me in the first place.

I deserved to be punished.

I deserved to have my ass fucked, and I deserved to come like a naughty girl.

When I was finally ready, I slid off his lap and bent over the bed. As my fingers touched the quilt, I shivered, feeling utterly exposed and vulnerable.

“I’m ready for you to punish my asshole, sir.”

“Are you?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” I whispered, nerves and fear and arousal coursing through me like a tornado.

“I’m not going to be gentle,” he warned.

“I know, sir,” I murmured. I covered my face with my hands and hid in the blankets, but the gentle brush of his fingers against my scalded ass brought me right back to the present.

“You should know that I’m going to enjoy this very much, little girl,” he mused, and my heart nearly leapt into the back of my throat.

Behind me, I heard the sound of his belt unbuckling. The gentle swish of the strap sliding through the buckle met my ears, and slowly, he pulled down the zipper of his jeans. I didn’t need to look behind me to know what he was doing. He was freeing his cock, and soon, it was going to fill my asshole, and then he was going to punishment fuck me until I was very sore and very sorry.

I felt the smooth head of his cock at the entrance of my pussy, the heat of it instantly consuming me, and then he was filling me.

With one hard thrust, he was balls deep, and I gasped, my pussy tightening around his length. He stayed there, fully seated inside me, not moving.

And then I heard the soft hiss of a bottle opening.

And then the panic set in.

“Please fuck my pussy, sir. Please don’t punish my asshole,” I tried. I didn’t know why I was whining so much. It was probably because I was scared, and I didn’t know how far this was going to go. I had a feeling that the spanking had only been the beginning, and the true punishment was about to start.

“This is going to happen, little girl. You need to be punished, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”

And with that, the cool liquid of the lube splashed against my ass and his fingers traced my rim, teasing me. Then slowly, one finger slipped inside.

The feeling was intense, a strange fullness that was somehow both painful and pleasurable. At first, the burning stretch took me by surprise, but there was little I could do to stop him as he lubed my poor little hole.

He slipped a second finger inside, stretching me a little, enough to make me cry out.

He wasn’t gentle, just like he’d promised.

His fingers moved quickly, spreading me open, and the sensation was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. It was almost too much, a strange, burning agony that radiated up and down my spine and throughout my body.

Then he pulled his fingers out and replaced them with his cock.

“Fuck,” I groaned.

The thick head of his cock slipped past the tight ring of muscle, the burning sensation intensifying as he pushed himself deeper and deeper inside my tight hole.

I clawed at the bed, trying to get away, but his hands wound around my hips, holding me in place. The deep, searing agony radiated around my asshole, too much for several long moments until it finally began to fade.

It was then that he started moving.

His thrusts were slow and deliberate, giving me time to adjust to the intrusion. A soft groan escaped his lips as he bottomed out, and I couldn’t help the moan that escaped mine.

I bit it back as soon as I was able.

My asshole ached and with every thrust, the pain reignited and burned me anew, but it was the pleasure that followed that ultimately caught me off guard.

“Please,” I gasped.

“You’re doing so well, little girl. Your asshole feels so tight around my cock,” he growled. “Now, are you ready for your punishment fucking to really begin?”

I couldn’t speak, only nod.

It was all the permission he needed.

With a savage growl, he started moving. His hips pistoned faster and harder, each thrust taking my asshole deeply, and it was everything I could do to simply survive.

He pounded into my tight hole, and my panic spiraled anew, pain and pleasure spiraling together into one confusing sensation. Every merciless stroke sinking deep radiated with burning pain. Pinned in place, there was nothing I could do.

I was being punished, and it would only end when he saw fit.

My clit throbbed with need.

He kept fucking me, his movements fast and relentless, his hips snapping with brutal force as his balls slapped my pussy, punishing me in an entirely different way, and then I started to feel myself losing control.

I was about to come.

From getting my ass fucked. Hard.

“Sir, please,” I cried, my voice muffled by the blankets.

“You don’t come until I say, little girl,” he replied.

Desire unfurled within me like a storm, swift and unexpected, sweeping through me with a force that left me breathless. My heart raced, pounding against my ribcage as if trying to escape the sudden inferno that had ignited within me.

Every touch, every breath I took, amplified this burning desire, sending it spiraling out of control. It was as if a dam had burst within me, unleashing a torrent of longing and passion that left me breathless with need.

I couldn’t take it.

“Please! Sir, please,” I begged.

“Come for me, little girl,” he demanded.

And just like that, I was falling.

Pleasure surged through me, overwhelming and intoxicating, a wave of ecstasy that consumed every fiber of my being.

I screamed.

His cock surged in and out of my asshole, hard and fast, sending delicious twinges of pleasure and pain jolting through my body. My head flew up high into the clouds, my passionate need for him a fire that couldn’t be contained.

My orgasm washed over me in powerful waves, wracking my body with bliss and sending shockwaves of ecstasy coursing through every inch of my skin. When it was over, I was left trembling and even more sore than when my fucking began.

He didn’t slow down.

He kept driving into my ass with a ferocious intent, and I soon realized that my ordeal was far from over.

His thrusts were harder, faster, a punishing rhythm that drove me straight towards the edge once more. Every thrust sent a tingle of pleasure and pain racing through my veins, a sweet agony that was both utterly delicious and unendingly excruciating.

I found myself on the edge of orgasm again.

“You may come as often as you like, little girl,” he growled, and my head snapped back.

Oh shit.

I realized something else at that exact moment.

My punishment fucking had hardly even begun.

“No, please, sir, please, no more. I can’t take it,” I whimpered.

“You can, and you will,” he demanded, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Then my orgasm crashed over me.

Waves of blissful pleasure rolled through my body, sending ripples of ecstasy racing through every nerve ending. I gasped, the sensation so intense that it left me reeling. I was falling, flying, drowning in a sea of bliss, and I couldn’t find my way back.

When one orgasm ended, another was already in the wings, waiting for just the right thrust to crash over me, again and again, until I couldn’t tell up from down, left from right.

He fucked my ass until I was exhausted and sore, completely spent and utterly boneless. My muscles trembled, my limbs shaking with the effort of keeping me upright. My eyes were heavy, my body weak, and yet the pleasure was so intense that I didn’t think I could survive any more of it.

And still, the fucking didn’t stop.

And I didn’t stop coming either.

I was dizzy, my head spinning, and I was certain I was about to pass out from the sheer force of the sensations coursing through my body.

He kept fucking my asshole, hard and fast and deep, and then another climax shattered me.

Pain.

Pleasure.

Utter delicious agony.

I came again, and this time, the pain outweighed the pleasure by a landslide. I broke so hard that tears welled in my eyes and then they started falling.

I was no longer capable of words.

I could only feel.

I sobbed through my next orgasm, each wave of ecstasy more punishing than pleasurable, and I keened.

His cock buried deep in my ass, the heat of his body pressed against mine, his hands gripping my hips, his groans and grunts of pleasure filling the air.

I didn’t want to keep coming.

It hurt so much, and the pleasure wasn’t even remotely worth it.

It was far more than I could bear.

This was a punishment fucking, and I truly understood what that meant now. Another orgasm steeped at the edge, and then I was flying over it, my body completely out of my control and fully in his. I sobbed, each fissure of pleasure like a razor blade slicing through my core.

And then, finally, it stopped.

The thrusts slowed, and the pressure built, his breathing becoming labored, and I knew it was only a matter of time.

With one final thrust, his cock surged into my asshole, filling me with his cum. Each spurt was blazing hot, and when I was full of it, he stilled.

“Good girl. That’s my very good girl. You took that so well,” he praised, and my heart swelled even as my body still shook with my cries.

Gently, he pulled out of my ass and flipped me onto my back. He gathered me in his arms and held me close. My body shook with sobs and his hand stroked the back of my hair.

“It’s alright, my good girl. Your punishment is over now,” he whispered, and I curled up into his arms, needing to be close, needing him now more than ever.

“I’m so sorry,” I said softly through my tears.

“I know, sweet girl. Let me hold you now,” he replied, his voice nurturing and caring.

He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close, and I rested my head against his chest.

His heartbeat was steady, a soothing rhythm that calmed my nerves and eased the tension in my body. Eventually, my tears dried, my body stopped trembling, and I closed my eyes.

I fell asleep in his arms.

I slept more soundly than I ever had in my life.