Chapter 9

Zazie

The sudden firm grip of a man’s hands closed around my waist, and he effortlessly hoisted me over his shoulder. The world shifted, and I found myself suspended, my body draped across his like a sack of flour. The unexpected maneuver sent a jolt through me, the sensation both unsettling and strangely thrilling, and a soft whimper escaped me.

“It’ll be alright, little thief,” he whispered, and my heart softened just a little despite the fear racing through me in spades. I recognized Murtagh’s voice and somehow, that made me feel a little safer.

My stomach churned with a mix of terror and exhilaration, the hard contours of his shoulder pressing firmly against my belly. From up here, the air felt different, disorienting even, and I clutched at the fabric of his jacket, my fingers instinctively seeking something to anchor myself. The leather was warm and soft, conditioned by wear, and a part of me found comfort in that.

Then I remembered myself. I wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

Without warning, I twisted and squirmed in an attempt to break free. Tensing my body with all the strength I could muster, I clawed my hands into his back, or at least as much as I could through the leather of his jacket. My heartbeat echoed in my ears as I punched at him and kicked, trying to launch myself clean off his shoulder, but my struggles earned me no ground. Everything I did was in vain.

Utterly fucking useless.

Instead, Murtagh easily held me in place, and all I earned was a swift slap to the ass, which hurt even through the fabric of my jeans and served as a startling reminder of what had happened between us in the past. I swallowed hard and squirmed with a little less muster.

“Let me go!” I demanded.

“No,” he replied.

I tried asking nicely. “…please let me go?”

“Not a chance, little thief. You’re coming with us.”

There was a tiny part of me that wanted to curl into his shoulder, but I willfully ignored that and fully embraced my defiance. I renewed my struggles, trying to knee him hard in the chest, which only earned me another firm swat to the ass, and I yelped in surprise.

I didn’t know why I was surprised that it hurt, maybe because I’d forgotten what it felt like back when I was eighteen, or maybe because I didn’t want to admit that it made me wet every time that I’d thought about it ever since.

“C’mon, Murtagh… Let me down at least,” I moped.

“So you can run as soon as you get the chance? I don’t think so,” Caspian answered, his buttery voice doing strange things to my insides. I swallowed hard and tried to push away the simmering heat in my belly, but it only seemed to percolate and sizzle into an embarrassing ball of need that I wished didn’t exist.

“What do you guys want from me?” Because it was something very specific to have them come to my apartment, let alone chase after me. And putting a hood on me? That was some special fucking effort, right there.

I couldn’t see through the fabric of the dark hood, but I could feel them looking at one another. Murtagh’s hand squeezed a bit tighter around my thigh, and I flinched a little even though it didn’t really hurt.

“My ring, first of all,” Caspian began.

“I’ll give it back right away. Right now, even. It’s in my pocket. It’s all yours. Sorry I took it. It won’t happen again,” I blathered on, but they didn’t answer right away. For a long minute, there was simply silence and darkness and the infernal beat of my heart in my ears, again and again as the blood rushed to my skull.

Murtagh stopped walking and cleared his throat.

“We’re going to take you with us, little thief. You ran from me four years ago and this time, I’m not going to let you go,” Murtagh declared, which only made my heartbeat pound that much faster.

“We’re not going to let you go,” Caspian corrected, and I stiffened over Murtagh’s shoulder. What did the two of them want from me? Other than the ring, my mind was blank.

I had an idea and took the ring out of my pocket. I was going to throw it—they weren’t insane. They wouldn’t let an ancient Byzantine ring get lost in the gutter somewhere.

I put it in my hand, about to throw it, but then I realized that I wasn’t insane, either. It was crazy enough to keep it in my pocket. I could throw that ring like I could throw an infant.

So instead, I just put it on my finger. Instant comfort.

“Okay, what are you going to do with me?” I finally asked, my nervous energy and my defeat mingling themselves together in my tone.

Neither of them answered, which made my fear ramp up tenfold. All sorts of things started running through my head. Maybe they were going to auction me off to the highest bidder, or they were potentially going to keep me prisoner for God knows how long until they felt like I’d paid for my crimes. The possibility of me getting out of this unscathed was looking slimmer and slimmer, but I hoped that I would at least get to keep my life.

Murtagh stepped forward and carried me with him. I tried fighting one more time and he tipped me backwards, just far enough to send me off balance. Flailing, I screeched, but he held my legs firmly in place so that I didn’t smash my face into the ground.

Not smashing your face is a plus…

“Keep it up, Zazie. You’re just making what you have coming that much worse,” Murtagh clipped.

“You can deal with her after me. I’m the one that found her first,” Caspian snarled, and my stomach clenched up so tight that I gasped.

“Why don’t we forget the dealing with me part and skip forward to the letting me go part,” I offered, and their deep answering chuckles sent a shiver of fear straight down my spine to the sensitive little bundle of nerves between my thighs.

Self-consciously, I squeezed my thighs together. Thankfully, my bra was thick enough to hide my hard nips too, and I grimaced with disgust at my own traitorous body. I shouldn’t be reacting like this! How could I have a brother who was a therapist and still be this fucked up?

I had closed my eyes shut tight, wishing that I could just wake up from this weird fucking nightmare already.

The waiting rumble of a car engine met my ears, and they perked up at the sound. Murtagh carried me closer to it, and then he opened what I assumed was the back door. He lifted me off his shoulder like I weighed nothing at all and passed me to Caspian, who was already sitting in the back, or at least I hoped it was him, until I realized that I was lying face down over his knee.

His hard thighs pressed into my stomach, and when I went to push up, his arm easily pinned me down with the subtlest pressure on my lower back.

This wasn’t good. This position told me that I was about to get spanked, and every bit of self-preservation I had left rose to the surface and demanded to be let out. Using the last of my strength, I pushed up in a quick, firm motion, but I didn’t even move an inch. I kicked my legs out, but he easily shifted me so that I lay over one thigh. He swung his other leg over the back of mine, stopping my struggles almost entirely.

I kept trying, but I went nowhere. I was thoroughly pinned, and he didn’t even have to say it. I wasn’t going anywhere, and I knew it.

Then he whipped the hood off from my head, and I blinked as my eyes got used to the light.

I looked around me, and I realized I was in a freakishly large car interior.

Was this a stretch Humvee? Nice touch.

There was a driver in the front seat, but one glance up in that direction alerted me that it was Caspian’s butler. He would be no help to me; he was probably the one in charge of doing Caspian’s most devious shit.

Murtagh came into the roomy backseat and sat across from us, apparently to watch me get my ass handed to me.

“Stop. Don’t do this,” I demanded.

“I don’t think you’re in a position to start making demands, little mouse,” Caspian purred, and I stiffened. I reached backwards and he easily wrapped his strong fingers around my wrist and pinned it behind my back. With a growl, I squirmed once again, determined to fight back, but he was too strong. The size differential between us was too vast, especially in this position.

His fingers curled beneath the hem of my jeans, and I stilled.

“Wait,” I blurted out, not really sure what he was doing and not wanting to find out. The sound of smooth tearing rang into my ear, and my eyes popped open wide. There was definitely something sharp that Caspian had in his hand, and he was destroying my jeans with it. When did he get a knife? Why would he have a knife? Did he plan to use it? Did he plan to use it on me? I didn’t dare move for fear that he would cut me, but I didn’t want to lie there like a wet fish for whatever he had planned for me.

“Don’t,” I breathed.

“If I had known you’d stolen one of my rings yesterday, I would have dragged you off and dealt with you in the way I saw fit right then and there. Instead, I’ve had plenty of time to think about how I would punish you,” he murmured, and my stomach literally flipped inside me. My nerves stole my voice away, and I opened my mouth to say some snappy retort, but nothing came out.

“You’ve more than earned a spanking, little mouse,” he drawled, and the fabric of my jeans slowly parted beneath his blade or whatever he was using to cut through the thick cloth. As the flesh of my panty-clad ass was slowly revealed, shame crept over me like a suffocating shroud. A chill brushed against my skin, and every one of my senses heightened. The sound of the cutting continued, and before long, he pulled the remains of my jeans from my body and tossed them aside.

Bare from the waist down aside from my panties, I shivered. I told myself it was from the chill, but I knew better. I was afraid, and when his fingers slipped beneath the hem of my panties, I stiffened once again. He curled his fingertips and the sharp points of his nails dug into my bottom cheek, which made me cry out in alarm.

Were those claws?

My brain was being irrational. That was ridiculous. Humans didn’t have claws. I tried to rack my brain so that I could remember what his fingers looked like. Had he had pointed nails before? Was he the kind of guy that got his nails done? I mean, more power to him, but that didn’t feel right either.

He gripped me a bit harder and the mental gymnastics my brain did to try to convince me that he didn’t have claws when he most definitely did was deeply unsettling. The pointed ends dug into my flesh, and a deep ache of pain rattled through me as a result.

“Murtagh, help me!”

“You’re going to get what’s coming to you, Zazie. I suggest you be a good girl and maybe he won’t spank you as hard as I will when we get to New Orleans,” Murtagh answered, and I froze in place, only for Caspian to take my panties in his grasp and yank them down. There was no ceremony to it. One moment they were up and the next they were down, and there was nothing I could do about it, even though I tried. I attempted to press my hand backwards, but he still had it pinned easily behind my back.

Fuck me. New Orleans?

That was when I realized that the car was moving. The driver was driving down the streets of Baton Rouge, fully intent on driving the hour and a half to New Orleans for whatever they had planned for me, and it dawned on me that I had to stop this before it went too far.

“You can’t take me to New Orleans,” I said as if they’d told me they were taking me to the moon, and Caspian chuckled.

“You’re awfully demanding for a girl about to get her bare ass spanked bright red,” he replied, and I gulped so loud that the two of them probably heard it.

My face flushed. This was unfair. People shouldn’t have to deal with shit like this! “I’m going to kill you both,” I warned them, fury pouring through my veins in an instant.

“I’m sure you will,” Murtagh laughed, and it made my fury immediately turn into shame. He was right; not only could I not kill them, but the chances of me even giving them what could be regarded as a boo-boo seemed far-fetched.

“Why don’t you just let me go and have me arrested or something?” I languished.

“Because I’m going to enjoy this far more than a court hearing,” Caspian murmured, and I threw in one last-ditch effort to fight my way out of this position and utterly failed once again. I wasn’t strong enough, and I was at such a disadvantage that getting free was simply a pipe dream.

The futility of my efforts wasn’t lost on me, just like it probably wasn’t on him.

My bare bottom tensed, the chilly air wafting over it unintentionally making me shiver. That same air brushed against my bare pussy, and I was horrified to realize that I was wet, and not just a little wet, but soaked.

Something was truly wrong with me.

“Please don’t,” I whined, as my helplessness finally settled on my shoulders. My muscles stiffened and my heart hammered in my chest, but Caspian’s hand inevitably pressed against my bare ass, and I fully realized that I was really about to get spanked for a second time in my life, and there wasn’t a single thing I could do about it.

“You stole from me, didn’t you, little mouse?” Caspian said quietly, and my blood rushed through my head like a raging river.

“Yes,” I answered, realizing that there was nothing else to say now. I could deny it, but I was wearing the ring and was honestly wishing I’d stolen them all, since my punishment couldn’t possibly have been any worse. They would have felt good in my hand right about now. He had my hand pulled back and was probably looking right at it, completely certain of my guilt. A judge or jury was not needed in this scenario, and I definitely deserved having my bare bottom spanked like a naughty little girl for getting caught with my hand in the cookie jar.

“Yes, what,” he corrected, his buttery voice taking on a hardened edge.

Oh, he was one of those Alpha-guys. Murtagh and Caspian must have been cut from the same cloth. “Yes, sir,” I muttered.

“Such a pouty girl,” he observed, and my cheeks flushed with heat. I wished a black hole would open up beneath me, swallow me whole, and deliver me somewhere safe with a fully functional pair of pants covering my naked ass.

I wasn’t that lucky.

Instead, Caspian’s broad palm settled on my left cheek, and I noticed that his nails were no longer as long or as sharp as they were before, which was weird, but maybe it was a little part of the crazy still lingering inside my head and taking over my body.

You can survive this, whatever this is.

“You can’t do this. You can’t just kidnap me, spank me, and take me wherever you want. People are going to ask questions,” I tried one last time, and I didn’t even have to look to see Caspian shake his head.

“People will believe anything with the right amount of money attached. That’s something that will never change, no matter how much time goes by or what century it is,” Caspian replied.

What did that mean?

“That’s true enough,” Murtagh chuckled from his seat. I gritted my teeth as Caspian’s hand tightened on my left cheek.

“Just let me go, and I won’t tell anyone about this,” I whispered.

“Enough, little mouse. I think it’s time for your punishment to begin,” Caspian said darkly, and every muscle in my body tensed in anticipation of that very first slap.

“Please,” I tried one last time, but his palm inevitably left my cheek and came back down firmly enough to catch me by surprise.

Fuck. I had totally forgotten about how loud it was. The butler/driver could definitely also hear what was going on, and that made everything so much worse. I slapped my free hand over my mouth, desperate to keep quiet for the whole thing.

I would be strong and independent.

Go women!

His hand fell a second time, and the infernal sting crept back in like a sudden summer rain. It hit me by surprise, and I remembered something else.

Spankings hurt and I didn’t know how I’d survived that first one, but Caspian’s hand stung just as much as Murtagh’s had, if not more. How was I going to survive again?

I lifted my head. It was dark outside, and another thought hit me. What if the windows weren’t blacked out? What if the people we were driving by on the street outside could see this happening, could see my bare bottom turning pink from his hand?

At the right angle, I could look in the window and see my reflection, and the twin peaks of my ass were staring straight back at me like a pale glowing target.

I didn’t like that view; I felt it wasn’t flattering to say the least, and it sure as fuck didn’t make me feel any better. I didn’t want to be a fly on my own wall. I didn’t want to be here. I wanted to be anywhere else. Literally anywhere.

Caspian’s hand fell a third time, and the fact that this was all real suddenly hit me. This wasn’t some story in some of those smutty romance novels I read from time to time. This wasn’t a scene in a movie. I was really getting my ass spanked in the back of a moving car, and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

The worst part of it all was that I knew I deserved it. I shouldn’t have stolen the ring, but I couldn’t help myself and if I hadn’t, I probably wouldn’t even be in this position in the first place.

“No!” I yelped, but his hand fell again, and the infernal sting crept up from nowhere and caught me full on. There was nothing about this that was gentle, and that was quickly becoming apparent with every hard slap of his palm against my bare backside that followed.

“There’s nothing you can do now except take your punishment like a good girl,” Caspian answered, and my heart jumped straight into my throat. I couldn’t even get into a position to bite him. My chin was firmly pressed against the warm leather seats, and I noted that they must be heated too, which wouldn’t help me much at all after this was all over.

“Stop being psychopathic!” I hissed, yelping a little at a particular firm strike that caught the lower curve of my backside. The stinging pain radiated through my core, settling deep within me, and shooting straight down to my clit. I tried to ignore the persistent pulse between my legs, but as his hand spanked me relentlessly, it simply grew stronger and even more tenacious. It was maddening. “Be reasonable!”

“Oh, I am, little mouse. I was going to use a rather elegantly carved wooden paddle on this tight little ass, but I think my hand will suffice for what I have in mind for you,” he answered, and he swatted my bottom so hard that I couldn’t help but squeak out loud. I bit down on my lower lip, trying to keep my vow of silence, but it was becoming more and more difficult the longer this went on.

A fucking wooden paddle? I should be over the moon that he was using his hand. A part of me felt like I should thank him for that, but there was no time to say anything at all because my spanking continued and words failed me. It wasn’t like they mattered. They weren’t going to change anything.

Caspian spanked every inch of my ass, from the upper swells of my cheeks to the place where my ass met my thighs and then lower still, down onto the backs of my legs. Those stung the most, and I tried to take them quietly. I tried to be stoic, but it was as if he was actively fighting against my vow of silence. I bit the inside of my cheek and tried to press my hand back so I could block his, but his hold on my wrist was firm.

For the second time in my life, I realized how little control I had over my own body, that two men had come in, bared me, and spanked me like a naughty little girl. One of them had fucked me, and I wasn’t certain about Caspian yet, but I had a feeling that this was going to end up with his cock inside me, too.

Or maybe that was what I was hoping. I wasn’t sure. Maybe my fears were taking over my brain and telling me that I wanted this when that was absolute insanity.

Who in their right mind would want their bare bottom spanked bright red?

“By the time I’m through with this bare ass, you’re going to promise me that you’re never going to steal from the two of us again,” Caspian scolded, and I rocked my hips back and forth, or at least as much as I was able.

My ass was scalded. Caspian’s stinging palm was no joke. It stung something fierce. Every inch of my backside was on fire. I felt the burning agony straight to my bones, and he was showing no signs of stopping. If anything, the spanking was getting that much harder, and I didn’t know how much I could take.

What I did know was that wasn’t up to me to decide.

His hand bit into my backside, time and time again, and then he started to focus on the backs of my thighs. I tried to take each spank gracefully, but the sting was becoming increasingly overwhelming, and I couldn’t do a damn thing except lie there and take it and fucking survive.

My eyes watered at a particularly hard strike, and I bit back a cry, but I could only do so much. Soon enough, my whines and cries were echoing throughout the car. I no longer cared that Murtagh was watching or that the driver was listening or that people in cars around us might possibly be able to see my spanking.

All I wanted was for it to end.

My panic surged, and I hoped it would be over soon, but I knew that Caspian was going to spank me as hard as he wanted, for as long as he wanted.

“Please,” I begged, my voice shaking with unshed emotion. I was so close to tears that I was blinking them away at this point. I wailed out loud.

“Have you learned your lesson, Zazie?” Caspian pressed.

“I’ll never steal from you ever again,” I whimpered.

“Make me a promise, little mouse.”

“I promise I’ll never steal from you again,” I corrected, knowing full well I would have bargained away my first-born child just to end the spanking before I burst into tears right there over his knee.

“Good, because next time, it won’t be a spanking with my hand. It will be with the paddle I brought especially for you,” Caspian declared, and my pussy clenched hard with fearful arousal.

“Yes, sir,” I whispered. I stiffened when his hand pressed against my scalded cheeks, wary of more spanking, but he breathed in deep instead.

“I’d recognize the scent of her arousal anywhere,” Murtagh murmured, and the blush that had been painting my cheeks before turned from a rosy pink to a bright cherry red, or at least that’s what I imagined it looked like, because I was blushing so hard now that it hurt my face.

“Oh, I know. I bet even if we didn’t have the lights on, I’d be able to see it glint at me. She’s exceptionally wet,” Caspian confirmed, and I moaned out loud in embarrassment.

Then he slipped a single digit in between my legs and let it settle right on top of my clit. My body froze, and my needy bundle of nerves pulsed beneath his touch. He stayed still and I tried to too, but before I knew what was happening, my hips bucked against his fingertip, and an electrifying bolt of pleasure spiked through me that was so intense it took my breath away.

“Such a needy little pussy,” Caspian said, and Murtagh chuckled.

Still, he didn’t move his hand. He just kept it there.

“I have an idea,” Caspian mused, and my stomach clenched tight with nervousness. This didn’t sound like a good idea to me, whatever it was.

“Do you now?” Murtagh grunted.

“You’re going to make yourself come on my fingers, little mouse, and you’re going to do it before we make it to my mansion outside New Orleans. If not, I’ll let Murtagh borrow my paddle, and you’ll find out what that feels like before you take both our cocks,” he warned, and my stomach very clearly fell straight down to my toes and right out of me.

“I don’t…” I began, but Caspian cut me off.

“I can feel your clit throbbing underneath my fingers, little mouse. Don’t lie to me,” he said, and just to spite me, my clit throbbed that much harder. Without meaning to, my hips rocked again.

“She makes such pretty sounds when she comes,” Murtagh added, and waves of shame barreled through me without rhyme or reason. I closed my eyes, taken back to that time in his office, and my hips bucked again, pressing my clit against the pad of Caspian’s finger and causing another surge of pleasure to take me by storm.

The drive went on and I watched the minutes tick by on the clock. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as desire radiated through me, and as much as I tried to fight it, it simply grew more and more intense until every nerve in my body was crawling with it.

My hips bucked again, and my pleasure rocketed through me.

“Pass me the paddle. It seems like she may need some motivation to do as she’s told, Murtagh,” Caspian directed, and I cried out loud. I struggled, but then the paddle was in his hand and it struck my bare backside two times in quick succession. The biting sting was far, far more intense than Caspian’s hand.

I had no doubt a spanking with that would bring me to tears.

“Caspian’s being gentle, little thief. You know that I’ll spank you much harder and much longer than that. I’d like to see those pretty little tears dripping down your cheeks,” Murtagh threatened.

“Come for us, Zazie. Come hard, and maybe we’ll just reward you with our cocks when we get home for being such a good little girl,” Caspian growled, teasing me with slow little circles over my clit.

I stilled for a moment, but not for long. Eventually, my body took over, and then my hips were writhing, and before I knew what was happening, my orgasm crashed into me with the power of a tidal wave. In seconds, my screams were echoing inside the car, and my bottom cheeks were tensing, really every muscle in my body was tightening, and then I was soaring through the exquisite bliss of orgasm far before I was ready for it.

“That’s it, little mouse. I like hearing you scream as you come for me,” Caspian demanded, and my climax soared that much higher. I ground my clit against his fingers, breathlessly losing myself in my pleasure.

“Good girl,” Murtagh growled, and my orgasm compounded on itself. The air rushed all around me, and the whole world centered on the pleasure pulsing through me.

I came really hard for a girl who had just gotten her bottom spanked bright red in the back of a car from the men who had just found and kidnapped her and were taking her God-Knows-Where for God-Knows-What.

Caspian pulled his hand away, and I hid my face in my hands after he finally released the other, too caught up in my shame to think of anything else.

“You’re ours, little mouse. You’ll realize that soon enough,” Caspian declared.

“Ours,” Murtagh growled.

Oh, shit.