Ebon’s shadows pulled her wrists higher until she could barely touch the floor with her toes. Her arms ached, her shoulders tight with the strain of supporting her weight.
“Let you go?” He smiled. “I think not. Besides, we’re having so much fun.”
His smile widened into a grin. “You’re enjoying it too.”
She stared at him in disbelief. “What could possibly make you—”
“No!”
“No…” Could that be true? She couldn’t think straight. His tendrils hadn’t stopped moving, and their constant caress was so distracting. Her whole body felt more alive than she could ever remember.
“You deny it, but I can feel your heart racing. You’re excited.”
“No…”
“You respond to my darkness with your own. I can see it in your eyes.”
He smiled again, as though her denials amused him. Then his tendrils lifted her like she weighed nothing. So many of them that she felt herself fully supported, and though it was a relief on her aching wrists and shoulders, she feared what would come next.
“I warned you to obey me,” Ebon said, turning her until she was horizontal in the air, tendrils wrapped around her legs, her torso, her arms. “But you did not. Now there will be consequences.”
He flicked thin wisps back and forth across her nipples. “And you’re not to lie to me.”
“I didn’t lie!” she shouted, her nipples hardening under the touch of his shadows.
“You denied that this excites you, and that your darkness responds to mine. Both lies. And you just lied again.”
“You’re twisted! Let me go, dammit!” She struggled in his embrace. Was that fear speaking, or anger?
Ebon ignored her protests, his tendrils bringing her closer to him until she was lying across his lap. Shadows still bound her wrists together, her arms stretched out before her. More had looped around her ankles and gripped her legs, preventing her from moving.
It didn’t elude her notice that while her wrists were touching, her legs were held shoulder-width apart. Her ass was raised as if in offering, perfectly centered across his thighs, and she felt the leather of his breeches beneath her hips.
“No! Get off me, you bastard!”
“Such a provocative mouth. I’d gag you, but that would only rob me of the sounds you make.” His hand trailed over her lower back, caressing the curve of her ass. “If you can’t handle your lashings, we will have to find some other way to punish you, won’t we?”
His hand cracked down across her upturned bottom, and she gasped at the shock of it. For a heartbeat, there was nothing but the echo of the sound through his cabin, then the sting arrived, and the heat followed.
Ebon chuckled, the sound one of genuine amusement. “Do you see what I mean?” He caressed the cheek he had spanked with the palm of his hand, a gentle touch. “Bound naked, at my mercy, my intent now apparent to you, and how do you choose to respond?”
His hand landed again, this time on her other cheek, a sharp blow that forced another gasp from her.
“By provoking me further,” he said, answering his own question. And again he spanked her.
Isla struggled, but her wrists and ankles moved not at all, as if they were set in stone. Her legs were similarly held, up to mid-thigh, and all her movements served only to writhe her hips across his lap.
“Mmm, that’s fun to watch.” His hand landed again, and Isla clenched her jaw to muffle the cry that wanted to escape. Her bottom was afire, both cheeks stinging.
“Nothing to say?” he asked as he delivered another smack. “No more smart retorts?” He was alternating cheeks now, his palm perfectly striking each buttock in turn. “Are you learning your place, my little captive?”
“I hate you,” she spat through gritted teeth.
Ebon laughed. “That is an excellent place to start.”
Again and again his hand fell, until the sting gave way to warmth, warmth to heat. It seeped into her, spreading, diffusing, until it seemed to reach deep into her and stir a different kind of heat.
It didn’t help that his tendrils never stopped moving: caressing, squeezing, stroking. Their touch was so delicate that, if there had been only one, she might’ve fought against it. But with so many, they stimulated her skin in a mix of warm and cool sensations, tickling and tantalizing her around her thighs, beneath her belly, lightly down her spine, up between her breasts, with the lightest touch across her aching nipples.
The heat in her ass grew with each strike, each sting intensifying the spreading warmth, and always those damn silken touches as he relentlessly teased and toyed with her. He ran his palm gently over her sore bottom, and Isla couldn’t help it: her gasp turned into a moan.
But it was as if the thought had opened her eyes to her body’s responses. She suddenly recognized the heat for what it was, became acutely aware of the ache between her legs and the swollen sensitivity of her breasts.
Why hadn’t he said anything? Why hadn’t he made some degrading comment?
His hand landed again, pain melding with pleasure as her back arched involuntarily, but this time his touch lingered. Again, his palm caressed her cheek, stroking, soothing. Another moan escaped before she could control it.
“Do you still deny your darkness?” His voice, when it came, was soft and devoid of playfulness. “Answer me.” His hand cracked down, the blow harder than before.
“How unusual for you.” Ebon’s palm trailed across her bottom once more, and she bit her lip to stifle the cry threatening to escape. Instead, to her shame, she let slip a whimper.
“Of course I don’t fucking like this.”
Ebon chuckled, the sound rich with amusement. “Your mouth is so filthy it makes me wonder what else it’s good for.”
Isla felt her body tighten at his words and the image they conjured. She wanted to rub her hips against his leg, or even the hardness she felt pressing up against her. She longed to clench her thighs together, but the bastard was holding them open, and she knew what view that afforded him.
“You say you don’t like this, but I can see how you respond.” It was as if he could read her thoughts.
The shadows holding her legs slipped away, freeing her to move. “Spread your legs, my little captive.”
Isla pushed her thighs together, shaking her head. He could’ve so easily forced her, but he wanted her complicit in her own humiliation. Well, that wasn’t going to happen.
“Spread your legs for me, show me how much your darkness likes mine.”
She knew what he would see if she obeyed, what he had already seen, for how could he have not? But he would have to force her. She would never give him the satisfaction of doing it willingly.
Ebon gave a chuckle and stood so abruptly that she was tipped to the rug at his feet, landing on her side before she could catch herself. The shadows that had held her had vanished as if they had never been there. He stepped over her, moving through the cabin as though he hadn’t just had her writhing across his lap.
“You still haven’t learned to obey,” he said as he went. “No matter. A spanking isn’t comparable to a lashing, and so we will do this again—tomorrow.”
It took a moment for his words to fully sink in, for the realization that she would have to endure this again. “No!”
He turned as he reached the door, looking down at her. “I told you there would be consequences, that you would learn to obey me. We will do this again tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that—until the lesson sinks in.” Then he winked at her. “I would’ve been disappointed if you’d given in too soon.”
Ebon opened the door and stepped through, closing it gently behind him.
Isla was left alone, nothing but his helpless captive—naked, aroused, and thoroughly spanked.
