Warlord's Ward

Penance

I stood beneath the drizzle of warm water that seemed to come from nowhere. Within easy reach of his huge hands.

He could strangle me if he really wanted to. He was looking at me like I was something that had crawled from beneath a rock.

Perhaps I shouldn't have said that.

"I was willing to teach you of the pleasure we could offer each other. But clearly, you're not wise enough to take those lessons without defiance. Fine. Have it your way. You want to be taken roughly because of your acid mouth, I'm certainly willing to oblige." Though he was clearly written with wrath his tone held the same level note it had since I'd first met him.

What have I done?

"It's too late to take your rudeness back now." He said disapprovingly.

"Stay." He commanded. Stepping from the bin shamelessly as he strode across the room to grab a wooden chair.

My stomach dropped. Wondering if he'd sit me down in it and beat me until I learned to watch my mouth.

My aunt and uncle had often said my defiant mouth would get me into more trouble than it was worth to run it.

I think I'm there now.

I watched the way his powerful buttocks flexed, dimpling on the side with each step. He walked barefoot with all the regal airs of the king himself. Barefoot and as lithe as any predator I'd ever seen.

He's a proud creature. I recognized. He doesn't know shame. Self-loathing. Has never felt regret.

I knew in that moment that he was more like an animal. A creature living in the moment. Surviving, fighting, and doing what was necessary to get from one second to the next.

Then how do I come into play? I wondered. Knowing that my presence here was no part of his natural existence.

The answer came instantly. He wants me here. Because I've something he needs.

Though I'd no idea what it could be. That small revelation felt like a tiny flicker of power in my hopelessness.

***

He thudded the chair down forcefully and gave me steady look. "Lay down over it."

"Over it?" I squawked. Voice going a little shrill.

I swallowed nervously.

He made a slitting motion with the edge of his hand to indicate which direction I should pose over the wooden seat.

I nervously stepped out. Sensing better than to defy him in this fine rage he'd worked up. Eying him like I was a cornered animal, I hesitantly walked over and knelt before the chair. Leaning over it until my chest was over the rough wood and I was clutching the edge of the seat. Terrified I knew what was coming.

"No." He shook his head. "Over."

He indicated flipping over with that same slim-fingered hand.

For some reason it struck me in that moment that he had the fine, long hands of a musician.

Or a painter. Not someone so well-suited to killing. Chewing my lip and swallowing the tiny tatters of pride I had left I rolled onto my back on the seat.

Feeling my shoulder blades piercing against the unrelenting wood. I put one arm up to hold the chair back because I felt like it was so narrow, I might roll off. Half of my ass hung off one side of the chair and my legs were forced to be square off it. Knees folded and balancing on my toes.

***

He circled around to near my head and caught a pillow from the window seat. Flinging it so it landed on the floor below my head.

I was so confused. And the nervousness was coiling through me in wild torrents. Making my hands shake and my legs feel unsteady.

What's he going to do to me? To my shock he dropped to his knees on the pillow.

I tipped my head up to look at him with fearful brown eyes.

"Just like that." He praised. Catching my cheeks and lightly urging my head further down along the side of the chair.

Which forced my back to arch and me to scoot further over the side of the chair. Putting my rear fully on it and half my thighs so I hung my head along the side. The top of my forehead braced against the one rung between the chair legs.

"I wanted to teach you things slower because of what you are but you're inciting my temper which is a poor choice." I noticed his hands shook along my face and his eyes were intense looking down at me. "I'm barely containing my monster. And I assure you it is more ferocious than any you've known."

I gave him a worried look.

"Take care in what you say to me, Jade."

***

I thought about saying something insulting but knew I was already in a vulnerable state. Holding the chairback with one arm to keep from rolling off the chair. The other grasping the rung along the front of the chair and my head tilted at an awkward angle.

"Relax." He ordered.

I stiffened, worried where this was going.

"That is the opposite of relaxed." He remarked dryly.

Trying to comply I willed my muscles to ease until my body melted along the chair. More flexible.

"I'm going to enter your mouth." There was warning in his voice that cautioned me against inciting him further.

Against attacking him. My brow furrowed and he leaned up on his knees and I felt the hard rod of him brushing along my breasts.

I closed my eyes to try not to think about what was happening. He reached over me and caressed along my hips. Framing my sides and briefly catching my waist in a grip tight enough I gasped.

"Mmm." He murmured above me. His hands slid further along my body, closer toward him. He took his time feeling my upper ribs and brushing my nipples with his thumbs until they peaked. Straining toward the small touch.

I shifted my thighs to block out the strange heating there as I remembered the movements, he'd taught me as he pressed against my hand. Pushing my finger into me, rhythmically.

"You're beautifully molded." He remarked almost factually. "Like something from a fantasy."

I shifted again and felt his gaze snap to my thighs.

"You want touched" He remarked. "Open your legs for me."