Page 53 of His to Take

I glanced from him back to it, chewing my lip anxiously. I imagined what I would look like bent over such a thing in the middle of the woods, how much I would be on display for him during what was to come.

“I…”

He lifted a single eyebrow, and I stopped speaking almost instantly.

“Do as you’re told, little girl. This will be much easier for you if you are obedient for me,” he said tenderly.

“Will it hurt?” I whispered fretfully.

“The punishment will sting, yes, but you know I would never hurt you, don’t you?”

“I do know that. I trust you, Ryker,” I murmured, dropping my gaze to the ground. Gooseflesh popped up all over my body and a cold shiver of dread raced down my spine.

“Good,” he answered. He reached out, cupping my face in his palm. I leaned into his touch, not wanting it to end but it eventually did when he pulled away. I sighed and padded over to the log. The thick moss beneath my feet was soft. I pressed my hands against the tree trunk, noticing that he had folded the blanket twice. I climbed over it, thankful for the thick barrier between me and the hard surface of the tree bark beneath.

In a strange way, it was sweet, thoughtful.

The tree supported me lengthwise, as I lay my body down, but it was angled downward so that my head was much lower than my bare backside. My thighs were spread open around the thick trunk, putting my pussy on complete display.

His palm caressed my left cheek.

“I’m going to cut a switch, little girl. You will wait here for me and think about what you did until I return,” he instructed.

My eyes opened wide, terror racing through me as I slowly digested his words. He couldn’t be serious, right?

A switch?

I’d only read one book that mentioned switching. I knew enough to know that it would sting very much and could even break the skin. Anxiously, I lifted my head, watching as he walked the perimeter of the clearing, testing several branches before he settled on one. He used his knife to cut it off. With practiced hands, he trimmed off the excess twigs and leaves still attached to it. When he was finished, he had a long thin branch in his hands. He whipped it in front of him a few times and the whistle it made as it whooshed through the air made me jump a little against the log.

A very real panic started to develop inside me.

“Please, maybe just use your hand this time?” I tried. I pushed up against the log and his palm on my upper back slowly pressed me back down. There would be no escaping this.

“Little girl, you were about to set out all on your own. You were going to cross the bridge by yourself. If you had fallen, I would have had no way of knowing. Even if you had made it across,you could have gotten lost in the woods or attacked by animals. Not to mention what could happen to you if you went back to New Englandia alone! Didn’t you stop to think about what they were willing to do to you? Those so-called guards had orders to KILL you, Naomi!” His voice rose to an actual shout on that last bit. “What would the council do to you to keep that information quiet if you showed up there again? What made you think they would even respond to your call for help? They would more likely leave you here to die in the wilderness. What you intended to do was very dangerous and that needs to be dealt with harshly enough so that nothing like it ever happens again.”

His scolding made me squirm. The more he talked, the more stupid I felt, realizing I had not thought this through at all. However, the longer it went on, the more I realized my nervousness was turning into a strong sense of arousal. He was being so serious, so sincere, and here I was, getting horny again.

I shifted over the tree, knowing that I was wet and that he could probably see it.

Did he like that? Did I?

His hand slid down the length of my spine, settling on my lower back. He pressed down slightly and a part of me was grateful just to feel his touch on my skin. I turned my head and glanced back at him. His eyes caught mine and the warmth I was accustomed to seeing was there once more.

“You were a very naughty girl and I’m going to punish you for it,” he dictated.

He laid the switch on my bottom. It was cool against my skin, and I startled, but he didn’t use it just yet.

“It’s time, my bad girl,” he murmured.

I took a deep breath, trying to prepare myself for what was to come.

It wasn’t enough.

The switch was flexible, whipping across both sides of my bare bottom. The rush as it cut through the air was audible and by the time it hit me, my body had braced itself. The impact stung so much more than I thought it would. It was like my flesh had caught fire, smoldering, and then building into a scalding blaze as the welt started to rise on my skin.

I couldn’t stop the hiss that escaped me. Oh, fuck! It hurt so much!

It was far different from his hand or his belt. That pain was spread out over a greater area, which made it almost duller in a way. Not like this. This was much sharper, the entire sting from the branch all centered in a very thin line across my backside. Before I was ready, he thrashed me with several stinging strokes in quick succession. All the air billowed out of my lungs, and I stopped breathing for a second as the fierce sting took hold once again.

---