Page 16 of Commander's Slave
All the color drained from her face and she swallowed hard.
“Do you want a bare bottom spanking?”
“No, Master.” She inhaled a deep breath. “My name is Betsy Carson.”
Chapter 8
Edek’s body stiffened.“Betsy Carson. The American president’s daughter?”
“Yes. M-Master.” Edek’s methods of coercion had taken Betsy by surprise. She’d expected to be beaten brutally. Punched. Kicked. Whipped. Shocked. Expecting such treatment, she’d vowed to keep silent and withhold her name, believing that revealing her name would only lead to more brutality, possibly even death. Except he’d spanked her instead and promised no harm would come to her. He’d also promised he would not return her to the slave block.
She sensed Edek was a man of his word.
Even before he’d threatened to bare her bottom, she’d resolved to take a chance. To tell her master the truth.
She reminded herself that Draken trusted him enough to purchase her under his name. If Draken trusted him, maybe she could too.
“I thought the story about Ambassador Merokk taking an interest in a cousin of yours to be strange. Especially since it was reportedafterthe wedding ceremony in which you supposedly married him.” Interest lit in Edek’s dark eyes.
“I ran away and hid in one of the refugee camps that sprang up. Eventually someone recognized me and I was turned over. I don’t know the entire story, but Ambassador Merokk wished to remain married to the imposter woman my government provided him with, but Kall authorities on Earth still wanted to see me punished for breaking the treaty. Except they had to save face so it didn’t look like a Kall warrior had been given an imposter bride—that knowledge couldn’t become widely known. It needed to appear as if it had been Merokk’s choice all along. So, it was announced that I’d been in league with human rebels, and I was charged with sabotage and conspiracy, and a few other things. The only crime I was technically guilty of was breaking the treaty between our people when I ran off, but I was not charged for that.” She shifted on his lap, trying to find a comfortable position. She longed to rub the sting out of her punished bottom.
“So they sent you to the slave block in Sumlin District?”
“Yes, Master.”
Warmth glimmered in his eyes. Kindness. Betsy’s heart contracted and she started shaking again. No one here had spoken to her at length or stared at her that way except for Draken. She wrapped her arms around her center and wished he would allow her to look down, but his hold on her chin remained firm. His eyes bored into hers.
“Are you cold? I can increase the fire in the hearth.”
“No, Master. I-I’m not cold. But thank you, though.”
“Then you’re frightened, and needlessly. I gave you my word no harm will come to you. You needn’t fear for your life.”
“Truly?” she asked.
Edek’s expression softened further. “Truly, Betsy.”
A weight of worry lifted from her shoulders. She hadn’t felt so light since before the war, even though she was a slave now.
Her face crumpled and she sniffled. No one had called her by her name in months—not since the trial—and only Layla had spoken it without hatred.
Edek, though he had many reasons to hate her kind, wasn’t looking at her with hatred, nor was he speaking her name with disdain. She’d expected him to treat her with contempt.
If anything, he seemed in awe of her. Up and down his eyes went, inspecting her from head to toe, and pleasure flickered in his expression as he touched her hair.
“Thank you, Master. I confess you are not what I expected.”
A smile tugged at his lips. “Is that a compliment?”
Her heart beat faster. “Yes, Master.”
Why did his nearness make her pulse quicken and her breath come in short, shallow gasps?
Surely she couldn’t be attracted to him.
The very idea was unthinkable.
Just minutes ago, downstairs in the dining room, she had feared for her life. She’d thought he meant to inflict serious harm upon her, maybe even kill her in a fit of rage. Yet he hadn’t hurt her. Not really. In the grand scheme of possible punishments, a quick spanking delivered over her clothes wasn’t that bad. If anything, it was more humiliating than painful.
