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and a lazy smile graced his angular face as he looked at me.
This was my captor, the man who had taken me so
mercilessly in the wee hours of the night. Who had reveled in
my tears, hurting me until I could no longer cry, but just lie
pinned beneath him, grunting and moaning as he thrust.
I backed up all the way to the wall. And my fearful
recognition made him smile all the more.
"Come to me, infant."
Trembling, I shook my head.
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Judgment
by Denise Hall
His smile hardly faltered. "I could have you taken to the
Assembly Hall and put to the block," he said evenly. "I could
have you whipped until this mountain sings with the sound of
your screams, or I could leave you splayed there all day for
the pleasure of each master's leisure." He beckoned with two
fingers. "Come to me."
My only movement was in my trembling limbs. "You will
anyway."
And he would, too. I just knew it. I could see the truth of it
right there in his face.
Master Boyden ran the length of his belt through his
hands, the leather rasping in his palm. Not far from me, the
Master Doctor shook his head at my nerve, while the guards
just glared.
He came up to me as though a lover, cupping my chin in
his fingers and tilting my face up to his. "You are not afraid of
me?"
If my knees knocked together any harder, I'd have fallen
down. My voice quavered as I lied, "No."
Amusement danced in his black eyes. "Pity. It would have
saved me some time."
Thinking back on this years later, it astounds me that he
did not birch me then and there. Instead he merely tapped
the tip of my nose with his finger, as though he found my
disrespect utterly charming and cute.
"Have them brought to me when you are done," he told
Master Boyden, then he looked at me and that funny half-
smile turned the corners of his mouth again. "What a little
mischief."
48
Judgment
by Denise Hall
In spite of all my defiance, I did not escape the humiliation
of that intimate exam. In fact, the only thing it did for me was
to place me squarely in the minds of the masters as a
trouble-maker, and in the mind of the Mountain Lord as
someone to watch more closely. Neither, as it turned out, was
a good place to covet being.
Examination of my person was completed, my hymen was
pronounced intact, and the five of us were marched to my
captor's personal quarters as requested.
It felt very strange to finally see the places where I had
suffered while blindfolded the night before. My captor's rooms
were very opulent, mostly done in white. The bath was in a
separated area from the bedroom. The chair he had spanked
me upon was still sitting in the middle of the floor with the
hairbrush on the carpet beside it, and I got a good look at my
wood-backed nemesis. Were I a braver girl, I'd have
abandoned my place in line, snatched up that beastly
implement and thrown it past where Tane was standing, onto
the fire that crackled in the stone wall. Had I any inkling of
how soundly that brush and I were to be reacquainted, I
might have tried harder to work up the nerve.
Instead, for my next half-thought-out act of defiance, I
settled for not abasing myself before the Mountain Lord,
Tane. My sisters in suffering must have thought me insane.
They were probably right.
There are three postures suitable for a Judgment female to
take up when in Tane's presence. The first was automatic and
meant dropping to one's knees with hands behind backs and
foreheads pressed low to the floor until permission to rise was
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Judgment
by Denise Hall
given. This was terribly uncomfortable, but any woman foolish
enough not to immediately assume this position in his
presence was immediately rewarded with the most brutal of
whippings.
If permission to rise was granted, then posture number
two was automatically assumed and the humiliation increased
because we were then expected to sit back on our heels,
spreading our knees wide apart, exposing ourselves
completely to his eyes.
If the "honor" was granted to "present" that meant we
must take one hand from behind us, part the folds of our sex,
arching our hips up and out, as if pleading to be taken by
him. Woe be to any female who refused any of these steps.
Woe be to me, for that's exactly what I did. Upon Master
Boyden's command, my companions dropped to their knees
before Tane. As the guards interpreted each instruction, they
clasped their hands in supplication behind them, then bent
until their heads were well down and they saw nothing but
carpet. And there I stood, surrounded by irritated men
dressed all in black and the naked, quaking, huddled forms of
my sisters. I was still afraid, especially when Master Boyden
fixed me with a hardening stare, but I hid it much better than
I had at the medical center.
"Get down on your knees," he bit out sternly.
I fixed my eyes stubbornly on Tane. "I will do nothing for
your pleasure."
Standing at Boyden's side, Tane arched a brow at me
incredulously. "You say that with such determination. How
sad, since that is going to put us at direct odds. I find myself
50
Judgment
by Denise Hall
suddenly just as determined to see you on your knees,
begging for the privilege of pleasuring me." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]