Learning to Blush (20 page)

Before she could piece together what was going on, he had her bent over a nearby table, had a hand pressing down on her lower back, and he was whaling the belt down across her jean-covered bottom and thighs.

The pain was… shocking. Okay, the whole circumstance was shocking. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be! She had NEVER seen an adventure movie turn out like this before!

She didn't recall the heroine of any movie getting spanked after a rescue!

“Thorton! Thorton, no!” she shrieked.

He was about ten strokes in when she realized that there were other people in the room. People that weren't dead but who Thorton was very unconcerned about. People who were certainly watching the whole thing—watching her get a damn spanking!

It wasn't fair! Ellie had gotten her spanking in relative privacy; Graham had even seemed embarrassed that Penny might have watched. Now, come Penny's turn, she found herself getting spanked in front of a whole room of strangers, and after being more terrified than she'd ever been in her life!

It figured.

In fact; this wasn't a spanking like Ellie had gotten, no! This was a beating, wasn't it? A beating with a belt!

If Penny ever thought she would get Thorton Hux, all those hopes were dashed. He was so upset with her that he, a fun-loving rebel-type, was actually beating her! She felt tears well up in her eyes and then they quickly fell down her cheeks. She tried to stand up again, but Thorton’s arm kept her from doing anything but kicking her feet.

“Keep your legs down, goddamn it!” he shouted. “I’m going to tan your hide until you forget what color it USED to be! Of all the stupid, brainless, horrible, reckless, disobedient, irresponsible…” His words were punctuated with sharp CRACKS of the leather belt.

She was squealing now, the burning pain never ceasing, yelping every time the belt came down three times on the same spot. Her pain reeled through her sharply, never ceasing, only recharging itself on every smack.

“This isn’t working. Get up,” Thorton hissed, finally letting go of her back.

Penny could barely see him through her tears and she wiped them away with confusion. Was it finally over? She stood up with a sniffle and turned to him, feeling shaken and hurt. “How could you…” She began to ask.

Thorton's firm look hadn't subsided one bit! In fact, he growled, “We’re not even close to done, sweetcheeks. Take those pants down. Right now. I’m gonna send your ass one hell of a message.”

She swallowed, her heart fluttering nervously. He was really trying to hurt her! Her belt stung too much with her pants
on
! “N-no, no! Thorton, please? Please?” she squeaked, and then put her hands on his jacket-covered chest. “I’m so sorry! I’m sorry, okay?”

She looked at him, and for the first time, she realized how tired he looked. If he had gotten any sleep for the last few days, then it hadn’t had any effect. His hair was matted to his forehead with sweat and dirt; grime covered every inch of his body where his skin was exposed.

She realized that he had crawled through Hell for her. No wonder he had lost all sanity!

She stepped back just an inch, swallowing with uncertainty as something within her felt like it was erupting. There was a swelling within her chest that felt like she was going to pop if she didn’t kiss him. There was nothing on this planet she wanted to do more, and she felt like she’d die if she didn’t do it. She had nothing to lose! Her situation certainly couldn’t get any worse.

“Pants, Penn—” he began to repeat.

She didn't let him finish speaking before she jumped up, slung her arms around his neck, and kissed him hard and kissed him
good
. She was so angry with him for beating her so but … but nobody had ever gone through this much for her before. Nobody.

For a split second, she worried he wouldn’t kiss her back. But within the next second, a warm feeling spread out from his lips and where her arms clung around his neck. He groaned under her, and the warmness turned into a burning tingling, then changed into something else.

It was maddening—every muscle in her body tensed with desire, and then she melted as he put his arms around her. Being in his embrace was almost like being
home
. Not home like she had on Earth, but
home
like that place cowboys and sailors in the movies were constantly talking about. It filled her with this amazing feeling of joy and contentment; like filling a belly that had always been empty and starving.

He grunted and pushed her down off of him. He looked down at her and she frowned, suddenly jarred by his expression.

He was still angry—really angry. But there was also hunger in his eyes. Something about it made her cover her naked breasts and look shyly away.

In the next moment, he grabbed her arms and picked her up, quickly set her on the side of the table and wedged himself between her thighs. The hardness of the wood under her bottom rubbed against the swollen flesh of her exposed thighs, but she didn’t whimper until he started to grope her breasts.

She couldn’t feel the fun-loving, teasing, jolly Thorton—that Thorton was long gone. He had been replaced with a madman who was pawing at her like an aggressive animal now. His kisses and nibbles covered her neck and shoulders, and she could feel two very sharp teeth graze and nip at her skin.

She put her hands up, trying to slow him down and gain control.

Was this really going to happen? Was the first time she made love to Thorton going to be on a table around recently shot bodies and a bunch of drunks and prostitutes?

Thorton pushed her hands off of his chest and grabbed her legs and tugged her groin towards his, leaving her flat on her back. He didn’t even bother trying to unbutton her shorts—he just ripped them off at the seams as if the cloth was really papier-mâché.

Yes—this was definitely going to happen. Unless Penny brought him back to sanity! “Thorton, maybe we should—”

“
Do what I say
,” he growled in a voice she could barely recognize as his. “Spread your legs, female!”

She did everything she could, instead, to keep her legs together. Her efforts were useless; he was prying them apart even as she was trying to clench them together. “Thorton! There’re
people
!” she hissed. “We can't do this here! Stop it!”

He didn’t seem to even hear her, he just snapped his gloves off and ran them down each side of her torso.

Suddenly he turned his head, raised his blaster and shot a man who was stepping close to them with a gun in his hand.

Penny shot up into sitting and looped her arms around him, startled and shrieking. Thorton put the gun on the table and then pushed her back down, promptly releasing himself from her mad grasping.

He was acting like nearly being killed, and subsequently killing a man, was only an annoyance. Remaining horrified, his aggravating, firm movements silenced her until all she could do was stare at him with disbelief as he freed his manhood from his trousers. Then she looked down at
it
.

It
—his Greek-God penis. A
cock
, if you will. She had rarely had sex with anyone much over 18, at least not that she remembered, and so this was a shock. Thorton was all man—from the love-trail of hair that led to the bush around his protruding phallus, which had the most perfect mushroom head she'd ever seen—porn movies included— yet was thicker and longer than anything she’d had up inside of her so far.

Her thighs pressed together again in response and she tried to back away from him by wiggling down the table.

He grabbed and pulled at her legs again and then grabbed her mound, sticking his thumb into her wetness. “You’re ready for me, Female,” he said in a very caveman-like way.

Female?
Alright, suddenly Thorton seemed very alien. Or at least he was acting very alien, one who was very determined to fuck the daylights out of her!

She bit her lip as she watched him guide himself to her entrance. She was well-lubricated; it was as if her body had no idea what her eyes were seeing. Her body responded with blissful obedience not to herself, but to Thorton.

Still, she fully contemplated that he was not going to fit into her
easily
. “Thorton, slow down. Please! You don’t want to—”

It was too late; he pulled her body onto his phallus with a firm tug, and then another, and another, until he completely filled her. She pursed her lips together and tried to relax. She actually wanted to cry out as she felt him plunge into her as he grunted and gritted his teeth with what could only be described as animalistic determination.

She wanted to sob and moan with ecstasy at the same time. She didn't like this; she didn't want it to be like this, she didn't want it to be in front of people, or this rough! But her body was responding all on its own, and honestly she was sure her body had never been so aroused. If she wasn’t so terrified, she might have admitted to herself that she loved the feeling of how he was practically riding her, how he took control.

As for her own movements; she didn't have to think. Her body naturally seemed to know how to best please him, how to move and grind against him.

She knew that people were watching every thrust and every groan and every squeak she made, and she tried her best to block out the thought of them. It quickly proved easy enough—her brain soon seemed to take over.

So dominant, so masculine… So perfect. Perfect inside of me. He’ll take care of me. He’s my male. Soon, he’ll release inside of me and then I can have his babies! Perfect, perfect babies!

The thought of him emptying inside of her made her whole body tense and clench down upon his cock. Where those thoughts came from, she wasn’t sure. She had never thought that way before at all. She didn't even think she'd wanted children! The idea had just popped into her head without warning, and it was
not
welcome.

Her mind was beginning to clear, now. She was only eighteen! Too young for babies! Too young for
this
… this
marriage
! “Thorton, Thorton? Don’t cum in me. Don’t do it. Don’t!” she squeaked, and tried to squirm away from his cock, even though she could already see on his face that he was close to the edge. He looked pained, but he firmly held her under him as he continued to take her.

“Don’t, don’t!” she cried, trying more desperately to wiggle out from under him. “Cum on my tummy or something!”

“
Stay still!
” he snapped, his voice sounded deep and enraged as he pulled down on her hips and thrust powerfully into her. He pinned her body down with his and she felt his warm seed gushing inside of her. He roared with both pain and relief, taking his own pleasure at length, completing with little thrusts, before he hunched over her, panting heavily.

As if he suddenly realized he was crushing her with his weight, he got up onto his elbows and looked at her face. His dilated irises shrunk even as she watched, and his expression became more humane. “Did I hurt you?” he asked, panting.

She shook her head timidly, feeling unsure about the answer, her eyes wide with shock and glassy with tears.

He pulled himself out of her and put himself in his pants before he looked around. He made eye contact with no one, but he still exuded confidence.

She sat up on the table, crossing her arms over her bare chest. She looked over at the tables on the far side of the room, at the people who hadn’t left during the shootout, the people that must have been too afraid to go anywhere, or maybe they didn't go anywhere because they were watching the show! They were certainly looking at her, at the mixed juices running down her thigh, at her breasts, at the small bites on her neck. They had witnessed her shame—what happened when she bit off far, far more than she could chew.

She slumped forward miserably. She wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

* * *

Thorton could smell the scent of other males on his female. HIS female… It made him crazy. If he could have killed them again, he would have. When he had walked in and realized what they were trying to do with her… Even without the Union, his rage was enough to kill fifteen people.

He looked at the carnage around them. This was closing in on his number-of-kills-per-minute record, for sure. He looked over at Penny and saw that she was blushing as she tried to cover her beautiful, milky breasts shyly with her hands.

Blushing
? Penny could blush? She
could
feel shame? Why? This whole thing should have
terrified
her, not embarrassed her! When did she have time to feel embarrassed about something? He looked around and realized that everyone he hadn’t killed earlier was now looking at them, wide-eyed.

He didn’t blame them; he would have watched, too, rather than get the hell out. Union matings were something few non-Swarii ever got to see, although they were legendary regarding how animalistic the first mating was, how aggressive. And Penny was avoiding eye contact with them all; hunching forward to try to cover herself more. He zipped up his pants and redid his belt.

Penny definitely was no exhibitionist. He saw a tear slide down her cheeks and his heart wrenched inside his chest. He looked down and saw her shorts were now only tatters—he'd done that, apparently, when her shorts had the nerve to be in his way. Thorton immediately pulled off his jacket, slung it over her shoulders, and pulled it tightly around her, saying gruffly, “Here…”

He helped her slide off of the table. Keeping her close to him as he walked up to Yule’s body, Thorton began searching it for cruiser keys. It didn’t take him long to find them, but when he did and he looked back up at Penny, her shoulders shook and she let out a sob.

It struck him, just then. It wasn't just some red-headed little half-breed that was crying from what had happened, what she’d seen, what had been done to her. No, his MATE was crying. His MATE had just been through hell. Sure, Penny shouldn’t have left the ship in the first place. But he had seen the expression on her face when she had been forced to her knees on the floor, and he knew how frightened she had been. Though, the mating probably hadn't made her feel any better…