SurrendersMischief (19 page)

“I will take it.”

“You cannot. I told Bryta you were not involved.”

“You should not have done that.” He slashed the air with his
hand. “I am your commander.”

“And I am a warrior. I knew the risk I took. Regaining
control of Nexar is worth any punishment.”

“Is it worth your relationship with Bryta?”

A frown creased his friend’s brow. “What do you mean?”

“Will you be able to forgive her a public punishment?”

Garth’s hands fisted until the knuckles turned white. “I do
not know.”

* * * * *

“Call Bryta off.”

The door to his former office slammed into the wall and
rebounded. He caught it in one hand without looking and shut and locked it. He
was pleased to see Riana jump at the explosive sound.

She looked perplexed. A slight frown creased her delicate
brow. “What do you mean? Call Bryta off what?”

“Don’t.” He stalked across the plush rug and planted both
hands on the desk. “Play.” He leaned in until he was looming over her. “With
me.” He enjoyed the flash of feminine fear in her green eyes.

She straightened slowly, her fingers gripping the edge of
the desk. She licked her lips. “I’m not playing with you. What are you talking
about?”

“Gaith and his public punishment.” Was that surprise in her
eyes? He narrowed his own. “Make her call it off.”

“The decision is between Bryta and Gaith.”

“You can stop it.”

The green eyes suddenly gleamed like fireice. “I seem to
remember a similar conversation between us. I also seem to remember punishment
in the garden.”

“Don’t obfuscate this conversation.” He leaned in even
closer. Close enough that he could smell the floral scent of her perfume, and
the underlying scent of woman. Despite his anger, his cock reacted. “I demand
you call a halt to the punishment.”

She stood and leaned in until they were nose to nose. “You
demand?” she inquired, her voice very soft. “You do not have the right to
demand anything.” A smile curved her lips, but there was no amusement in her
eyes. Much to his disgust, a spark of caution flared to life. If he had learned
one thing over these past weeks, it was that her will was every bit as strong
as his. And that included the will to punish him for what she considered
infractions.

“We are private.”

The non-sequitur threw him. “What?”

“Do you need a reminder of the rules?” she purred.

Blood pounded in his temples. For a moment, Darias actually
thought in his fury he might burst a vein. “We are not in the bedchamber,” he
grated out.

One eyebrow arched. “Did I confine those rules to our
bedchamber?”

“Yes! You sai—” Abruptly, he recalled her exact words. Fuck.
She said when they were private, not when they were in the bedchamber. He
ground his back teeth together until his jaws hurt.

“What is rule number one?” Straightening, she crossed her
arms under her breasts. His wayward cock didn’t seem to recognize the danger in
her stance.

That he’d be naked whenever they were private. Darias turned
on his heel. Krel if he’d play this particular game. His hand was on the door
latch when she spoke.

“I do not give you permission to leave.”

His grip tightened until the crystal and metal bit into his
palm. He considered unlocking the door and leaving anyway before giving an
imperceptible shake of his head. He still had to get her agreement to stop
Gaith’s punishment. If that meant he had to abase himself, so be it.

The decision made, he walked back to the desk. Still, he
couldn’t help the tension in his shoulders, or the shudder in the pit of his
stomach. His gaze went to the window behind Riana, its shutters thrown wide.

“What is rule number one?”

His gaze shifted from the unshuttered window, and its
implication, to the icy-green gaze of the woman behind the desk. Displeasure
radiated from her slim form.

Was it her intention that someone see his humiliation?

He swallowed, a mixture of apprehension, fury and lust
swirling in his blood. “Whenever we are private I am to be naked.”

She again lifted that brow. The question it asked was
explicit—why was he still wearing clothes?

The turbulent mixture of emotions caused a faint tremor in
his fingers as they went to the fastenings of his clothes. That small,
betraying motion stiffened his resolve as nothing else could. Defiant, his gaze
fixed on hers, he stripped both the harness and tunic over his head and tossed
them to the floor. His boots and breeches followed. Completely naked, he stood
in front of her and gave a mocking half bow.

“Mistress, I bow to your wishes.”

“I begin to think I am too lenient. I gave you only three
rules to remember. After forgiving your lapse on rule one, how do you repay me?
You flaunt your defiance of the other two rules. Perhaps you need a reminder?”
There was an underlying note of real anger in the soft tones as she massaged
the spot between her breasts. As much as he ached to test her, to see how far
he could push her before her control broke, Darias knew he’d have to make
amends or he’d have no chance of getting her to intercede on Gaith’s behalf.

His cock jerked in disappointment. He hid a grimace. What
was it about the blasted woman? She’d loosed something in him that embarrassed
him just to think of it. The orders, the rules, the—heat crawled up his
neck—bare-butt spankings, he resented them with a fury that burned his gut,
even as they aroused a need that scorched through each and every nerve ending.
He was a warrior, leader of one of the most prosperous country-states on the
world. He was born to rule, to dominate everything and everyone within his
sphere of power.

Except Riana.

With an ease that was almost humiliating, she commanded his
obedience and punished disobedience with a swiftness and thoroughness that
brought a reluctant respect. Resentment burned to ashes under the fire that
heated his blood and pooled in his groin every time she compelled his obedience
or laid him across her lap.

Or when she fucked him, breaking every Nexarian rule or
tradition there was.

He couldn’t understand what had happened to him. Nothing was
the same since he captured her.

Slowly, he clasped his hands behind his neck and widened his
stance.

He had to make her listen.

“Mistress, may I speak?” His heart pounded and his cock
throbbed when she trailed the slender tip of one finger from her full bottom
lip, over the rounded curve of that stubborn chin, to the deep cleft between
her breasts.

She came around the corner of the desk until she was
standing beside him.

Darias kept his eyes glued on the sunlit patch of garden
outside the huge double window.

She reached out and cupped his balls.

His penis jumped and a bead of fluid glistened on the
bulbous tip.

“Your body doesn’t lie. It knows who its Mistress is.” She
tightened her grip.

Darias grunted.

“Unlike your mind.”

Her same hand caught the bead of come before it could fall
to the floor. Unable to help himself, he followed that glistening drop as she
brought it to her lips. The tip of her tongue came out and tasted it.

He groaned, wanting to draw that finger into his mouth.
Nibble on it. Suck on it. Until her feminine cream ran down her thighs.

“You may speak.”

He blinked, unable to switch
chelans
that fast. He
reran her words through his head. Struggling for control, he cleared his
throat.

“Um, Bryta intends to punish Gaith in the Great Hall
tonight. I ask that you intervene and get her to change her mind.”

“Why should I do that?” She traced idle circles on his
flank, making it nigh impossible to catch a thought and hold it.

“Because the blame is mine.”

The slow, sensual caress paused for the barest moment before
continuing. “And why is that?”

He clenched his buttocks together when her touch feathered
the crease separating his haunches. “He was following my orders.”

The tips of her nails dug into his lower spine. “And? What
orders was he following?”

His hands flexed once, the only sign of pain he allowed
himself. “I’m sure Bryta has already told you.”

Silence.

He reminded himself that he needed her cooperation. “I told
him to hack into the computer system and upload a stealth program.”

Darias could feel the weight of her displeasure in the air.
She was furious. Riana didn’t have to say a word. He braced himself for
punishment. How severe would it be this time?

To his surprise, she walked around and sat in the chair
behind the desk. Swinging the chair to the side, she indicated a point about a
meter in front of her. Darias obeyed her silent command to stand there. The
window was on his right side. The bright sunlight highlighted his raging erection.
He did his best to ignore it.

“And what would you have me do?”

He couldn’t tell her thoughts by her voice. “Allow me to
take punishment in Gaith’s place.”

She leaned back in the chair and crossed one leg over the
other. Sunlight glinted off the leather of her boot as she swung one foot with
idle contemplation.

“Present yourself.”

Darias couldn’t believe his ears. Surely she wasn’t really
asking that of him?

“Now.”

She was.

Jaw locked, a wave of heat stinging his neck and face,
Darias turned slowly, his hands moving to clench the cheeks of his ass. Just as
slowly, he bent over, making the dark, tight ring clearly visible to her.

“Move your legs farther apart and lean down more.”

When he had power back, public punishment would be the least
of her worries, he vowed, even as he obeyed.

“More. Until your chest touches your legs.”

Oh yes, he was going to enjoy making her pay for this
humiliation.

Bent over like he was, legs spread widely apart, his hands
holding open the cheeks of his ass, Darias couldn’t ever remember feeling so
vulnerable. Not when she first punished him in the garden. Not even when she
first bared his ass over a chair. He was excruciatingly aware that from her
position in the chair everything was visible to Riana. His anus, his balls, the
pulsing head of his cock as it leaked a steady stream of pre-come.

He stayed that way for what seemed like forever.

“You may take Gaith’s punishment.”

Chapter Eleven

By the time she entered her chamber that evening, Riana was
weary to the bone. Her talk with Bryta had been enlightening. Far from coming
to accept the reversal of roles for the men, Darias had stepped up the campaign
to undermine and erode the women’s grasps on both the businesses and estates.
If she had not thought to link her ship’s computer to Nexar’s, in all
likelihood Darias would have succeeded. As it was, there was much work ahead of
them to repair the damage.

Bryta hadn’t wanted to stop Gaith’s public punishment.

Riana sighed. For such a gentle woman, she had a streak of
stubborn that rivaled her own. Only reluctantly had she conceded that Darias
bore more blame than her mate.

She straightened her slumping shoulders when she caught the
familiar sight of Darias standing by the glass doors then realized he hadn’t
heard her enter. She took the opportunity to study him. One hand rested beside
his head as he stared out the open door into the garden. There was a pensive
look to the strong, masculine features. As she watched, he closed his eyes for
a moment. She thought she saw a flash of pain on his face but couldn’t be sure
in the subdued lighting.

She wanted to cross the space separating them and wrap her
arms around him and lay her head against his broad back and tell him she
understood his actions. But she couldn’t. The lines between them had been drawn
the moment he put those thrice-cursted manacles on her wrists. She’d lose not
only the hard-wrought respect she’d wrested from the warriors, but of the women
as well. More importantly, Darias would see it as a weakness, a sign that women
were inferior to males.

Sometimes she just wanted to get in the
Midnight Mischief
and fly away. Away from Nexar, away from the Void. Just…away.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option. The women needed her
and, without being overly arrogant, so did Nexar. She had to see this through.
Lifting one slender hand, she rubbed the hollow spot in the middle of her chest
that seemed to creep up on her every now and then.

She shifted the long, thin case she held in her other hand
and closed the door with an audible snick.

Darias’ shoulders stiffened before he turned to face her.
Tension carved grooves around the sensuous lines of his mouth. “I am ready for
punishment in the Great Hall.”

Until that moment, Riana had fully intended to punish Darias
before all, warm his ass and then make him cry and plead for fulfillment before
both the women and the warriors. Now that the time was at hand, she at last
admitted the truth to herself.

She couldn’t do that to him.

It would abase him in the eyes of his warriors. And in the
eyes of the women.

Never again would they see the man who had been Supreme
Chief, who had ruled with honor according Nexarian tradition and by their
rules. Sure, she disagreed and downright hated some of those traditions and
rules, but they had governed Nexar for over a millennium.

Punishing him in the Great Hall would strip all dignity from
him.

She kept her expression contained, not allowing even the
slightest hint of her turmoil to show as she considered her course.

He had to pay for his actions and the punishment could not
be a light one. The offense was too serious and too many knew of it.

So what…?

Just that quick, the perfect solution came to her. She
turned it over in her mind, considering all aspects. Yes, it would work. A knot
that she hadn’t been aware of until that moment relaxed in her stomach.