A Short Leash Read online

  It wasn’t until he sat down and used his grasp to angle her down and over his thighs that she realized she might be in some form of trouble. Giving way didn’t seem to be on his agenda; instead he held her prone body across his lap, wrapping his free arm around her waist whilst she continued to bite the other hand.

  “This is going to get quite painful for you if you don’t let go,” he informed her calmly. “I don’t want to have to discipline you, Sierra, but you’re not leaving me much choice.”

  Sierra didn’t listen to his words. Words were meaningless. All that mattered was the fact that she still had her toothy grip in place and he had not managed to dislodge her. She fancied she was winning.

  Without further warning, Master Kade slapped her on the bottom. It was not a hard slap, but it was enough to sting. Sierra was wearing a long shirt and short shorts, both made of silk. They were the only fine things about her. The citizen had always insisted that she wear nice things so that anyone coming to visit might be able to admire her shock of violet hair and pale blue eyes. The clothing provided precisely no protection against the hard flat of his hand as it began bounding off the rounds of her cheeks with rapidly increasing intensity.

  Sierra yelped around his hand and almost let go. Almost. Her mouth came off for a second as she let out an old swear word then clamped back down again.

  “You don’t want this to go on much longer,” he informed her, his deep voice rumbling down at her. “It’s going to start burning, and it won’t go away any time soon either. The longer I smack your bottom, the longer you feel the effects.”

  It was fair warning, but Sierra did not much appreciate it. The strong man could not be allowed to think that he could control her with his bulk, or with the striking of his hand. He had to know that she was unbreakable. Her jaw was starting to ache from the effort of sustaining the bite, and her bottom was much warmer than she liked it to be, but she persevered through the discomfort with the aim of impressing him with her resolve and puncturing him with the sharpness of her teeth. His skin was holding though. It was much tougher than the hide of most citizens, more conditioned to withstanding a bite from a wild thing.

  Sierra began to squirm to try to work some of the discomfort out of her cheeks and avoid some of the slaps that seemed to land in the same place over and over by design. The motion brought with it a new sensation, something pleasant at the apex of her thighs where her barely clad body met the hard muscular length of his leg. A slow grind turned into a writhing as Master Kade picked up the pace.

  The pulsing between her thighs grew with every slap, propelling her hips against his leg. She let out a small moan, which was lost in the sounds of spanking as Kade propped his thigh up a little higher and set to spanking her harder and faster.

  Never before in her life had Sierra been so completely lost in a whirlwind of sensation. The slaps came with a burning heat that was not entirely pleasant, but her body was taking the pain and turning it to pleasure almost as fast as Kade could deliver each swat. This was what she had needed for a very long time, to unleash fully on someone and to be held through it. To find some hard limit that could not be trespassed against. She seemed to have found one in Master Kade.

  Though she continued to bite, Kade showed no signs of wanting to reject her. With one leg wrapped around her own, he was pinning her to his body and delivering a sound thrashing. Even as the slaps rained down, Sierra felt no malice or anger in his touch. It was simply a reaction to her action, a consequence as natural as the sun in the sky—and damn near as hot.

  She bucked her hips in an attempt to dissuade him, but all she succeeded in doing was tightening the muscles low in her belly and lifting her bottom to his palm. Bolts of excitement shot through her with each and every slap as he continued to spank her seemingly tirelessly.

  “I think you might like this, pet,” Kade drawled as the sting set in deeper, tingling through her bottom to the hot, increasingly wet places between her thighs. The smooth silk of her attire made it easy for her to slide back and forth between his palm and his thigh, pleasuring herself in spite of the wicked burn.

  Her legs began to part in an attempt to get more pressure on the rebellious bud that would not allow her to submit. It worked, but there was a price to pay. Kade found the sensitive skin of her inner thighs and began landing his slaps there, his fingers landing dangerously close to her heated pussy, which had become the focus of all her attentions. Demanding and greedy, she ground against him, not caring what he thought, hungry for the orgasm that was building under his palm.

  “Eeee!” She let out a squeal as his fingers unexpectedly caught her between her legs, the sting of the tips landing across the entrance of her pussy cupped tight by the silk of her now quite rumpled garment.

  “There’s not a place I won’t punish if you deserve it,” Kade purred down at her. “Especially if you present it to me.”

  His hand left her bottom for a moment and she thought maybe the spanking was over, but instead he used the hand to grasp the fabric at the back of her shorts and pull up hard enough to let the silk strain taut over her pussy as her hips rose off his laps for a moment and she was more or less suspended by the fabric between her thighs.

  Moaning, Sierra almost let go of her grip. She was no longer biting properly, she was almost suckling with need as Master Kade let her squirm and grind against her own gusset.

  “You really are quite a prize,” he said. “Are you sure you don’t want to let go?”

  With the spanking at a pause, Sierra could feel the aftereffects of Kade’s discipline. It was like a hot aura around her behind, coupled with a burn that had sunk deep into her flesh and was not going to go away any time soon.

  Sierra shook her head a little and he lowered her back down to resume the spanking.

  “You’re stubborn. I’ll give you that,” he said as he palmed her bottom once more. “But I promise you I’m more stubborn, and I’ve been bitten by sharper fanged creatures than you before.”

  His palm landed hard across her cheeks again and Sierra let out a squeal through her teeth. He was spanking her harder than before. She had not known that he could spank her harder, and she began to wonder just how hard he could actually hit. She suddenly had the impression that he had been gentle with her up to that point, and given the way her bottom felt she was deeply concerned for it if he were to stop being gentle.

  If she’d had common sense she would have simply let go, but arousal was running thick in her veins, clouding her better judgment. She withstood the harder slaps, clenching her lower muscles as she ground herself shamelessly against his thigh, urging herself toward the climax that had been coming ever since he laid her over his lap.

  Kade’s slaps seemed to be aimed low, against the very bottom and center of her cheeks. She would almost have thought he was spanking her there on purpose, firm swats landing one after the other in a rhythm that matched her wanton grind.

  The climax came upon her in a rushing swell like no other, flooding her body from the center of her being all the way to every extremity. She trembled in Kade’s grasp, a loud and unmistakable moan escaping her as she convulsed against his body.

  “Good girl.” His voice soothed her as did his palm, rubbing her bottom.

  Sierra was so fuzzy from her climax that she did not know what he was praising her for at first, then she realized that the pleasure had distracted her from the bite. She had been so busy coming that her jaws had lost their grip and he had regained the unfettered use of his hand.

  “If I’d known all I had to do to make you let go was make you spend yourself against me, I would have tried that first,” Kade chuckled. “A pet as responsive as you is a rare find.”

  Embarrassed by her response to him and his discipline, Sierra took refuge in aggression.

  “I am not a good girl!”

  She tried to bite him again, but he would not allow it. Instead he took a very firm hold of the back of her neck and she felt cool steel run along her ski
n. A second later there was a release of pressure and the dirty old collar fell to the ground. He sheathed the knife before she could wrest it from him, but he need not have worried so much about that. Sierra jumped up from his lap, clutching at her throat as she felt the bare skin of her neck. It was tender and even the lightest brush of her own fingers made her wince.

  “Don’t touch,” he said. “You have a small skin infection there by the look of things. You’ll need some medicine to clear that up.”

  “I don’t want your medicine.”

  “It’s not a choice.” He looked at her steadily, his gaze alert and searching. “You’re in my home now, Sierra. In my home, there is no biting,” he informed her. “In my home, pets know their place…”

  He rose to his feet, towering above her by a matter of feet. He truly did seem to be impossibly tall and broad. He could have taken a bear down with his bare hands if he wanted to, or at least that’s how it seemed to Sierra. She shrank away, afraid of his imposing bearing and what threat it might hold.

  “…and in my home, pets are well fed. Now come. You must be hungry.”

  Sierra did not know what to do. She had never been allowed inside her previous owner’s house. She always stayed in her yard. The interior of a home was both interesting and frightening to her.

  “Come,” he said, pointing to his heel. “Follow me.”

  Crouching down, Sierra backed away. He turned and came back toward her, extending his hand to take hold of hers and pull her up to her feet. “Pets walk here, too. No need to shuffle around on hands and knees. You’re not an animal.”

  Sierra stood on legs that trembled not from disuse but from concern. She was unaccustomed to being able to use her feet in the presence of another. Her owner’s wife had taken special exception to it. Sierra suspected it was a result of jealousy, but she did not understand why a citizen would be jealous of a wild one who barely wore any clothing at all and lived in a tiny exposed prison.

  “Can you walk?”

  She nodded. She had spent most of the past year pacing her yard whenever the citizens were not watching, which was almost always. As time had gone on she’d become a forgotten fixture, rarely fed and almost never bathed. She was aware of how filthy she was, but Master Kade did not seem concerned about that as he invited her into his home.

  “Come inside,” he said. “Do you like steak?”

  “Steak?” Sierra did not know what the word meant.

  “Meat,” he said. “From a wild cow.”

  “Meat?” She perked up at that. It had been a long time since she’d eaten meat. Her owner had insisted on a cheap vegetable-based diet. She had tried to catch small animals on the rare occasions one of the anemic city mice scuttled through her enclosure, but the act always scandalized her owner, who seemed shocked whenever she showed any hunting instinct whatsoever.

  “Come and sit up here,” he said, leading her through a bewildering array of furniture. Sierra knew it was called furniture because her old owner’s wife had spent an excessive amount of time shrieking about all things furniture related, especially the putting of feet thereon. Civilian houses were full of things that one was not meant to touch, or sit on, or go anywhere near. Sierra did not understand the point of it, but the wife had been very insistent on the matter.

  “Here,” he said, patting a three-legged piece of furniture with a soft thick padding atop it.

  Sierra sat down, finding it much more comfortable than she could have imagined. Furniture was good. She liked furniture.

  Master Kade went to his food stores and took out a large slab of meat. Sierra could smell it instantly, her stomach growling as her mouth began to water. Instinct kicked in. She slid down from the stool and began slowly stalking toward the meat.

  “Sit back down,” Master Kade said. “I’m going to cook this first. It will taste better and be better for you.”

  A little growl rose in Sierra’s throat. It had been so long since she scented fresh meat that she really didn’t know how to contain herself. The meat had become the sole focus of her intentions. It called to her, a rich source of everything her body needed.

  Master Kade set a fire in the middle of his home. The sudden spark of heat made her withdraw, confused at the flames emitting from the metal ring.

  “You’ve not been house-trained very well, have you?” he observed. “Let me run you through this. You’re standing in my kitchen. This is a cooker. It’s hot and it will burn you if you touch it when it’s on. If you wait a few minutes, you’ll have a steak that tastes better than anything you ever ate in your life.”

  No citizen had ever taken the time to speak to her the way Master Kade did, explaining his reasoning for things instead of just yelling orders at her. Sierra’s experience of citizens was that they always spoke at high volume and with a particular note of frustration. Of course, Master Kade was not a proper citizen, but he was civilized enough that she thought of him as one nonetheless.

  “This is a pan,” he said, picking up a large metal object. “This separates the food from the flame so it cooks, but doesn’t burn.”

  She knew what a pan was, but it was quite endearing the way he took the time to explain, and she liked the sound of his voice. It was deep, calm, and soothing. Retreating to her seat, Sierra leaned against the wood surface and watched as he began to cook the steak. The moment the meat hit the hot metal, it emitted a scent more heavenly than any other. She had smelled a faint version of it before, through a partly open window at her old owners’ home, but she had never been exposed to the full force of it. It curled around her like a physical thing, making every part of her body tingle with excitement. She could barely contain herself and a small whine of excitement began to escape her lips as she pressed against the counter.

  “Easy, my girl,” Kade said. “It’s almost ready. Sit down.”

  Sierra sat down, willing to do anything he said if it meant being able to taste flesh. A minute later, Kade served the meat on what he described very carefully as a plate, along with a knife and fork, metal tools that he insisted she wield.

  “It is not that hard,” he said. “Push the fork into the meat and cut it with the knife. Cut away bite-sized pieces and eat it that way.”

  He was giving her meat. She would have eaten it any way he asked as long as she was allowed to eat it. She jabbed the metal into the meat and shoved the resulting chunks into her mouth. Each piece tasted better than the last, rich flavor rushing over her tongue and flooding her body with primal pleasure.

  “Good?” Kade stood watch as she devoured her meal. “I suppose I need not ask. You must have been famished. There will be much more of that in the coming days and weeks. You will not feel hunger again, my pet.”

  There was a note of possession in his tone that did not precisely surprise her; citizens were inclined to be possessive. But his was deeper, more genuine. She could almost believe that he cared, though it was not possible that he did. They were strangers to one another, and more than that, he was civilized. Or was he? He certainly was part of the city, but his bearing and his breeding told her that he was just as wild as her.

  “How old are you, girl?”

  “I was twenty-one when I was captured. That’s when we’re considered old enough to leave the village and find a mate.”

  “You speak well for a wild one.”

  Sierra licked her plate before replying. “There is a teacher in my village. He taught us how to read books, how to speak like citizens do. He taught us about these cities, how there used to be just one kind of human a long time ago, but hundreds of years ago there was a very big war and they exploded a lot of radioactive bombs on one another. Most people died, but some of them managed to stay away from the radiation in shelters or wearing special suits and build cities that protected them from it. But there weren’t many of those people. Most people were left to die outside those special cities, and over time the wilds reclaimed all the old human cities and lands and things and the tree roots broke up the roads
they used to have and all the buildings crumbled, and that’s why most of the world is wilderness today.” A look of sad pride came into Sierra’s eyes. “But not everybody left outside the special cities died. Some of them had a resistance to the radiation and they learned how to survive in forests and jungles and everywhere nature had taken over. Those people were the ancestors of us wild ones. That’s why we’re better than citizens, even though citizens think they should be able to own us like animals. We’re not animals.”

  “No,” Kade agreed. “A wild one is just as much a person as a citizen. It’s a pity your teacher didn’t teach you to avoid citizens in the wilds.”

  “I was trapped,” Sierra reminded him. “It wasn’t my choice. Will you let me go?”

  “Will I let you back into the wilds?” Kade shook his head, dashing her hopes. “No. But I will take much better care of you than your previous owner did, and when you are ready, I will find you an owner worthy of you. I am a pet trainer. That is what I do.”

  Sierra nodded and fell silent. If he would not let her free, then he was no different from the man who had kept her before. Her stomach was full and she was tired. Sliding off the stool, she curled up against the kitchen counter and closed her eyes. The floor was covered with a soft curling substance that felt as comfortable as a nest.

  “If you’re tired, there’s somewhere more comfortable to sleep,” Master Kade said. “Come.”

  She stayed where she was, comfortable enough and unwilling to move.

  “Sierra,” he said, his tone deepening a little. “Come.”

  She opened one eye, looked at him and shut it again.

  He moved closer, standing over her so his tall frame rose high above her. “Sierra,” he said, purring her name. “I expect obedience.”

  She did not much care what he expected. At the edge of total exhaustion and with her belly finally full, all Sierra cared about was sleep. She drifted off as he stood there, looking down at her with an expectation that was never going to be fulfilled.

  Somewhere in the twilight state between wakefulness and dreaming, she heard him sigh. Then she felt his arms scooping under her slight frame as he picked her up and carried her off to another part of his domicile. Stretching out against his chest, Sierra looked up at him with no small measure of curiosity. Her previous owner had never carried her anywhere. If she hadn’t moved when he’d wanted her to, he’d jabbed her with the hard leather-encased point of his toe or zapped her with his electric stick.