Page 26 of Dorchad

That was all she got out, because Dorchad’s anger returned, and he hefted her up and put her over his shoulder as if she were a sack of grain. She dared apologize to him for her foolishness when none of this had been necessary, if only she’d obeyed him?

“Chieftain, please put me down.” Now she sounded much more subdued, almost afraid.

Good. The time had come for her to learn what prodding and defying him would cost her.

He didn’t bother to answer her. She needed schooling, and he certainly welcomed the chance to teach her. He stalked back toward his horse, but then changed direction and headed toward a hay barn outside the outer wall.

“Where are you taking me?” Rebecca asked.

“Another word,” he warned her, “and you shall beg for death.”

“Death? All I did was come out here to...all right, I should have asked a guard to do it. But I only meant to check the trees and come right back.” A sob escaped her.

Dorchad stopped in front of the barn and dropped her onto her feet. Her gray eyes swam with tears and her face had gone pink again, making his fury fountain into molten outrage. “You shallnae weep.”

Rebecca turned her back on him and scrubbed at her eyes like a tired bairn. That didn’t stop her sobbing, but then she began to talk through her tears.

“I didn’t ask to come here, and I can’t go home. Those men scared me a lot. I’m sorry, I can’t help it.” She flapped her hand in a dismissive gesture. “You don’t have to rescue me. Just go away.”

Why he spun her around and pulled her against his chest Dorchad didn’t know. She needed some tenderness, so he stroked his hand over her curls with a stiff, awkward motion. He’d never once comforted anyone, even Sgathan, and it fashed him to no end that he would wish to do so with her. She had already proven to be the most frustrating female he’d ever encountered.

“Look at me.” When she lifted her face he cupped her chin. “What shall I do with you, my wee bird?”

Rebecca’s flush vanished, and she swallowed several times.

“Anything you want.” She spoke in a near-whisper, her eyes widening and darkening as she looked up at him. “Anything.”

She spoke as if she knew too well what he wished to do. The wench definitely needed to learn what happened to silly maidens who offered themselves to brutes.

Dorchad scooped her off her feet and carried her into the barn, pausing only to drag shut the door and bolt it. He stopped in front of a mounting bench, turning her over as he sat down on it. Holding her sprawled across his lap, her bottom sticking up in the air, made his mouth dry. He had never once done such a thing to any female.

“Maybe I should have been more specific about the anything.” She stiffened as he yanked up her skirts and pulled down her brief drawers, baring her arse. Squirming now, she begged, “Chieftain, please.”

“Aye, you’ll please me.” He slapped her pretty pale buttocks hard enough to make her gasp. “You said just now you’ll do anything I want, aye?” He smacked her again. “Never again shall you leave the stronghold without two armed guards. Promise me.”

“I won’t,” she promised quickly.

“You’ll keep quiet and modest near me,” Dorchad told her before he delivered a third blow. “I’m no’ your gallant.”

Once he started punishing Rebecca, Dorchad thought he might not ever stop. Slapping her small, tight arse appeased some of the hunger that had been gnawing at his insides since he’d pulled her from the loch. The sounds of her whimpers and sobs pleased him on some strange, deep level he’d never before realized he possessed. She seemed to accept her lot, too, for not once did she try to resist or escape him.

She needs schooling as much as I need to teach her.

When her arse had turned a bright red, and bore marks that would surely turn to light bruises by the morn, Dorchad decided that was enough. His tadger had grown so swollen and stiff it was all he could do not to ravish her here and now. The scent of her didn’t help, and when he realized why, his balls tightened. The smell came from between her legs, salty-sweet and subtly intoxicating, blending with the sunlight scent of the rest of her.

She’d grown as aroused as he was.

He thought of what Cath had told him as he stroked the heated curves of her buttocks. He couldn’t stop himself from slipping his fingers between her thighs and pressing them against her quim, the folds of which had grown slick with her arousal. His heavy, hard cock twitched in response, as if to suggest the next lesson he should teach her.

Och, what should I do to this tender wee thing if I had her for a night?

“Please.” Rebecca gasped the word when he parted her and rubbed his thumb over her hard little nub.

As he caressed her there she began to writhe on his lap until he slapped her bottom with his other hand.

“Be still.” Slowly he stroked her, watching the muscles in her thighs tighten, and sensing the tremors in her belly against his thighs. “Ever I see you, wench, and my shaft rises and swells until I can think of naught but burying it here, where you’re so tender and sweet. Only I’d fack you all night and the next day, and you’re but a wee thing.”

Dorchad wanted to penetrate her with his fingers, and work them in and out as he rubbed her wee pearl. Yet that was facking of a sort, not schooling. He could do no more without her leave, for which he would not ask. She still needed a final punishment to remember this day.