Page 17

CHAPTER 17

W hen the woman came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, her face was clean and bright red.

She was attempting to mask her embarrassment with anger, but Aeron saw right through her.

He smiled at her scowl.

He was standing beside the bed with his feet spread in a wide stance and his hands clasped behind his back.

The large bedroom was lavishly decorated—the finest room in the hotel—and there were numerous, deeply cushioned chairs, but Aeron preferred to stand.

He had never been a fan of soft things.

The woman, of course, was an exception.

Murdok, on the other hand, was having no problem making use of the room’s luxuries.

Typical. The big Merc was lounging on the massive bed, his scarred frame and militaristic clothing incongruous with the immaculate white satin covers.

A silver goblet was in his hand.

He took a swig from it, then belched and dragged the back of his hand across his mouth.

“Nice bath?” he asked.

“Fuck you,” the woman snapped.

Aeron couldn’t help but smile at her defiance.

He had known she was a feisty one from the moment he’d first laid eyes on her, but she was continuously exceeding his expectations.

She was going to make a fine mother indeed.

He couldn’t wait to breed her.

She was dressed in nothing but a plush, white towel that was wrapped around her body like a dress.

Zeth had had the foresight not to dress her in clothes again.

They would only be coming right back off.

The younger Merc followed the woman out of the bathroom, and he was also clad in nothing but a white towel, the front of which was tented with his arousal.

Apparently the massive load he had just sprayed all over the woman’s face had not depleted him.

“You too,” she said, stabbing a tiny finger in Aeron’s direction.

“Fuck you too.”

“Patience,” said Aeron.

“You’ll have a chance to fuck all three of us soon.”

Her mouth dropped open in shock, and Aeron’s cock ached as he remembered everything he’d seen that mouth doing only a few short minutes before.

When she noticed him staring, she quickly closed her lips and glowered.

“You guys really get off on humiliating me, don’t you?”

“Humiliate?” Aeron asked.

He moved toward the woman, and she backed away from him, but she only made it a couple of steps before her bottom bumped against Zeth’s erection.

She let out a sexy little gasp of surprise, and started to move forward again, but Aeron was already right there in front of her, blocking her way.

He nudged her chin up to make her look at him.

Her eyes were brown and full.

“You have no reason to be humiliated,” he said.

“What you did to Zeth was quite impressive, especially for a first-timer.”

“Who says I’m a first-timer?” she growled.

Aeron’s dick throbbed at her defiance.

He brushed his thumb across her lips, which had so recently encircled his comrade’s hard shaft.

She shivered at his touch.

Her skin was still pink from her bath, but her short hair was already mostly dry.

The floral fragrance of soap clung to her skin, but it could not conceal the scent of her arousal.

“Well, you’re not a first-timer anymore,” Aeron said.

Her defiance faltered.

“How… how long were you watching?” she whispered.

“Long enough,” Aeron said.

“I can’t wait to sample that sexy little mouth for myself. But first, we have more important matters to attend to.” He gestured toward one of the overstuffed chairs.

“Would you like to sit down?”

For a moment, he thought she might refuse simply out of spite, but she was clearly tired.

She hadn’t gotten much sleep last night, and she’d had a lot of excitement today.

She sauntered over to the chair and plopped herself down into it.

The cushions nearly swallowed her whole.

“Care for some wine?” Murdok asked from the bed.

The big, scarred Merc was still lounging.

He picked up the bottle from the nightstand and shook it, sloshing the blood red liquid within.

The woman just glared at him silently.

“I’ll take that as a no,” Murdok said.

“Suit yourself.”

He topped off his goblet, and the woman shook her head.

“You Mercs are really unbelievable,” she said.

“Here I thought you guys were supposed to be some kind of super badasses who were going to come and save my village from the raiders. But all you’ve done so far is trade stocks and swill wine in a fancy hotel.”

Aeron smiled faintly.

There were reasons for all the things the woman had just mentioned—good ones—but he didn’t have to explain himself to her.

Not yet, anyway.

“We’ve done a bit more than that,” he said.

“I seem to recall Murdok saving your behind in an alleyway not too long ago.”

She locked eyes with him.

“I didn’t need his help.”

A silent staring contest ensued.

Aeron was surprised just how long it lasted, but in the end the woman dropped her gaze and sighed grumpily.

“Okay, fine. Maybe I did need his help,” she admitted.

“But I wouldn’t have been in that situation in the first place if you hadn’t dragged me here to Jeriko.”

“You wouldn’t have been in that position if you hadn’t tried to run away,” Aeron countered.

The woman sighed again.

Aeron walked over to the big window at the side of the bedroom.

It offered a view of the city outside.

It was not a pretty sight.

The air was murky with pollution from the refineries, and the sky was threatening rain.

“While you were taking your bath, Murdok and Zeth told me everything that happened. They said you used a blade from a knifemonger’s stand to slice your collar and escape. You cut yourself in the process.”

“Just a scratch!” the woman protested.

Aeron lifted his hand.

“Let me finish. After that, they tell me you fled down the street, through a crowd, and into an alleyway where you encountered a man. He assaulted you, but Murdok arrived and intervened before the man could do anything too… severe . Would you say all of that is accurate so far?”

“Yeah.”

The sky was starting to spit rain against the window.

Dirty, discolored droplets that slithered down the panes.

In the street below, merchants were hurriedly packing in their wares to escape from the coming storm.

“Zeth also informed me that you appeared to know the man who attacked you. He said you made reference to someone called… Tulliver?”

“I told Zeth about it in the bathroom,” she answered sullenly.

“I don’t feel like telling it again.”

Aeron turned from the window and looked at Zeth.

The young mercenary gave a silent nod.

Good enough. They could speak of that later.

For now, the woman.

Aeron strode slowly to the chair where she was sitting and crouched in front of it, bringing his eyes level with her own.

She peered at him warily from within the cushioned depths.

“You’ve been a bad girl, Rona. As a result of your defiance, you inflicted harm upon yourself, and you almost got harmed in a much more serious way by a bad, bad man. That is unacceptable. I’m not angry with you. I am simply telling you this for your own good.”

“I won’t run away again,” she said.

“Promise.”

“Perhaps. But I need to make sure you understand that we mean business. You must be punished, Rona. You must be spanked.”

“Oh hell no!”

The woman started to spring from the chair, but Aeron caught her and pushed her back down again.

“Easy,” he said. “I thought you just promised you weren’t going to run anymore.”

“I wasn’t trying to run away! This is bullshit! Murdok already spanked me in the alley.”

“He started to spank you,” Aeron corrected, “but I stopped him because I wanted to know what was going on before I made any decisions about meting out your punishment. Now that I’ve heard the full story, I think it’s time to complete your spanking. Are you going to take it like a big girl, or do we need to tie you down?”

“I’m not a girl ,” she answered, her face practically glowing with indignation.

“I’m a grown ass woman.”

Aeron sighed.

“Alright,” he said. “Tell you what. Since you’re a grown woman, I’ll give you a choice. Either you suck it up and accept your spanking, or you give back the shares of stock I gave you.”

The woman’s eyes went wide, and her face drained.

“You can’t do that,” she said.

“Of course I can. I’m the one who bought them. I gave them to you as a gift. And if I want to, I can take them back again.”

The woman scowled at him.

“The Merc giveth, and the Merc taketh away, huh?”

She stood up, but slowly this time, and looked at Murdok, who was still lying on the bed, drinking.

“I think I’ll have that wine now,” she said.

As Murdok filled a goblet for her, Aeron smiled.

He turned and went back to the window.

The storm had finally arrived in full force, and the dirty rain was hammering the glass, washing down the surface in rippling sheets.

The streets below were all but empty now, and so were the rooftops of the neighboring buildings.

There was no one out there to see what was about to happen, no one at all, but Aeron wanted to be absolutely certain.

He pulled the curtains closed.