Page 16 of Surrender

She breathed it in then lifted her head and nodded. He grabbed her hand and took off at a dead run, winding his way through the streets, headed for the distant mountains. Talia pushed herself hard to keep up, concentrating on the sight of his bare back to divert her mind from the cold.

She’d never been in such close proximity to a half-naked man, let alone one who had starred in her erotic fantasies. He’d already given her his cloak and shirt. All he wore were leather boots and loose trousers, made from the same thick dark wool as his shirt. The cold air didn’t seem to bother him. Judging from his sun-bronzed skin, he often went bare-chested.

The smooth muscles rippling in his back fascinated her. His shoulder-length hair, held back by a braided leather thong tied around his forehead, whipped behind him in the wind, brushing the broad shoulders that had borne her weight effortlessly at a full-out run.

To her dismay, he covered the ground at a steady pace, breathing easily as though he could keep it up for hours. They’d left the city streets far behind them when she dropped to her knees, gasping for breath. Exhausted, half-starved for days, she had no strength left.

He lifted her chin and searched her face. “Are you all right?”

She nodded, unwilling to waste the air she was gulping by trying to talk. He gave her a dazzling smile. “You’ve done as well as any of my warriors today. The gods themselves would declare you a true Viking.” He looked up at the sky. “It will be dark soon. I dare not risk heading up into the mountains. If one of us slips on the path through the pass and breaks a leg, the journey will take days instead of hours. Stay here. Rest. I’m going to look for shelter. And food, if fortune will smile on us.”

Without another word, he vanished behind a large outcropping of boulders into the growing dusk. As her breathing returned to normal, Talia took a good look around. It was the first time since she’d arrived on Gadolinium that she’d had an opportunity to take stock of her surroundings.

The planet was emerging from its cold cycle. No longer blanketed with snow, the ground was dotted with patches where tiny green shoots pushed their way through the dead brown mass that covered it. Silence reigned, save for tree branches rattling in the wind. On the nearest one, swelling at the tips promised green leaves would soon unfurl.

The only splash of color came from a blue-green pine forest covering the side of a mountain in the distance. She shivered and drew her knees up to her chest, pulling the rough wool shirt over her bare legs.

Time passed. The warmth generated by strenuous exercise seeped out of her body, replaced by the chill in the air. Overhead, Gadolinium’s blue-white moon rose, casting enough light to throw shadows on the ground. A rustling noise nearby drew her attention. She froze then let out a sigh of relief when her rescuer appeared.

“There’s a hollow under an outcropping of rock ahead, like a small cave, with a spring nearby that flows out of the side of the mountain. I remembered seeing both on journeys through here in the past.” He took her hand, pulled her to her feet. She swayed.

“Shall I carry you?”

Horrified at the thought of being slung over his shoulder again, she pulled her hand away. “No! I’m fine. Just give me a moment to get the feeling back in my legs.”

“You won’t have far to walk in the morning,” he said as she stamped her feet on the ground. “We left our horses tied up on the other side of the pass. Whoever gets there first will feed and water them, have them ready to go when we arrive. We didn’t dare ride too near to Trondheim. The white coats of our Gadolinian steeds are easy to spot. If Balam’s men caught sight of one of them, they’d have been expecting us.”

He glanced at the moon, hanging low in the sky then back at her. “Ready?”

Without waiting for her response, he reached for her hand again, wrapped his warm fingers around her ice-cold ones. “It’s not far. And I have a surprise waiting for you.” They walked in silence for a quarter mile, then he rounded an outcropping of rocks and waved at a flickering light hidden behind it. “A fire!”

She took a few steps and came face to face with a tiny limp carcass lying on the ground in front of the flames. “And a fresh-killed hare,” he announced with pride, “waiting for you to skin and roast it while I fetch more wood.”

Horrified, she snatched her hand from his and backed away. “No! I won’t do it!”

“I know you’ve been through a rough time. But be reasonable. We need food and more wood to last us through the night. If we each do our part, we can have both and still get some rest. So, I’ll ask you nicely. Will you please cook the hare?”

She crossed her arms. “I’m not touching that thing! I’d sooner starve.”

“That’s it!” He grabbed her around the middle, sank down on a waist-high boulder, and pulled her over his lap. “I’ve had enough of your stubborn, willful ways.”

He ran his hand up her thigh and bunched the tail of his shirt around her waist. “You may choose to starve, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to go hungry because you won’t do your fair share to keep us alive.”

The smack of his palm on her bare bottom echoed off the rock chamber. “You’ve been nothing but trouble since the moment I laid eyes on you,” he growled.

Shocked, she lay there for a moment then started bucking and kicking. He responded by shifting her body to trap her legs between his and gave her two more firm whacks. “I’ve been aching to spank this naughty ass since I caught you disobeying my orders, wandering around alone in the city like some poor addled creature without a brain in your head.”

His voice rose, and he punctuated his words with more smacks. “You put both of us in danger that night. I had to give up my scouting to rescue you. I’ll wager the only thing that kept Balam from killing you outright was the sight of this saucy backside.

“Then you ruined our mission to free the king with your rebellion on the auction block. To save this obstinate ass of yours, I had to abandon my father, leave him locked away in a dank cell.” His voice broke and he spanked her harder, as if to punish her for making him give way to emotion.

Talia barely heard his rant through the riot of feelings going on inside her. The spanking hurt, yet it was different from the punishments she’d endured in the palace. She’d been paddled with a wooden board, forced to kneel at Sori’s feet for whippings from a mastodon penis as thick as alligator hide. But she’d never been draped over a man’s lap, with the heat of his body warming her belly while his bare hand lit a fire on her bottom. This punishment was sointimate.

He spanked her steadily, reciting a list of her misdeeds. She struggled to break free then became aware of a growing bulge beneath her. The cretin was becoming aroused! It seemed that every time his body came in contact with hers, his primitive animalistic urges awakened. Would he subject her to more of the humiliating acts she’d had to endure ever since she arrived on this cursed planet?

As though reading her mind, he gave her an especially hard smack. “Don’t think you can deter me by wiggling against my cock! If ever a wench was in need of a good spanking, it’s you. I plan to deliver what your father and mother never did. After I’m finished, you’ll clean that damned hare and cook our supper – or I’ll keep spanking you until you do!”

After days of biting her lip till it bled rather than give her captors the satisfaction of seeing her cry when they punished her, Talia couldn’t do it any longer. Couldn’t stay strong and stoic another minute. She broke down, sobbed as though her heart was breaking.

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