Page 46 of Forbidden Desire
“Don’t be crazy. How can anyone like that?”
“If you doubt me, you can ask her yourself when the penance is complete.” His hand reached for my chin, capturing me gently with his thumb and finger. I reacted on instinct, my palm rising to knock him away, but to my alarm, his arm was like solid stone, and I was completely unable to move it.
“Get off me.” Wait, was that my voice? Where was the conviction, the sense of unyielding? It no longer bothered me I was naked, but it sure as hell perturbed me that every time the brute loomed, I seemed to lose all sense of reasoning.
“No, Elodie.” His lips twitched, irritating me all the more. “I shall not. You heard our maighstir; you are to be mine.”
“I’m not yours.” The response was immediate, though it lacked the necessary vigor. “I don’t belong to anybody.”
“Wrong.” Jeemie licked his lips. “We both know that is an untruth—a punishable offense in our village. After removing your gag in the aviary, you’ve now earned yourself a double dose of penance.”
“What?” My pulse quickened at the threat, though bizarrely, his tone still soothed. My brows knitted at the unsettling contradiction.
“You heard me, doe bheag.” He released my chin, leaning his hands on the wall on either side of me.
“I-I don’t understand.” I wanted to back away, but Jeemie had pinned me against the side of the building, steering me away from the stomach-churning cheers of his kin. Entrapped by the prison of his powerful arms, I had nowhere to go unless I fancied dodging his embrace and running naked past the energetic throng. “What do you mean?”
“I suspect you already know.”
He edged closer, and despite the panic swirling in my body and the many onlookers, a secret part of me wished he would kiss me again. The caress earlier had been spectacular, better than any I could remember. Jeemie was so much bigger and stronger than the men back home. He radiated capability, and even though it was clear I riled him, he had never once lost his patience with me. His sense of calm was compellingly comforting.
“I don’t.” My heart raced faster, my toes curling at the glimmer in his eyes, predatory yet magnetic. I suspected I wouldn’t like whatever came next, but more worryingly, that he would talk me around.
“Then let me be clear.”
Pulling in hot ribbons of air, I breathed in his earthy, masculine scent, the aroma doing nothing to quell my reeling senses.
“I am going to spank you.” His voice echoed in my brain, the sentence repeating as if I couldn’t move beyond it.
I am going to spank you, I am going to spank you, I am going to spank you.
“No.” I heard the word from my mouth but didn’t recognize the squeaky tone. “No, you can’t.”
“I can,” he assured me, the faintest smile rising on his lips. “I shall rather enjoy it, and if you are like your sister, you shall do so as well.”
“No.”
Tears threatened as the realization dawned. Jeemie was going to spank me, humble me in the same way Desiree was being chastened, and when push came to shove, there was little I could do to stop him. I could fight and scream but didn’t have the strength to halt the proceedings.
Maybe that was why Des hadn’t protested.
Forcing in another breath, I peered around Jeemie, conscious for the first time that the horrid reverberating swats had ceased. It was over—at least for Desiree.
“Is your doe ready to cede, brother?”
My gaze rose to Jeemie’s as Rasmie’s voice bellowed from behind.
“Well...” Jeemie’s left eyebrow arched. “Are you?”
“No.” I wanted to scream it, wanted every living soul in the place to hear my voice, but in the end, there was hardly strength to whisper.
“You must brace yourself.” His voice hushed in return. “If you do not concede, I shall be forced to compel you.”
“She is ready, Maighstir.” His voice rose as he replied to Rasmie, and as quick as a flash, he grasped one of my wrists, spinning me toward the crowd before clutching the other arm. Pulling my hands behind my back, Jeemie moved behind me. “You can either walk, or I can carry you.”
I shivered at his low snarl.
“Which would you prefer?”