His Human Vessel (Zandian Masters 5)

He sat on the sleep disk and hauled her body across his lap into spanking position. She heard the pop of a cap being removed.

“What is that?” she repeated. Alarm bells were going off. She didn’t want to be shot up with medications, even though this, too, was nothing new for her. The intimacy of the position and his intended target were, however.

She yelped as he jabbed a needle into her ass. “Ow.”

“Almost finished.”

A burning sensation pinched at the needle site and, worse, liquid cold seeped in deeper. “What is it?” she snapped again.

Never in her life had she acted so inappropriately with a master—she certainly knew better, but something about Daneth’s cool, collected resolve brought out the fire in her. She wanted to kick and scream until he stopped ignoring her and answered her damn question.

Apparently, it worked, because he fisted his hand in her hair and pulled her head up. “What have I told you about speaking without being spoken to?”

“You’re jabbing a needle in my ass. I would say you’re speaking to me, in a sense,” she shot back, wisdom apparently fleeing her, along with her mind and her temper.

Another sharp jab bit her other cheek. Apparently he was perfectly capable of injecting her with only one hand. “Ow.”

> He tugged her head back more. “It’s not your place to question me, Bayla.” He said it so calmly, she wanted to knee him in the balls.

“Oh, really? Because it’s my body you’re injecting. Shouldn’t I know what’s going on?”

“It’s not your body. You made a choice just one planet rotation ago, and you gave it to me, to science. This body belongs to me.” He slapped the back of her thigh and shifted her off his lap and onto her feet on the floor. “Now, you will walk to the cabinet over there and bring me the box of implements.”

She stared at him. Not in disbelief, because she’d fully expected punishment. If she was honest with herself, she’d admit she’d goaded him. No, she couldn’t stand the lack of emotion, the lack of reaction from him. It drove her crazy.

She should seduce him. Getting him turned on had been her entry point to getting a reaction out of him. But she wasn’t in the mood. If she were smart, she’d get moving before she earned herself more punishment. She trudged to the cabinet, retrieved the box in question, and watched him rooted through it.

Her traitorous pussy moistened at the entire scenario—standing naked before him, knowing what he planned to do to her, waiting while he made his selection. He drew out a thin wooden paddle—more like a flat spatula.

Just the sight of it made her contrite, already regretting her bad behavior. She dropped to her knees. “I’m sorry I was ill-behaved, Master.”

He cupped her chin and lifted it, stroking her cheek with his thumb. The emptiness behind his eyes faded, and a trace of warmth returned. “That’s a pretty sight.” He studied her for another beat, and her body came alive under his appreciative gaze, nipples tightening, skin tingling. “You’re sorry you’re getting a spanking.”

“Yes, Master,” she admitted.

His lips twitched. “I have not instilled enough fear in you, have I?”

Her pussy and belly both clenched as one part fear, one part excitement zoomed through her.

He glanced at his cuff, probably noting her mounting arousal. “Over my lap,” he commanded.

Tummy twisting, she stood and folded herself over his lap, which he’d angled to accommodate her torso on the sleepdisk.

The wooden paddle clapped down on one of her cheeks, and she sucked in air so fast she choked on it. Coughing her outrage, she squirmed, not managing to dodge the next smack that caught her other cheek.

“Hands behind your back.” Daneth’s deep command cut through her internal scream.

What would happen if she disobeyed? Not worth the risk. Not when each firm smack had her eyes watering. She put her wrists at the small of her back.

“Connect wrist cuffs,” he barked, never pausing in delivering her punishment. “You have been naughty all planet rotation.” He made the strokes harder.

She whimpered, rolling her hips on his lap as if it might help her dodge the blows.

“Now you will find out what it’s like to have a spanking on cheeks already sore from fresh injections.”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, Master.”

“The injections contained hormones to support the implantation.”