Claimed

“You stupid little bitch,” he hissed as he lunged toward her, his shorts still down around his knees. In a moment he was on her, his hands closing hard over her wrists as he jerked her forward. “You are a very, very bad girl, Kelsey Anne.” His tone was menacing, his eyes sparking with anger.

He kept one hand firmly on her wrist, using the other to reach into the car. He pulled out the bungee cords and grabbed her other wrist, jerking her arms roughly behind her back. He bound them tightly with the cords, while Kelsey struggled ineffectually against him.

“It wasn’t loaded,” she heard herself say in a faint voice.

“Of course it wasn’t loaded, you nitwit. You’ve already made your murderous intent clear. Leaving the gun where you could reach it was a test—a test you failed. I guess you’ll just have to pay the consequences.”

He had something in his hand. As he held it before her, she saw it was a pocket knife. He flicked it open, revealing the sharp silver blade. Kelsey felt as if all the breath had been sucked from her body.

But instead of slitting her throat, James hoisted her face-down over the hood of the car. “When I was kid,” he said, his voice breathless with exertion, “if we misbehaved, our dad would punish us the old-fashioned way, with a birch switch. He used to make us go out and pick our own switch before supper. You would sit through the meal trying to choke down your food, scared out of your skin about what was coming.”

Kelsey’s cheek rested on the hot metal of the hood. She was too paralyzed with fear to move as James reached up and cut a long, thin branch from the tree. She could hear him stripping off the leaves and twigs.

“You’re lucky,” he said from behind her. She felt him step back and wondered if she could manage to get away somehow. “You don’t have to wait through a meal of overcooked chicken and boiled peas. I’m going to whip your behind right here and now, you bad, bad girl.”

The switch whistled through the air and bit into the backs of her thighs, leaving a searing sting in its wake. Kelsey screamed. The next blow hit her squarely across both ass cheeks. She screamed again and tried to roll away, but James’ firm hand on her back stopped her.

“Naughty girl. You just lie there and take what’s coming to you. It’s okay to scream, though. No one will hear you. It’s only you and me, babe. Just you and me.” He struck her again and again until she felt as if her skin were being flayed from her body. She struggled and cried out with each biting stroke but James just kept on, and on, and on, until all the fight went out of her.

She lay limp and sobbing as the whippy rod continued to slash over her ass and thighs. Finally, finally, the beating stopped. Her body was bathed in sweat, the salt stinging her abraded flesh. She felt something warm and wet rolling down her legs and realized with dizzying horror that it was blood.

~*~

James dropped the switch and crouched behind Kelsey, staring in fascination at the welts he’d raised, his eyes tracking the slow roll of bright red blood where the branch had cut her soft white skin. He hadn’t meant to hit her quite so hard or for quite so long. Though it had been over a decade since he’d felt the cut of the switch, James still remembered its fiery sting. But his father had never made him bleed.

But then, he’d never tried to shoot his father in the face, either. Kelsey had tried to kill him! In cold blood, she’d pulled that trigger, fully prepared to murder him. The thought was too much to handle just then, so he pushed it away, focusing instead on the rivulets of blood that trailed along her welted thighs.

He had done that. He had chastised his naughty girl with a beating, and now he would find a way to forgive her.

He realized his cock had returned to a rock-hard state, despite his having just orgasmed. He leaned forward and parted his lips, licking her skin as his cock throbbed. He drew his tongue down her leg, tasting the warm copper of blood mingled with the salt of her sweat.

I write the rules, he told himself, refusing to allow himself to be shocked at his behavior. We’ve left the world behind us now, well and truly. My word is law. Kelsey lives or dies by my hand. The thought thrilled him, power surging through his blood like a drug.

Kelsey was crying quietly, the tumble of her hair hiding her face as she rested against the hood of the car, her feet barely touching the ground. She looked so fucking hot like that, naked, arms bound behind her back, her ass and thighs welted and bleeding. Though he’d planned to take her inside and make love to her in the master bedroom, he realized he couldn’t even wait as long as it would take to get her there.