Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 75260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
A sob escaped my throat despite my bitten lip, the sound echoing off the stone walls of my cell. The abrupt transition from desperate stimulation to relative numbness felt like a small death, my body suddenly foreign and unresponsive. But even as tears pricked at my eyes, I felt a strange wash of gratitude flood through me.
He was watching. Even now, even here in this terrible place, Prince Hendren was monitoring my responses and protecting me from my own shameful needs. The governor’s suppression had saved me from the mortifying experience of climaxing while tied up and utterly revealed in a prison cell, my cries echoing through the corridors for any guard to hear.
Yet as the physical sensations faded to nothing, I discovered something remarkable. My mind refused to release the fantasy that had consumed me. The images of Valerrar and Prince Hendren using my body continued to play behind my closed eyelids with vivid intensity, and I found that the mental arousal remained completely intact despite the governor’s intervention.
I could still feel the phantom weight of Valerrar’s authority as he claimed my mouth, still imagine the devastating stretch as Prince Hendren took my bottom with merciless precision. The shame of serving both men, of being reduced to nothing more than holes for their pleasure, sent waves of psychological arousal through me that the governor couldn’t touch.
The realization struck me with startling clarity: it was possible to be aroused mentally even when every nerve ending had been electrochemically silenced. My mind could crave degradation and surrender even when my body felt nothing at all. The discovery should have disturbed me, but instead it filled me with an odd sense of relief.
Tomorrow morning, when Prince Hendren raised the judicial cane above my bound form, the governor would suppress every trace of physical pleasure just as it was doing now. I would feel nothing but pure agony as the rod whistled down to stripe my flesh—no chemical cushion, no treacherous arousal to confuse punishment with reward.
But my mind would still be mine. In the depths of that brutal correction, as pain tore through my nervous system with clinical precision, I could still retreat into the psychological need that had brought me to this cell. I could find refuge in the way that—thanks to be sure to my careful master’s training—I had finally embraced my body’s craving to submit.
CHAPTER 26
Viola
So sure I had been that I could never fall asleep in the holding cell that, when a bell woke me, I thought it must only be the sounding of the night watch, with many hours still to come before morning. Then I heard the lock on the cell door click, I felt the relaxation in my limbs, and I understood that I had managed not only to sleep, but somehow even to sleep well.
The door swung open and I heard footsteps approaching. I craned my face back over my shoulder to see Prince Hendren come into my field of vision. He wore his formal diplomatic attire, his lovely eyes meeting mine with an intensity that made my heart skip. Behind him stood the sergeant-at-arms, his bearing rigid with military precision. My master’s presence filled the small cell completely, transforming the sterile space into something that felt both more intimate and more terrifying.
“Good morning, Viola,” Prince Hendren said, his voice carrying that familiar authority that sent shivers through my restrained form. “I trust you slept well?”
I struggled to find my voice, my throat dry from the night’s anxious dreams. “Yes, Your Royal Highness. Thank you.”
He stepped closer, and I caught sight of something that made my blood freeze. In his hands, he carried a long, thick length of a wood I recognized from pictures as bamboo, its surface gleaming under the cell’s harsh lighting. The judicial cane. The instrument that would soon mark my flesh with brutal precision before the watching galaxy.
“The microdrone cameras are already active,” he continued, his tone conversational despite the gravity of his words. “Federation News Services is broadcasting live to all inhabited worlds. Millions are watching as we speak.”
The knowledge that countless eyes were already observing my nakedness, my vulnerability, sent a wave of mortification through me that had nothing to do with physical arousal. The governor’s suppression ensured that my body remained coldly unresponsive, but my mind reeled with the implications.
“Sergeant-at-arms,” Prince Hendren commanded, “release her from the wall.”
I felt the chain slacken as my wrists were freed from their anchor point, though the metal cuffs remained locked around them. The sergeant-at-arms guided me to sit up on the edge of the narrow bed, my bound hands resting in my lap in a futile attempt to preserve some modesty.
Prince Hendren held up the cane, turning it slowly so I could see its full length and thickness. “This is a judicial cane, Viola. Regulation weight and flexibility, designed to deliver maximum correction with minimal risk of permanent injury. Twenty-four strokes will leave marks that last for months.”