Holy shit. That last sentence sent a chill down her spine combined with a spike of pure anticipation.
She made a physical effort to relax in his grip. The expressions on the Dinavri faces were scornful, confused, and maybe a little admiring, though the last part might have been hopeful projection on her part.
There was one who was particularly impressive, blue and gold scaling, and a sort of cocky expression plastered on a powerful face for a snake alien. He must have been their leader. He was the first one to speak.
“Who is this?” The question was addressed to Atlas, of course.
“I’m Jerri,” Jerri said. Atlas’s hand tightened on the back of her neck. She knew she was supposed to be posing as a submissive human mate, but surely that illusion was broken already.
“This is Lord Sithren,” Atlas introduced them formally.
“Lord Sithren,” Jerri said, inclining her head in what she hoped was a respectful way.
“You flew very well for a human female. I thought you might have some sort of mechanical augmentation, but you seem to be natural.”
“Give me one of your shiny ships and I’ll show you what flying actually is. Flying that thing is like flying a cardboard box.”
“Enough, Jerri,” Atlas said, slapping her ass with the open flat of his palm. It wasn’t as hard as she expected it to be, but it was hard enough to make her fall silent. There was an energy in the group she didn’t know how to read. A certain intensity, or was it anticipation?
“I had invited your master to drink the v’kar with us. Now the two of you will join me. You will entertain us further.”
“See? He’s not mad.” She murmured the words to Atlas as they were conducted from the port toward the city. “Holy shit, this place is amazing! Have you ever seen a city like this?”
“He’s not mad because he’s going to see you have your ass whipped,” Atlas said. “You are going to be punished more thoroughly than you have ever been punished in your life.”
“Can’t we try diplomacy first?”
“This is diplomacy,” he hissed in her ear. “Your ass is how we avoid this turning into an interstellar incident of epic proportions. I cannot tell you how much you’ve fucked up at this point in time, to use a phrase you might have a chance of understanding.”
He was very unhappy with her. Very. Very. Very unhappy. Jerri felt herself curl up and whimper internally, already silently begging for mercy.
They were led into a building that was as spectacular as all the others, which was to say she wasn’t paying attention to the details and was far more concerned about the fate of her hide. Atlas was not behaving like an Authority commander in this moment. He was acting like a Kitari warrior, and that did not bode well for her.
She knew he had to garner the respect of the Dinavri.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered in his ear. “I got scared.”
“Fear is no reason to fly past a dozen priceless and absolutely irreplaceable buildings. If you’d have hit any one of them, you’d have killed yourself and triggered a war.”
With that, his fingers found the zipper at the back of her flight suit and pulled it down so hard it caught and then broke and then the entire thing ripped open all the way down to her tailbone.
Jerri shrieked with shock as he pulled the flight suit off her, leaving her standing in bra and panties, both of them Authority uniform issue, neither one of them any match for his grip and rip technique that saw her bared in a matter of seconds.
The only thing clothing her now was hot shame and an abundance of regret.
“Atlas…”
“You will address me as master,” he declared. “You know better than to use my name when you are being punished.”
She had half forgotten they were pretending that she was his living sex toy. His words shocked her to her core as she wrapped her arms around her chest and wished he’d left her with just a little in the way of modesty.
The Dinavri were ranged around them in a circle. There was nowhere to hide. There was nothing she could hide. They were seeing her breasts, and her curves and her skin and the blonde curls that up until this point only two souls had ever seen. She was being shared with a group of at least thirteen Dinavri, all of whom were expecting her to suffer greatly.
“Hands and knees,” Atlas growled harshly.
He was being so intensely stern, and so convincing about it she did not know if he was putting it on for the benefit of the Dinavri or if he truly meant it. It didn’t matter either way. She had to obey.
She hesitated for a moment, considering running away. She knew it wouldn’t work, but her basic instincts told her to flee the area as fast as she possibly could. Just as she got to the verge of a very ill-advised idea, Atlas caught her by the chin and directed her eyes to his burning gaze.