My Lady Captive by Shirl Anders Page A

you do not lay still.”
    Orèlan sucked in a terrified breath as Quay
touched her sex with the wet sponge. The position she was tied in
was debased and she squirmed in humiliation as Quay scrubbed her
sex with the soapy sponge.
    “Look her nipples are hard,” Alexei quipped,
and the guards laughed.
    Orèlan moaned in shame, and then she heard
Wyndham shout, “I love you, Orèlan! Do you hear me? I love
you!”
    “Silence!” Alexei shouted as Orèlan closed
her eyes to the sound of Wyndham’s words. Love was their strength
and power, she realized. She must be brave for Wyndham. She had to
be brave for their love, and she was able to stop her struggling
then as she opened her eyes and saw Quay bringing the straight
razor forward. Quay, touched her as only one man had ever done as
he began to shave her pubic hair away, while tears she could not
stop leaked from her eyes. But she did not struggle again, she only
trembled and prayed for it to be over.
    “Bravo!” Alexei exclaimed when the shaving
was finished, and then, Orèlan saw Alexei clamping his hand onto
Quay’s shoulder as he said, “Now tattoo her the way I told
you.”
    The word tattoo raced through Orèlan’s mind
like a fiery blaze. No, madre dios, no! She tried
desperately to turn her head to see Wyndham, but she could not from
where she was tied.
    “You are a sick bastard!” Wyndham
shouted.
    “Oh, Khrisinan, you do not approve of my
method of revenge for your slut?” Alexei asked snidely. “I thought
it was inspirational. Just wait to see what Quay is going to brand
on your bitch, Lord Hawkenge.”
    Orèlan felt Quay’s fingers touching the slit
of her sex and she gasped, jerking her body. Then she screamed
silently at herself to lay still. She had to lay still! Quay’s
finger lifted one lip as she quivered, trying to lie still, but
then a sharp striking pain came in the tenderest place on her body.
She screamed. She could not lay still! The pain struck again, and
she gasped another involuntary scream beneath the gag. But the gag
was cloying and she could not get enough air into her lungs as the
pain of the tattooing relentlessly continued.
    “It is done!” Alexei exclaimed and Orèlan
jerked. She must have passed out? “Another half a marker,”
Alexei continued, “And that makes one marker, Khrisinan. So now you
only owe me two!”
    Orèlan moaned as she felt her ankles being
untied. Her sex throbbed unbearably, then the gag was pulled from
her mouth and more hands were at her wrists untying those also.
    Wyndham watched Alexei turn toward him,
Alexei’s light blue eyes had a feverish quality, but there was an
unexpected sadness in them. “I will give her to the guards for the
last two markers,” Alexei said.
    “No!” Wyndham shouted. “No, Alexei, my God, I
am begging you!”
    Alexei hissed, a sharp intake of breath. “You
see, Khrisinan, I knew you would come to me willingly in the
end!”
    “Yes!” Wyndham exclaimed tightly, at the same
moment Orèlan cried out her denial
    “No, Wyndham! No, you must not do this! No, I
will not let you!”
    “Take her away from here!” Alexei shouted
angrily. “Take her-,” Alexei turned to Wyndham.
    “To the Royal Hotel,” Wyndham expelled. “To
Lord Sutherlin.”
    “No! No!” Orèlan cried as the guards dragged
her from the room.
    “You see, Khrisinan,” Alexei whispered. “I
always knew that you had an escape plan. Ever the consummate spy,
my handsome man.”

    Chapter Thirteen

    It was a macabre position, Wyndham
thought, he could not be absolutely certain that Alexei had freed
Orèlan. Yet, in some twisted fashion Alexei was honorable in his
own way. For that, and the gut feeling he had that Alexei was done
with Orèlan, he believed him. Now, he wondered, how noble he should
remain? The two guards still held him as a prisoner with their
rifles, forcing him to follow Alexei, in the direction of Alexei’s
suite.
    At least Alexei had ordered the guards to
give him a pair of pants.