Chapter 82: My Little Masochist (18)
Alicia’s ears flattened before Severin finished the order.
"Stay on the outer landing. Don’t pass the heavy door unless there’s fire, an attack, trouble below, or Tressa brings an urgent medical summons."
Her blue eyes flicked past him toward the corridor leading deeper into the residential wing.
"Yes, Master."
Her tail curled once around her ankle, then loosened. She stepped to the landing rail and faced the stair without another word.
Severin left her there.
The residential wing had gone quiet. Copperglass still worked below, but distance softened the forge hammers into dull knocks through the floor. Lamp oil burned low in the wall cups. He took 2 turns, opened the heavy inner door, and stopped before Marienne’s room.
The brass key came from the inner left pocket of his coat.
It entered the lock without resistance.
The click carried through the wood.
Severin turned the key and opened the door.
Marienne waited beside the writing desk.
She hadn’t arranged herself on the bed. The dark green robe remained tied over an ivory shift, her mahogany hair loose across her shoulders. Her bandaged right hand rested near her waist while her left held the edge of a single page flat against the desk.
A blue-gray packet sat beside it. Copperglass wax sealed the fold, and a supplier stamp marked the outer paper.
Severin entered and closed the door behind him. The interior bolt slid into place beneath his hand.
Marienne watched him return the key to his coat pocket.
"You followed the order," he said.
"I finished the accounts first."
"I can see that."
A closed ledger pinned the north edge of the page. Sand dusted the last wet correction near the bottom. She’d rewritten the thing until only a few paragraphs remained.
Severin crossed to the desk.
"Read it," Marienne said.
He took the page from beneath her left fingers. She released it without reaching with the bandaged hand.
The opening paragraph kept Copperglass’s title, Core, treasury, and ordinary business in Marienne’s hands. The next clauses gave Severin final command over any armed threat he accepted. Once Marienne placed dangerous proof in his hands, it stayed with him until the threat was settled.
He reached the final paragraph and looked up.
"You buried the important part."
Marienne’s chin lifted. "Which part?"
"When I take a threat, my field command is final."
"That sentence is in the middle."
"You buried it in cleaner words."
"Cleaner words prevent later stupidity."
"Not mine."
"Other people will read this."
"Not tonight."
A faint color moved beneath her pale skin.
Severin put the page down. "The title and Core stay yours. So do the treasury and ordinary work. When I take an operation, the guards obey me until the threat is finished."
"Provided you accepted the operation."
"If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be there."
"And if your numbers are wrong, your supplier is lying, or your plan risks the people we need, I tell you."
"You tell me the truth."
"Even when you dislike it."
"Especially then."
Her left forefinger tapped the lower margin. "I won’t have financial fact treated as disobedience."
"Hiding it would be disobedience. Giving it to me isn’t."
That stopped her.
Below them, a cart rolled over uneven stone. The axle complained until the sound faded into the yard.
Marienne glanced at the page. "The division is useful."
"Useful isn’t why you gave me the key."
Her eyes returned to his.
"You protected this house," she said. "You recovered what was taken. You put men beneath my floor who would’ve sold people and called it trade. I won’t pretend those facts are nothing."
"They’re facts. Not payment."
"I know."
"Then don’t offer gratitude as consideration."
The business word landed badly enough to make her mouth tighten.
"I’m not purchasing access to your bed," she said.
"No. You already chose who enters it."
Her breath shortened.
Severin rested his palm on the page. "Tell me why."
Marienne held his gaze for a moment too long. Formal words gathered behind her eyes, each one ready to stand between them.
He waited.
"Because your authority is useful," she said at last.
"Half an answer."
"Because you don’t need Copperglass to control me."
"Closer."
Her left hand curled against the desk. "Because I want you to."
Severin slid the page beneath the closed ledger.
"Accepted."
Marienne’s shoulders eased by less than an inch. "You make it like a field order."
"You’d hide in clauses if I let you."
"And you shorten every answer until it resembles a command."
"You like those better."
The color at her throat deepened.
Severin looked at the blue-gray packet. "What’s that?"
"A filed sample from the latest supplier lot."
"Problem?"
"Possibly." Her left thumb pressed the stamped fold. "The stamp names accepted brace stock. The filed edge looks duller than it should, and the piece feels too light."
"You tested it?"
"No. The seal remains intact, and I want controlled comparisons in daylight."
"It can wait."
Marienne’s mouth curved without quite becoming a smile. "I assumed you would say that."
"You put it beside the page."
"I wanted you to know tomorrow already has work waiting."
"Tomorrow can keep waiting."
He removed his coat and laid it across the back of the south chair. The key stayed in its inner pocket. His boots followed, placed beside the chair with their toes toward the door.
Marienne watched him fold his shirt onto the seat.
"Before I touch you," Severin said, "there’s something you need to know."
Her expression sharpened. The owner returned in an instant, her attention fixed on him.
"Go on."
"When I finish with a woman who chose me, I can copy 1 Skill she possesses."
Marienne didn’t look at the bed. "What happens to mine?"
"Nothing. Your Skill stays yours."
"And you choose the Skill before?"
"Yes."
Her gaze moved to his bare chest, then back to his face. "Which one?"
"Composition Assay."
Silence held for a beat.
"Did you come here for me," she asked, "or for the Skill?"
"I accepted you before I chose it. The Skill is useful."
Marienne’s mouth parted, then closed again.
"Say its name," Severin said.
Her eyes stayed on his. "Composition Assay."
Severin made his choice.
Marienne watched him. "That’s all?"
"Until afterward."
"And if I refuse the Copy?"
"Then I don’t take it."
Her gaze stayed on him through a deliberate silence.
Severin stepped around the south end of the desk.
Marienne didn’t retreat. Her left hand lowered to her side. The bandaged right remained protected against her waist.
"There’s another fact," she said.
"Tell me."
The formality almost returned. He saw her stop it herself.
"You’ll be my first man."
Severin closed the remaining distance and put his left hand around her waist.
"Good."
Her breath caught at the simple answer.
His right hand closed in her hair near the roots and tilted her face up. Her neck followed the pull in one clean line.
"The desk is finished with you."
"Yes."
"Cross the room."
Marienne obeyed.
She walked to the foot of the bed while Severin followed close enough that she could feel him behind her. The foot bench stood between them and the south chair. He drew a folded spare towel from the stack at the east washstand and laid it on the woven rug.
"Turn around."
She did.
"Open the robe."
Her left hand found the tie. The right remained still.
The knot loosened. Dark green silk parted over the ivory shift beneath it.
Severin caught both sides of the robe and drew them down her shoulders. The fabric slid along her arms until it reached the bandage. He slowed there, freed the right sleeve without scraping the wrapped hand, and folded the robe over the foot bench.
Marienne stood in the thin shift, nipples already visible through the ivory cloth.
"Lift your arms. The right only as far as it goes without strain."
She raised them. He pulled the shift over her body, easing it past the bandage, then placed it beside the robe.
Her breasts settled heavily against her chest when the cloth cleared them. Full, soft, and high enough to hold their shape, they moved with the breath she was trying to control. Her waist narrowed beneath them before widening into strong hips and thick thighs.
Ivory undergarments were all that remained.
Severin hooked his fingers under the waistband and drew them down. Marienne stepped free when he tapped each ankle.
"Mm..."
The first sound barely left her throat.
He put the undergarments on the bench and turned back to her.
"Hands down."
Her arms fell to her sides.
His palm closed over her left breast. The weight filled his hand. He squeezed, rolled the nipple beneath his thumb, and watched her controlled face lose its stillness.
"Ngh..."
"Look at me."
She did.
He struck the side of her breast with an open palm.
SLAP!
The full curve jumped beneath his hand. Marienne’s eyes widened, and a sharper breath escaped her.
"Ah..."
Her thighs pressed together.
Severin struck the other breast with the same measured force.
SLAP!
"Hah..."
The sting pulled a lower sound from her. Her nipples hardened, and the thin muscles in her stomach drew tight.
"You do like pain," he said.
"I told you I did."
"You told me you wanted my judgment."
His fingers closed around her jaw. His thumb pressed beneath her lower lip.
"You’ll get it."
The answer left her composure in pieces.
"Yes."
Severin kissed her.
She opened to his kiss without being ordered. The taste of late tea lingered on her tongue. He took the kiss deeper, holding her jaw until her left hand found his bare side and gripped there.
"Mm..."
He bit her lower lip, released it, then kissed along her jaw to her throat. His hand moved from her breast to her ass and pulled her against the erection trapped beneath his trousers.
Marienne shuddered.
"Severin..."
"Kneel."
She looked at the towel, then at him.
The hesitation lasted only long enough to reveal what the order did to her.
She lowered herself between his knees after he sat centered on the foot bench. Her bandaged right hand rested open on her right thigh. Her left hand waited beside it.
Severin opened his trousers and freed his cock.
Marienne’s breath stopped.
He was already hard enough that the heavy cock rose toward his abdomen. A bead of fluid shone at the broad head.
Her eyes traveled down him with open calculation, then returned to his face.
"That expression," Severin said.
"I’m adjusting my expectations."
"Do it with your mouth."
A small laugh escaped her, more breath than humor. "Of course."
Severin caught her hair and brought her forward.
Before her lips reached him, he placed both hands around her breasts and drew them together. His cock disappeared into the warm valley between them.
Marienne stared down.
"Hold them with your left hand."
She obeyed, pressing the lower curves tighter around his cock while the bandaged hand stayed on her thigh.
Severin moved his hips.
Soft flesh slid along him. Her breasts compressed with every stroke, the head appearing above them near her mouth before sinking back between them.
"Mm..."
Marienne lowered her face and licked the head when it emerged.
Her tongue circled him once.
"Hah... you taste..."
"Finish that"
She looked up while her breasts continued squeezing around him. "Like something I intend to swallow."
The answer tightened his abdomen.
"Good."
She took the head between her lips on the next upward stroke.
"Mmh..."
The suction came warm and deliberate. She released him, let her tongue follow the underside, then sealed her lips around him again while her left hand maintained the pressure of her breasts.
Severin’s fingers dug into the soft weight on either side of his cock.
"More pressure."
Marienne squeezed harder.
"Nnnh..."
Her mouth worked the head whenever it rose. Wet heat and the drag of her breasts built in alternating strokes. She watched his stomach tighten and adjusted without being told, pressing her chest together as he drove faster through it.
"Ahh... like that?"
"You know it."
A flicker of satisfaction warmed her eyes.
She opened wider and took more of the head.
"Mmph..."
Severin let her breasts slide around him until pleasure drew a hard line through his lower abdomen. Then he pulled free and tapped her cheek with the wet head.
"Mouth."
Marienne released her breast with her left hand and opened for him.
He entered between her lips.
"Mmmh..."
Her tongue flattened beneath the cock. She sucked slowly at first, learning the weight and width of him, her cheeks hollowing on each withdrawal.
Severin’s left hand closed in her hair near the roots. His right settled on her left shoulder.
"Take me deeper."
She breathed through her nose and lowered her mouth.
His cock slid over her tongue until the head touched the back of her throat.
"Nnnh..."
Her eyes watered. She held him there for a beat, then pulled back with a wet gasp.
"Hah..."
"Again."
Marienne obeyed.
This time she took him deeper before her throat resisted. A muffled sound vibrated around him.
"Mmph... ngh..."
Severin withdrew enough for air.
She inhaled sharply, lips wet and swollen.
"You can do better."
Her eyes sharpened. "Please..teach me."
He tightened his hold in her hair and guided her down.
The broad head slid beyond her tongue, and her throat clenched around him.
"Ghk...!"
He held for less than a breath, then pulled her off.
Marienne coughed once into the space between his knees. He kept his hand at the back of her head until she steadied, then offered the cup from the east table.
She drank with her left hand, dragged the back of her left wrist across her mouth, and gave the cup back.
"Again," she said, voice rougher.
Severin’s cock throbbed at the request.
He set the cup aside and brought her mouth down once more.
"Mmph..."
Her throat took him in stages. He gave her air after each deep press, then returned, setting a rhythm she could follow. Wet sounds filled the room.
Slurp. Gulp. Slurp.
Marienne’s left hand settled at the base, guiding what her mouth couldn’t take. Her right hand remained open on her thigh.
"Nghn... mmph..."
Saliva ran over her lower lip and down his cock. She swallowed around him when he held deep.
The tightening of her throat tore a rough breath from Severin.
"Fuck."
Her eyes lifted at the sound. Satisfaction showed despite the tears gathered at their corners.
He drove into her mouth again.
"Ghk... mmph!"
Her nails pressed into his thigh with her left hand. She didn’t pull away. Instead, she lifted her chin and opened wider for the next stroke.
"More...?"
The question came wet and breathless.
Severin’s grip tightened.
"Take it."
He pushed deep until her nose nearly touched his abdomen, then withdrew before her breath failed.
"Hah... ah..."
She sucked in air, coughed once, and leaned forward on her own.
"Again."
"Mmph... nnnh..."
Her throat worked around him. The wet pressure dragged him closer to the edge with every controlled thrust. He felt the moment his restraint began to thin: thighs tightening against the bench, stomach locking, breath turning rough above her.
Her eyes flicked up to him.
Her left hand closed more firmly at the base. She bobbed faster, then forced herself deep and swallowed around him.
"Ghk...!"
Severin pulled her back by the hair before she lost air.
"I’m going to come in your mouth."
Her lips parted around the head. "Yes... give it to me."
He drove between them again.
Marienne sucked hard, tongue pressing beneath the cock while her left hand worked the base. Her breasts pushed against his thighs. Her eyes stayed on him until the first pulse struck.
Severin held her head still and came.
Semen spilled across her tongue in a hot surge.
"Mmph!"
Another pulse filled her mouth. She swallowed, throat moving around the head, and kept her lips sealed as he released again.
"Nnnh..."
The pressure emptied through him in hard contractions. His head tipped back. His grip in her hair tightened, then eased as the final pulse faded.
Marienne swallowed again.
He withdrew slowly.
A white trace clung to her lower lip. She caught it with her tongue before it could fall.
"Open."
She did.
Her mouth was empty.
"Good."
The word made her pupils widen.
"Mm..."
Severin used a clean cloth on the damp streak at her chin, then gave her water. She drank, breathing through her nose until the strain left her throat.
He stripped off his trousers and underclothes, folded both onto the south chair beneath his shirt, then returned to her.
He stood and drew her up by her left forearm and waist.
Her knees wavered once.
"I can walk," she said.
"I didn’t ask."
His left arm went behind her upper back. His right slid beneath her knees. Marienne kept the bandaged hand against her own chest as he lifted her.
"Huh..."
The sound carried surprise, then softened when he carried her to the bed.
He laid her on the center of the mattress, head on the north pillow. The bandaged hand went onto the spare pillow beside her right shoulder, palm up and free of weight.
"Leave it there."
"Yes."
Her left hand gripped the sheet near her hip.
Severin knelt between her open thighs.
Moisture already shone along her pussy. He spread the swollen lips with his left fingers and watched more wetness gather at the entrance.
Marienne’s breath caught.
"Don’t look so satisfied," she said.
"You are."
"That’s not what I meant."
He dragged his right thumb over her clit.
"Ah!"
The sentence disappeared.
Severin pressed his finger into her.
Her body tightened around it at once.
"Ngh..."
He worked the finger slowly, feeling the narrow heat grip and release. He added his middle finger when her hips began to follow the motion.
"Hah... Severin..."
His thumb circled her clit while the 2 fingers curled inside her.
Marienne’s knees opened farther.
"There... mm..."
He found the pressure that broke her voice and repeated it.
"Ah... there."
Her left hand twisted in the sheet. The bandaged right remained on the pillow, fingers flexing without bearing weight.
Severin increased the rhythm.
Wet sounds followed his hand. Her pussy tightened around his fingers, then released a sudden spill that ran over his knuckles and darkened the linen beneath her.
"Ahhn!"
Marienne’s hips jerked upward.
He kept his thumb off her clit for a beat and watched the response settle.
"Did you come?"
Her breath shook. "No."
"Good."
"Good?"
"You have more to give me."
A broken laugh escaped her. "You sound certain."
"Certain enough."
He withdrew his fingers and spread the wetness over her entrance.
Marienne watched his cock as he moved between her thighs. It had hardened again during the preparation, the cock heavy and slick from her mouth.
Her left heel planted on the mattress. Then the right followed, toes angled outward.
Severin positioned the head against her.
She went still.
"Tell me," he said.
Marienne’s eyes met his. "Please..Put it inside me."
He pressed forward.
The head entered slowly, opening her around him. Her breath stopped as the first resistance caught.
"Ngh..."
Severin braced his left forearm on the mattress beside her left shoulder and kept his weight away from the bandaged hand. His right hand locked around her left hip.
He pushed deeper.
"Ah... wait..."
He held where he was.
Pain tightened her face. She breathed through it, left hand crushing the sheet. A small streak of red appeared beneath the place where their bodies joined.
Severin watched her eyes, her mouth, the tension in her abdomen.
Her left hand stayed fisted in the sheet. Her legs remained open around his hips.
Marienne exhaled.
"More."
He entered another inch.
"Ahh..."
Her pussy clenched hard around him. The narrow pressure dragged along every nerve of his cock.
He held again until the resistance softened.
"All of it," she whispered.
Severin rose from the forward lean and drove the rest of the way in.
"Ngh—Severin!"
Her back lifted from the mattress. His hips settled between her thighs, cock buried deep in virgin heat.
For a moment neither moved.
Marienne’s breath struck his throat in short bursts.
"You’re... too big."
"You took me."
Her legs closed around his hips and pulled him closer.
"Then..please fuck me hard.."
The polished woman at the desk had vanished from her voice.
Severin drew back slowly. Her pussy gripped every inch as though refusing to release him. He drove in again.
"Ah!"
Her breasts bounced against her chest.
He set a controlled rhythm, drawing back far enough to stretch her before driving into the same depth. Their bodies met beneath her lifted thighs.
CLAP!
"Ngh... ah..."
Marienne’s left heel dug into the mattress. Her pussy remained brutally tight, slick enough now that the first pain gave way to heat.
"Harder," she said.
Severin pulled her left hip into the next stroke.
CLAP!
"Ahhn!"
Her hips rose to meet him.
His left palm cracked across her breast.
SLAP!
"Hah!"
Her pussy tightened around him.
He caught the other breast from below and struck its full curve.
SLAP!
"Again..."
Severin drove deep, then slapped the first breast once more.
SLAP!
"Ah! Yes..."
The response was immediate. Her thighs opened wider. Wetness spread around the base of his cock.
He curved his left hand around the sides and back of her neck, fingers firm beneath her hair.
Marienne’s eyes widened.
"Look at me."
She obeyed.
He fucked her harder.
"Ngh... ngh..."
Her next breath came full and shaking, but the possession hold broke her sentences into sound. Every deep return made her breasts jump and her mouth open.
"Severin... harder..."
"Take what I give you."
"Yes... ah!"
He shortened the last part of each stroke and drove faster. Her pussy squeezed him in scattered pulses.
Fluid spilled around his cock and ran over his thighs.
"Ahhn—!"
Marienne shook beneath him.
"Not yet," Severin said.
"I... I’m not..."
A rough stroke cut the protest apart.
"Ngh!"
He released her neck, caught her breast from below, and slapped it before returning his hand behind her neck.
SLAP!
"Again," she gasped. "Please..."
He struck the other breast.
SLAP!
Her hips bucked upward.
"Ah!"
The tightening became rhythmic. Her mouth lost the next word entirely.
"Sev—ah..."
Severin drove through the first contraction.
Marienne’s pussy clamped around him. Her body arched, left hand tearing the sheet loose from the mattress corner.
"Severin!"
She came with a cry that broke into breath. Fluid burst around his cock in a hot spill, soaking the linen beneath her hips.
His pace never broke.
The contractions squeezed him harder with every stroke. Marienne’s eyes lost focus, then found him again when his fingers tightened behind her neck.
"Look at me while you take it."
"I... ah... yes."
Severin fucked her through the final pulses. The pressure around his cock, the fresh wetness, and the way her legs locked around him dragged his own climax close.
His abdomen tightened.
Her left leg tightened around him and pulled him deeper.
"Inside," she breathed. "Come inside me."
Severin buried himself.
Release tore through him.
His cock pulsed deep inside her, semen spilling in heavy surges while her pussy still fluttered around him.
"Ngh..."
Marienne’s eyes closed. Her breath warmed his cheek.
He held the depth until the last pulse faded.
For several breaths, the room contained only their bodies and the low knock of work far below.
Severin withdrew slowly. Semen followed, mixing with her wetness and the small red streak on the linen.
Marienne flinched at the loss, then let her knees fall apart.
"Your hand?"
"Unchanged." She shifted her hips once, breath catching at the soreness. "And before you ask, nothing sharp."
Her gaze dropped to his cock. It had softened after the release, but not completely.
"You’re not finished," she said.
"No."
A slow smile reached her mouth at last. "Good."
He gave her time to breathe while his body recovered. His hand moved over her thigh, not teasing the oversensitive center, only keeping her aware of him. The heavy pull in his abdomen eased with unfair speed, and his cock hardened again beneath her watching eyes.
"That seems unfair," she murmured.
"To whom?"
"Me, eventually."
"Turn over."
The humor vanished into a quick breath.
"Yes."
Severin guided her onto her knees facing the headboard. Her left forearm supported her upper body. The bandaged right hand rested open on the pillow, taking no weight.
Her ass lifted behind her, full and pale above spread thighs. Semen and wetness shone between them.
Severin knelt behind her with his knees outside her lower legs.
He dragged his palm over the curve of her right buttock.
Marienne shivered.
"Present yourself."
She lowered her chest and pushed her hips back until the weight of her ass filled his hands.
"Like this?"
His palm slapped the right buttock.
SLAP!
"Ah!"
The soft flesh jumped. Her pussy clenched visibly between her thighs.
He changed sides.
SLAP!
"Ngh..."
Her hips pushed back again instead of retreating.
"Better," Severin said.
He spread her with his thumbs and lined himself up. She was still wet enough to take him without hesitation.
He entered from behind.
"Ahh—!"
Marienne’s left forearm tightened against the mattress. Her right hand remained free beside her face.
Severin gripped both hip bones and drove deep.
CLAP!
"Ngh... Severin..."
The new angle opened her farther. Her pussy closed around him with lingering sensitivity from the first climax.
He drew back and rammed into her again.
CLAP!
The north wall caught a single knock from the bed frame.
"Ah!"
He set the pace with both hands on her hips, pulling her back to meet each hard thrust. Wet impacts filled the room. The mattress groaned under her knees, and the bed frame knocked whenever he drove deepest.
"Hah... deeper..."
Severin’s left hand moved into her hair near the roots. He drew her head and shoulders up, forcing her back into an arch.
Marienne gasped.
"Ah..."
He drove into her harder from behind.
"Look forward."
She faced the headboard, breath trembling.
"Yes."
His right hand landed hard on her ass.
SLAP!
"Ah!"
Her pussy squeezed him. He waited through 2 hard strokes, then struck the left.
SLAP!
"Ngh—yes..."
The next thrust buried him to the base.
CLAP!
Marienne’s knees spread another inch across the sheet.
"Again!"
Severin kept his grip in her hair and hit the right cheek harder.
SLAP!
Her ass rolled under the blow. A fresh line of wetness slipped down her inner thigh.
"There you are," he said. "My little masochist."
The words made her tighten around him.
"Yours... ah!"
He struck the left cheek.
SLAP!
Marienne pushed back into his cock before the sting had faded.
Severin released her hair before reaching around her body. His left hand closed over her breast, squeezing until the nipple pressed between his fingers.
"Ahhn..."
He supported the weight from below and slapped the full curve.
SLAP!
Marienne’s pussy tightened hard around him.
"Severin..."
"You take pain beautifully."
The praise stripped the polish from her voice.
"More... please."
He squeezed through the recoil. His left hand slid from her breast to the sides and back of her neck, keeping the front of her throat open.
Marienne’s breath came ragged beneath his palm.
Severin drove harder.
"Nghnn..."
She pushed her ass back to meet him.
He changed holds. His left palm settled between her shoulder blades while his right guided the side of her neck and pressed her down.
The left side of her face sank into the north pillow. Her mouth remained free against its edge, the bandaged right hand open beside her cheek.
His right hand returned to her hip.
"Stay there."
"Mm... yes."
He drove into her hard while the mattress held her beneath him.
CLAP!
The pillow muffled her cry.
"Ahhn...!"
His hips struck her raised ass again.
CLAP!
The bed knocked against the wall. Her body rocked under his left palm, but her hips kept reaching back.
"Severin... I..."
A deep thrust cut the sentence apart.
"Ngh!"
His right palm struck the exposed cheek.
SLAP!
"Ah!"
Her pussy clenched, forcing a wet spill down his cock.
He struck the other side.
SLAP!
"Again..."
Another stroke drove her forward against the pillow.
"Harder... please..."
Severin increased the force.
Her body answered before her voice did. The wetness around his cock turned into repeated spurts, each one stronger when his palm landed.
SLAP!
"Ahhn!"
He changed cheeks without slowing.
SLAP!
"Ngh—Severin!"
She pushed back despite the hand keeping her shoulders down.
"That’s what you wanted," he said.
"Yes... yes, I wanted... this."
"Then take it."
He pulled her hip into another full stroke.
CLAP!
Her fingers curled into the pillow.
The next words came too quickly for her usual control.
"Make me your wife...please"
Severin didn’t slow. His palm struck the right cheek again.
SLAP!
Marienne cried into the pillow.
"Maybe later."
He drove deep enough to make her hips jerk.
"Keep pleasing me," he said. "Keep serving me. Keep obeying me, and I’ll decide when."
Her body tightened around him.
"Yes... Severin... yes."
He struck the left cheek and caught her hip before the recoil could turn her.
SLAP!
"Ah—!"
Severin gripped both hips and pulled her into a series of hard strokes.
CLAP!
The headboard knocked once, then twice against the wall.
"Ngh... ah... ah..."
Her breathing lost its rhythm. The sounds came faster than words.
"I’m close..."
"Not yet."
"I can’t..."
"You’re not done."
His hand cracked across the right cheek.
SLAP!
"Ahhn!"
He thrust through the recoil, then hit the left.
SLAP!
"Severin—!"
Her pussy began to pulse.
Severin drove deep.
CLAP!
"Come for me."
The command pushed her over.
Marienne convulsed beneath him.
"SEVERIN!"
Fluid burst around his cock and sprayed across his thighs and the linen. Her ass jerked backward. The contractions caught him in hard waves.
He didn’t stop.
Severin locked her hips and kept fucking her through the climax.
"Ah—ah—wait...!"
Her left forearm failed, pressing her chest deeper into the mattress, but her hips still pushed back.
He held them square and drove harder.
"Nghnn!"
Another gush spilled from her as he drove through the fading pulses. Her body shuddered, then reached back for him again instead of closing away.
Her voice dissolved into breath.
"Too... too much..."
"You asked for more."
"Yes..."
His palm struck her right buttock.
SLAP!
"Ah!"
Her pussy snapped tight around him.
He struck the left.
SLAP!
"Ngh—!"
The second blow forced another hot squirt down his thighs. Severin pulled her back into the next thrust before her knees could drift.
"That’s it," he said. "Give me all of it."
Marienne’s legs trembled. Her knees began to slide apart.
Severin closed both hands around her hip bones and pulled her back into place. Once her knees held, his left palm returned to her upper back and his right locked her hip.
"Hold it."
"I...Trying..."
"Obey."
Her breath broke into a desperate laugh. "Yes..."
He drove into her without mercy for the softness of the word.
Her pussy remained swollen and wet around him, tighter from the unfinished contractions. Every stroke dragged another sound from her.
"Ah... ngh... Severin..."
"Again."
"I can’t... come again..."
"You will."
He lifted her right hip and drove into the place that had broken her rhythm before.
"Ahhn! There..."
He repeated it.
"There—there..."
His own climax gathered behind the hard ache in his abdomen. The grip of her pussy had become almost unbearable, virgin tightness softened by slick heat and repeated contractions but still closing around him with every withdrawal.
Severin’s breath roughened.
Marienne’s hips pressed back at the sound.
"Inside me... again..."
"When you come."
"Severin..."
He slapped the right cheek.
SLAP!
"Ah!"
The impact made her squirt again, a hot stream running over his lower abdomen.
He changed sides and struck the other cheek.
SLAP!
"Ngh—ah!"
Her body shook under his hands.
"Now," Severin said.
Marienne’s cry tore free.
"SEVERIN—!"
A new climax seized her before the last one had fully released its hold. Her pussy clamped around him in brutal, rapid contractions. Fluid sprayed in repeated bursts, soaking the sheets and his thighs.
Severin drove deep and came with her.
His cock pulsed inside Marienne as her body seized around him. Semen filled her womb in heavy surges. She cried his name again, then lost language entirely, mouth open against the pillow while another strong squirt spilled beneath them.
"Ahhn... ah...!"
He held her pressed down and buried to the base through every pulse.
Only after her contractions weakened did he slow.
Marienne’s knees gave way.
Severin caught her hips before her weight pitched forward. He withdrew with care, supported her upper body, and lowered her onto her left side. Her bandaged right hand remained clear of the mattress beneath her. He rolled her onto her back and placed the clean pillow under it again.
Semen leaked from her pussy in a thick line, mixing with the clear fluid across her thighs. The same narrow red streak marked the sheet beneath her hips.
Marienne stared at the ceiling, chest rising and falling in deep pulls.
"Look at me," Severin said.
Her eyes moved to him at once.
Her gaze found him and stayed there. Exhaustion had loosened every line of her body, but happiness still tugged at one corner of her mouth.
"Say something."
"Your bedside manner remains terrible."
His hand passed over her shoulder, down her side, and across her hip. She only flinched when his fingers neared the swollen soreness between her thighs.
"Anything else?"
"No." Her voice was hoarse. "I don’t think I can stand."
"You aren’t standing."
"Good."
Severin brought warm water from the east washstand. A clean cloth passed over her breasts and stomach. Fresh cloths cleaned her inner thighs, the small blood streak, the semen leaking from her, and the fluid soaking the linen.
Marienne made a weak sound when the cloth passed near her swollen clit.
"Ngh... careful."
"That wasn’t pain."
"It was still a complaint."
"Denied."
A breathy laugh escaped her. "Of course."
He folded the wet linen inward, replaced the support beneath her hips, and put the used cloths and towels into the east basin basket. No servant entered. The door remained bolted.
When he gave her water, she drank from the cup with her left hand. Her right stayed on the pillow.
Severin covered her to the waist and sat on the east edge of the bed.
[Skill Copy successful.]
[Skill Grade: E — Established Skill]
[Skill Name: Composition Assay]
[Void Imprint recorded.]
The Skill settled into him as an unfamiliar certainty.
Given a compact nonliving sample, he could separate its make into proportions and phases, then read the physical properties those parts produced.
He had the tool.
Marienne still held the judgment that made it useful.
She watched his face. "It worked."
"Yes."
Her gaze moved toward the west desk and found the blue-gray packet beside the closed ledger.
"The filed edge," she said.
"Tomorrow."
"The supplier stamp names accepted brace stock. The grain at the cut looks duller, and the piece is too light in the hand." Her breath caught when she shifted her hip, but she continued. "I need 3 controlled comparisons in daylight. Numbered samples. Clean provenance."
"You can barely lift your head."
"My judgment survived."
"I noticed."
Marienne’s mouth curved faintly. "Then don’t let anyone open the packet before morning."
Severin looked across the room.
The seal remained intact. The supplier stamp said the metal belonged in Copperglass.
The filed edge said it didn’t.
"Morning," he said. "We test it then."