“You’re wet, Monica,” Gabriel announced.
Monica’s eyes met mine then, her scarlet blush of shame flooding up from her neck to her face before she dropped her head.
Gabriel smiled and tapped her hip. “Get up,” he said, helping her rise. “Punishment is over.”
I found myself intently watching what happened next, part of me, unbelievably, waiting to see if Gabriel would hold her, if he’d let her cry on his shoulder like he had me. It wasn’t jealousy I was feeling, not quite, but a possessiveness I did not expect.
She stood on quaking legs and Syn took her by the arm into the tent to the waiting Clara. Gabriel’s eyes were on mine when I turned back to him, but I didn’t know how to describe what I felt in that moment. Was I glad that he’d not offered her the comfort he’d offered me? Yes. That, and relieved. Somehow, it felt special that he’d held me, comforted me after punishing me so cruelly.
Confusion dampened my arousal and for the first time in my life, I wondered who I was. I’d always been a good girl. I’d always done what I’d been told and I had always known what was expected of me, how I was to behave, first for my family, and then for Arthur. Emotions had never ruled me as completely as they did now, confusing me, as I tried to make sense of the missing revulsion I knew I should feel… a revulsion that was absolutely and undeniably absent. Who was I? In the space of mere days, had I become something other than what I’d been the past twenty years of my life? Was that even possible?
Chapter Eight
Gabriel told himself it was only the knowledge of who she really was that made him study her with even more interest now. He wasn’t the only one keeping a closer eye on her either. He noted Syn’s eyes on her and he needed to ask what had transpired in the tent between the women to earn Evangeline the three thin stripes across her bottom and Helena the dozen that decorated her plump cheeks.#p#分页标题#e#
But right now, he was only interested in Evangeline, in trying to understand what was going on in her head. The other girls stood wide-eyed, some teary, all frightened. All but Evangeline. It was as if a tornado was gathering in her pretty gray-green eyes. She’d watched him throughout Monica’s punishment, but her gaze had grown even more intense afterward. He wondered if she’d felt aroused. She would be confused by that arousal if that were the case. After all, how could a civilized human being take pleasure in a fellow human being’s suffering? Especially if that fellow human being was a captive, just like them.
Syn cleared his throat, drawing Gabriel out of his thoughts. He checked his watch. The buyers would be here within the next hour. There was business to be done now. It wasn’t the time to wonder about whether or not Evangeline was aroused by watching another girl punished. That time would come soon though. Soon, he and Syn would have the pretty girl home and all to themselves to study her intimately, to learn every one of her reactions.
“Are we addressing lying?” Syn asked quietly enough so that only Gabriel could hear.
Gabriel thought about it and glanced at Evangeline. He nodded.
“Tell me about obedience and disobedience, ladies.”
There was just time enough for a collective intake of breath before they answered in one voice “Obedience is rewarded, disobedience punished.”
“Good. Glad to see you are all understanding things.” With that, he handed the strap back to a waiting guard and made a point of looking them all over. “You, up straighter. Get those tits out there. The more appealing you are, the more money you’ll command — and tits appeal. That, and ass.” He adjusted the girl and walked on to stand in front of Evangeline. Having the women shaved the way they had would have put them in the right frame of mind. What he’d ask next would drive that home. “You’re all shaved bare at the front. I now need to see the back. Turn around, widen your stance to shoulder width and bend over, hands around your ankles, for inspection.”
There were a few gasps and some of the girls began to cry.
Evangeline’s face remained blank but her eyes met his directly. It wasn’t defiance he saw in them, but curiosity. The mystery of her mind intrigued him, drew him to her.
“Move,” Gabriel said. He was quickly running out of patience with himself and would be glad to have the buyers come and take the women off his hands. He needed to keep a constant vigil over his thoughts, his actions. More than a dozen naked women parading around him, submitting to his commands, well, it was heady stuff, that power. It wasn’t always easy to remain good, to do the right thing, at least in some ways.