But right now there was some getting-even to watch being done…

Jake watched Ennie walk into the alcove as he went back to his pallet, glad the girl no longer showed that deadly depression she’d been in before the slaver’s attack. He hated that he had to go against his own best judgment simply because Tain didn’t agree with him, but he had no choice at all about obeying her order. He parted his lips to say what he’d been told he had to, but Tain interrupted before he could get the first word out.

“Killen, save that explanation until after Ennie is done with what she has in mind,” Tain said, and damned if the woman didn’t look amused. Jake closed his mouth again and nodded to acknowledge this newest order, but the annoyance he felt disappeared when he finally noticed what Ennie carried. Unless he was mistaken, that was Tandro’s knife belt she had…

“Tandro, that body cloth isn’t appropriate right this moment,” Ennie said as she walked toward the native where he’d backed up to his own pallet, her gaze directly on the man. “You can start by taking the cloth off.”

Tandro’s expression of calm control didn’t really change as he reached to his covering, but Jake could see the sudden worry in the man’s dark eyes. Not to mention the sudden desperation. It had been bad enough when another man was in charge of them; having a girl being in charge instead was ten times worse.

“Good boy,” Ennie purred with an odd smile as soon as Tandro had put his body cloth to one side of the pallet. She also sat down on the pallet, which put a wary look on Tandro’s face. “Now I’d like you to arrange yourself face down over my lap, taking the same position you put me in so often.”

Tandro didn’t actually pale as he moved as he’d been told to, but Jake saw that the wariness in the man’s eyes had given way to total desperation. Tandro was probably remembering the same thing Jake was: that time in the hostel when Tandro spanked Ennie in front of Jake and Tain both. It was fairly obvious that the girl meant to return the compliment, but much more thoroughly than Jake had expected.

A gasp was forced out of Tandro’s throat when Ennie reached to the man’s backside with both hands. The girl had put the belt down for the purpose, and now that the belt was out of the way Jake could see that Ennie had carried something besides the leather in her hand. Jake got a glimpse of the insertion just before Ennie put the thing in Tandro, and then she was picking up the belt again.

“You’re a good boy now, but you haven’t always been a good boy, have you?”

Ennie asked as she stroked Tandro’s hair slowly and gently. “I’d say that this is going to hurt me more than it does you, but I think we both know that that would be a lie. You’ve earned punishing, boy, and it’s become my place to see that you get it.” Jake thought Tandro was about to say something, but the first stroke of the leather belt on his backside turned the words into a garbled sound.

The stroke couldn’t have hurt all that much, not when Ennie was far from being well-muscled, but the touch hadn’t been a gentle gesture either. And it was probable that Tandro had automatically tightened his muscles in anticipation of the stroke, an action that would have brought the insertion into play.

“When you did this to me you ordered me to say something that you wanted to hear,” Ennie murmured as her arm brought the leather down on Tandro’s rear a second time. “I, on the other hand, don’t want to hear any kind of words from you. All you have to do is take your licking like a man.”

Tandro groaned as he began to writhe a little, giving Jake the impression that the man wasn’t quite as over the switching from yesterday as they’d both thought they were. Not to mention the fact that Jake had gotten bodily relief the night before but Tandro hadn’t. The insertion was obviously bringing back the arousal Tandro hadn’t had satisfied, but there was nothing either of them could do to stop what was happening. They’d been given orders they weren’t allowed to refuse…

Jake watched his friend get half a dozen strokes of that leather belt before it came to him that this time he hadn’t been ordered to watch the punishment. Jake’s embarrassment on Tandro’s behalf was intense, so he quickly turned away—only to see that the audience was larger than just himself and Tain. All the women who had passed by earlier were now standing in the open doorway, and most of them wore expressions of such grim satisfaction that their presence was more disturbing than embarrassing.

The spanking went on for what was actually only a short time, but every time Jake heard another stroke of the belt land he had to keep himself from flinching. The women in the doorway watched avidly but silently, and Jake could only hope that Tandro didn’t know they were there. Tain stood at the back of the small crowd, her face expressionless as she made no effort to stop what was going on, and that was what got to Jake the most. Tain knew exactly what Tandro was being put through, just the way all the women did, but even she wasn’t prepared to stop the punishment. So much for compassion on behalf of the helpless…

“All right, boy, you can straighten up to kneel on your pallet until I’m out of the way,” Ennie finally said, showing that the spanking was over. “You seem to need something rather badly, but I’m afraid your need is going to be with you for a while. I may get around to doing something about it later, or I may not. We’ll just have to wait and see what my mood is like.”

Jake heard sounds of movement, and then he realized that Ennie was now standing next to his own pallet. He’d been busy studying his hands, and when he looked up he not only saw Ennie but that the other women were no longer in the doorway.

“I think you have something to tell me, Killen,” Ennie said, using his name for what was probably the first time. “Let’s hear it.” “I … didn’t know how you would take the news, Ennie, and that’s why I kept it from you,” Jake said, hating himself for making excuses. “The truth is, Tain and I work for the same people, and Tandro and I meant to take you two back home as soon as we saw to our assignment. If you’d had more experience in the field I would have been able to trust you with knowing everything, but you had no experience and also almost nothing in the way of training. I couldn’t take the chance that you would screw everything up if you knew what was really going on.”

Adding that last made Jake feel a bit better, but the words still made his insides turn over. He’d been told that he didn’t have to obey Ennie, but the possibility existed that Ennie would talk Tain into changing that freedom to something he would sincerely regret. He didn’t quite hold his breath while Ennie simply stared at him with no expression on her face, and then she nodded.

“I’d love to say your opinion of me was wrong, but lying doesn’t solve anything,” the girl said, not very happy with him but far from the rage he’d half expected. “I’ll have to think about what you just told me for a while before I can really react to the news, but I can give you a hint about the way I’ll feel. I think it’s highly unlikely that you and I will ever be friends.”

And with that the girl turned and left the alcove, going left toward where the other women had probably gone. Jake had expected to feel a lot of relief once he and Tandro were no longer the objects of such close attention, but suddenly he heard the almost-silent moaning Tandro was doing behind Jake. There wasn’t a single doubt in Jake’s mind that the moaning came from Tandro’s urgent need for Ennie’s return, a return that hadn’t quite been promised to the man.

Jake lay down on his own pallet without turning to look at Tandro, trying to give his friend as much privacy as the cramped quarters allowed. He also suddenly found himself in a brooding mood, and there was no time like the present to indulge.