The girl had taken to whimpering under her breath before Tandro finally got to his feet and stretched, then sauntered over to where Ennie still knelt. The man made a production of inspecting each pot and bowl, but finally he couldn’t stretch out the time any longer. He ordered the squirming girl to follow him, and then he headed for one of the tents. Ennie winced as she scrambled to her feet, but that didn’t stop her from moving in as fast a hobble as she could. Tandro had caressed one of Ennie’s rock-hard nipples before walking away, and for a moment the girl had seemed close to passing out.

“I don’t know about you, but I found that very interesting,” Killen’s voice came suddenly but softly as he joined Tain on the blanket. “I expected Tandro to be really hard on the girl, but instead he’s doing worse.”

“What do you mean by worse?” Tain couldn’t help asking in the same soft way as she quickly got a good grip on herself. Having Killen ten feet or more away was nothing like having him right behind her… “That paddling wasn’t easy for her, but he could have been a lot harder.”

“Making her choose to obey him is a good deal worse than even a hard beating would have been,” Killen answered without moving any closer. “The girl will end up conditioned to do exactly as she’s told, you wait and see if she isn’t.”

“Ennie may very well end up conditioned, but I don’t think the job will be as easy to accomplish as you and your friend seem to think,” Tain responded after a brief hesitation. “Her entire life until now has conditioned her to expect to get her way in everything, and I seriously doubt if she’ll give up that stance without a fight. And what happens if she figures out that you work for the same people I do? That will explode this whole game sky high.”

“I don’t want that happening, but it could,” Killen acknowledged. “Right now the girl is too distracted with everything happening to realize how unlikely it is that she was brought straight to where you are, but once she calms down some the thought will probably occur to her. You’re not to tell her that the two of you have been rescued no matter what she says or does.”

“I never intended to tell her,” Tain said, speaking the truth even though she felt an odd reluctance to stay with the decision. “Ennie can’t be counted on to remember what she should and shouldn’t say or do, but what if she can’t handle accepting what she’ll think will be her new place for the rest of her life? If she freaks out we may have to tell her.”

“I’ll take care of what she’s told, assuming I decide she needs to be told anything,” Killen said at once, his tone sober. “You’re just another slave, so it isn’t your place to make decisions and act on them. Do you understand me?”

“Certainly,” Tain said with a nod, glad the man sat behind her rather than in a place where he might have been able to see her face. She’d had to clamp down hard on the urge to use words of one syllable to remind him that she had more field experience than he did, but her suspicious mind saved her just in time. The way he kept rubbing her nose in the fact of his being in charge meant he was definitely up to something, and losing her temper would be a lame way of finding out what that something was.

“I’m glad you do understand, because what I said is an order,” Killen responded, obviously still pushing. “If this thing blows up in my face it will be because of something I did, not because of someone else’s mistake. And now I think it’s time we got ready for bed. We want to get an early start tomorrow.”

“I’m already ready,” Tain answered, but before she could get to her feet she was stopped in an unexpected way. Killen’s arms came to circle her, and then she was pulled back and across his folded legs.

“No, I’m afraid you aren’t quite ready,” Killen disagreed as she gasped in surprise. “Just lie still and don’t try to stop in any way what’s going to be done. It won’t take long, and then we can go to our tent.”

Tain parted her lips to demand to know what he was talking about, but the answer came to her before she made the mistake of responding in anger. Knowing, really knowing what was going to happen made her want to scream and fight to avoid Killen’s intention, but she wouldn’t have followed through even without being under orders not to resist. If he wanted her angry, that was the last thing she could afford to—

“Good girl,” Killen said, ignoring the gasp that had been forced out of her when he put a new insertion into her bottom. “Now we’re ready, so let’s go to bed.”

Tain moved as slowly as possible when she stood up, but that didn’t help much. The insertion began to work on her at once, a reaction that came as no surprise. Killen put the fire out before coming to lead the way to the second tent, his hand on her wrist making her walk faster than was in the least comfortable. But all Tain could do was snarl on the inside and promise herself that one day she would find the perfect way to get even with Mr. Jake Killen!

Jake Killen wasn’t happy. He’d finally gotten a reaction from Tain, but not the one he’d been looking for. She’d flatly refused to put on the outfit she’d been given, and the defiance he’d seen in her pretty blue eyes had been something he couldn’t overlook or excuse. It had almost been as if she were challenging him, and Jake Killen wasn’t at all used to turning down a challenge.

So he’d answered the challenge instead, announcing that he meant to punish her at some later time. Once the words were spoken he couldn’t very well take them back, but the look of disgust she’d given him had made him wish he could. If it were possible to erase spoken words as easily as those written in pencil or in the dust…

But erasing a rash decision just wasn’t possible, not unless you wanted to look like a fool. Jake never worried much about what he looked like to others, but Tandro had heard his promise and there might be trouble with the native if Jake backed down. Jake needed Tandro’s backing when they reached the town they were headed toward, so Tain would not be getting away with defying him.

As they rode along, Jake eyed the gathering clouds less with suspicion than with the hope of being distracted. Tain had been doing better than he’d expected with obeying him, acting as if she didn’t much care what he told her to do. Why, then, had she gone so far as to ignore him when he told her to put on that outfit?

She hadn’t enjoyed having that insertion put in her bottom last night, but the explosion he’d expected and had been hoping for never came. Instead she’d saved her reaction for this morning, out where Tandro could see her rather than taking advantage of the privacy the tent provided. It was almost as if the woman knew how arousing she looked in those skimpy so-called clothes, but that was ridiculous. Of course she didn’t know what sight of her like that did to him…

“I think it’s time we had our lunch,” Tandro said from where he rode to Jake’s right, the words as lazy as most of the things he said. “Our slaves ought to be hungry enough themselves to react properly to the sight, teaching them the easy way that whether or not they starve is entirely our decision. If they don’t behave themselves they won’t be fed.”

“Your little brat may learn that lesson, but I don’t think mine will,” Jake answered, speaking softly. “She isn’t the same as yours, and the idea of starving doesn’t intimidate her. You do understand, I hope, that my kitten isn’t like most other women.”

“I still have trouble understanding how your people can trust a female with a really important job,” Tandro said, his dark eyes showing that he wasn’t joking about being troubled. “It’s perfectly obvious that if we keep on enslaving women at the rate it’s now being done all the best women will soon be unavailable for breeding, but that’s a different matter entirely.”