But the return of sight wasn’t the comfort it should have been, not when she saw Killen sitting by a dying fire drinking from what looked like a water skin. It was fairly obvious that he’d also eaten, something that made Tain very aware of the hollow in her middle. But she’d rather starve than ask that man for anything, so if that was what he was waiting for—

A hiss forced its way out of Tain’s throat when she thoughtlessly tried to sit up. That miserable insertion felt smaller than it had originally but it was still inside her, something she’d found out about when she’d tried to sit in the normal way. Perching on her hip was about all she could do, a humiliating position that the amusement in Killen’s very light eyes said he knew all about.

“I’m glad you’re awake, Kitten,” Killen said as he put aside the water skin. “Come over here and have your lunch, and then you can do some cleaning up and wood-gathering. You’ll want to be ready when it’s time for you to make supper.”

“Thanks anyway, but I’m not very hungry,” Tain said, forcing herself to ignore his stare. “Since I’m the slave around here, I might as well get directly to work. Show me what needs cleaning, and then I’ll get the wood.”

“You’ll do as you’re told, slave,” Killen said, his tone having turned as hard as the look in his gray eyes. “You’re not in a position to decide what you will and won’t do, something you ought to know but obviously don’t. Let’s see if I can make the point absolutely clear for you. Come over here.”

Tain tried to resist doing as he said, but the drug in her system made his orders completely undeniable. The best she could do was move slowly as she got to her feet and walked over to where he sat, but the slowness of her pace seemed to make him even more annoyed.

“Stubbornness has its place, but the trick in using it successfully is knowing when not to use it,” Killen said, reaching up and pulling her down across his folded legs. “The next few minutes might help in teaching you which time is which, and if it doesn’t then we’ll just keep doing the same over and over until you do learn. Keep your hands and arms right where they are.”

Tain’s hands had gone to the ground beyond Killen’s leg, so she didn’t understand his order until she felt a really hard smack on her bottom. Her first reaction was to gasp and try to protect herself with her hands, but only the gasp actually worked.

“Did you like that?” Killen asked while Tain fought not to squirm because of the growing sting in her seat. Not squirming was absolutely essential because of what the last of the insertion was doing to her, that smack waking it up with a vengeance. “Answer me, slave. Did you enjoy what you were just given?”

“No,” Tain was forced to say, the single word pulled past the growl in her throat as her hands turned to fists. She wasn’t being allowed to defend herself in any way, and that was lousy, stinking, and—

“How about that one?” Killen asked after giving her a second hard smack that almost made her cry out. “Did you enjoy the second any more than the first?”

“No,” Tain choked out again, too busy with trying to control her reactions to ask what the hell he thought he was doing. Besides starting to slowly drive her crazy…

“I have a theory about why you aren’t enjoying this,” Killen said while the ache built higher in Tain’s bottom. “I think you aren’t enjoying the spanking because you don’t know how much good it will eventually do you, so you aren’t able to really appreciate it. What I intend to do is keep spanking you until you appreciate the effort enough to thank me, and I expect those thanks to be sincere. Let’s see how long it takes.”

And then his hand smacked her bottom again, just as hard as the first two times. This third smack, though, landed on a seat that was already aching, which meant Tain wasn’t able to keep from yelping just a little. As the fourth and fifth and sixth smacks landed in turn, the yelps grew in size and volume until Tain was almost shouting. In addition to the flaming heat growing inside her, the ache in her bottom was flaming almost as high.

At one time Tain would have sworn that she was able to take anything anyone could dish out, but she quickly learned that a hard spanking wasn’t part of the anything. Every time Killen’s hand landed on her bottom the situation got worse, finally forcing her to admit that stubbornness might not be the best of ideas right now. She would rather have died than give the louse any satisfaction at all, but since dying wasn’t even a faint possibility…

“Thank you!” she found herself suddenly blurting as she fought to swallow her howls of pain and need. “I really want to thank you!”

“Oh?” Killen said, and happily that hand hadn’t come down on her bottom again. “You’re thanking me? What are you thanking me for?”

“I’m … thanking you … for—Ow!” Tain yelled when another smack reached her tender backside—probably because she was talking too slowly. “I’m thanking you for giving me—ow!—this spanking! Thank you for—oh! teaching me what I need to—ouch! know!”

“Not bad,” Killen allowed, and even while Tain writhed she noticed that he’d stopped spanking her again. “You do sound somewhat sincere, but I’ll need some proof of that sincerity. Ask me to finish the spanking in a proper way.”

Tain almost asked what he meant by “a proper way,” but she cut the words off just in time. Questioning the man in any way at all would cast doubt on her “sincerity,” and that was something Tain very much wanted to avoid.

“I … would like you to … finish the spanking in a … proper way,” she got out through gritted teeth, hating herself for being such a coward but helpless to do anything else. “And I’d … like to … thank you … in advance.”

“You’ll also thank me once it’s finished,” Killen said, and then an even harder smack to her bottom made Tain howl louder than ever. There was a pause between each of the following smacks, so after the fifth it took Tain a short while to realize that the spanking was over.

“Now you can get to your knees and give me those thanks,” Killen said once Tain’s wildness had calmed just a little. “That’s right, move backward off my lap.”

Tain had no interest in moving at all, but it still wasn’t possible for her to refuse. Small pain sounds were forced out of her throat as she backed off Killen’s lap and to her knees, humiliation covering her like a blanket.

“Thank you for … finishing the spanking properly,” Tain said once she’d settled into a position that brought the least amount of added pain to her bottom. She wasn’t able to look directly at Killen, and surprisingly he made no effort to get her to do it anyway.

“There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” he asked instead as he used one finger to wipe at the tears streaming down her cheek. “I know the time wasn’t pleasant for you, but you have to learn not to act any differently than other slaves. As long as you’re a good girl and do as you’re supposed to, you probably won’t have to worry about being spanked again. Now take this food and eat it.”

Killen put a wooden bowl into her hands, and despite the fact that Tain had no appetite whatsoever she used the crude wooden spoon to swallow down the plain cereal the bowl contained.

“Good girl,” Killen said once she’d finished the “meal.”

“Next time you’ll eat as soon as your food is ready so it won’t be cold the way it was just now. And if you’re a really good girl, we’ll see if we can’t find berries or something to give the cereal some sweetening. Now you can rinse the bowl in the second bucket of water that’s a little farther away, and then you can go and collect firewood.”

Tain was about to protest that she needed easing first, but one glance at Killen’s expression said that she’d be wasting her breath. He really was determined to treat her like a slave and make her act in a way he considered proper. Even with no one around, he obviously wasn’t prepared to budge an inch.