Fic: You Want Me to Hurt You (Denna/Kahlan, NC-17)
Title: You Want Me to Hurt You
Author: Lexus (lexus_grey)
Fandom: Legend of the Seeker
Characters/Pairings: Denna/Kahlan
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: fairly graphic violence/torture, spanking
AN: Written for dark_fest
Prompt: Denna/Kahlan, "You want me to hurt you."
"You want me to hurt you."
Kahlan held her head high. Even chained in the dungeons at Tamarang, naked, with a Rada'Han around her neck, she was still the Mother Confessor. "I don't care what you do," she said coldly, her Confessor's mask in place.
Then Denna touched her with the Agiel.
She screamed. Despite her resolve to stay indifferent, she screamed until her voice was hoarse. She had never felt pain of this kind, or magnitude, and after only a minute, she was ready to faint. The agony began at the point of contact of the Agiel to her skin, but didn't stop there. It vibrated into her bones, radiating outward in waves of nauseating torment. After only another minute, possibly two, she jerked her head to the side and threw up.
Denna took her captive's chin between her gloved thumb and forefinger, a thrill snaking up her spine. "Oh, Kahlan," she lamented, shaking her head with a click of her tongue. "So disappointing. The authority of the Midlands, and you can't even stomach five minutes with my Agiel. Richard was much... more resilient than you."
"Don't you talk about him!" Kahlan screamed in a rage, the Rada'Han preventing her from going Con Dar all over again at the thought of his fate.
Denna smiled, released Kahlan's chin and patted her cheek. "Don't worry, love. I'll teach you to stomach the pain."
--
Kahlan wasn't sure how long she had been chained here, only that she hurt. Everywhere. Not a part of her body was free of throbbing, relentless pain. She hung limply in her shackles, congealed blood making every movement sticky and uncomfortable in addition to the pain. She tried not to move. Her head was bowed, chin resting almost on her collarbone, her hair falling over her chest in dark, matted messes. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was surprised Denna hadn't cut it.
"You're wondering why I haven't cut your hair."
Denna's voice came out of the shadows, followed by footsteps carrying her closer.
Kahlan didn't answer.
"And now you're wondering how I knew that."
"I don't," Kahlan rasped, her voice rough and barely audible, "I don't care."
Denna strode forward and drove her Agiel into Kahlan's gut, making the Confessor cry out. "You want me to hurt you. You must. That is why you answer with insolence. I have told you to call me Mistress, or Mistress Denna."
"Any Mistress of mine would earn her title," Kahlan panted, gasping for breath.
"And any slave of mine would earn hers," Denna said calmly, though her eyes darkened and became unfocused.
--
Time dragged on, and all Kahlan knew was the pain of the Agiel. It could have been days, or weeks, for all she knew. She was shown not a single kindness; even when she was given food to eat, Denna laid a boot to the side of her face, pressing her cheek to the cold stone floor as she force-fed her with a wooden spoon.
This time, when she had finished eating, Denna spanked her with the spoon.
Humiliated, she pressed her face to one arm as she cried.
Because she cried, Denna spanked her with the wooden spoon after every meal from then on. She cried every time, not because it hurt, but because it was a child's punishment, and since she had grown to be able to tolerate the Agiel with some degree of dignity, she felt this was an insult.
Finally she could stand it no longer. "Use your Agiel!" she demanded as she finished a bowl of porridge.
Denna raised an eyebrow, a slow smirk spreading across her features. "Oh?" She had long-since given up on attempting to get Kahlan to call her 'Mistress'. No matter how hard she beat the Confessor, those words would not come. It was a waste of her talents, and made her feel ineffectual, so she had stopped trying.
"I can take the Agiel. Use it!" Denna stroked her hair in response, and Kahlan gasped. It was the first gentle touch she had received since her capture, and she was torn between aching for more and being desperate to make it stop.
Denna admitted, only to herself, that she was impressed. Begging for an Agiel was foolish, but showed strength at the same time. The Mother Confessor did not want to be punished like a child, she wished to be punished like the grown woman she was. Pulling her boot from Kahlan's face, she stepped back and used it to nudge the Confessor onto her back. One hand closed around the Agiel's handle, and she kicked Kahlan's ankles apart, standing between them. "Because I am feeling generous today, I shall allow you a choice. A spanking, with the spoon, or my Agiel here." She pressed the toe of her boot lightly between Kahlan's legs.
Kahlan gasped, growing wet at the simple stimulation she had been long-denied. She had not expected an offer of choice, let alone a choice that would be so difficult for her to make. She still hated that Agiel, despite being able to tolerate it without screaming now, but she feared it would be far worse to have it touch her inside. As humiliating as it was, she would have to choose the spanking. She turned her face away to answer. "The spoon," she whispered, tears stinging her eyes.
Denna laughed, and released the Agiel's handle, flexing her fingers. She walked with measured strides to one side of the room and returned with a chair. She picked up Kahlan's breakfast spoon and sat in the chair with a smirk. "Drape yourself across my lap, child."
"It's Kahlan," Kahlan ground out through clenched teeth, slowly rising to her feet to obey.
"You will be Kahlan when I am Mistress Denna, and not before. Now, do as you're told, child, lest I lose my patience with you and decide to revoke your choice."
Kahlan moved faster, bending across Denna's lap, bracing her hands on the floor. The impact sent ripples of pain through her hips and stomach, igniting both old and fresh wounds.
Denna lay the spoon on the chair beside her and wrapped an arm around Kahlan's waist, tugging her closer. "You have lovely bruises, child," she purred, trailing a finger up and down Kahlan's thighs and over her buttocks. "But, however lovely, I'm sure they are quite painful, and I had better spank you with my hand instead."
"No!" Kahlan cried out in a panic, starting to squirm in an attempt to free herself.
"Yes," Denna said softly, bringing her palm down with a mild smack to the Confessor's bottom.
Kahlan forced out a strangled breath, renewing her struggles, but Denna had her pinned, and there was no escape. Tears filled her eyes and leaked down her cheeks as she hung her head in shame. Denna wasn't even spanking hard. This made her feel more debased than a severe whipping would have. "Please," she begged. "Use the spoon. Or your whip. I know you have one, I've seen it. Please..."
"A child cannot handle a whip," Denna said, her voice quiet, almost sweet, as she brought her hand down again, with barely an impact.
"I'm not a child!" Kahlan sobbed. "I am a woman! Please, M--" She stopped short, reassessing the situation, trying to figure out why she had almost used a word she would rather die than attribute to Denna. She realized it was because her thighs were dripping wet. Her body was enjoying the punishment. A harsh betrayal.
Denna froze, her breath a wisp, her hand resting on Kahlan's bottom, eyes wide with hunger. "What did you say, child?" She rubbed her hand back and forth, delighting in the noise of surprise from the Confessor, and the way her backside pressed into the touch. At the shift in Kahlan's position, the stark smell of arousal reached her nostrils, and they flared with excitement of her own. "Oh, someone is enjoying her spanking," she crooned.
Flushed with shame, Kahlan merely sobbed over Denna's lap. She wanted gentle. And she hated that she wanted gentle, because she knew that as soon as Denna found out she wanted it, it would be taken away. "I can't even feel it," she snapped.
"Maybe not here," Denna said, rubbing her backside again, then trailing a finger between the cheeks and lower, until she reached the abundant, slick heat begging to be played with. "But you feel it here, don't you child?" Perhaps she had been going about things all wrong from the start. Perhaps she should have taken into consideration the Confessor's intrinsic need for human contact, and exploited that much sooner. Perhaps she could draw the words she sought from Kahlan's lips by giving her what she'd always longed for and could never have. Then the Confessor would truly be broken.
"I feel nothing," Kahlan lied, though she knew that Denna knew. When that finger crawled through her wetness again, though, she couldn't stop a needy moan from escaping.
"If you want me to continue, you'll have to tell the truth," Denna scolded, stilling her finger.
"I feel it!" Kahlan gasped immediately, despite the shame coloring her cheeks.
"You feel what? Be specific, child, you only get one chance to answer."
"I barely felt the spanking on my bottom, but I felt it powerfully between my legs," Kahlan managed to force herself to whisper.
"There, now was that so hard?" Denna asked, her voice sugary and full of empty promises. "You were never able to be intimate with Richard, because of your power."
"Don't talk about him!" Kahlan screamed, going rigid, but when Denna withdrew her finger, she went limp again and rushed to apologize. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she breathed.
"If you raise your voice to your Mistress again, you will find yourself without contact for a week," Denna said harshly, then softened her voice as she returned her finger to Kahlan's folds and began stroking. "The only pleasure you have ever been able to safely receive has been at your own hand."
It seemed to be a question even though it was phrased without inflection, so Kahlan answered. "Yes."
"But you have always longed for the touch of another. For another to hold you and kiss you and dip gentle fingers between your legs, and make you come," Denna whispered, her breath dancing over the back of Kahlan's neck.
Kahlan shivered. That, also, seemed to be intended as a question. "Yes," she panted softly.
"Now, you wear a Rada'Han. You could have any man you wished. There are plenty in this castle who would be more than eager to oblige your desires. Would you care to lay with one of them?"
For some reason, the idea made Kahlan want to retch. "I thought you were going to..." She let her words trail off, swallowing hard. Upon closer inspection, she understood the psychology of it perfectly. Denna had given her nothing but pain as long as they had been together. If she was to receive pleasure, she wanted it only at Denna's hand. She wanted pleasure from the one who had given her pain, and from no other.
"Me?" Denna asked innocently, pretending to be surprised. "Why would you want me when you could have anyone you wished?" She swirled her fingertip through Kahlan's folds again, down to circle her entrance without penetrating the Confessor.
Kahlan whimpered, biting her lip to keep from snapping out an answer. "You know why," she finally said without malice in her voice.
Denna grinned, dropped her head to kiss Kahlan's left shoulder blade as she smoothly slid one finger into her. The moan she was rewarded with made every nerve ending in her body tingle with expectation. "Does that feel good?" she purred, her words silky and decadent, laced with a conditional promise to give her more, if only she would respond in the appropriate manner.
"Yes," Kahlan moaned again, allowing her thighs to part slightly to accommodate Denna's hand.
"How nice for you," Denna said, her words now dripping with poison. "I think we'll go back to the Agiel. Get up."
"Mistress, please!" Kahlan begged, the appellation leaving her mouth before she even had time to think.
Denna groaned, dropping her head again and biting fiercely into the Confessor's right shoulder as she pushed into her with a second finger. "There," she said placatingly when she removed her teeth from Kahlan's flesh. "That's what your Mistress wanted to hear." She moved her lips to the Confessor's ear. "Good girl, Kahlan. You have pleased me. I will allow you to remain across my lap until I have made you come, at least three times."
Now that she'd said it once, her resistance to the title was broken, and since it pleased Denna so much, she said it again, shuddering at the feeling of being so filled. She had only ever used one finger on herself. "Thank you, Mistress," she said in gratitude.
Denna let her thumb travel between Kahlan's cheeks to the tighter hole there. "I was trained with an Agiel here," she said idly. "I cannot come without it. Perhaps I will train you the same way. But not today." She withdrew the touch, to Kahlan's obvious relief, and smiled wistfully.
Caught up in nostalgia, Denna was vaguely aware of what she was saying.
"You will join me at the table for dinner tonight," she declared. "It has been far too long since I dined with anyone. Queen Milena annoys me, and that brat of a daughter she has makes me want to choke on my own food."
Kahlan had no idea why Denna was telling her any of this, and did her best just to concentrate on the physical feelings being invoked by gentle fingers thrusting into her. Denna was skilled, incredibly skilled, and very shortly Kahlan felt the build-up of impending release, her magic coiling tightly even though it couldn't be expended.
Lost in thought, Denna hadn't even realized how close she'd brought Kahlan to orgasm, and when she did, she pressed her free hand between their bodies to pinch the Confessor's throbbing clit, sending her captive into paroxysms of release.
Kahlan mewled as the pleasure rocked through her, such a welcome, treasured sensation after all the pain, and as she finally relaxed over Denna's lap, she wrapped her arms around her captor's leg and pressed her cheek against the smooth red leather there. "Thank you, Mistress," she whispered.
Slightly surprised that the title remained after Kahlan had gotten what she wanted, Denna absently stroked her sweaty hair and murmured quietly, things that made no sense. Finally, she stopped petting Kahlan and sighed. "Are you ready for more?"
Kahlan thought that Denna sounded weary, and somehow sad. And for some reason, that bothered her. She kissed the leather in front of her mouth and shook her head. "No, Mistress. You have given me such pleasure and I can feel how tired I have made you, with how hard you have worked to train me. Would you allow us to bathe instead? I do not wish to be selfish."
"You presume to question my stamina?" Denna suddenly thundered, picking up the wooden spoon at her side and bringing it down fiercely on Kahlan's upturned backside.
"Mistress, no!" Kahlan gasped, her eyes flying wide, face pressing into Denna's leg. "That's not what I meant!"
Denna was furious, at herself for being temporarily soft, though, not with Kahlan. She beat Kahlan with the wooden implement until it snapped in half, and then she used her hand.
Kahlan was soon sobbing like a child, this pain far worse than any the Agiel could ever give her. "Mistress please, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she bawled, unable to understand how they had gone from gentle touches to this.
"You're sorry?" Denna mocked, hitting her harder, over bruises and splinters from the spoon. With an unearthly howl of rage, she shoved Kahlan off her lap and stood, turning, slamming her leather-clad fist into the support beam behind her chair. "Fine!" she screamed. "Draw us a fucking bath!"
Kahlan trembled and curled into a ball as she hit the floor, but at Denna's unhinged instructions, she forced herself up and fled to the washroom, unable to stop crying as she heated water for a bath and filled the basin.
Denna took her glove off with her teeth and inspected her broken, bloody knuckles. The pain radiating through her hand and wrist and up her arm gave her some sanity, something to focus on besides the tumultous feelings raging through her. Confusing, unwanted feelings that made no sense and tore her mind apart. "Stop crying!" she yelled into the washroom as she stripped herself of her leathers one-handed. By the time she was finished, the water was cold, and she had Kahlan drain the basin and refill it while she watched.
Kahlan was confused and scared and desperate to do the right thing, and she hurried to refill the basin with hot water, keeping her eyes away from Denna as much as possible, even though she could feel Denna's eyes burning holes in her skin.
"Get in," Denna barked.
Kahlan obeyed without hesitation. "Yes, Mistress," she whispered, her voice shaking. Tears stung her eyes again as she sank into the water and had to sit on her abused bottom. She flinched when Denna climbed into the bath with her, and saw that her Mistress did not like that.
Denna scowled at her, situating herself and draping her arms over the edges of the ornate marble basin. She sat for awhile, just soaking up the warmth, and finally pulled her arms back in, careful with her broken hand. "Turn around and get on all fours," she snapped at Kahlan.
"Yes, Mistress," Kahlan said, biting her lip as she turned and did as she was told, hoping to avoid Denna's ire by behaving well.
"You want me to hurt you," Denna mumbled, almost to herself, as she leaned forward and used her good hand to start plucking the splinters from Kahlan's backside and thighs.
Kahlan bit down on her arm to keep quiet. Denna wasn't exactly being rough, but she wasn't being gentle either, and any touch hurt. Especially when the splinters slid out. She cried in silence, afraid of doing something wrong.
When Denna had finished, she brought her mouth to Kahlan's bruises and the red, inflamed skin that had held the splinters, and laved the traces of abuse with her tongue.
Kahlan bit down harder on her arm, her eyes going wide. That felt so good. But she did not allow herself to be complacent, or to enjoy the touch too much, for fear it would be taken away again.
Denna moved lower, turning her head so she could reach between Kahlan's legs with her mouth, without pulling a muscle in the front of her throat. She licked hungrily, sending her tongue everywhere, swallowing what she could, pressing her face so close that all she could breathe was Kahlan.
It was unexpected. Kahlan tried not to move. Denna's hair scratched at her thighs, making them twitch with each shift of her head. The tongue on her sex was amazing, it was unlike anything she'd ever felt in her life. Unlike anything she had ever expected to feel - she had never imagined anyone would want to do this for her, and now, who was treating her to this luxury but the woman who had beat her an hour before. The paradox was not lost on the Confessor, and she tried to send her mind to another place to avoid enjoying the pleasurable gift, but she could not.
Denna whimpered against the heated flesh, taking in as much as she could, sucking and kissing and licking, then sucking and kissing again, over every inch she could reach. Finally she couldn't stand it, and she laid on her back, bringing Kahlan with her and turning her around, urging the Confessor to straddle her shoulders, then pulling Kahlan down to sit on her mouth.
Kahlan's breathing was ragged, despite how much she tried to distance herself, and as Denna's tongue plunged into her, she leaned behind her on her hands, throwing her head back and clutching Denna's face with her thighs.
Denna gripped Kahlan's hips with both hands, cringing at the pain in her broken knuckles even as it kept her grounded in the moment. She helped Kahlan ride her tongue, then at last pulled the Confessor's clit completely into her mouth and sucked for all she was worth. "I'm sorry," she murmured, when Kahlan's scream of release provided enough cover for the sentiment to go unheard. The pleasure she brought to Kahlan, and the warmth she felt when she said those two words, however, gave her courage to repeat them when things were calm. "I'm sorry," she said again, sliding out from under Kahlan to sit up, reaching around her to gingerly touch her bottom. "For this, I'm sorry."
Kahlan was absolutely stunned, and terrified of ruining the moment, so she stayed still and let the comfort of the words wash over her, and her only reply was "thank you, Mistress."
Denna put her arms around Kahlan's back and brought her close, letting the Confessor rest against her body. "You are not broken," she stated some time later. "Yet you are submissive. I do not understand."
"I believe it is possible to submit to another without losing yourself, Mistress."
"Why would you choose to do that?"
"It is not a choice I made, Mistress. You have forced my hand. But I still have respect for you, and will submit to you unequivocally and without question, even though I am still Kahlan Amnell."
"But you do not love me."
"No, Mistress. I do not. I cannot. My love is for one person, and you have taken him from me forever, so I can never love you. But I am yours, I will not dispute that fact. I will always be yours. I will always serve you, and do my best to please you in every aspect of our lives."
"You are a smart woman, Kahlan Amnell. You do well not to love me. It would make you weak, and I despise weakness. If you ever loved me, I would be forced to kill you."
"And if you ever loved anyone, Darken Rahl would make you beg to be killed," Kahlan said quietly. She understood. "I do have a strange affection for you, Mistress. I hope that is acceptable."
"And I for you," Denna said, surprised at Kahlan's insight and wisdom, though she really shouldn't have been. She was the Mother Confessor, after all. "But if you ever show it in front of another, I will flay you to within an inch of your life."
"I believe you will, Mistress, and I would never disrespect you in such a manner."
The door to the dungeons suddenly creaked open, and Kahlan tensed, climbing quickly out of the bath and kneeling on the floor beside it.
Denna was impressed, and pleased, and when their visitor finally appeared in the doorway, she smiled. "Princess Violet, how lovely to see you," she lied through her teeth. "You are just in time for another training session. Would you care to participate this time, or just watch?"
Kahlan's blood ran cold, but she knew this was to be expected. In front of others, she was still a worthless slave.
Author: Lexus (lexus_grey)
Fandom: Legend of the Seeker
Characters/Pairings: Denna/Kahlan
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: fairly graphic violence/torture, spanking
AN: Written for dark_fest
Prompt: Denna/Kahlan, "You want me to hurt you."
"You want me to hurt you."
Kahlan held her head high. Even chained in the dungeons at Tamarang, naked, with a Rada'Han around her neck, she was still the Mother Confessor. "I don't care what you do," she said coldly, her Confessor's mask in place.
Then Denna touched her with the Agiel.
She screamed. Despite her resolve to stay indifferent, she screamed until her voice was hoarse. She had never felt pain of this kind, or magnitude, and after only a minute, she was ready to faint. The agony began at the point of contact of the Agiel to her skin, but didn't stop there. It vibrated into her bones, radiating outward in waves of nauseating torment. After only another minute, possibly two, she jerked her head to the side and threw up.
Denna took her captive's chin between her gloved thumb and forefinger, a thrill snaking up her spine. "Oh, Kahlan," she lamented, shaking her head with a click of her tongue. "So disappointing. The authority of the Midlands, and you can't even stomach five minutes with my Agiel. Richard was much... more resilient than you."
"Don't you talk about him!" Kahlan screamed in a rage, the Rada'Han preventing her from going Con Dar all over again at the thought of his fate.
Denna smiled, released Kahlan's chin and patted her cheek. "Don't worry, love. I'll teach you to stomach the pain."
--
Kahlan wasn't sure how long she had been chained here, only that she hurt. Everywhere. Not a part of her body was free of throbbing, relentless pain. She hung limply in her shackles, congealed blood making every movement sticky and uncomfortable in addition to the pain. She tried not to move. Her head was bowed, chin resting almost on her collarbone, her hair falling over her chest in dark, matted messes. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was surprised Denna hadn't cut it.
"You're wondering why I haven't cut your hair."
Denna's voice came out of the shadows, followed by footsteps carrying her closer.
Kahlan didn't answer.
"And now you're wondering how I knew that."
"I don't," Kahlan rasped, her voice rough and barely audible, "I don't care."
Denna strode forward and drove her Agiel into Kahlan's gut, making the Confessor cry out. "You want me to hurt you. You must. That is why you answer with insolence. I have told you to call me Mistress, or Mistress Denna."
"Any Mistress of mine would earn her title," Kahlan panted, gasping for breath.
"And any slave of mine would earn hers," Denna said calmly, though her eyes darkened and became unfocused.
--
Time dragged on, and all Kahlan knew was the pain of the Agiel. It could have been days, or weeks, for all she knew. She was shown not a single kindness; even when she was given food to eat, Denna laid a boot to the side of her face, pressing her cheek to the cold stone floor as she force-fed her with a wooden spoon.
This time, when she had finished eating, Denna spanked her with the spoon.
Humiliated, she pressed her face to one arm as she cried.
Because she cried, Denna spanked her with the wooden spoon after every meal from then on. She cried every time, not because it hurt, but because it was a child's punishment, and since she had grown to be able to tolerate the Agiel with some degree of dignity, she felt this was an insult.
Finally she could stand it no longer. "Use your Agiel!" she demanded as she finished a bowl of porridge.
Denna raised an eyebrow, a slow smirk spreading across her features. "Oh?" She had long-since given up on attempting to get Kahlan to call her 'Mistress'. No matter how hard she beat the Confessor, those words would not come. It was a waste of her talents, and made her feel ineffectual, so she had stopped trying.
"I can take the Agiel. Use it!" Denna stroked her hair in response, and Kahlan gasped. It was the first gentle touch she had received since her capture, and she was torn between aching for more and being desperate to make it stop.
Denna admitted, only to herself, that she was impressed. Begging for an Agiel was foolish, but showed strength at the same time. The Mother Confessor did not want to be punished like a child, she wished to be punished like the grown woman she was. Pulling her boot from Kahlan's face, she stepped back and used it to nudge the Confessor onto her back. One hand closed around the Agiel's handle, and she kicked Kahlan's ankles apart, standing between them. "Because I am feeling generous today, I shall allow you a choice. A spanking, with the spoon, or my Agiel here." She pressed the toe of her boot lightly between Kahlan's legs.
Kahlan gasped, growing wet at the simple stimulation she had been long-denied. She had not expected an offer of choice, let alone a choice that would be so difficult for her to make. She still hated that Agiel, despite being able to tolerate it without screaming now, but she feared it would be far worse to have it touch her inside. As humiliating as it was, she would have to choose the spanking. She turned her face away to answer. "The spoon," she whispered, tears stinging her eyes.
Denna laughed, and released the Agiel's handle, flexing her fingers. She walked with measured strides to one side of the room and returned with a chair. She picked up Kahlan's breakfast spoon and sat in the chair with a smirk. "Drape yourself across my lap, child."
"It's Kahlan," Kahlan ground out through clenched teeth, slowly rising to her feet to obey.
"You will be Kahlan when I am Mistress Denna, and not before. Now, do as you're told, child, lest I lose my patience with you and decide to revoke your choice."
Kahlan moved faster, bending across Denna's lap, bracing her hands on the floor. The impact sent ripples of pain through her hips and stomach, igniting both old and fresh wounds.
Denna lay the spoon on the chair beside her and wrapped an arm around Kahlan's waist, tugging her closer. "You have lovely bruises, child," she purred, trailing a finger up and down Kahlan's thighs and over her buttocks. "But, however lovely, I'm sure they are quite painful, and I had better spank you with my hand instead."
"No!" Kahlan cried out in a panic, starting to squirm in an attempt to free herself.
"Yes," Denna said softly, bringing her palm down with a mild smack to the Confessor's bottom.
Kahlan forced out a strangled breath, renewing her struggles, but Denna had her pinned, and there was no escape. Tears filled her eyes and leaked down her cheeks as she hung her head in shame. Denna wasn't even spanking hard. This made her feel more debased than a severe whipping would have. "Please," she begged. "Use the spoon. Or your whip. I know you have one, I've seen it. Please..."
"A child cannot handle a whip," Denna said, her voice quiet, almost sweet, as she brought her hand down again, with barely an impact.
"I'm not a child!" Kahlan sobbed. "I am a woman! Please, M--" She stopped short, reassessing the situation, trying to figure out why she had almost used a word she would rather die than attribute to Denna. She realized it was because her thighs were dripping wet. Her body was enjoying the punishment. A harsh betrayal.
Denna froze, her breath a wisp, her hand resting on Kahlan's bottom, eyes wide with hunger. "What did you say, child?" She rubbed her hand back and forth, delighting in the noise of surprise from the Confessor, and the way her backside pressed into the touch. At the shift in Kahlan's position, the stark smell of arousal reached her nostrils, and they flared with excitement of her own. "Oh, someone is enjoying her spanking," she crooned.
Flushed with shame, Kahlan merely sobbed over Denna's lap. She wanted gentle. And she hated that she wanted gentle, because she knew that as soon as Denna found out she wanted it, it would be taken away. "I can't even feel it," she snapped.
"Maybe not here," Denna said, rubbing her backside again, then trailing a finger between the cheeks and lower, until she reached the abundant, slick heat begging to be played with. "But you feel it here, don't you child?" Perhaps she had been going about things all wrong from the start. Perhaps she should have taken into consideration the Confessor's intrinsic need for human contact, and exploited that much sooner. Perhaps she could draw the words she sought from Kahlan's lips by giving her what she'd always longed for and could never have. Then the Confessor would truly be broken.
"I feel nothing," Kahlan lied, though she knew that Denna knew. When that finger crawled through her wetness again, though, she couldn't stop a needy moan from escaping.
"If you want me to continue, you'll have to tell the truth," Denna scolded, stilling her finger.
"I feel it!" Kahlan gasped immediately, despite the shame coloring her cheeks.
"You feel what? Be specific, child, you only get one chance to answer."
"I barely felt the spanking on my bottom, but I felt it powerfully between my legs," Kahlan managed to force herself to whisper.
"There, now was that so hard?" Denna asked, her voice sugary and full of empty promises. "You were never able to be intimate with Richard, because of your power."
"Don't talk about him!" Kahlan screamed, going rigid, but when Denna withdrew her finger, she went limp again and rushed to apologize. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she breathed.
"If you raise your voice to your Mistress again, you will find yourself without contact for a week," Denna said harshly, then softened her voice as she returned her finger to Kahlan's folds and began stroking. "The only pleasure you have ever been able to safely receive has been at your own hand."
It seemed to be a question even though it was phrased without inflection, so Kahlan answered. "Yes."
"But you have always longed for the touch of another. For another to hold you and kiss you and dip gentle fingers between your legs, and make you come," Denna whispered, her breath dancing over the back of Kahlan's neck.
Kahlan shivered. That, also, seemed to be intended as a question. "Yes," she panted softly.
"Now, you wear a Rada'Han. You could have any man you wished. There are plenty in this castle who would be more than eager to oblige your desires. Would you care to lay with one of them?"
For some reason, the idea made Kahlan want to retch. "I thought you were going to..." She let her words trail off, swallowing hard. Upon closer inspection, she understood the psychology of it perfectly. Denna had given her nothing but pain as long as they had been together. If she was to receive pleasure, she wanted it only at Denna's hand. She wanted pleasure from the one who had given her pain, and from no other.
"Me?" Denna asked innocently, pretending to be surprised. "Why would you want me when you could have anyone you wished?" She swirled her fingertip through Kahlan's folds again, down to circle her entrance without penetrating the Confessor.
Kahlan whimpered, biting her lip to keep from snapping out an answer. "You know why," she finally said without malice in her voice.
Denna grinned, dropped her head to kiss Kahlan's left shoulder blade as she smoothly slid one finger into her. The moan she was rewarded with made every nerve ending in her body tingle with expectation. "Does that feel good?" she purred, her words silky and decadent, laced with a conditional promise to give her more, if only she would respond in the appropriate manner.
"Yes," Kahlan moaned again, allowing her thighs to part slightly to accommodate Denna's hand.
"How nice for you," Denna said, her words now dripping with poison. "I think we'll go back to the Agiel. Get up."
"Mistress, please!" Kahlan begged, the appellation leaving her mouth before she even had time to think.
Denna groaned, dropping her head again and biting fiercely into the Confessor's right shoulder as she pushed into her with a second finger. "There," she said placatingly when she removed her teeth from Kahlan's flesh. "That's what your Mistress wanted to hear." She moved her lips to the Confessor's ear. "Good girl, Kahlan. You have pleased me. I will allow you to remain across my lap until I have made you come, at least three times."
Now that she'd said it once, her resistance to the title was broken, and since it pleased Denna so much, she said it again, shuddering at the feeling of being so filled. She had only ever used one finger on herself. "Thank you, Mistress," she said in gratitude.
Denna let her thumb travel between Kahlan's cheeks to the tighter hole there. "I was trained with an Agiel here," she said idly. "I cannot come without it. Perhaps I will train you the same way. But not today." She withdrew the touch, to Kahlan's obvious relief, and smiled wistfully.
Caught up in nostalgia, Denna was vaguely aware of what she was saying.
"You will join me at the table for dinner tonight," she declared. "It has been far too long since I dined with anyone. Queen Milena annoys me, and that brat of a daughter she has makes me want to choke on my own food."
Kahlan had no idea why Denna was telling her any of this, and did her best just to concentrate on the physical feelings being invoked by gentle fingers thrusting into her. Denna was skilled, incredibly skilled, and very shortly Kahlan felt the build-up of impending release, her magic coiling tightly even though it couldn't be expended.
Lost in thought, Denna hadn't even realized how close she'd brought Kahlan to orgasm, and when she did, she pressed her free hand between their bodies to pinch the Confessor's throbbing clit, sending her captive into paroxysms of release.
Kahlan mewled as the pleasure rocked through her, such a welcome, treasured sensation after all the pain, and as she finally relaxed over Denna's lap, she wrapped her arms around her captor's leg and pressed her cheek against the smooth red leather there. "Thank you, Mistress," she whispered.
Slightly surprised that the title remained after Kahlan had gotten what she wanted, Denna absently stroked her sweaty hair and murmured quietly, things that made no sense. Finally, she stopped petting Kahlan and sighed. "Are you ready for more?"
Kahlan thought that Denna sounded weary, and somehow sad. And for some reason, that bothered her. She kissed the leather in front of her mouth and shook her head. "No, Mistress. You have given me such pleasure and I can feel how tired I have made you, with how hard you have worked to train me. Would you allow us to bathe instead? I do not wish to be selfish."
"You presume to question my stamina?" Denna suddenly thundered, picking up the wooden spoon at her side and bringing it down fiercely on Kahlan's upturned backside.
"Mistress, no!" Kahlan gasped, her eyes flying wide, face pressing into Denna's leg. "That's not what I meant!"
Denna was furious, at herself for being temporarily soft, though, not with Kahlan. She beat Kahlan with the wooden implement until it snapped in half, and then she used her hand.
Kahlan was soon sobbing like a child, this pain far worse than any the Agiel could ever give her. "Mistress please, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she bawled, unable to understand how they had gone from gentle touches to this.
"You're sorry?" Denna mocked, hitting her harder, over bruises and splinters from the spoon. With an unearthly howl of rage, she shoved Kahlan off her lap and stood, turning, slamming her leather-clad fist into the support beam behind her chair. "Fine!" she screamed. "Draw us a fucking bath!"
Kahlan trembled and curled into a ball as she hit the floor, but at Denna's unhinged instructions, she forced herself up and fled to the washroom, unable to stop crying as she heated water for a bath and filled the basin.
Denna took her glove off with her teeth and inspected her broken, bloody knuckles. The pain radiating through her hand and wrist and up her arm gave her some sanity, something to focus on besides the tumultous feelings raging through her. Confusing, unwanted feelings that made no sense and tore her mind apart. "Stop crying!" she yelled into the washroom as she stripped herself of her leathers one-handed. By the time she was finished, the water was cold, and she had Kahlan drain the basin and refill it while she watched.
Kahlan was confused and scared and desperate to do the right thing, and she hurried to refill the basin with hot water, keeping her eyes away from Denna as much as possible, even though she could feel Denna's eyes burning holes in her skin.
"Get in," Denna barked.
Kahlan obeyed without hesitation. "Yes, Mistress," she whispered, her voice shaking. Tears stung her eyes again as she sank into the water and had to sit on her abused bottom. She flinched when Denna climbed into the bath with her, and saw that her Mistress did not like that.
Denna scowled at her, situating herself and draping her arms over the edges of the ornate marble basin. She sat for awhile, just soaking up the warmth, and finally pulled her arms back in, careful with her broken hand. "Turn around and get on all fours," she snapped at Kahlan.
"Yes, Mistress," Kahlan said, biting her lip as she turned and did as she was told, hoping to avoid Denna's ire by behaving well.
"You want me to hurt you," Denna mumbled, almost to herself, as she leaned forward and used her good hand to start plucking the splinters from Kahlan's backside and thighs.
Kahlan bit down on her arm to keep quiet. Denna wasn't exactly being rough, but she wasn't being gentle either, and any touch hurt. Especially when the splinters slid out. She cried in silence, afraid of doing something wrong.
When Denna had finished, she brought her mouth to Kahlan's bruises and the red, inflamed skin that had held the splinters, and laved the traces of abuse with her tongue.
Kahlan bit down harder on her arm, her eyes going wide. That felt so good. But she did not allow herself to be complacent, or to enjoy the touch too much, for fear it would be taken away again.
Denna moved lower, turning her head so she could reach between Kahlan's legs with her mouth, without pulling a muscle in the front of her throat. She licked hungrily, sending her tongue everywhere, swallowing what she could, pressing her face so close that all she could breathe was Kahlan.
It was unexpected. Kahlan tried not to move. Denna's hair scratched at her thighs, making them twitch with each shift of her head. The tongue on her sex was amazing, it was unlike anything she'd ever felt in her life. Unlike anything she had ever expected to feel - she had never imagined anyone would want to do this for her, and now, who was treating her to this luxury but the woman who had beat her an hour before. The paradox was not lost on the Confessor, and she tried to send her mind to another place to avoid enjoying the pleasurable gift, but she could not.
Denna whimpered against the heated flesh, taking in as much as she could, sucking and kissing and licking, then sucking and kissing again, over every inch she could reach. Finally she couldn't stand it, and she laid on her back, bringing Kahlan with her and turning her around, urging the Confessor to straddle her shoulders, then pulling Kahlan down to sit on her mouth.
Kahlan's breathing was ragged, despite how much she tried to distance herself, and as Denna's tongue plunged into her, she leaned behind her on her hands, throwing her head back and clutching Denna's face with her thighs.
Denna gripped Kahlan's hips with both hands, cringing at the pain in her broken knuckles even as it kept her grounded in the moment. She helped Kahlan ride her tongue, then at last pulled the Confessor's clit completely into her mouth and sucked for all she was worth. "I'm sorry," she murmured, when Kahlan's scream of release provided enough cover for the sentiment to go unheard. The pleasure she brought to Kahlan, and the warmth she felt when she said those two words, however, gave her courage to repeat them when things were calm. "I'm sorry," she said again, sliding out from under Kahlan to sit up, reaching around her to gingerly touch her bottom. "For this, I'm sorry."
Kahlan was absolutely stunned, and terrified of ruining the moment, so she stayed still and let the comfort of the words wash over her, and her only reply was "thank you, Mistress."
Denna put her arms around Kahlan's back and brought her close, letting the Confessor rest against her body. "You are not broken," she stated some time later. "Yet you are submissive. I do not understand."
"I believe it is possible to submit to another without losing yourself, Mistress."
"Why would you choose to do that?"
"It is not a choice I made, Mistress. You have forced my hand. But I still have respect for you, and will submit to you unequivocally and without question, even though I am still Kahlan Amnell."
"But you do not love me."
"No, Mistress. I do not. I cannot. My love is for one person, and you have taken him from me forever, so I can never love you. But I am yours, I will not dispute that fact. I will always be yours. I will always serve you, and do my best to please you in every aspect of our lives."
"You are a smart woman, Kahlan Amnell. You do well not to love me. It would make you weak, and I despise weakness. If you ever loved me, I would be forced to kill you."
"And if you ever loved anyone, Darken Rahl would make you beg to be killed," Kahlan said quietly. She understood. "I do have a strange affection for you, Mistress. I hope that is acceptable."
"And I for you," Denna said, surprised at Kahlan's insight and wisdom, though she really shouldn't have been. She was the Mother Confessor, after all. "But if you ever show it in front of another, I will flay you to within an inch of your life."
"I believe you will, Mistress, and I would never disrespect you in such a manner."
The door to the dungeons suddenly creaked open, and Kahlan tensed, climbing quickly out of the bath and kneeling on the floor beside it.
Denna was impressed, and pleased, and when their visitor finally appeared in the doorway, she smiled. "Princess Violet, how lovely to see you," she lied through her teeth. "You are just in time for another training session. Would you care to participate this time, or just watch?"
Kahlan's blood ran cold, but she knew this was to be expected. In front of others, she was still a worthless slave.