I gestured to the casket on the nearby sideboard. It was open. A gilded paddle and a long folded gilded leather strap lay inside, with covered jars and a neat stack of linen handkerchiefs.

He inspected the contents, closed the casket, and lifted it, gesturing for me to go before him.

“You look beautiful tonight, Lady Eva,” he said as we hurried along the passage. “Forgive me for presuming to compliment you, but it’s true.”

“Men are fools for small changes,” I said. “My hair is down, that is all.”

“No, my lady, that is not all. You shone brightly before the King, and the Queen was also delighted with you.” He said all this while looking straight ahead as we moved down the long shadowy corridor.

A torch in a sconce at the far end appeared to be our destination.

“Well, Captain, my personal gifts are not so very important right now, are they?”

“Much more important than you imagine,” he said, glancing at me, and then ahead again. “And your lavish dress of silk and brocade is most becoming. And your heels make a nice crisp sound on the stone flooring.”

“Whatever are you talking about, Captain?” I asked. “I must confess I always feel smart when I wear these gold-heeled slippers.”

We had reached a pair of double doors and the torch that hung beside them.

“Lady Eva,” he said in a whisper. “Everything depends on you now, on your youthful self-confidence, and the gifts that have kept the kingdom in order since the old queen departed. Please. Show spirit. Lady Elvera and I have failed in complying with King Laurent’s request. Again, everything depends upon your being able to grant it.”

Without waiting for me to answer he opened the door and led the way into a vast bedchamber.

Several iron candelabra along the walls gave a soft pleasing light to the room, and there was a healthy little fire going in the great fireplace.

We stood now in a space that was like a parlor, but I could see dimly the great bed beyond and the figure of a naked man kneeling before it, with his back to me. The man appeared young and powerfully built with a mane of thick wavy brown hair. And immediately I felt a stab of desire between my legs as I looked at his naked backside. It was tightly muscled yet pleasingly curved. But this was no young boy.

Lady Elvera stood primly to one side of the naked man, and when she saw me she came forward to meet me anxiously.

“Lady Eva, you must punish the King,” she said in a low commanding voice. “It is his wish, and if you fail in this, there may be no new destiny for Bellavalten.”

I almost laughed. So you two have failed at it, I thought, but I didn’t speak the words.

“Of course,” I said. “Captain, put my casket of implements on that small table there by the fire, and both of you be gone from here now.”

Lady Elvera drew herself up as if she were insulted. “You remember that this is your lord, the King!” she declared.

“Yes, Lady Eva, please,” said the Captain softly. “This is the King.”

“And you have disappointed him, have you not?” I said. “Now go, both of you. You who dare to refuse a king’s command. I’ll send for you when and if I have any need of you.”

The Captain at once nodded and moved to the door. Lady Elvera appeared outraged. “Take care, Lady Eva,” she whispered under her breath as she stormed past. “This is the King who has all power in his hands.”

The Captain hesitated as she went out past him. “Lady Eva,” he said in a low voice. “He asks that he be thoroughly mastered.”

Then he disappeared and the doors were shut.

I quickly threw the bolt. “Idiots,” I whispered.

I moved forward slowly on the great Indian carpet before the fireplace, closer to the kneeling figure which had not moved all this while.

The King. Yes, the King. The warmth between my legs was excruciating. I felt the juices against my inner thighs. I knew I might lose control of that rising, rolling pleasure now and again and again as I proceeded. But I struggled to hold it back, to put my eyes on what lay before me and not let my own passion overcome me.

He knelt still as if he had heard none of this annoying nonsense. His legs were parted, and I could see he’d been beaten not only on his strong tight bottom, but on his well-muscled thighs and calves. His skin appeared golden in the firelight. Smooth. Flawless. His shoulders were large, and the muscles of his back were rather irresistible, as irresistible as the exquisitely curved bottom. I wanted to take hold of his bottom in both hands.

I could see they had delivered a few blows there. But the flesh was for my purposes fresh and virginal, the flesh of a man, not a boy, a man and a king. I could scarcely contain myself.

I’d spanked enough bad boys of twenty and twenty-five and so forth and so on, children still as they groped for manhood. I’d never had a true man before, an older man, a man much older than me, a man who would be filled with inevitable pride and dignity.

My nipples were hardening beneath my gown. I let a deep sigh pass through my lips.

I turned to the casket, opened it, and took out the golden paddle. This one had been made especially for me, with a long handle that felt good to my small fingers, and the thin gilded wood had been well polished by Severin’s bottom.

It was a superb instrument for stinging and humiliating.

I drew up beside the kneeling figure. He bowed his head and started to turn away from me. His cock was immense and it was hard, wondrously hard, and gleaming in the half-light.

“Oh, no, you must not do that, my lord,” I said, reaching for his chin with my left hand, and gradually turning his face back towards me. “No, you must never turn away from me without my permission. Do you hear? I don’t mean for you to speak, I mean for you to nod only. The speaking will come later.”

He nodded. His cock jumped. I could all but feel its pain, its hunger.

The scent coming up from his skin was delicious, and it had been so well oiled that it glistened beautifully in the light of the fire. Such powerful arms, such broad shoulders. And every inch of him was polished as if he were made of bronze.

“Now look down as you know you should,” I said. “Always keep your eyes down unless I say you might raise them.” But I turned his face full towards me. And I could see the tears now clearly, sparkling in his dark lashes, and on his skin. He was trembling.

“You are ready for this, aren’t you?” I said the words with low fervor. “You need this so very much, and it’s been a long time, has it not, since anyone took command of your desires.”

Again, he nodded. But he couldn’t keep his eyes from moving over me feverishly before he looked down again contritely.

I grabbed a handful of his silky hair.

“Well, tell me what you saw,” I said, “since you could not quite command your impudent gaze, and be very careful that you say nothing to displease me.”

“A mistress of great beauty,” he said softly.

“And was not Lady Elvera a mistress of great beauty years ago when she whipped you daily?”

“Yes, madam, she was,” he replied, eyes down as before. “And she is beautiful now, undeniably, but she is frightened of me.”

Perfect answer. His tone was very reverential and polite.

“Well, I am not frightened of you at all. I’m in love with you. Now stand up quickly.”

He did as I commanded. Oh, he was surely the most splendid male human being I’d ever beheld, bar none. His shadowy chest and belly were tight and firm, and the cock, though not monstrously long, no, a comfortable size, was exceptionally thick, rising out of its nest of moist dark hair as if a sculptor had made it for the gods, or for me, little Eva, in this moment.

I stood on tiptoe to kiss his face. I kissed his wet cheeks. Ah, this was paradise! I had wanted to do this, so wanted to do it the first time I’d ever seen him. I kissed his eyelids now, felt his eyes moving beneath his lids, beneath my lips, felt his eyelashes against me. I covered him in kisses, sealing my lips to the hard bone of his jaw, to his cheekbones, to his forehead. Rough the shadow of his beard, deliciously rough though it had been shaven close. My left hand played with his hair, smoothing it back, stroking the skin. Dark hair is so soft, always so soft, so much finer than light hair.

I heard him sigh under my kisses, my fingers caressing him. I gathered up his hair in my hand and tugged at it.

“You’re afraid, aren’t you?” I said. “You’ve given the order but you’re afraid.”

“Yes, madam.”

“And well you should be,” I said softly, lovingly. I turned his face to me and kissed him full on the mouth, my left hand tightening on the back of his neck, breathing into his mouth, stabbing my tongue into his mouth. As I drew back I saw his cock jump again as if it had claimed his soul for its own.

“Your cock knows what you need, doesn’t it?” I breathed into his ear. “Now quickly, put your hands on the back of your neck and keep them there, and spread your legs wide.”

I stood to one side, my left hand on his right shoulder.

As he obeyed I slipped the loop on the paddle around my right wrist, and felt of his scrotum with my right hand, cupping my hand under it as best I could, and weighing it slowly, then letting it go. With my left hand I lifted his chin. I gave his cock a fierce slap that startled him. He was so ready. I slapped it again, hard, and again and again.