A Punishment Marriage Page 3

  The colonies had cured his taste for that kind of adventure, though the wilderness still called to him. This kind of adventure—a marriage under disciplinary circumstances—he thought might suit him just fine.

  “Commander Burton,” said a middle-aged man in a business suit, coming out of the office. Eric rose, putting his handheld in his back pocket. He still hadn’t gotten used to the formal way people here on the home world dressed, and he would be damned if he wore anything but jeans and a work shirt after nine years in a uniform.

  “Dr. Thayer?” He shook the proffered hand.

  Thayer nodded. “If you don’t mind,” he said. “I’d like to take you to our control room.”

  Eric felt his brow crease in puzzlement.

  The doctor clearly understood how odd it sounded, for he added immediately, “It’s a rather unusual circumstance, but there’s a young woman who one of our best docs thinks might be perfect for you—fit your skillset, as it were—and he’s just finishing up her disciplinary exam now.”

  Still rather mystified, Eric said in the slow, measured tone he used when he needed to consider, “Alright, Doctor.”

  Thayer led the way out the door of the administrative offices and turned left to take Eric deeper into the bureau facility. “I don’t know if what you’re going to see will seem strange or unusual to you, but I rather doubt it, coming as you do from the colonies. I’ll just explain a bit, though, so you’re not taken aback by what might be the first sight you have of the girl you’re going to marry.”

  Now Eric’s eyebrows rose. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but there seemed something frankly rather erotic in Thayer’s tone. He wondered rather fiercely what kind of sight might take him aback, half sure he would be disappointed and half anticipating something adventurous.

  Thayer stopped outside a door that bore a placard reading Disciplinary Division: Control with his hand on the knob.

  “The young lady you’re going to see on the monitor in here hasn’t just failed to match with her two previous suitors, but she was also caught this morning attempting to hack the database in order to match, on her third try, with a man she seems to have thought suited her better than the ones chosen by the marriage algorithm. If you decide to marry her, I imagine you’ll find ways to learn more about her motives for this criminal action, but it’s important to understand that the sort of examination she’s having now came about not because she rejected her previous matches but because she broke the law concerning the marriage system. Dr. Fredrickson, who’s performing the examination, is our best man when it comes to disciplinary matches, and he’s of the opinion that you would be an ideal husband for this girl.”

  Thayer studied Eric’s face for a moment, as if trying to determine whether he had absorbed all the information the doctor had just delivered. Eric nodded. “I think I got it.” Really, Dr. Thayer had piqued his curiosity quite a bit. Eric wasn’t the kind of man who spent a lot of time pondering his motivations or why things had the effect on him they did, but the very notion of a disciplinary examination—a practice with which he had indeed had some experience in the colonies—tended to get him rather hard. He couldn’t help feeling a little impatience for Thayer to open the door, so that Eric could see what the monitor would display to him.

  Chapter Four

  Lily couldn’t believe how much humiliation this asshole doctor somehow had the ability to make her feel. It wasn’t that they had caught her in the attempt to hack their idiotic, dysfunctional database. That felt humiliating enough, but the way he looked at her and touched her, confidently and almost possessively…

  Feeling her cheeks blaze hotter than she thought they ever had, she admitted that she had just had her first orgasm, under those eyes and those fingers. The satisfied tone in Dr. Fredrickson’s voice as he went about continuing this horrible excuse for an examination made her want to struggle in the restraints, if only to show that she did not accept a single thing he had said.

  But it would be stupid to struggle, as he palpated her breasts and thumbed the nipples erect, because that would show the doctor he had gotten to her.

  “Your nipples are very responsive as well, Lily,” he said. “That’s good. And your breasts are nice and healthy—and quite firm, the way most men like them.”

  Lily could tell that this talk of what men liked in a girl whom they married by force made an important part of what the doctor viewed as his job in conducting the exam. She had expected a standard pelvic exam and a talking-to about the all-knowing algorithm and the need not to prejudge her next, even more accurate, match. She had expected a farce, and if they hadn’t caught her she felt sure she would have gotten one.

  But what Dr. Fredrickson was doing now was no farce, though the actual medical element of it seemed less important than the way he clearly intended to inform her of the fate that would now befall her.

  “Your pubic hair is attractive, Lily,” he said, “and it would be even more so if you learned to keep it properly trimmed. But I need to tell you that most husbands who take on girls like you have them waxed down here before the wedding.” He laid a casual, blue-rubber-gloved hand on Lily’s pussy, so exposed in the wide parting of her knees in the stirrups. “When you meet your husband, he’ll tell you his preference.”

  Lily looked down her body at the doctor’s hand there, with the color of the glove contrasting dramatically with the wiry raven curls that she always seemed to feel both ashamed and proud of: ashamed because they grew in the naughty part of a girl’s body, but proud because they marked her maturity. What would it mean to have them taken away? Why would her… She had so much trouble even thinking the word, now.

  Why would her husband have her waxed down there? How would he? On whose authority?

  She watched the doctor get a plastic speculum from a drawer, and squeeze some clear lubricant on it.

  “Most citizens don’t really understand what a marriage under disciplinary circumstances entails, because they’ve never had close contact with the process,” he said as he got the horrid thing ready to go inside her. “It’s very important that I make it as clear to you as possible, Lily, that your husband will stand in what we call a correctional position with regard to your life and in particular with regard to your body. Privacy will be a thing of the past for you, I’m afraid, and he will explicitly be allowed to punish you in public with your bottom bare.”

  Lily refused to react to this terrible news. She knew he wanted the satisfaction of a What? or an Oh, God, but she resolved absolutely not to give it to him. She couldn’t help a little gasp, though, as the beak of the speculum came inside her.

  “Try to relax, Lily,” the doctor said. “I know it’s difficult when I’m telling you about your husband’s rights, but it’s essential that I ascertain the health of your vagina and your readiness for sexual intercourse.”

  She could tell that he actually meant to make it more difficult to relax, rather than less, but again she didn’t want to comply with his wishes, and so she tried as hard as she could to relax the muscles below her tummy, even if her mental state lay very far from relaxation. When she succeeded, she started to feel as if she could at least maintain some measure of control in the situation. It represented only a tiny victory, but maybe she could build on it?

  “Good girl,” the doctor said, and Lily took a little satisfaction herself in hearing that he didn’t really mean it. “Do you have any questions for me about sexual intercourse? Even with the kind of comprehensive health education we have on Meliora, girls often arrive at eighteen with unanswered questions, maybe not through having been inattentive in the classroom—though I have to say I suspect you probably were inattentive, given your generally rebellious attitude—but through having been too embarrassed to ask.”

  Well, Lily thought bitterly, if I did happen to have been too embarrassed then, what do you think I am now, asshole?

  “You have a very pretty vagina, Lily,” he said, opening the speculum a little wider and making Lily bi
te her lip at the sensation. “And your hymen is intact. Just to review…”

  No, he won’t, Lily thought as she realized what Dr. Fredrickson intended to talk about, and the blush that had departed when she won her little victory over her lower abdominal muscles returned in full force.

  “On your wedding night, and then, afterward, when he decides he would like to have intercourse with you, your husband will tell you in what position to place yourself, so as to present your vagina for coitus. Don’t be surprised if he tells you to face away from him, even when he penetrates you for the first time. Remember that in his correctional capacity he may punish you if you refuse to present yourself as he chooses, and make sure you get off to the right sort of start in the bedroom.”

  He withdrew the speculum at last and looked up at her. “You’ll feel some discomfort at first, but that will pass quickly as your husband moves his penis in and out of your vagina.”

  Lily glared back, sending what she hoped were imaginary but deadly daggers into his heart. She could see, though, that Dr. Fredrickson would try to deliver whatever horrible message he felt he had to deliver the more emphatically she showed herself unwilling to receive it.

  Now he went on, “Your husband is going to expect a good deal more from you, too, Lily. It’s important that you have no illusions on that score.”

  She couldn’t help it. She said, hoping her tone at least remained defiant, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  The doctor smiled in what he might have meant as a reassuring way, though Lily felt certain he didn’t actually want to reassure her at all. Then, to her surprise, he returned his attention to the places between her spread thighs. She gasped as the beak of the speculum entered her again, for it had entered the tiny ring of her bottom.

  With a single, meaningful glance up into her eyes before he returned to the examination, he said, “It’s even more important that you learn to relax your anal muscles, Lily. Part of your husband’s expectations, I can virtually guarantee you, will be to have anal and oral intercourse with you regularly, as well as vaginal. Did they cover those forms of sexual enjoyment in your health classes?”

  “N-no,” Lily stammered. Her little victory over her abdominal muscles seemed to vanish entirely. He was going to tell her to relax again, wasn’t he, and accompany it with some other terrible revelation about what her punishment marriage would mean, in the bedroom.

  “Try to relax, please, just the way you did when I examined your vagina, Lily. Push the way you would on the toilet.”

  Lily’s face glowed hotter than the sun, and she did it, feeling however no victory this time.

  “That’s it. You’ll do that when your husband enters you here with his penis, also. Girls generally find anal sex difficult at first, but with regular practice and perhaps with some use of training implements, most of them soon get used to it. It will help if you cultivate a submissive attitude, and remember that when your husband decides on anal intercourse, he’s chosen that way of penetrating you to please himself. You may find he’s generous, if you ask to be allowed to masturbate while he has anal sex with you. If not, though, you should try to consider the act as a gift you give to the man who has undertaken to take care of you and to be responsible for you, when he decides it’s time for you to give it.”

  Lily found that she had started to breathe more harshly, as she felt the speculum widen even while the asshole doctor (she tried to smile wryly at the play on words, and failed) spoke this ‘medical’ opinion. She tried not to picture it: the faceless man, as big and muscular as the Handsomes she had rejected, but even more alpha, not even telling her what he wanted but just picking Lily up and putting her on the bed, on her front, her hips raised over a pillow and her virginal bottom raised for a kind of sex she had never expected or asked for. She failed at that, too, just as she hadn’t been able find anything funny in calling Dr. Fredrickson the asshole doctor.

  He withdrew the speculum. “Your anus looks just fine, and I’m going to clear you for both vaginal and anal intercourse from the start of your marriage. Your husband will be happy to hear that, I think. It’s much the same with oral sex as it will be with anal. Many girls are able to enjoy that form of copulation from the start, because a young wife who can accept the penis deep in her throat can feel a justifiable pride at how much pleasure she gives her new husband.”

  Lily managed to recover her glare at full intensity as a response to this little lesson, which she thought had a tone of closure to it. She didn’t know what came next, of course, but surely it couldn’t be any worse.

  Dr. Fredrickson disabused her of that reassuring idea immediately. “By an extremely fortunate circumstance, Lily, the man who I think will make the best possible disciplinary match for you is here at our facility today. I’m going to go confer with him and with the director Dr. Thayer for a few moments to make sure he’s as interested as I expect in marrying you, but I don’t have any real doubt. When I return with him, you’ll have the chance to meet him…”

  “Like this?!” Lily exclaimed, yet again unable to hold her silence.

  The doctor looked at her coldly. “Yes, Lily. Like that. Your husband is going to have the right to see you any way he likes, and you had better get it through your head that men like this one enjoy having a pretty girl well prepared and positioned for their inspection. Before you interrupted me, I was going to say that you’ll have the opportunity to spend the night in a custody room here. I’m afraid that because of your criminal behavior you can’t go home, but you will have the twelve hours after meeting your matched husband to consider whether you wish to marry him or go to the mining colonies as an exile.”

  The doctor left the exam room, with Lily still naked and strapped to the exam chair. She felt a tear trickle down her face, but she already knew her answer, whoever this ‘perfect husband’ turned out to be. She couldn’t go to the colonies. Her life was here. They needed her coding skills on Meliora, and she grudgingly admitted that at least the bureau would make sure that this man, whoever he was, wouldn’t abuse her. Yes, she might have to obey, and, yes, she would obviously have to let him fuck her however he wanted, but Lily James had a high degree of confidence in her ability to take what the world gave and make something of it for herself.

  Chapter Five

  Luke found Commander Burton with Dr. Thayer in the control room down the hall from the examination room. When he entered the narrow little room with its bank of monitors, Burton turned to him with a bemused smile, extending a hand.

  “Very good to meet you, Dr. Fredrickson,” said the man whose looming presence somehow conveyed wisdom along with the kind of youthful good looks that even hetero men like Luke notice and, truthfully, resent.

  It posed no great challenge to lay aside that resentment, though, in the service of what Luke tended to think of as the great work. He took the proffered hand.

  “I’m going to guess, Commander, that you like what you see.”

  “She’s coming along nicely,” Dr. Thayer put in. “I was telling the commander that you’ve made a thorough study of how to get the best possible response in disciplinary situations.”

  Luke nodded at the compliment. “I have to admit you’re seeing me at my best. Girls who need real correction, like Lily there…” he gestured at the monitor where the red-faced and still red-bottomed girl lay restrained in the exam chair, “…are particularly satisfying to work with because their need for discipline is great enough to show quick results. Did you catch her orgasm, after I paddled her?” He addressed the question to Burton, and saw with pleasure the way the man’s face lit up. He would definitely take Lily James as his punishment bride, Luke could tell now beyond any doubt.

  Burton nodded. “Sure did. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a girl subdued so thoroughly by pleasure.”

  “If you marry her,” Dr. Thayer said, “you’d do very well to remember that response to punishment. Have you ever dominated a girl that way?”

  The commander grew thoughtf
ul. “Serena—my first wife—submitted to me in bed, if that’s what you mean. What you were saying to Miss James there, about the husband telling the wife when he would have sex with her, that just came naturally to Serena, I think. But like I said, I’m not sure that’s what you meant by the question, Dr. Thayer.”

  “Not quite,” Dr. Thayer said, looking at Luke.

  “Commander,” Luke said, falling easily into his favorite subject, “did you spank your first wife?”

  Burton nodded thoughtfully, as if he could already see the distinction, but couldn’t yet put his finger on exactly where it lay. “When she was naughty—she had quite a mouth on her when we first met, and I cured her of that, over my knee. She liked to gossip a bit, too, so she got her butt whipped with my belt for that a few times.”

  It was Luke’s turn to nod approvingly. “And her behavior improved?”

  “Well, a couple of times I had to repeat the lesson, make her take all her clothes off and lie on the bed for a real whipping, that kind of thing. Her behavior always improved after that, I can tell you.”

  “Eventually—and with consistent discipline it probably won’t take too long—Lily will respond that way, too. But there’s an important difference: Serena was matched to you, and you to her, partly because she had a need to submit that she could acknowledge, even if she might not have been able to talk about it in so many words. And you had the desire and ability to discipline her properly. It just came naturally, both in bed and when she misbehaved—am I right?”

  “Yes, definitely, Doctor,” Burton said, seeming to catch on. “But it won’t be like that with Miss James, I’m guessing.” He chuckled as his eyes went to the monitor and took their fill for a moment.