"I did not give you permission to drop that shirt, Aeryn. Hold it up." She tightened her teeth on it, standing with her hands at her sides, eyes following John's every move over the material bunched in her mouth.

"Stand at attention." John said, and Aeryn immediately straightened her stance, throwing her shoulders back and stiffening her spine, bare feet spreading apart to shoulder width. John smiled at her, trailing a hand down her back and over her side, up under the lifted shirt. She jerked at the touch of his warm fingers on her bare skin, and he moved behind her, taking hold of her arms and folding them behind her, placing each hand at the crook of the opposite elbow. The folded arms thrust her chest out even farther, and she kept her chin level, face forward, eyes fixed on the opposite wall.

"That's good, Aeryn. That training of yours might be good for something after all." He leaned in to put his lips next to her ear, breath tickling her skin. "Don't move. Stay just like that."

He moved around to stand in front of her, admiring the total effect. "D'Argo, you should see what she looks like right now." He glanced back over his shoulder at the Luxan, noting with approval that D'Argo was still as he had left him, squatting with his feet spread wide and eyes straight ahead, not looking toward Aeryn or John at the sound of John's voice. "She looks so beautiful, so proud and eager to please. I imagined her that way, so many times, but I never thought she could do it. She's been so good, hasn't she?" No answer, of course, from either of them.

John brought up the belt, caressing Aeryn's cheek with it as he had done before, then drawing it down to tease her nipples with it, rubbing the folded end gently over the pebbled flesh. "Just a little more, Aeryn, and then you can have your reward for being so good for me, OK?" The belt drew back and slapped gently at the left nipple. Aeryn gasped, rocking on her heels. Her mouth opened in shock and John slid one hand into her hair, pulling her face toward his and making her look at him.

"Don't drop it, Aeryn. You hold your stance and you keep that shirt in your mouth, understood?"

"Yes, sir." she mumbled around the material, and her eyes squeezed shut as her words earned her a hard smack on her left nipple, still smarting from the first blow.

"I didn't give you permission to talk, Aeryn. All I want to hear out of you -- " Another slap to the right nipple. " -- is this -- " A slap to the left, followed by a sharp, moaning gasp from Aeryn. " -- and this." The hand holding the belt slipped between her spread thighs and pressed hard against her mound, lifting her up on her tip toes and drawing a smothered wail from her. John pulled his hand away, and Aeryn stumbled, immediately struggling to regain her balance and snapping back to attention again.

John smiled, lifting his hand to her face and dragging his knuckles over her cheek. "You're already wet, Aeryn. I could feel it, even through your pants. That's good." He leaned forward and kissed her cheek tenderly, then stepped back and looked at her for a moment. Then the hand holding the folded belt lifted, and he rained tiny, sharp slaps over the swells of her breasts. She jerked with every contact of the leather against her skin, reddened where the belt left its mark. Methodically, he covered every square inch of skin, until her breasts were a heated shade of dull pink, the nipples almost red. She rocked on her heels, moaning softly and continuously, the sound coming from her only broken by an occasional gasp as the belt licked fire across her painfully sensitive nipples. Her hands tightened on her arms where they were clasped behind her back until her knuckles were bone white, her teeth clenched on the T-shirt in her mouth, muffling the low keening moans she could not stop herself from making.

It seemed to go on forever, the slaps getting harder, faster, until she felt as if she were one single bundle of sensation that began and ended with her breasts. She lost all knowledge of the rest of her body, of thought, of any life outside this room and what it was like to not be standing here, tears streaming down her face, in flames of pain and pleasure.

Suddenly the stinging slaps stopped, and before she could process the unfamiliar sensation of the pain's absence, John lowered his head to her breast and took one nipple into his mouth, the wet warmth like a shock of electricity to her scalded and raw flesh. She cried out around the T-shirt in her mouth, feeling wetness bloom between her thighs. John suckled gently on the nipple in his mouth, swirling his tongue around it, and Aeryn felt herself teetering on the edge of an orgasm. John seemed to sense it and he dropped the belt, reaching out with one hand to grasp her hip, thrusting the other hand between her legs and viciously grinding against her pussy.

He put his face against hers, foreheads touching, and said, "Aeryn. Look at me."

Shaking, pale, nearly frantic with the need to come, to let go, she focused on his eyes.

"You drop that shirt now, Aeryn, and come for me. Come for me, scream it out, Aeryn. Do it. Now."

She opened her mouth, the shirt, its hem dark with sweat and saliva, dropping away, and threw her head back, wailing hoarsely as her orgasm overtook her and blotted out the world, exploded it. She rocked frantically against John's hand, riding it, feeling her juices spilling out of her and soaking her pants, his hand, lubricating the slide of her sex against the hard knuckles pressing into her. The last spasms died away, and she would have fallen if not for John's hand gripping her hip, steadying and supporting her.

He kissed her gently, savoring the relaxed, warm looseness of her body in the aftermath of her climax, and lowered her to her knees on the floor. He squatted in front of her, lifting her chin to meet her eyes. "You stay just like that, Aeryn. Keep your hands behind your back, sweetheart. You were soo good for me, you were just wonderful, you know that? You stay there, and you can watch what I'm going to do with D'Argo, OK, babygirl?" Aeryn nodded shyly, and smiled a little when he beamed at her in approval.

John rose to his feet and turned to look at D'Argo. He was still holding his position, but John caught him looking toward them when he turned around. He shook his head, walking over to hunker down in front of D'Argo, eye level with him.

"I'm a little disappointed in you, big guy. I told you, eyes front." He stood up, pacing around D'Argo in a slow circle, noting the trembles of exhaustion in the Luxan's legs from holding his uncomfortable pose. "I'm just going to have to figure out a way to make you understand that I mean business."

END CHAPTER 4