The Woman on the Lake Ch. 09

Author's Note: This chapter is long, but it's filthy. I'm still weaving a plot and a story but there from this point on, sex plays an important role. I hope you enjoy it.

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In the dark caravan, Leda considered what her life might have been. What if she had accepted her fate and become a whore? What if she not run that day after Gerald disowned her?

His name had been blacked out on her chest and she lay on the straw, recovering. She was sure the needle they used to black out names was duller than the ones they used to write. She was vaguely delirious when she heard the men discussing what came next.

There would be an inspection, some paperwork, and then she's be taken away on one of those caravans.

Maybe they thought she was asleep, maybe they didn't care if she knew. No women can do much about the groping and weighing of flesh that occurred when a women needed to be repurposed. But after an old man run his hands over her breasts and put his fingers in her mouth to inspect her teeth, he left. And Leda had been alone with the paperwork.

The only thing which separated herself from the women here was the ability to write.

With a different mother - she might have been like Nadine. As the caravan rumbled though the forest, Nadine shared her story readily, as though she needed to provide Leda with some context for why, hours before, she had wanted to kill her with a crossbow. She had been passed around dozens of camps, and serviced countless men before she found Teeth and decided it was better to be a killer and a whore. And she was just a child. She was disowned before she was 15. Tatiana and Maria were mates and whores for years before they found each other. Whomever it was who decided those two women should be in one place together didn't realize what kind danger he had put himself in until it was too late.

Would Leda have been brave enough to rebel like these women had? Disappearing from the State is one thing. All she had had to do was forge a few documents. But if that hadn't worked, would she have been brave enough to kill someone for her freedom?

Her thoughts were interrupted by a two sharp knocks. Maria was coming up on the encampment.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Tatiana peered at Leda in the dark.

Leda cleared her throat.

"Do you think it will work?"

"It's a good plan," Tatiana said flatly. "But I don't know you very well. You might not be clever enough to pull it off."

Leda smiled. Tatiana's honesty was bracing - an unsubtle reminder to keep her wits about her. She wasn't alone on the lake anymore. She would have to interact with people. And she wouldn't have the upper hand.

"If you do fail," Nadine said. "It won't be because of your clothes. You look like a proper whore."

"I don't think she looks like a proper anything," This was Nora, or maybe Beth. Leda couldn't see through the dark. There were a few hushed giggles. They were close to the camp now, and the girls wouldn't get their haul if they knew how many girls were hiding in the caravan.

Leda reddened in the dark. She was tied so tightly into her corset she could barely bend. Her waist was squeezed into nothing as her breasts nearly spilled over top. Instead of wearing a proper dress, Tatiana had given her an embroidered shawl to cover her shoulders, and a long green skirt trailed behind her, it's excess fabric a cruel joke considering the nakedness of her breasts. Even her hair felt different, the long curls brushed out into soft waves which brushed her elbows as she sat against the wall. She tried not to think of what might happen to her, dressed like this. She tried to remember that bad things had happened to her no matter how covered her breasts were. Still, she felt vulnerable. Even if this was just another uniform.

The caravan lurched suddenly. Tatiana took Leda's hand.

"Let's see if they take the bait,"

"They always do," said a voice in the dark.

Leda squeezed Tatiana's fingers, then stepped out into the woods.

It was dusk by then. They'd been travelling all day and Maria had run the caravan into a small ditch. She was working on a small campfire, now, a different person out of pants and in her whore's corset and skirts. Soon the flames burned brightly; a beacon to lure a few rangers out to the woods.

"Here," she handed Leda a branch. "Fan the fire, and try to send the smoke towards the fort."

Leda did as she was told, and soon they could hear the rustle of horses approaching.

"Remember, Leda, things don't always go as we expect them to," Maria said. "You'll have to improvise."

"Luckily for us, it always takes some time for them to realize that women can scheme," Tatiana said. "Now push up your tits and look dimwitted and scared."

Three riders came out of the woods and Leda couldn't recognize one of them. They were shabby men on shabby horses, but they looked utterly gleefully when they found the source of the firelight.

"Hello hello, ladies," a man with long, ratty hair dismounted. "What's happening here?"

"Our caravan, it's broken," Leda could barely recognize the voice as Maria's. She spoke like a little girl.

The ratty haired man inspected the caravan briefly, as if he needed to confirm that a caravan, stuck in a ditch and lacking two wheels, was indeed broken.

"And where's your caravan leader?" he said, coming closer.

"He went for help," Maria looked down at the ground. "He said he'd only be gone a few minutes but..."

"That was yesterday," Tatiana, too, sounded like a lost child. "And we have no food, we haven't even gone out to look for water. He told us not to move."

The other men dismounted then, looking for a place to tie their animals. The ratty haired leader came up to Maria, and slowly, brought his hand to her hair, taking a handful of the black locks and running his dirty fingers through them languidly.

"Ned, why don't you give these girls some water," he spoke to his man without taking his eyes off Maria.

"Thank you," she whispered.

The ratty haired man kissed her then, pressing his chapped lips against hers roughly. Maria struggled, but he held her face to his, forcing a tongue between her lips harshly. Leda shuffled indignantly but Tatiana reached out and touched her arm, forcing her to relax.

Unlike Leda, these women knew how to improvise.

Eventually, the ratty haired man came up for air, removing his face from hers with a short laugh.

"It's my pleasure, sweet," he said, wiping off his lips with the back of his hands. He turned to his men. "What do you think, lads. Three of them, three of us, in exchange for a little water?"

"I'd even spare some food," one of them said.

"We'll be generous with our goods if you are generous with yours" Ratty inspected Tatiana then, cupping her breasts before coming up to Leda.

Leda tried to keep looking at the ground, but then he brought a long fingernail to her chin, tipping her face up to his.

"This one must be fresh," he said. "She's still shy." He smiled down at her, and Leda did everything in her power not to grimace at the rotten scent of his breath. "You still shy, girl? Or are you just frightened because you don't have a man here to make sure us boys play nice?"

Leda stopped trying to look away. She released her chin from his hands and met his eyes.

"I'm not frightened," she said.

He took her chin in his hands again, and for a split second, it looked like he might slap her. Instead he pushed her face away with a laugh. "Well then, that's too bad," the ratty man called to his men. "I'll take the dark girl with the big tits, you two can pick between this and the other one."

Leda looked to Maria, and she nodded. It was time to end this. The brought her knuckles to the felled caravan, ready to knock out the signal that would send Nadine's arrows flying into the Rat Haired man's heart. But then, there was the sound of more riders.

Even in the failing light, it was clearly him. Leda could feel her heart leaping into her throat before she was even sure that it was his auburn curls catching in the wind as he rode her stallion.

It was easy to forget that Brandon, so often shabby and wiry in the woods, was the Head Ranger. That evening, as he rode from the Leaders camp in the failing light, he looked like a powerful man. He had found a new shirt, a new jacket, and sat taller than the other riders as he came over the hills. Even Beast was imposing and regal, his jet black coat shining under a new saddle. She should have know the only man who could break him was Brandon.

Leda felt the familiar tightening in her stomach. Brandon was undeniably handsome and she couldn't pretend to be immune to his square jaw and sharp cheekbones. His brow furrowed as his icy blue eyes took in the situation before him. Already he was memorizing, calculating, making tactical sense of a caravan, a campfire and three whores, alone.

If she hadn't been staring at him as he rode up to the camp, Leda might have missed the moment of recognition. He had been scanning the camp, but then, his eyes snapped back to the whore with the green skirt and the long, loose curls. You could barely see his eyes widen as he recognized her, her breasts pushed up and struggling to breath in the borrowed lace corset. As soon as he looked at her, he looked away again, focusing on his rangers.

"Fuck," one of the men muttered under his breath as Brandon dismounted. "That's the end of our fun."

"Nah, he'll give us his leftovers," Ratty hair chuckled. "If he doesn't strangle us dead for starting without him."

Leda was nauseous. Not about Brandon's history of leaving his men with leftovers so much as the thought of him strangling men dead.

"What's going on here," Brandon said, handing Beast's reigns to the older ranger who seemed to be constantly at his side.

"Our caravan broke," Tatiana said. Brandon looked at her, and another brief flash of recognition came over his face. "And we haven't seen Old Jim since yesterday."

"Nothing we can't handle," Rat Hair said with a wry smile towards Brandon.

"I don't doubt it," Brandon said. "Only... sometimes our rangers go out to investigate caravan accidents and don't come back again, you wouldn't know anything about that, would you, Tatiana?"

Tatiana opened her lips to answer, only to be interrupted.

"Why would she? They're only whores," Rat Hair clapped Brandon on the shoulder, and Brandon set his hard blue eyes on him. In less than a second, the older man took his hand away.

"Come on, Brandon, let us have some fun."

Brandon looked at Leda then and Leda looked to Maria.

Maria nodded.

Leda cast down her lashes and Brandon seemed to understand.

"Alright," Brandon said slowly. "But surely these women are hungry. Let's show them a bit of hospitality before we... well..." he looked to the men. "Show them a bit of hospitality, I guess."

The men roared with laughter, and Leda shivered. Brandon walked up to her.

"Are you cold, girl?" He looked into her eyes now, then took off his coat, and draped it around her. "Come sit by the fire with me," he said, pulling her towards the blaze. She followed, and said nothing as he sat on the felled caravan, and pulled her onto his lap. Leda felt ridiculous, sitting there perched on his knee like a child. When Brandon read the expression on her face he pulled her closer to him. Her curves pressed against his chest as her body fit effortlessly into his. His eyes met hers for a moment, but he said nothing.

"Just as well," the rat haired man said. "I wanted the one with the tits."

He grabbed Tatiana roughly, and the three other men eyed Maria, who busied herself with the fire as they debated who could take her body first among themselves.

"What are you doing, Leda," Brandon breathed the words in her ear smoothly as the other men talked loudly together.

"I needed to see you,"

"I told you, I'd come to you."

"I've changed my mind. Let Alec go, it's too dangerous."

"I said I'd protect you."

"But you can't protect everyone."

"I don't care about everyone, I care about you," his voice was low and calm. "If anyone comes for you, I'll kill them, and if you don't like me killing, I'll bring them to justice another way."

He moved a hand over her neck, running a hand through her curls. He moved his lips to hers, and coaxed her eyes into meeting his. Leda felt her body tighten. Her lips parted, but instead of kissing her, he whispered to her again.

"It may take some time to build your trust, but I'm going to have you."

Leda opened her mouth then. To yell, to hiss, to respond in anyway to the insinuation that her life was somehow less than her own, but Brandon put a finger to her lips.

"You're playing a whore, remember," his lips to her ear. "You can't get angry with me."

His arms tightened around her waist as he kissed her ear softly. Despite her anger, a wave of lust passed through Leda's body.

"Do you know how to play the whore, Leda?" He met her eyes with a raised brow, watching as her eyes burned with anger. She swallowed her words again. Brandon smiled, enjoying the position he found her in - forced to playact someone pliant and willing.

He brought his fingertip to her mouth again, tracing the budding peak of her upper lip. He had never noticed what a sweet mouth she had. He moved his finger between her lips, and almost instinctively, Leda moved to taste it.

She looked up at him as he penetrated her mouth with a single finger. She caressed it with her tongue and lips, and when he put a second in her mouth, she sucked that too. Beneath her, Brandon's cock stiffened. He had been wrong to doubt her. She could easily play the whore with him.

"It's a pretty mouth on your piece," the voice of the ratty haired man broke their spell. "I gather I could put it to better use though."

Brandon swallowed his rage as laughter erupted around the campfire. Watching him bristle at the other man's words softened Leda's anger towards him. She leaned her lips to his ears once more.

"I came to find you. And I found you," she said. "I don't intend to get caught now."

"You did find me, I can't argue that." Brandon whispered. "But I don't know if I should kiss you for your bravery, your ingenuity, two things I love about you, or spank you for taking such a risk with your life when you clearly mean so much to me."

"You shouldn't punish me for succeeding, Brandon. I don't know if you've noticed, but I tend to succeed a lot."

Brandon smiled. She would have never spoken like that when he first met her. His Leda was becoming bolder.

"You haven't succeeded yet, you still have to seduce me if you're going to convince anyone that you're a good little whore," Brandon whispered, running his hands through her hair, gently tugging her curls to bring her face closer to his lips. "Do it, Leda. Seduce me."

He wrapped his hand in her hair, pulling her face towards him and bringing his lips achingly close to hers. She shifted on his lap, and his hand moved to her thigh, holding her in place.

"Play the part. Pretend like you want me."

A knot of desire formed in her belly as Leda felt Brandon's breath on her face, taunting her with his closeness.

She kissed him without thinking, giving her lips to him so wantonly that Brandon couldn't stop his cock from becoming rock hard against her leg. When she slipped her tongue between his lips she moaned prettily, pressing her body against his as she explored his mouth. When she felt his tongue probing hers, every part of her became as soft and yielding as water.

But then she remembered to pull away from him. A whore should only offer a taste before she gets her payment. She moved her lips to his ear again.

"If your men go too far with these women something bad will happen," Leda remembered to smile, as though she had just whispered some sweet nothing into his ear.

"I know what happens when some of the rougher boys find Tatiana," Brandon kissed her ear. "That's why you are against the caravan, not across from it in the line of fire. I imagine Nadine still carries Teeth?"

"I guess you've thought of everything then," Of course, Brandon had been with Tatiana. More than that, had presumably looked the other way when she and Maria killed their Caravan Leader and struck out alone. He must have liked her, admired her even. Leda felt a strange mixture of comfort and jealousy as she played with the buttons on the collar of Brandon's shirt. He watched her and smiled. When he looked at her, she forgot about Tatiana, and Maria and the men. When he whispered in her ear, she felt like they were two people, alone in the woods.

"I think about you," he said. "I think about what you're doing, what you need, I think about how to keep you safe." He shifted his hand, moving it up her thigh slowly. "And I think about your lips and your skin and the way you look at me."

"How I look at you?" Leda ran her fingers over his neck, tracing the shape of his Adam's Apple, exploring the roughness of his unshaved skin.

"Like I'm a risk worth taking."

Leda smiled and took her hands off his chest. "I haven't decided if that's true yet."

"You can kiss me again if that will help you," Brandon put his hands in her hair and pulled her towards him. Her lips found his.

He didn't wait for her this time. He entered her mouth hungrily, pressing his tongue inside her as his hand moved up the fabric of her skirt. She felt his rough hand between her thighs and gasped. He moved his hand higher, and his fingers brushed against her mound. She made a small noise against his mouth. He touched her there again, and Leda felt herself shudder with pleasure. He stopped the kiss suddenly, and looked into her eyes with a silent question. Leda nodded, and parted her legs.

He dipped one finger inside her. She gasped.

"Shh.." he smiled. "We're not alone."

"Brandon," Leda wanted to say something, but then his hands, coated in her wetness, circled her. Before she could moan again, he caught her mouth in a kiss as he flicked her most tender place.

Leda was overwhelmed. HIs hands continued to circle her bud as she struggled against him. Once again, the pleasure was becoming too much. But this time, he held her close to his body, and with every struggle, gripped her closer into his chest. His fingers encircled her faster as she whispered into his chest. Leda could feel herself falling into that maelstrom of pleasure she could barely endure. He forced her to look at him while he played with her, meeting her eyes as he brought her closer and closer to the brink.

She couldn't help it. The pleasure was too much. She let out a high pitched cry as she came closer to the edge. She knew the men would be looking at her now, moaning like a true whore. Brandon pulled her close to him, trying to muffle her noises in his chest, but Leda could swear she saw him smile at the way she had lost control.

Still, he wasn't finished with her. His fingers moved more quickly as her womanhood became soaked with nectar. He frigged her fast and hard, forcing his fingers onto her swollen bud, violently touching her until it all became to much. Leda cried out into his neck, her body coming apart in an explosive climax

Then she went limp. She couldn't move or talk. She could only gasp for air as her body came down from the heights of pleasure. She didn't have time to register what was happening around her before she could feel his fingers against her lips. Instinctively, she opened her mouth, and sucked. Her juices tasted musty, but sweet, as Brandon coaxed her to clean his fingers one by one. As soon as she finished, she felt herself being lifted from the ground and tossed over his shoulder like a runaway lamb.

"I'll be close," he said, passing through the campfire, nonplussed by the men watching him carry a woman out into the woods.