Branded Possession (The Machinery of Desire Book 3)

by Cari Silverwood

  It wasn’t a wonderful, perfect solution but it was one she could dream toward, plan toward.

  Make it so.

  She closed her eyes and shivered herself to sleep.

  Chapter 7

  Days went by. Gio lost track of how many. Inside the landships, Mekker days were synched to the days of the planet Aerthe, and they almost certainly weren’t the same as Earth day and night cycles. In the artificially lighted environment of Ryke’s rooms, with him giving meals at irregular hours, with the lights dimmed and brightened but never out, her circadian rhythms were completely and utterly screwed.

  Deliberate, again.

  The man had plans, same as her. Mad plans.

  He rarely let her eat by herself. He tied her to chairs, to a makeshift table, in ways that were uncomfortable and obscene, and he fed her carefully, gently, except when she displeased him. It was intended as torture, but mental torture.

  The interrogations continued, became ever more specific, and she sometimes skirted facts. Recalling which facts she’d distorted or left out was difficult but well within her capabilities. He thought to trip her up and couldn’t. Her inner pleasure at thwarting him grew. Smiling on the outside, no, but inside she was grinning like the Devil.

  He trained her to act like a slave, and act she did. So good was she that he barely had reasons to punish her anymore.

  As far as she could tell, that frustrated him. She learned his manners, learned to read him. His outer calm was a façade that seemed thinner each time he commanded her to exit her cell. Her problem? In these rooms she would never find a portal mage – mage being his word. Portal scientist was hers. Mage made her think of D&D games. A plus four sword, a Black Tentacle spell, and a roll of dice weren’t solving anything here.

  Going outside these rooms was essential, yet she couldn’t free herself. She needed Ryke to do that. How was as yet undecided. Maybe if she puked all over his rooms.

  He unlocked and pulled open the cell door, gestured for her to follow. She’d already dressed in the strange suit he’d left her for this day. It was thin and transparent like plastic but probably skin. Leather was skin. Yeahhh. Still eww.

  She’d suppressed the creeped-out feeling and put on the figure-hugging garment. Mekkers had a weird sort of clunky zip and those were at crotch and breasts, as well as one long zip at the front – without that, she’d never have wriggled into the suit.

  Her nipples looked like pink, squished discs. All of her looked squashed. But...she was past being disturbed by Ryke’s fetishes, wasn’t she?

  As she emerged he nodded toward her. “That’s kol hide. A type of monster with skin that strips down to a thin hide.”

  Monster not creature? If there was an award for weirdest so far, this fetish won by a mile.

  Bare feet, black cuffs at ankle and wrist, and see-through monster suit, as well as the ever-present blood-sucking collar. Not that he’d tried to take her blood. She’d seen him pop the capsules with the Factor H the Mekkers extracted from human and Scav blood.

  “Kneel.” He pointed at the floor before his pseudo-throne then quickly turned and sat. With ankle crossed over knee, he relaxed into the chair and waited for her to obey.

  The smoothness of his turn had been a pirouette worthy of a ballet dancer. Slick. Maybe it was a trait of interrogator assassins?

  Ryke cleared his throat. She’d been slow.

  Bad.

  Gio snapped back to reality. She folded into position, sitting pertly, keeping her shoulders back and her chest up too.

  He often blatantly ogled her and she was beginning to see the advantages of her femaleness where she never had before. On Earth she’d been a pasty-skinned chick with a geeky job that occupied her hours to the extent she had no time for the sun, play, or boyfriends. Or not the ones who’d stick around.

  Here...here she kneeled before a man who wanted to fuck her but wouldn’t, and she still lacked for sunlight. But, what if he was so obsessed with her he lost sight of his objective? Was this a chink in his armor?

  “You seem...content these last days.”

  His question and precision gaze jarred her. The implication being she was too content.

  Whatever he’d done she’d submitted to, thinking it was a great strategy that kept her safe. It was only between the two of them. Weird or humiliating, she’d steeled herself; she was simply a mind in a body. The mind mattered more. He wasn’t able to damage or kill her. He’d not used drugs on her, or suffocated her again. Ugh. That...

  Wrapping her head to the bars had been the scariest thing he’d done. Negotiating the maze of his questions had been easy – and safe.

  His gaze bored in, steady as a laser, but this robot man had brains. What had she done wrong? Answer: She’d been too damn perfect.

  “I think we need to try something new.”

  Though she tried to conceal her nervousness, her teeth found the inside of her lip.

  She’d fucked up. Only a little, surely?

  “Let’s go on a trip outside, through the corridors and parks, the pleasure areas, the markets of this royal landship. Hmmm?”

  On the other hand. Yes! This was what she’d wanted. Plan A coming up. Gio nodded and tried not to seem too eager or too afraid.

  Except, maybe he wanted afraid?

  She’d be going out there dressed like plastic Barbie with her private bits on display.

  “Over these last days, I’ve seen what you are. Not all of you, of course, even if I’ve had you upside down with your legs open. You’re a very smart girl. Smart isn’t always clever, though.”

  This moment in time was stuck, the tick of the clock hand quivering, as she waited for the punchline that was coming.

  Her knees hurt. Never let your enemy know your weakness. And now she remembered that other quote. From Sun Tzu? Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant.

  She’d been showing how strong she was...

  “But you can’t go dressed like that.”

  Frowning, she glanced down at the suit he’d specifically given her. What was he up to?

  Chapter 8

  Ryke waited, letting her get anxious. He was in no hurry. What he’d said was true. He’d been learning about her. He also knew he wasn’t much further along in figuring out how to crack her open.

  She knew more than what she’d told him and it was frustrating, but he was patient.

  There were several methods to break someone.

  Negative ways? Beat them, torture them physically. This was not something he did, but he had, once or twice, let someone else apply torture. For those clients, it’d worked.

  A small lie, telling her that torture wasn’t an option. Lies were good for mindfucking too.

  Would physical abuse work on Gio? It might, though she’d withstood physical pain already. The problem was that he couldn’t risk killing her, or harming her badly. In that respect, she was the most delicate prisoner he’d ever had in his rooms.

  Whenever Gyle came here, he could feel the jumpiness as soon as the man stepped through the door. Something had made this client even more crucial than he’d been informed.

  So, he couldn’t give her to a torturer. He didn’t think he’d want to. Maybe in the end he could own her.

  The other ways to break a man or a woman?

  Find their outside weak links. Their family, friends, things they cared for. With one man, he’d made the wife come in and fake something terrible, something that would get worse if he failed to spill what he knew. Her acting had been bad but enough to make the client open up.

  The wife didn’t see Ryke’s face, or know where she’d been taken. She’d thought it was the only way to keep herself and her children safe, and there’d always been rumors the king had dark methods of enforcing the peace. She’d add little new to the gossip.

  Gio had no one else, no outside weaknesses, except for humans in general.

  Third method was to make them automatically obey everything you asked of them and it was possible,
especially with drugs, with a lot of mind games, but took months to instill.

  He did not have months.

  Fourth method. Positive means. Make them want to help you. He was working on that one.

  Fifth. Trick them. Unlikely after what he’d seen these last few days. And so, he was still formulating his breaking strategy.

  In one motion, he stood while fishing up a bag from beside the chair, then he strolled to her. When the bag slipped to the floor, it revealed the three black objects he held – a leash, a full-face mask, and a pair of long black gloves that could be buckled together.

  Her eyes stayed wide.

  Ahhh. He was correct. “Scared of this?” He rattled the objects.

  She scrambled backward on her knees, eyes locked to the mask. He followed, swinging the gear.

  “Come.”

  “No!” Her whisper sounded defiant, but her feet touched the wall behind her. Cornered.

  Masks were the one thing he’d thought unbalanced her.

  “You’re denying me? That won’t end well for you.” He dropped the gloves to the floor, tucked the leash into a pocket in his pants. “I’ll have this on you soon, and when I do, you won’t be able to stop me from doing whatever I choose to do. Don’t annoy me, girl.” He beckoned.

  “Wait. Wait.” Gio’s mouth worked, her concentration wavering between the mask and his face. “You want to conceal my hair and nails? You know my pubes are seeable through this? There is another way. I figured it out while with Drette. There are chemicals I can mix to make a hair dye and nail polish. If you’ll just let me tell you what they are...”

  Smart indeed. “Tell me.”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “I have a very good memory.”

  She rattled off the chemicals needed and how to mix them. “There.”

  He tucked the facts away. “Thank you. Now though, we are going out.”

  “Fuck you. Liar!” Her back flattened to the wall; her muscles tensed, fingers splayed onto the floor as if to push herself up, to leap.

  “Never promised a thing.”

  For a second, he thought she’d run.

  Already his dick was pumping higher. Frightening her shouldn’t mean anything to him emotionally, but...

  The thrill of the chase. Simple. He’d had hard-ons with other female clients. He’d never really contemplated fucking them.

  Except he worried his own wall was cracking.

  With that transparent fabric cradling her tits, he could see every tantalizing detail of her areolas. The crotch did the same – yes, it revealed the narrow smudge of golden hair leading into the split of her cunt. The way her waist swung in then flared to her hips, the shine of her thighs when the light caught it...

  One day, he’d bite his way up that, and down, leave bruises of possession. He wanted to fuck her so badly.

  One day. Even if Gyle took her away, he’d get into her first. Not today. Today was business.

  “It has no mouth opening. No eyes,” she spluttered. “I can’t breathe if I wear that.”

  He’d never seen her this flustered. Not while clean of drugs.

  Ryke let his mouth stretch into a stiff smile and held up the shiny black mask. It overlapped at the back where it buckled and locked shut. Her entire head would be encased. The lower face bulged out and was dotted with blunt metal spikes and breathing holes. Over the mouth was a removable plug. The eyes had flat caps, also removable. Though it was difficult to see it against the black, the nose was a well-aerated, large hole.

  Once she’d donned the mask, her hair would be fully concealed.

  Shut in, tight, inescapable but she could breathe.

  He unclipped the eye caps and the mouth plug, took a step closer. “See.”

  “How do I know you won’t –”

  “Put them back on? You don’t.”

  She also wasn’t going anywhere. Tired of her defiance, he snapped out his arm and grabbed her hair then her neck, letting the mask fall. When she tried to kick, he yanked her forward and flipped her onto her stomach, holding her hands at her back until he’d fastened them together.

  Her grunted curses, he ignored. At least she didn’t scream. She wasn’t ever much of a screamer, really.

  If she gave him a reason to do something nasty, he might test that.

  No physical abuse, remember?

  Oh, he remembered, just his tongue was hanging out.

  The mask had rolled between her body and the floor, her ass was well outlined, though the zip covered her little hole. He’d never stuck anything other than an object into a client’s holes, into either of the lower ones, though he’d violated a few gagged and propped-open mouths with his fingers.

  None of them had possessed an ass like this.

  With one knee partly pressing down on her waist and the other beside her butt, with his palm over her hands, he kept her still.

  “Did you behave?”

  That noise she made in answer was certainly another curse.

  “No, you didn’t.” He smacked one side of her ass, then the other.

  The solid feel of her flesh, her body heaving under him, and her shrieks, coaxed out his evil side. He smacked her several more times. The suit’s skin would take much of the force. It satisfied him still, to see the pinkness appear. She moaned nicely when he paused. These soft, trembling moans made him wonder what she was thinking. He swung his body over hers so he squashed and straddled her, with a knee to either side of her ample ass.

  His cock liked it here.

  Methodically, ignoring everything she did because it was ineffectual – her constant soft litany of stop, stop, stop – Ryke wriggled the mask over her head and buckled it at the neck. She could breathe – he made sure of that, turning the mask and studying how it fitted, listening to the sounds she made.

  Her stop turned into swear words.

  People didn’t realize how easily controlled they were if you restrained their head. Well, Gio did now. He clicked the leash to her neck, then moved up her body and pinned the leash, and therefore her head, to the floor with his knee.

  He leaned in. “Squirm too much, curse me, and I will make you parade around with an ass plug in and I might invite some random stranger to fuck you.”

  She shut up.

  “Better.”

  With her wearing the mask, with the D clips at the back of it and sides, he was spoiled for places to tie ropes and leashes to. Made his hands itch to rope or chain her to something, if he was honest.

  “Now these.”

  The suit had short sleeves. The gloves reached to halfway between her elbows and shoulders, and he buckled them together, figuring she needed a new lesson in helplessness...then he clipped on the eye caps and the mouth cover.

  Her soft whimpers only made his dick harder than he’d thought possible. Having this woman in his hands, to do anything with, and to be able to keep her alive afterward, this was a gift. Gyle didn’t know it.

  It might be best to not communicate to the man how interested he was in keeping her. Court politics were as complex as a basket of worms.

  Ryke hauled her to her feet and over to his chair, where he sat and contemplated her a while.

  He stuck his elbow on the armrest while his other hand rested on her hip, feeling every breath she took, every subtle squirm. She couldn’t see anything while he could see all of her – reactions, tits, her quivers, and the luscious peak of her pink-brown nipples. The kol hide was thin enough to be pressed outward.

  He raised his hand from her hip and brushed his forefinger down each nipple. Tantalizing, seeing them so close. Undoing each zip where it curved above her breast let him free them. He leaned in closer, smelled her, and drew her nipple into his mouth, swirling his tongue. The tiny bumps were palpable. He tasted her and sucked each, alternating, until the petulant things seemed harder than before.

  Her muffled gasps then taut stillness were promising. This fierce little woman was interested. Aroused, in spite of her struggling and h
er fears.

  He sat back and resumed position, leaving his hand on her hip. She didn’t speak. He’d shocked her, for now.

  It wouldn’t last. If he towed her about the ship like this, he’d want to shove her against a wall and fuck her. All done up in kol hide and chains, on his leash, barefoot, owned by him, potentially. He was tumbling through a field of unexploded bombs here. Want didn’t equal had to.

  “Do you know why I’m doing this?”

  She shook her head.

  The gravel roughness in his tone was obvious even to Ryke, as if she’d brought out the male creature in him.

  She had. He wanted to roar and fuck her, to guard her dripping, fecund body until he rutted in her again.

  A novel feeling.

  He’d deal with it when it was time.

  He let his hip hand slid past her belly button and down, to her cleft, and he unzipped her there also, from above her pubic hair to past her asshole. He left his fingers in place, being soaked by her wetness. She wriggled but stayed because he had her trapped between his knees and the leash in hand.

  For once, she seemed like a frightened young animal. What a nice pet she’d be for him.

  He kept his voice firm but quiet. “You’re not going anywhere unless I say, Gio.”

  Not that she could see, but when he drew his fingers out from between her legs, they glistened. He undid the mouth cover and stuck them in her mouth, confident she wouldn’t dare bite him.

  “It’s not mere coincidence that you’ve lubricated like this.”

  She was responding to him. No drugs, no artificial fucking.

  Down, he commanded his cock. Stubborn thing refused his order. He reclipped the cover.

  “We’re going on a tour and you will behave. Drette said you thought you could sense a difference in him when you first met. Consider this a trial. I want to see how you feel about everyone you see, smell, or come close to, assuming I let you see. If you feel anything unusual about a person, tell me. You’ll be rewarded when we return if you do this to the best of your abilities. You are not to talk or cry, or blink an eye, unless I say to. Do nothing except walk and obey me. Understand?”