He wanted her. He wanted to strip her naked and explore her body with his, uncover her sweet spots, her darkest fantasies. It was too obvious—he needed to temper himself or risk scaring her off. He was scaring himself. Exercising restraint, he introduced himself to her while she was drinking a hot chocolate in the galley. Chocolate had been one of Earth’s great contributions to intergalactic society, and luckily for everyone else, there were now planets dedicated to chocolate production to meet the demand.
“I’m Flin.”
“Laila.” She seemed to be staring at his eyes. He supposed the pink color of them was unusual. Unlike Basil’s lilac eyes, which Flin knew for a fact were from a genetic mutation on Earth a couple of centuries ago, Flin’s were all natural.
“What do you do, Laila?” he asked, trying to be casual, still apparently captivating her with his eyes.
“Uh… I… that is to say…”
Flin hit the Speakeasy implant behind his right ear in case it was malfunctioning. Apparently, it was translating fine; she was just being inarticulate.
“Occupation? Job? Trade?” he prompted. “For example, I trained as an artist, but I’ve worked in cargo and logistics for the last five years, although technically it’s Basil’s company.”
“I don’t have one,” Laila said, turning the same color as his eyes.
“So what was the plan, then?”
“What do you mean?”
“You planned to get off Pombos, and then what?”
“I don’t know.” Was she usually so incapable of talking? He was aware he had this effect on some women.
“You don’t know what you’re going to do next? So how long are you with us for?”
“I don’t know.” She slurped on her hot chocolate.
He left her to it. It was like trying to get water from a star. Maybe she just needed time to process his size, he thought, as he went to check that nobody had messed up his cabin while he was gone.
* * *
The tall man—Flin—seemed to render Laila speechless. She wasn’t surprised when he walked off after she couldn’t answer his questions, but he sort of scared her, which made it hard to think clearly. He was huge, and he wore his leather pants and white shirt very well. His eyes were a beautiful pink color, and his golden hair was so shiny, falling around his shoulders. She had been totally lost for words and very aware that she was attracted to him. It was a few minutes later when Basil appeared.
“So, we’re in a safe orbit around Tefan, the place you wanted to get to. I didn’t want to drop you off near those gangsters, but we can land somewhere else on the surface to let you off the ship.”
“Oh. I suppose that’s my cue to leave then.” She’d just being getting used to this spaceship. It made sense that it was time to go, she thought. She knew that she wasn’t allowed to be happy; life never let her.
“You don’t have to,” Basil said. She looked at him in surprise.
“What do you mean?” she asked warily.
“You could stay on my ship instead. What’re you planning to do when you get onto the planet surface, anyhow?”
“I don’t know. Maybe claim a piece of unoccupied land or something?” Of course, the main problem was that she had no idea how to farm. She’d never even grown a plant. She felt like she was totally useless in any given situation. Tears threatened her eyes but she forced them down. Anyway, she was still suspicious of him. What did he want from her? Why had he rescued her? She could see there was something he hadn’t told her.
“Ship’s got the space—well, okay, we don’t have an extra cabin for you, I got the rest of them ripped out to make more cargo space last year, but you can keep sharing mine—and I’d like you to stick around until you got back on your feet again. Since it was my fault you got into this mess in the beginning, and all.” He knew full well, she was certain, that she’d been lashing out when she’d blamed him for Gar-Kon’s pursuit. She could see it in his single raised eyebrow, now, but she didn’t say anything. Laila didn’t want to start a fight with the only person who’d ever been nice to her, even though he probably only wanted to sleep with her.
The memory of Gar-Kon doing awful things came back to the surface, and she relived the last time he’d hurt her. She flinched involuntarily and put a hand to her arm, where the bruises were still tender. They were a visible reminder of the fact that she wasn’t imagining the things Gar-Kon had done to her. It was several seconds before she realized Basil had just said something to her.
“Stay… here?” Her brain caught up with what he’d said and she wasn’t sure he really meant it.
“Yeah, if you want.”
“What’s the catch?” She narrowed her eyes.
“No catch, but I find myself wanting to look after you, Laila. You’ve got balls making that getaway, and I’d quite like to find out where things might be headed. Regardless of that, if you decide to stay on the ship, you’ll have to obey me. It’s a small ship and there’s no room for disobedience or argument. Everyone has to get along. There’s consequences if you are naughty.”
“What do you mean… consequences?” Laila stiffened, suddenly afraid that this kind-seeming man was going to hurt her.
“In my experience, the best way to discipline a naughty girl is with a spanking.”
“And do you… spank Flin as well?” Laila raised an eyebrow.
“No; Flin’s an experienced member of my crew, he doesn’t need spanking. And before you ask, anything that happens between you and Flin is between the two of you.”
“So… you want me to stay on the ship, so you can decide I’m not being obedient enough and beat me?” Laila wondered whether it was hard to learn to farm, since she could tell this wasn’t what he wanted to hear.
“I’m not gonna harm you.”
“You just said you’ll spank me, but now you say you’re not going to harm me. Which is it?” she demanded, knowing she was pushing her luck but wanting to be very certain about what was going on.
“Both. I’m not gonna just hurt you for the sake of it, but if you’re staying on my ship, you have to behave in a way that’s respectful and safe. Spanking you ain’t the same as harming you.”
“And what do I get in return? To stay on your ship and feel like a freeloader, taking up air while life passes me by?”
Basil looked at her for a long moment before he answered her.
“I find you very attractive, Laila, I’m not gonna lie, but I’ve got very specific interests in that regard. I’ll always be first in line to be your daddy, to look after you like my little girl, if you want to try that, but I want to be very clear that when it comes to sex or anything related, I won’t force you to do anything like that with me. That’s separate from doing as you’re told on my ship, understand?”
Laila tried to separate out all the things Basil was telling her, but her brain got stuck on the fact that he found her attractive, that he wanted to spank her, and that he wanted to be her daddy. She wasn’t sure she wanted someone controlling her like that. Isn’t that exactly what she’d been trying to escape? The idea of willingly going along with it seemed wrong. She couldn’t do it to herself.
“I don’t want you to spank me,” she said quietly.
“If you don’t want to be spanked, you’ve really only got two options. Either stay on my ship and resolve to never be naughty, or I’ll pop you down on a habitable planet and you can go your own way.”
Laila was torn between seeing that this was reasonable and being strongly opposed to anyone hurting her ever again, and she couldn’t see the difference between spanking and being hurt, despite what he’d said about it being different. Some part of her mind, however, was fascinated by everything he’d said. And no one had ever expected her to agree to it before, either. She wasn’t quite sure what exactly he meant by spanking, though. Canes were the legal means of punishment on Pombos, and Laila had always been drawn to them, fascinated, despite fearing their bite, although Gar-Kon had never wasted time finding
a cane when he wanted to beat her.
“What… what would it entail?”
“If you’d done something that required a punishment, I’d put you over my knee and bare your bottom. Then I’d spank your bottom, the amount’d depend how serious your behavior was. Your bottom would probably get sore, and it’d definitely turn red, you might even cry, that depends on you. Afterwards, the moment the punishment was over, you’d be completely forgiven. I’d never bring it up again to hold over you, that’d always be the end of it. Then I’d reassure you and comfort you, make sure you were feeling better, and then we’d move on with whatever we were doing at the time. I don’t like to wait on punishments if I can possibly help it, but I absolutely won’t punish you in anger, so if I had to wait till I was cool-headed to punish you, that’s what I’d do. It’s not about hurting you or making you feel lesser; it’s about making sure you know there’re boundaries between what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable.”
Laila had to admit, now that he’d spelled it out, that it didn’t sound too awful, certainly not compared to the things Gar-Kon had done to her. She liked the idea that things she’d done would never get brought up again, too.
“And… you said something about wanting to be my daddy… and finding me attractive. What is with that?” She decided that since she was being brave, she would grab the bull by the horns, but she could already feel her hands starting to shake at the fear of being so pushy.
“Do you use that word on Pombos?” Basil asked. Laila shook her head. “Daddy is a word that came from Earth. It means someone who takes care of a little, and nurtures them. Used to mean a parental figure, long ago, but now it’s only used between adults in a relationship. Daddies take care of adults who, for whatever reason, need to be treated like they’re little again.”
Laila tried not to laugh when he said ‘little again.’ As if she’d ever been allowed to be little at any point in the past. Before Gar-Kon, there had been her mother, the woman who had sold all her offspring to support her own life of leisure. Laila had thought Gar-Kon and her mother had been very similar.
“If you wanted to give it a try, the most important thing to think about is whether you’ve got a big enough tummy to eat lots and lots of cupcakes whilst we read together, play games, snuggle…”
There were a few words there that she didn’t understand.
“What’s a cupcake, what’s a snuggle, and what do you mean by ‘play’?”
“It would be a lot easier just to show you. Tell you what; you agree to trying this out, agree to letting me be your daddy, and I’ll show you a cupcake right now this minute. You can always say no later if you don’t like it,” he said. She didn’t know if this counted as some form of bribery, but the word cupcake conjured images of some sort of food in a drinking vessel, and she wanted to see one. She nodded, more solemnly than she felt, and stood up from the hot chocolate he’d made for her earlier.
“All right, I’ll try it. I mean, I’ve known you for a whole day now, and I haven’t made you want to strangle me yet.” She was trying to be casual but she instinctively put a hand to her throat. The flesh there was still sore to touch, and she knew the scar there would probably never heal. He stared at her with a look she couldn’t quite understand.
“Why in the universe would I want to strangle you?”
“I don’t know; I just seem to bring it out in people. My mother used to get so angry with me that she’d shout and scream at me for hours on end, and throw things at me. Hot drinks were the worst. I could never get the stains out of my dress properly.” She looked down at the remnants of brown drink stains that were only visible up close. How did she upset people so much? “And I made Gar-Kon so angry in the week after my mother made me move in with him that he always wanted to hit me for something or other… uh…” She stopped talking and concentrated on picking at the skin around her fingernails. She was talking too much. That always made people mad at her. And Basil had a strange look on his face. Had she annoyed him already, she wondered?
“I’m sorry,” she said, hoping it would calm him down.
“Sorry? What’re you apologizing for?” When she dared to look up at him, she flinched at the anger she saw there and went back to her default place to look—at her fingers.
“I didn’t mean to make you angry.” She waited for him to throw the table or hit her.
“Oh, Laila, I’m not mad at you! How could you think that? I’m sad that anyone would do such horrible things to such a bright-eyed little lady.” He wrapped her up in a hug.
“You looked angry.” She knew she shouldn’t push it, but she was confused.
“I was angry at the people who were supposed to look after you, who’ve taught you it’s normal to expect to get hit and then blamed for someone else’s inability to manage their emotions.” He rubbed her back with one hand as he hugged her. “It’s a good job that we’re a bit of a journey away from Pombos because I’d have something to say to that dickwad. You don’t have to fear me, Laila. If you’ve done something I’m unhappy about, I’ll always tell you, and if you need spanking to learn the lesson, I’ll make sure you know it, and that you know it’s over afterwards.”
It was nice to hear, and she wanted to believe him, but on a deeper level she just couldn’t. It was a fact that eventually people would always get mad and take it out on her.
“I promise I’m gonna take good care of my little girl. Now let’s get to the most important thing. Close your eyes.”
After a day, she just about trusted him enough to obscure her vision for a moment, and anyway, she supposed she would need to trust him if she was staying on board. Her lids went down.
“Okay, you can open them again.”
On the table in front of her was something creamy and swirly, sitting in a paper container that was sort of shaped like a cup without a handle.
“What do I do with it?”
“What d’you want to do with it?”
“Put it in my mouth?” she hazarded. It definitely looked edible.
“Try it,” he encouraged. “Just don’t eat the paper.”
She bit into the top and her teeth came together with a click as she discovered the stuff on the top of the cupcake was very soft. Then her tongue found out it was also super tasty.
Basil had a caring sort of expression on his face. She bit into the cupcake again, and discovered something more solid under the fluffy creamy stuff.
“It tastes so good!” she said, nomming away at the cupcake.
“I’m glad you like it. Making sweet treats is one of my favorite things to do on a quiet afternoon.” Basil was still smiling. She held the cupcake toward him.
“Want some?” she asked through a mouthful of tasty.
“No, thanks, I’ll get one in a minute. I don’t want to miss a second of the look on your face while you’re eating that,” he said. She responded by taking another bite; this cupcake was addictive, and soon it was gone. She licked the crumbs off the wrapper.
“That was better than chocolate,” she declared. Store-bought ready meals, produced in factories to be reheated in the oven, had been a staple in her house, where her mother didn’t let anything, including feeding her kids, get in the way of doing whatever she liked. Laila never learned to cook beyond reheating things, but she could tell these cakes were homemade; there was an undefinable wholesomeness about them that no store-bought food she’d tasted had ever possessed.
“Thank you for the cupcake.” She carefully folded the wrapper in case he wanted to bake another cake in it. The wrapper was pink with hearts and bears around it. “What do you want me to do with this?”
“Goes in the waste unit, over there.” He pointed at the wall.
“Don’t you reuse them?” She was surprised. For some reason they looked special, because they were so pretty. He laughed.
“No, they’d go soggy. They’re made of thin paper. Don’t worry, sweetheart, when we drop the waste off at a recycling plant, everything gets tak
en apart and reused.”
“Can I have another one, please?” she asked, feeling brave.
He pulled out a tin with a picture of cupcakes printed around it.
“Here.” He handed her another cupcake, and took one out for himself.
“Doesn’t it take you forever to make those?” she asked. Cookery was a strange and mysterious magic as far as she was concerned.
“Not really. I’ll show you how one day. Would you like that?”
The idea of being able to make her own cupcakes was beyond exciting. Laila squiggled in her chair and bit into the pillowy topping again. Some of it got on the tip of her nose.
“Yes, please,” she said decidedly. He looked at her, then leaned forward and opened his mouth. She froze, suddenly scared, but he simply licked the white cream off her nose and returned to his own cupcake. His tongue felt warm.
“You had icing on your nose,” he said, as if it needed explaining after the fact. She touched her nose in case there was any left.
Just then, the other man—Flin—returned.
“You got a minute—oh. You move fast.” He clapped Basil on the shoulder before turning and leaving again. He seemed to be dealing with Laila’s presence by completely ignoring her. She had no idea what he was talking about so she continued savoring her second cupcake.
“He’s just annoyed that I saw you first,” Basil told Laila. “Now be a good girl and finish your cake, princess; I’ve gotta go to the cockpit.”
She giggled at the silly word as he kissed her on the head and left. What had gotten into her, she wondered? Usually she was so serious and mature, and here she was being openly amused at the word cockpit. When Basil had told her earlier that he found her attractive, she had naturally been a little wary, mostly because she didn’t want to get stuck in another one-sided relationship with an overbearing tyrant who hit her and didn’t let her have any say in anything. Having a daddy who fed her cupcakes sounded like great fun though; she could barely believe people were allowed to do such happy things. So far, she had known Basil for a day and he hadn’t tried to hurt her yet, which was a really good sign given her track record. He thought none of it was her fault, she could tell. She was certain that as he got to know her better, he’d want to dump her on the nearest planet, but it would be nice while it lasted.
Her Daddy and Her Master Page 3