by Vonna Harper
When he told her to, she peed. By now her robe was draped over her tethered arms and gaped widely in front. Just the same, she took what comfort she could from the little bit of clothing she still wore. She hadn’t slept at all and was so tired her head throbbed. In contrast, her pussy was alive and aware, on the brink. To her surprise, she needed to hear his voice, but maybe he knew and that’s why he didn’t say a word.
For the third time he filled her sex. When he turned on the vibrator, she had no doubt he’d put in fresh batteries. Given how tired and miserable she was, she should be past responding, but she wasn’t.
As the SUV picked up speed once more, she realized she was hungry. Being restrained like this was painful, but it was now taking a back seat to a more vital concern. Did he intend to let her eat and drink? Maybe there was some task she’d have to perform—like having sex with him—before she earned the right.
And maybe he’d let her starve.
No! Don’t go there!
The desperate warning didn’t help, not that she expected it to. She was helpless and scared, but she was also aware of harsh reality. Damek controlled everything about her existence.
She was totally dependent on him.
More and more light seeped past the sleep mask, and the air was getting warmer. She imagined that blessed sunlight was coming in through the rear window and waited impatiently for the rays to reach her. Maybe that would be enough to tip her over the edge into climax.
Why not hope for that, she told herself. After all, she had nothing else to look forward to.
No understanding of her future.
The vehicle slowed and made a sharp right hand turn. Gravel crunched underneath the tires. As disoriented as she was, she didn’t try to guess where they were. That, like everything else, would have to wait until Damek decided to let her know.
His. She was his.
She wasn’t sure how long they traveled on the gravel road before he stopped and turned off the engine, at least three miles.
What are you going to do to me? Oh please, what is this about?
This time when he opened the rear door, instead of pulling the dildo out of her, he left it and the thigh restraint in place and set her on her feet. Helplessness rolled over her in waves.
He’d taken her out of her world and into his. She was under his command, completely. Feeling less than human.
“We’ve reached our destination.” He spoke with his mouth near her right ear and an arm draped over her shoulder. His fingers rested on the upper swell of her breast. “We’re going to be here for as long as it takes me to train you. Then you’ll be sold.”
Trained? Sold?
Dizziness assaulted her. Still, she tried to twist away. Laughing, he hauled her against his side again.
“It’ll eventually make sense. In the meantime, the only thing you know is that you’re at one of Carnal Incorporated’s training facilities. No corners have been cut in making it as efficient as possible. I’m part of this unique operation because I do an excellent job. It may sound as if I’m bragging, but I’m simply stating facts. I want you to begin to comprehend a bit about the organization’s structure since that’s the first step toward compliance.”
Trained? Sold?
He pressed against the back of her head until she had no choice but to lean over.
Instead of pushing her to the ground, he unsnapped the sleep mask and pulled it away. Shaking anew, she blinked repeatedly until her world cleared. She was at what appeared to be a ranch complete with two large barns and an expansive house with a wrap-around porch. Wooden fencing defined a corral nearby. Instead of barbed wire, cyclone fencing some fifteen feet in height surrounded the complex. Pastureland lay in all directions, but she didn’t see any livestock.
“Ranching’s a damn hard business. When the couple who owned this spread died, none of the heirs was in a position to take over so it was sold. Its isolation makes it exactly the kind of place that meets Carnal’s needs.”
Except for a few trees, the land was open. Not seeing any other structures beyond the fencing added to her realization that she was cut off from civilization.
“Enough with the tour.” Grabbing her hair, he started dragging her after him. Unable to move her legs, she stumbled and fell. Dust billowed up around her.
“Damn clumsy bitch!” he snapped and kicked her in the side.
Squealing, she tried to scoot away but she’d landed face down with her breasts on the rough ground.
“Get the fuck up.” He kicked her again. This time his shoe landed on her buttocks.
I can’t. You know I can’t
Blow after blow rained down on her. He wasn’t putting all his strength behind the kicks, but it didn’t matter. He stood over her helpless body doing whatever he wanted to her, punishing and dehumanizing her. Beyond terrified, she dug her knees and toes into the dirt and wriggled around like a worm.
“God damn whore. Worthless bitch.”
The words spewing from him hurt more than the blows. This man who’d stolen her away from her life didn’t see her as a human being. She was nothing more than some creature who’d displeased him. He’d punish her until he’d gotten over his anger. Maybe he’d continue kicking until her body was a mass of bruises. Her bladder let go.
He stopped pummeling her and straddled her legs. Terrified he’d start again, she willed herself not to move as she lay with her hair, breasts, belly, and legs in dirt. She hated him.
“Got your attention did I?” He unfastened the strap around her thighs and yanked out the dildo. He rubbed it in the dirt, then dragged it over her cheek. “You’re nothing, got it. A piece of meat. Worthless. Eventually, thanks to me, you’ll have value, but you’re a long way from that.”
His fingers closed around her arms, and he hauled her to her feet. As he let go of her, she started shaking so she could barely stand.
“Scared you did I? It won’t be the last time.” He backed up a few feet and studied her while she tried to breathe through pain and fear. What did he think of her filthy, hurting, naked body? Even with everything that had happened since he’d pulled her out of the SUV, her pussy still felt the effects of its sexual pummeling. The contrast was beyond her comprehension.
“I sure as hell don’t want to touch you the way you are.” He roughly brushed dirt off her breasts. “Clean up time.”
He used his hold on her hair to make her go where he wanted. At least he slowed his pace so she was able to walk after a fashion. Intent as she was on not falling, she barely looked around. Several other vehicles were near Damek’s, and she thought she heard a masculine voice in the distance.
He herded her to what might have once been a cattle watering station. The outdoor faucet was still there, but there was no trough. A coiled hose with a spray attachment was connected to the faucet and someone had placed a metal pole in the ground nearby. A wooden pallet was next to the pole and gravel had been spread around the area. The gravel and pallet looked wet.
“Not the Ritz.” Damek chuckled and turned her so her back was to him.
Gratitude mixed with an intense burning sensation when he unlocked her handcuffs.
Her numb arms dropped to her sides. The useless robe slipped off, leaving her totally naked. He spun her toward him again, lifting her hands as he did. She looked up to see two lengths of leather dangling from chains attached to the pole. Even though she understood what he had in mind, memories of her recent abuse kept her from trying to break free. In seconds he’d secured the thick, stiff leather around her wrists. She couldn’t lower her arms.
Smiling a smile that made her think of a mountain lion, he lifted her onto the pallet.
Then he left her and slowly unwound the hose. He turned on the faucet and triggered the nozzle. A hard spray shot out, catching the sun’s rays.
He was going to shower her.
“There’s warm water in there.” He jerked his head at the ranch house. “But it’s not for the likes of you.”
She’d tensed before the cold water struck her, but being prepared didn’t help. The spray pounded her breasts. Squealing into the gag, she turned her back to the attack. Laughing, he directed the water at her buttocks and between her legs. This was no gentle watering. Instead, she felt as if a million tiny knives were striking her.
Lost in pain and cold, she jerked left and right. The onslaught striking different parts of her body helped a little, but he showed her no mercy as he directed the water over every inch she unwillingly presented to him. She kept pulling on the overhead chains which made the leather cut into her wrists but couldn’t stop herself. Twice she lost her perch on the pallet only to crawl back onto it to so gravel wouldn’t dig into the bottoms of her feet.
The earlier kicking had bruised her in countless places. The cruel stream further abused those spots until she became a pain-filled mass. Her throat throbbed so from screaming that she stopped. Her sopping hair nearly blinded her. She realized he was aiming the nozzle at her crotch. Whimpering, she started to again turn away.
Why try? It won’t do any good.
If this was the voice of reason, she didn’t want anything to do with it. Just the same, she was shaking so violently she couldn’t think how to make her legs move. Spent, she faced her attacker. Water dribbled off her nose. She tried to lap at it, but the gag stopped her.
“Getting the message, are you?” He dialed the nozzle until a broad, fine spray replaced the earlier stream. “There you are surrounded by water but unable to drink a damn drop. From now on slave, I control the most basic things about your existence.”
Slave? Oh God, what hell was she in?
No matter how she tried to get past the horrible word, it expanded and expanded until it became everything. She barely noticed when he turned the water on her face.
Slave.
Weeping, she sagged.
#
He’d left her to drip dry, Willow belatedly realized. She was still trembling from the cold so it couldn’t have been that long, could it? Maybe. After all, the sun had dried her shoulders and back, and her hair had stopped dripping.
She was done in. Beyond exhausted. Hungry and thirsty. Unable to move.
Maybe the sun was responsible but maybe being alone for the first time in what felt like forever was doing something to her. Whatever the reason, she found the strength—or maybe it was survival instinct—to lift her head and look around. The air smelled of earth and grasses and other things she didn’t recognize. She hadn’t noticed that Damek had taken her deep into the cyclone enclosure. Looking at it now, she had no doubt that this was it felt like to be in prison.
The only things lacking was coiled barbed wire at the top and a watchtower with an armed guard.
Slave.
Shaking back her hair, she forced the horrendous word aside. What had Damek said, something about her learning more about her situation when he decided. She’d listen, look, learn.
And when the pieces had fallen together, what then?
This ranch belonged to the shadowy and ominous Carnal Incorporated—for what purpose?
For turning you into a slave.
From earliest childhood, she’d been told that a parent’s role was to mold a child in His image. There was only one way to think, a single way to act. Rules were stringent and any deviation was a sin. She’d never mindlessly bought into her parents’ fundamentalist beliefs, but she’d been a teenager before she found the desperate courage to tell them they were wrong.
She hadn’t seen her family in five years and considered herself stronger for it. Her only regret was that they’d never acknowledge the kind of woman she’d become. She wasn’t perfect. She still lacked confidence and didn’t question authority, but at least she wasn’t a puppet.
Or rather she hadn’t been one before today. Now chains and leather controlled her every movement.
She vaguely remembered seeing Damek go inside the ranch house. Eventually he’d come back for her. Until then—A hollow-sounding scream coming from the closer of the two barns killed her thought.
Alarmed, she strained to listen. Seconds marched on. At length she managed to relax a little.
Maybe she’d only thought she’d heard a woman cry out in pain.
She’d started to turn her attention to the house when another scream sliced the air. The crier was indeed in the barn. Even with the structure distorting the sound and making it echo, she recognized despair. More silence followed. Then, maybe ten seconds later, the woman shrieked. She sounded lost. Overwhelmed.
Get me out of here! Please, someone, before that’s me!
Chapter Five
The ranch house door opened, and three men stepped out. They were a good two hundred feet away, but she recognized Damek as the one on the right. Watching him descend the porch stairs along with the others, she fought an insane need to laugh. She’d just begged for someone to rescue her, but that wasn’t why Damek was coming.
Looking for all the world like prison guards approaching a prisoner, they walked over to her. Damek looked tired.
“I was doing fine until I had breakfast,” he said. “Then the sleepless night hit me.”
“I know what you’re talking about,” a muscular man who looked to be in his mid-forties replied. “I did the all-night drive last week. You want us to entertain her while you get some sleep?”
Damek shook his head. “She isn’t ready for the kind of entertainment you have in mind.”
“In other words, she has to earn being fucked. Any idea how she’ll take to that?”
“I gave her a bit of a taste on the way here. I already knew she’s hot to trot.”
How did he know that? Had he somehow gotten Mitch to talk about their relationship?
“She’s all right,” the other man said, staring at her. “Nothing spectacular. That blonde hair’s a plus.”
“Those are her own boobs. These days they go higher with most buyers than the fake jobs.”
The man who’d said she wasn’t anything spectacular nodded. He had a full head of gray hair but didn’t look much older than Damek. If she’d seen the three on the street she’d think they were businessmen who regularly hit the gym, but they weren’t that at all, were they?
“It’s going to be an interesting auction,” the one who’d had a long dive said. “One of the bigger ones. Anyone know who came up with the idea?”
“My guess,” Damek said, “is foreign investors. Oil wealth makes them think they own the world.”
“Yeah, they do.”
“As long as I get paid this well to do something I love, I don’t give a damn.”
They didn’t care that she heard everything they said. That wouldn’t be happening if they thought of her as an equal. Equal? No, she wasn’t that.
A long, thin sob coming from the barn jolted her. She couldn’t stop herself from trying to put distance between herself and the evil structure.
“What’s going on?” Damek asked.
“Cliff’s been having a hell of a time with his slave. Sounds like he’s finally getting her attention.”
Damek frowned. “Cliff’s impatient. He’s always rushing his subjects.”
The gray haired man lightly punched Damek’s shoulder. “None of us are perfect. How’s that temper of yours?”
“None of your damn business.”
“Maybe. The thing is, we saw what you did to this one when she fell.”
Damek looked at the shoe he’d kicked her with. “I told you, I’m tired.”
The other two men muttered something under their breaths. Between that and the look they exchanged, she guessed Damek’s short fuse concerned them. If her falling because she couldn’t walk enraged him, what—Another distant sob froze her thought. What kind of hell was she in?
“You don’t need us?” the gray haired man asked. “If you’re sure, I want to see what all the screeching ’s about.”
“Go on. We’ll be in in a minute.”
All too soon it was just Damek and her. D
read wrapped around her as he headed for the SUV. Seconds ago she’d stood naked before three strangers and yet her nudity had barely mattered. Now every time she turned in a different direction, she felt overwhelmed all over again. Somehow, some way she had to get control of her emotions. Otherwise, she was lost.
When Damek didn’t immediately return, her thoughts went to the poor woman in the barn. She wasn’t making any noise now, but that could change at any time. What was it the man had said, something about the woman doing something Cliff didn’t like.
Do whatever Damek tells you to, anything to stop him from hurting her.
Damek returned carrying a gym bag. The way his arm hung, she knew it was heavy.
“Tools of the trade,” he said and lowered it to the ground. He yawned. “Every trainer has his own favorites.”
Trainer?
He dug into the bag and pulled out a thick length of leather with metal rings imbedded in it at different places. The moment she saw the collar, she knew it wasn’t for a dog. Staring at her as if challenging her to stand her ground, he approached and put it around her neck. She whimpered.
“Getting the idea are you?” He used a key to lock it in place. The maybe four-inch wide collar pressed against her chin so she couldn’t lower her head. Mitch and she had played around with bondage a few times using items they’d bought at an online sex toy shop. Mitch had been interested in a position collar much like this one, but she’d said nothing doing.
What would her former lover think of her now?
Damek hooked a chain to one of the O rings in front. He threaded the chain between her legs and pulled up until she was forced onto her toes.
“Just giving you a hint of what can be done with a few simple tools. What if I gave it a yank and hooked it to your collar in back? Think of it as the ultimate in chastity belts.”
He wouldn’t do that, would he?
An instant later, she answered her question. Hadn’t he already imbedded a dildo in her vagina?
Not taking her attention off him, she mentally slipped back to last night when the relentless vibrations stimulated her. She’d repeatedly lost her ability to concentrate, the forced stimulation had helped keep her sane.