He looked at her quizzically more interested in what she said than the change in attitude.
“You can’t expect her to follow your rules—no matter how good for her or rational they seem to you—then not impose some consequences for her failure. She hasn’t thought like a free and rational human being for a long time, and I’m sure doesn’t want to live a normal life—at least she doesn’t think she does. She’s been hardwired to submit—for crissakes, you of all people should know that! When you get stubborn like this you’re one dense bastard, Daniel Broc.”
“Don’t you get it? For once, I don’t want to be the bastard,” he lashed back. “But now I’ve been told I have another ten days of this. Ten days! Marcus says it’s going to take him another week to finish up his business in London. I think he knew this all along—he should be taken the dungeon and whipped.” He paced the room, muttering and fuming. Like Val, any positive effects from the sex had been forgotten.
“All right then, you suffer through the next ten days—but don’t go calling me to soothe your anger. I can’t see you launching into Col. Broc, Mercenary, with the girl but you’ll do her a service if you just do what comes naturally to Daniel Broc when he’s in the company of a submissive woman. You’ve let this silly sub and a bunch of high-minded ideals you don’t even believe in take control of you.”
“I just want to live out the two weeks and get it over.”
“Oh, c’mon, that’s bullshit and you know it. In our eighteen months as sadomasochistic players you’ve called me once. Today. I’ve called you every other time. The girl’s inside you, buddy. And you’re going to have to deal with that.”
He couldn’t see it. He didn’t want to see it and his fuming rage only continued. But he got her message and it made him think real hard as the puzzle of Lisle weighed on him. “You know she’s quick, she’s sharp. You see the intelligence in her eyes one minute then suddenly she’s as dumb as a stump. Makes me want to shake her till she screams.”
“Maybe that’s what she needs. She’s not dumb… numb, maybe. But look what’s happened to her? She doesn’t know how to feel, what to think, let alone what to do. But she’s had the smarts to snag you and that’s something. You need to do what works for you both, forget being a civilized man. You’re no good at it anyway.”
Daniel brooded about the matter as he finished his drink then feeling pent-up and restless again, he made her suck his dick before she left—which put Valerie right back into the attitude of surrender she wanted when she left his house. She had her fix and he had what he needed from the sultry bitch.
***
At the breakfast table the following morning Lisle and Daniel ate bacon and eggs he cooked, both silent as was the custom when Alice wasn’t there to make the meal less awkward with her incessant chatter. When he finished he rose to his feet.
“You can do dishes, clean the kitchen?” he asked the girl as he stood behind her washing his hands at the sink.
She looked over her shoulder, surprised. He hadn’t asked anything from her in ten days, other than specifying that she wear clothes, eat at the table and sleep in the bed.
“Well can you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good.” He put an element of gravity in his tone that he’d not yet used when speaking with the waif and he liked the feel of it. With more to say, he moved around the table so he could speak to her directly. She followed him with her eyes, looking unusually apprehensive. “And Lisle, sleeping on the floor stops today. I find you there in the morning, the middle of the night, or any other time of day, I’ll take you to Lady M and have her beat you. I understand she was annoyed by your petulance last week. She’s the kind that holds a grudge.”
He could have gone on with the threat, but the girl’s eyes widened in alarm and he could see her shiver. Maybe he was finally getting through. “And about your clothes… cover yourself better. You have the clothes. Wear them. You need anything, you let me know, or let Alice know.” He spit out his words like a drill sergeant, unapologetically, with his eyes boring into the frightened girl.
He could feel the force of his words infuse him with a savage, almost primitive energy he’d felt only rarely in the last couple of years, most often when he had D/s sex with a woman. Though stung by the fact that it took Valerie’s counsel to end his useless vacillation he welcomed back the feeling of control. How far he would take it with Lisle he wasn’t sure but the little urchin would be conquered, tamed and put in her place while she was in his house. The matter was settled in his mind and if he read the girl as well as he read every other female who kowtowed to his authority, she felt it all the way to her quaking bones.
He left her to stew on that and clean the kitchen, while he went to work in his office, spending the next several hours on the phone.
For the rest of the day, Lisle remained remote but close by, as if she were waiting for more orders, more time in his company. He gave her little but when she appeared most listless and dreamy, he snapped her out of the mood with another duty to perform. Finally, he sent her into the garden behind the house to pick weeds. The yard was a tangled mess of rotting vines, overgrown perennials and noxious weeds. In deference to his orders, she was dressed in a pair of Alice’s old shorts and a bright pink tie-dyed t-shirt, the color garish enough to hurt the eyes, though it did little to hide Lisle’s exuberant sensuality. At least nothing was hanging out. He almost hated giving her the task—one he would never have attempted himself. When he finally got sick of looking at the mess he intended to call a landscaper to pull the whole backyard out and fix up the space with something that would require almost no attention from him. But though it was a thankless job in his mind, Lisle brightened more than she had in days with the mere mention of the garden.
For several minutes, he watched her industrious attention to the assignment from the kitchen window and realized that he’d really hit on a plan. What was a chaotic mess to him was the Garden of Eden to her. He left her to her work, confident that she could spend hours there happily engaged and out of his hair. Returning to his office he sat back and sighed knowing that there were no furtive eyes staring at him through cracks in the door. He’d not felt this peaceful since she entered his house.
Alice arrived just after noon, coming up the drive with two stuffed shopping bags—she always rode the bus or took the Metro. He noted her arrival from his office window as he was speaking on the phone and continued with the conversation. However the usual series of noises he expected to hear coming from the kitchen were replaced by a frantic Alice darting into the office, announcing loudly:
“What the hell is going on? Lisle’s running around outside stark naked!”
“What? Where?”
“You go out the front, I’ll take the back, grab her!” The panicked female raced off while the flustered Daniel excused himself from the phone conversation and bolted to the front door. Thankfully, his worst fears were not realized, he found the girl in less than ten seconds, as naked as Alice claimed but crouched over a flower bed near the side yard, pulling weeds. He grabbed her arm and marched her to the back of the house. Her discarded clothes lay on the back stoop. Ignoring them, he dragged her into the house, sensing not an ounce of resistance.
“In my office now!” he blared, letting her go with a brusque shove. She ran off, while he took a minute to collect himself and let his anger pass.
For several seconds he stared at Alice’s dazed face shaking his head in wonder. Finally, her mouth broke into a smile and she laughed. “It’s really kinda funny, don’t ya think?”
He glared back. “No, it is not funny!”
“C’mon guy, have a sense of humor.”
“Well you better have one, too. Things are changing around here.”
“Ooo,” she bit her lip to keep from laughing more. His eyes sparked angrily and he stormed into his office with Alice’s loudly whispered, ‘just be careful’ following him in.
Daniel found the girl calm as the clear blue sky, her back to him
with her head cocked as she carefully fingered the books in his bookcase. Hearing his footsteps she immediately turned, eyes wide, her hands behind her back.
“Right here. I want you right here.” He stood in an open space beside his desk and pointed to the floor. She caught his mood in an instant and initially hung back afraid. However the bashful and self-conscious expression seemed calculating as it was charming, and Daniel breezed by any attempt to quiet his fury. “Right here now! That’s an order.”
She instantly scampered to obey then hung her head as she stood before him.
“Look at me!” he demanded.
She didn’t move her head though she peered up at him bashfully, looking as calculating as a flirtatious coquette.
“Does anything about running outside naked sound wrong to you, Lisle?”
She did not reply.
“I asked a question, I want your answer.”
“I-I-I…I’m…” Nervous, she covered her mouth with the tips of her fingers.
“Speak!”
“I guess, sir.”
“You guess?” he snapped, his voice laced with sarcasm. “Well that was a good guess, and one you should have followed through on. This is not Brauer’s house. This is not some fancy walled estate where you can run free like a wild doe. Certainly you have spent enough time in polite society to know that pubic nakedness is a crime. You will be arrested and put in jail if you continue to expose yourself this way. This is Washington DC not the backwoods of West Virginia. I want an explanation.”
Since her arrival in his house he’d not questioned her, grilled her or tried in any way to pry loose the details of her life or her desires. He’d asked for little but a simple yes or no to his questions—until now.
“I want an explanation,” he repeated.
“I-I’m sorry, sir. I am. I-I—”
“Go on.”
“I forgot where I was. I sometimes get so lost in my thoughts sometimes I just can’t remember things.”
As he listened to her faltering explanation the anger in him began to subside, for real this time.
“That’s a bad habit, Lisle, forgetting yourself. You need to be present in the here and now. Let’s make a point of practicing that every day from now on.”
“Yes, sir,” she came right back.
“No, no no…” he shook his head, “stop with the ‘yes, sir/no sir’… it’s too automatic. You get by with that too easily. You’ll give me more than two word answers or you’ll stand in front of me until you do.”
“Yes, sir… I mean, I-I’ll,” she was nearly in tears, “I’ll do my best.”
“I know you will. You’re a good submissive, you just need some direction. If I failed in that at the start, I won’t fail now. Your clothes are in the kitchen. Go get dressed and help Alice with lunch and whatever else she needs.”
“If I put my clothes back on could I go back to the garden?”
He paused for a moment. She’d put together two cogent sentences in the space of fifteen seconds. A record since she’d been in his house. He wasn’t used to the sound of her voice and found it far more direct and assertive than he expected. He could see why she made the effort now. She’d been as animated as he’d ever seen her; the garden was bigger than just a job to keep her busy. Being in a familiar realm meant a lot to her.
“No you may not go back to the garden today. Call it punishment. Call it anything you like. You may weed my garden but you won’t be going there again until I can be sure you’ll behave yourself—and keep your clothes on.”
The news threw her into an instant of turmoil. She grimaced angrily and her whole body shook. Daniel could see the war inside her, first the desire to rebel in some dramatic way then, as she forced herself to calm, how she fought back her tears. This went on for nearly a minute. At last, she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand then took a deep breath. Just seconds had passed, but the turmoil was gone and she seemed resigned to his decision.
“Yes, sir,” she bowed her head again, looking pathetic.
Daniel was not moved. “And if you think your moody little show is going to change my mind about that, you’re wrong. You don’t know me, Lisle, and it’s probably good that you don’t. But if you suspect that I can be brusque, rigid and punishing, you are quite right. Trust me, I’m twice as brutal as any man who’s mastered you so far. It’s not my aim to let my dark beast out but I wouldn’t tempt me. I’ve sent better slaves than you from my company to rat infested brothels for stunts like what you just pulled. Right now your presence here is hanging on by a thread.”
“No,” she mouthed the word too afraid to speak.
Fearing he might have gone too far, he quickly lightened. “Now, young lady, go help Alice. Put your clothes on and keep them on. And don’t worry, you’re going nowhere today.”
“Yes, sir…yes, sir, I’ll do that right away.” She looked like she could have said more, but the words weren’t there and she dashed toward the kitchen, looking more alive and lovely than he’d seen her. For all her moving histrionics she seemed to adapt quite easily to the circumstances and accept his dictatorial manner in stride.
Daniel was placing a lot of faith on what he presumed was her interest in him as a sexual master. If Alice and Val were right, he had all the clout he needed to win the girl’s cooperation. Not surprisingly she saw him as an authority figure—maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea. It might get sticky down the road but he’d worry about that another day.
***
Daniel entered the kitchen later in the afternoon and found Alice alone, packaging up dinner meals for him and Lisle.
“Where is she?” he asked.
“I sent her upstairs to rest, she seemed pretty tired.”
“Tired from roaming the house at night,” he said.
“Tired from waiting for you to get your act together, Daniel Broc,” she came back, playful but decidedly sarcastic. “Are you sure you weren’t too hard on her…? C’mon, rat infested brothel?”
“I wasn’t lying,” he said with eyes narrowed.
That one-liner made her pause a second or two. But stung by the truth as she’s been before, she responded as she always did when he suddenly disclosed a nasty fact from his past; once the initial impact was over, she let it slide right by.
“And now you’re listening in to my conversations?”
“I could hear you plain as day. Just be careful. She’s really sweet. When I think about it, she looked like a little garden cherub hovering over her flower bed.”
“I suspect that she is sweet, but she’s like every other submissive female I’ve known—cagey and manipulative.”
“Sometimes that’s all the resources a girl has,” Alice quipped.
He laughed, then his eyes narrowed. “Don’t ever tell a soul I said this, but you’re good for me, Alice.”
“Really? And you’re willing to admit that? Man, have I struck gold today.” She jubilantly slapped her hand against the counter.
“Don’t go getting a big head, or I’ll tear that ass of yours apart and fuck you blind.”
“That’s some threat—?” She looked like she was about to cream her pants. “But not today. I gotta be going.”
“Yes, you probably do, just let me clarify… you, because you’re here all the time, tend to modulate my dark angels. That’s probably a good thing once and a while.”
“Yeah,” she studied him a second, “that is a good thing for you. I bet sometimes you wish you were back there.”
For a moment his mind was somewhere far away, then he brought himself back and shook his head. “No,” he blew out, “I think about it. It would be so easy…but I’m done with that. And now you’re done here.”
Alice moved to the backdoor and grabbed her purse and her stuffed tote bag. “Have a good night, Colonel,” she said, eyes merrily twinkling, and she was out the door before he could say another word.
She was worse than his bossy sisters. Dammit. But a good soul and good for him.
> The following morning, he was up just as the sun was making its lazy accent toward the new day. The rooms in the house were turning from black to grey and filled with shadows, the air was cool. Barefoot he padded softly down the hall to Lisle’s room. The door was ajar and he peeked inside. He immediately recalled the previous evening when the shrieking sounds of wood being drug against the hardwood floor alarmed him as he read through the paper. Before he’d had a chance to investigate the noise, Lisle had bolted down the stairs and entered his living room. She was out of breath and obviously worried. “Sorry about the noise, sir. I just moved my dresser. Is that okay? I didn’t think it would sound so loud.”
“You did leave it in the room?”
“Oh, yes, sir. Just rearranged it?”
“All right then. Shouldn’t be a problem.” He returned to his reading while she retreated to her room.
It was difficult to see inside the dreary space at that early hour; the window was small and very little of the morning light had filtered in. However, even through the thick shadows he could tell that Lisle had completely rearranged the room. The bed was pushed into the corner so it was bounded on two sides. A third wall was made of the dresser, which the girl had pushed against the side of the bed to create a cozy alcove. He could see little of her body, just her feet tucked inside the blanket and her bare legs above. The rest of her was curled in a ball, fitting into the corner and protected on three sides. Like being swaddled like a baby, he thought. Was he wrong to dismiss the internal urging that drove her under the bed? Perhaps he was dealing with a need too deep and too powerful to ignore.
Something in Valerie’s lecture made him realize that he needed to think more like Lisle and less like a grouchy old bastard who was doing a favor for a friend. If Lisle needed ‘swaddling’ he could take care of that. But he’d let the rearrangement of furniture slide until he had a chance to address the issue in a way that suited him better.
Quietly retreating from the room and still sleepy he returned to bed for another hour.
***
Although Lisle remained shy and reticent, during the next two days she seemed more engaged in the real world than lost in the world of her imaginings. Though she rarely initiated a conversation, she made an attempt to speak more when she was spoken to. Occasionally, she smiled. Occasionally, she made a wry remark that resembled a joke—but only in passing and often so quietly that it was difficult to know exactly what she said. Not surprisingly she talked mostly with Alice when they were together in the kitchen. If Alice couldn’t make her feel comfortable no one could. At least twice Daniel saw the girl smiling naturally at something Alice said. With Daniel, she was more standoffish, often looking frightened and nervous, but determinedly respectful. She made a decided effort to elaborate on her replies to his questions. Even her late night excursions through the house, which he’d not mentioned to her so far, seemed less frequent. Although, perhaps he was just sleeping more soundly. Her nocturnal wanderings seemed innocuous enough and with his elaborate house alarm set every night, he could be sure that she wasn’t going for naked romps through his backyard garden—or elsewhere.
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