“She give you any trouble?”
“No. None. You just see the faraway look in her eye—my goodness, she’s got a deep well inside her—and barriers and fear—” She could have gone on.
“Much better than she was,” he said.
“Go to her, Daniel. She’s waiting for you.”
***
The lake was like glass, reflecting the sky on the smooth pane of water, and at the far shore, a mirror image of the tree line. He watched the inert, flat water with the same attention as the huddled Lisle. She showed no recognition at his approach. Certainly she heard his footsteps, though she didn’t budge from her fixed spot and she waited for him to break the silence.
“You behave yourself?” he asked her. Probably not the best opening statement, but it was the first thing that popped in his mind.
“Yes, sir,” she answered readily. She slowly looked around. Daniel stepped closer, so he was looming above her with his boots just three feet from the bottom of her ass; close enough to have her quaking with excitement she’d been holding back all day.
“You still want the brand?” he asked, picking up where they left off when he headed out.
“Your brand, sir,” she said.
“Yes, my brand.” It annoyed him that he needed to clarify such a trivial point.
“Yes, I want your brand. Of course, I want it.” Her need was on the attack again, lurching out almost brutally and grabbing him by the cock.
He nodded without giving away his emotions. But having determined what came next, he held out his arm and welcomed her to him. She hopped up and fell into his arms. He ruffled her hair affectionately, kissed her hard on the mouth, then the two marched up the path together toward the house, side by side, but not arm in arm.
“One question, sir,” she said as they came to the top of the hill.
“What’s that?”
“What changed your mind? You wanted nothing to do with the brand when I first mentioned it. And now you do. I don’t understand.”
He stopped abruptly on the path and took her hand. “It’s not going to be any other way between us, Lisle. It can’t be. Maybe you understood that better than me, but I’ve finally caught up and I’m convinced of it now. Just remember, we’re doing this on my terms not yours. You’re making yourself a slave to me, and whether you like the results or not, once it’s done, it’s done forever. No one turns back, and no one gives up.”
Terse words. A startled gasp from Lisle. Reality set in like a swift blow to the groin. Then there were tears trickling down her face and a wide open smile of delight.
“How can we possibly fail with a directive like that?” she jubilantly exclaimed.
The warm feeling rising up through his body tempted to knock him off purpose, but he rebounded quickly. He didn’t reply, instead he gently took her by the arm and lead her back to the house.
Even as right as this felt to him now, he would be happy when the branding was over.
***
After dinner, there were six people wedged in Albert’s small living room—Albert, for a short while before he headed out the door without explanation, Abby with her knitting, Daniel in a chair with Lisle at his feet, and another couple, Glen and Sandy, who Albert hastily invited after Daniel spelled out his plans for the following morning.
When Albert excused himself and left the room, the absence of the quiet man was hardly noticed. The brisk conversation continued with the rambling exchange covering a number of topics, including those of a kinky nature, which made it clear that Glen and Sandy had similar ideas about male/female relationships as their hosts—not that the collar around Sandy’s throat hadn’t already satisfied any doubts about that issue long before the subject was raised.
Although Daniel couldn’t be certain, because he couldn’t see Lisle’s face, he sensed that she was disturbed by Albert’s absence. She looked toward the door every few minutes as if she expected it to open, and the longer he was out of the room, the more restless she became. Sitting on the floor had never been a problem for her, but it was now. She couldn’t get settled, couldn’t be comfortable, no matter which way she moved, and as she twisted and shifted in place, Daniel could feel her anxiety rise. Her instincts were sound in this matter, but regardless of her expectations, she could not have looked more shocked when Albert suddenly entered the room, fixed his eyes on her and spit out the abrupt command.
“On your feet, girl.”
His terse words rocked her spirit and it took a moment for her to respond. His grim expression had left her feeling humble and small. At last, with nerves at their breaking point, and Albert’s glare for motivation, she jumped to her feet—however she moved way too fast. For an instant she looked as if she was about to topple over. She fell back and required Daniel’s assistance to help her stand.
Albert waited, saying nothing until she finally settled herself, then he abruptly spit out his second order, “Take off the clothes.”
Again hesitation, again a sour scowl from the old farmer.
Her blush of embarrassment was ongoing; however peeling away her clothes seemed to renew her confidence. As her shirt, her jeans, her panties and t-shirt fell to the floor, her crotch moistened and, in her excitement, she’d begun to perspire. Paying little attention to her rapidly shifting state of mind, once she was naked, Albert snapped an old iron collar around her throat, clipped on a lead and gave the leather a sharp tug, his signal for her to follow him out of the room, out to the porch, down the steps and across the yard to the barn.
The cold night air may have stung her bare skin with a wintery chill, but for a woman who had been fighting back the urge to fling her clothes to the wind for three long days, that chill welcomed her with an embracing breeze and icy fingers that tickled her lust with anticipation she’d harbored for years. This was a homecoming of sorts. The prodigal child back where she belonged, perhaps an appropriate analogy—however this time, there’d be a different master drawing her into his arms, a different master with a branding iron meant for her.
***
With Lisle gone, the conversation in the Pennock’s living room dwindled—not that the girl had contributed a single word to the earlier discussions. But then, she didn’t need words to make a statement; who she was created a presence that was immediately missed.
“I’m going up to bed,” Daniel finally announced and he took to his feet, nodding at Abigail, Glen and Sandy. “It will be an early morning for us all.”
“You need a wake-up call?” Abigail asked. A snicker formed in the corners of her mouth as if she was deriving some personal satisfaction from the events unfolding in her domain.
His smoldering blue eyes flashed. “I’ll be awake before you are, Abby. But a cup of coffee might be nice. That barn is fucking frigid before the sun’s up.”
“This time of year it’s frigid even at noon,” Sandy declared. The buxom brunette stood up and pulled Glen from his chair, saying, “See you in the morning,” and as the two followed Daniel into the guest wing of the house, leaving Abigail to her knitting.
***
The cock crowed before dawn. Before dawn, Daniel had risen, showered and shaved because he hadn’t the night before—he honestly couldn’t remember when he’d cleaned up proper within the last few days and the day he’d planned would leave him with little time.
Grabbing mugs of steaming coffee from the efficient Abigail, Daniel and his entourage of witnesses headed out. Albert was already in the barn, and from where the four stood on the porch, they could see the warm glow of the forge luring them in, an occasional spray of sparks igniting a familiar fire in all their bellies. As they moved off the porch, the smell of wood smoke from the barn seemed to grab them up and carry them into the early morning ritual before they’d completely awakened. Stepping through the barn door all eyes went to the girl, to Lisle, who’d been strung up to the rafters with rope, and dangled there barely able to touch her toes. Her head was bowed and she seemed barely cognizant of the activity
around her, being lost in a dreamy subspace brought on by a monumental event, which had been nothing but fantasy for her until now.
Seeing her like this reminded Daniel of the pensive, wistful Lisle who he extracted from Brauer’s estate months before. Her inward journeys might have been a soothing balm for her, and even necessary for her fragile state of mind. But after months in his house, she was no longer that woman, no longer so firmly entrenched in inner life. He’d ceased to think of her as fragile after seeing the strength of spirit she often displayed—in spite of its quirky manifestations. Annoyed with her now, he strode forward, slapped her face and brought her back to life.
“Be here now!” he snapped. He clutched her chin and stared into her eyes, seeing if he could find anything there that would alter his plans.
Her dreamy reverie quickly vanished with the slap to her cheek, and all he could grasp from her clear-eyed look was an enormous need and an unsettled something in her spirit crying out to him.
“No one will ever abandon you after today,” he said as if that would address her lingering fear. “You’ll have me if no one else.” He waited long enough to note the reaction on her face—she remained intently calm and willing. He finally dropped his hand and stepped away.
“Tie her down so she can’t move,” he ordered as he turned away.
Albert and Glen moved with one mind, untying the tethers that had her hanging from the rafters and shoving her over the foot wide beam that made-up Albert’s punishment bench. There was a slat for her to kneel on, tethers to pull her arms down and fix them to the legs, and rope to bind her in place so she couldn’t budge. Her breasts dangled now, her nipples chilled in the morning air and tightening into two firm knots. Atop the beam, her raised ass gleamed with sweat, while her flanks, held rigid in a prison of intersecting rope, twitched in anticipation.
The iron was hot—a freshly cast brand Albert made for Daniel the day prior to their arrival at the farm. Even then, Daniel knew what would happen; premonitions of the moment had been sweeping through his consciousness since the first day he’d seen the girl. This wasn’t uncommon; his mind could quickly conjure images of torture and brutality with women—they’d haunted him all his life. The ‘Lisle’ images were no different. He shunned them from the outset of their thorny relationship, and all through every awkward step it took to finally arrive in Albert’s barn with the gleaming forge at his side. Shunning his unwanted thoughts had done nothing to stop the onslaught that flooded his brain at odd times—most often when he wasn’t even around the girl. He initially considered the unwelcome imaginings to be signals that he’d not exercised his sadistic urges often enough in the past two years; and because he’d made Lisle off limits to that rough sadist, she became the alluring focus of his verboten desires. However, the facts didn’t support his neatly drawn conclusion. There was more than his dark beast at work. When he thought of Lisle, thoughts of settling down and tapping into the softer passions of human life became as disturbing to him as his sadistic desires for her subjugation. He’d had the same feeling with other women but it never stuck longer than a brief hour or two—if that. He was less in control of his desires for Lisle. Just days before, he firmly believed a real relationship between them was unrealistic and absurd given her complicated history.
But their relationship turned sharply in the space of a day. Was it her confession? His admission of love? The branding? He didn’t like enigmas like this. He’d have himself twisted in knots if he tried to figure out how that quantum shift had taken place.
In a rare move, he even consulted with Albert to see if he’d actually gone mad to suggest branding his needy sub. His friend pulled no punches in reminding him of the tough road that lay ahead with the girl, but he did not discourage him from moving forward.
Tough wasn’t a problem for Daniel. Finding a useful, satisfying life was. And for some reason, his future, his life, satisfying and useful or not, seemed irrevocably linked to Lisle.
Branding had never been an option in his mind—but now it fell into place like another piece of the puzzle. He stared at the fire and the glowing brand, almost trembling at the thought of what he’d do and what it would mean to their future. The dark fire in him had been stirred again through Lisle’s skillful chicanery. Branding her, he’d own her. And that alone was satisfaction enough to see him through the next few minutes. Clearly, this was an enormous gamble. They’d soon find out if they had the desire and commitment to make it work.
The iron glowed, a stylized capital B that looked much like the Greek letter for beta. As Daniel withdrew it from the fire, all eyes in the barn fixed on the red hot brand. He clutched the rod, feeling its weight and the heat fire up the determination he felt now. The desire to subjugate and own a woman ran free in his mind and he took no steps to slap it down as he had so many times before. He waited just seconds, enough time for the brand to cool to the ideal heat, then making up the short distance between the forge and his bound slave, he pressed the brand to her skin on the fleshy muscle of her left ass cheek.
Her sharp cry sent a chill through the barn. Then as she stilled, and Daniel drew the brand away, he handed the iron to Albert. “Destroy it, will you?” he said. Without waiting for Albert to respond, he turned his attention back to Lisle, carefully inspecting the brand. The crisp, clean B had been perfectly executed and though it would take weeks to completely heal, he could tell that the mark would be distinct. And it would last.
Running his fingers through her dark hair, he held it tight in his fist and leaned down to speak to her.
“It’s done,” he said. With the words stamping an exclamation point at the end of the long awaited ritual, Lisle’s entire being seemed to sigh with relief.
The passion moving through him touched his heart and his crotch and dove right down to the essence of his being. Though he’d gone into the branding unsure of the effect it would have on Lisle, he was certain of the effect it had on him. She was quite a woman to have brought him to this place, this moment. And now that she had, he wanted her like this forever, bound to him forever, a feeling that had never taken shape in his life before and it surprised him still.
***
The two sped off in Daniel’s Mercedes, taking the road north and east, heading toward the Atlantic coast.
“This isn’t the road we came in on, is it?”
“No, it’s not,” he said. “How’s the brand?”
“Okay, I guess. I’m not sure how a brand is supposed to feel.”
“It’s going to bother you for a while, but you should love that since it will remind you of me every time you feel that twinge.”
She snickered at the snide remark, and smiled. “As if I needed more reminders of you?”
He’d just branded her with his mark, just claimed her as his property—but for just a fleeting moment, she seemed more like his equal than at any time since he’d known her. The irony of it actually pleased him.
She stared out the window at the dreary October landscape and added, “So we’re not going home?”
“You noticed.”
“I notice a lot of things—when I bother to look,” she said.
Another few minutes of silence followed. “So where are we going if we’re not going home?” she finally spit out, impatient with his vague replies.
“Wherever we want,” he replied.
“That’s rather unscripted, isn’t it?”
“As if anything about you and me is. You have a problem with going nowhere special?”
“No. Just seems a little out of character for you.”
“Well, blame yourself for that, my little savage. I’m tired of working, I’m tired of Washington, and as far as that goddamn computer in my trunk, I’d like to fling it into the ocean and let it sink.”
Her eyes shot open with alarm. “You’d really do that?”
“Would you be happy if I did?”
She though a moment then ventured cautiously, “Hum…I think I might.” She mulled the though
t again, “So, what do we do then?”
“Not much. In fact, all I want to do right now, and maybe for the next year, is use my property the way she should be used—which means bind you, beat you and fuck you. How’s that for an agenda?”
She went from wide-eyed girl to seductive temptress by the time he finished laying out his plan. “Sounds perfectly blissful to me—if I’m with you.” She squirmed against the seat, putting her hand in her crotch—which Daniel quickly batted away.
“My game, my rules, don’t touch until you have permission.”
“Oh, my…” her mellow voice was barely above a whisper. But then, she was ready for breathless rapture, for pain, for kissing embraces and long hours of screwing in the dark until exhaustion forced them to quit. “We could find a room right now, couldn’t we?” she practically pleaded with him.
“Calm down, girl. You’re way ahead of yourself.”
“Oh,” she pouted, lips pursed. But the despondency only lasted a moment. Taking a deep breath, she settled back in the seat, letting the sexual feelings pass for the moment. “Just hope you don’t get tired of me,” was the next thought she voiced, as if she had hundreds more unspoken thoughts standing in line, waiting to be said.
“I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?” Daniel replied.
“A little scary if you ask me.”
“I wouldn’t bother with being scared. If I do tire of you, I’ll just stick you in a closet until I’m ready to have a go at you again. That’s what branded slaves are for, aren’t they?”
Her big eyes shined as worry seemed to slip from her thoughts. “Yes, sir, I guess they are,” she quipped. She nestled her moist crotch into the seat of the car, this time keeping one hand safely on the seat beside her, the other hand on Daniel’s thigh.
There was a happy smile on her face, and he if weren’t mistaken he could feel that smile infecting him—or maybe it was the warm hand massaging his thigh.
He drove on. For the first time in his life he had no idea where he was headed. But wherever it was, he was glad the girl was at his side. Even with all the trouble the capricious brat could invent, she’d be a good companion. She was already a passionate lover and a damn fine slave.
Little Savage Page 24