by Vonna Harper
The pressure around her neck lessened, allowing her to stand upright and swivel toward her captor. His nostrils were slightly flared and he was squinting. Harsh lines between his eyes coupled with his clenched jaw made her conclude he indeed was in pain. He grabbed her chin and forced her head to the side.
“What I’m dealing with is none of your concern, got it? I pushed myself more than I should have, that’s all.” He briefly closed his eyes, then shook his head as if trying to reconcile himself to what he’d just revealed.
She waited him out because she had no choice, and because she sure as hell wasn’t going to express sympathy. He’d hurt her, not the other way around.
But had he really caused her pain? She couldn’t say.
“I’m going to catch a nap,” he said almost conversationally. “But before I do I need to park you so you won’t get into mischief.”
Still neck tethered to the post, she watched as he slowly walked away from her and through a door to the left of the living room. She felt ridiculous and exposed standing there with her clothes hobbling her and her ass sticking out. He was going to rape her, it was just a matter of time. Over and over again until he grew tired of her and then—
Slave. He’d called her a slave.
His sex slave?
Sick and afraid and something else, she stared at the door until it opened again. He was carrying a length of rope. Something bulged from his jeans’ pocket. If anything his pace was even slower and was he dragging his left leg a little? Maybe it was her imagination, but his lips looked paler than earlier.
A fresh wave of helplessness lapped at her as he wrapped the new rope around what was already on her wrists. When he’d secured her to his satisfaction, he released her arms from the belt and drew them down until her hands were against her mons.
“To state the obvious,” he said, “I strongly suggest you not fight me. You might believe I’m at a bit of a disadvantage right now.” He ran his hand over his left thigh. “But I’m still stronger than you. Besides—“ He slapped her cheek. “You don’t want to make me angry.”
The blow didn’t sting as much as the earlier ones had but she got the message. She wouldn’t resist, at least not now.
To her shock, he threaded the loose end of the new rope between her legs and then drew it upward so the strands settled against her crack. Positioned the way she was, she couldn’t see what he was securing the rope to behind her, something so high he had to strain to reach it. He tugged, forcing her arms even lower and making her lean over. Cotton pressed against her pussy.
He stepped away from her. “That should hold you. It won’t be comfortable. In fact the longer you have to stand there, the greater the strain.” The corners of his mouth lifted. “Think on the reasons behind my actions while you wait for me to return. It’ll help you pass the time.”
When he extended his hand toward her, she winced and tried to move away. However, instead of slapping her again, he patted her cheek.
“Sometimes I want to hear a subject’s vocalizations, sometimes I don’t. Right now I want it quiet here.” He frowned. “I didn’t have to tell you that, I could simply…”
Still frowning, he reached into his pocket and withdrew a red rubber ball with leather straps attached to it. Having seen several online BDSM sites, she recognized it as a gag.
“Don’t make this any harder than it needs to be,” he told her. “Depending on my mood, I get major turned on when a subject struggles, but this isn’t one of those times.”
I hate you, I hate you, she chanted as he pressed the ball into her mouth. When it was in as far as it would go, he fastened the straps at the back of her neck with her hair trapped under the leather. When she started drooling, she shook her head trying to dislodge it.
“Fight it if you want to, but I suggest you save your energy. Believe me, when I gag a slave she stays gagged.”
Slave. That word again.
He unsnapped the chain from her collar but left it dangling from the post. After studying her for a moment, he ran his hand from her wrists to her fingers.
“Your circulation’s intact. Fight this little contraption I’ve set up and the rope will dig into you more than it already is. In other words, the amount of discomfort you experience while I’m gone is entirely up to you.” He slid a hand between her legs, pushed up on the stands flattening her labial lips. She whimpered into the gag.
“Not the most enjoyable thing that’s ever happened to your pussy, but that too is part of today’s lesson.” He withdrew out, took hold of her hips, and turned her away from him. “That’s what I thought,” he muttered. “A little adjustment needed here.”
Her head sagged and she repeatedly tightened and relaxed her fingers as he repositioned the rope until it was between her ass cheeks. He slapped her right buttock, then her left, the right again, followed by the left.
She didn’t want to move, damn it. He wasn’t hitting her that hard, more a tease than a spanking so why did she jump and fight her bondage with every blow?
“I’ll return.” He grabbed the rope and jerked up, forcing her onto her toes. “That’ll give you something else to think about, I will return.”
By the time her captor started up the stairs, she was exhausted. His footsteps faded, letting her know she was alone.
He’d secured the rope against her pussy and ass hole to a high stair railing. If she had use of her arms, she could have reached up and untied it, but of course he’d made that impossible.
She couldn’t call for help, couldn’t move from where he’d placed her. Tight as the bonds were, she couldn’t straighten. Until he returned, her sex would remain trapped and sensitive. Her shorts and briefs were still around her knees.
He could and would do whatever he wanted with her for as long as he wanted.
She belonged to him.
Chapter seven
By the time he reached the loft where his bedroom was, Reno had reconciled himself to taking a prescription pain pill. Damn it, except for the occasional night, he’d been able to stay off the heavy stuff. Of course, he unnecessarily reminded himself as he went into the adjacent bathroom, he hadn’t asked this much of his body since before the accident.
After swallowing the pill and using the toilet, he kicked off his shoes and eased onto the bed. He didn’t pull a blanket over him because if he was too comfortable who knows how long he’d sleep and he didn’t want to damage the merchandise.
He’d given into crazy impulse, brought a captive here.
Captive? Not a slave in training?
Damn it, he wasn’t going to let stupid word choices get between him and a nap. He was what he was, and she was—something.
What was her name?
Why had he brought her to his retreat, his place of peace?
And what was he going to do with her?
#
“You want the truth? I’m not surprised.”
Resisting the urge to hold his cell phone away from his ear so he could glare at it, Reno mentally replayed what his co-worker had just said. Damek and he had started working for Carnal around the same time and had collaborated on several slave trainings. Damek had been the first person to come see him in the hospital, the only one to show up more than once. More importantly, Damek’s expression had said he realized something had changed about his co-worker but he knew not to press the issue.
“What’s she like?” Damek asked. “I take it you chose someone without a support system and has the qualities we look for.”
We? What about me?
“I don’t know much about her,” he admitted. He’d been somewhere between asleep and awake when Damek called and was still trying to get with the program. “You’ve done it yourself. When you come across a broad with the submissive qualities you’re looking for, you know it.”
“What makes you think she’s submissive?”
“I know, damn it.”
Damek chuckled. “Yeah, you do. I’ll hand you that. So you brought her to th
e cabin. That surprises me.”
Me too. “What else could I to do with her, keep her in some damn motel? Maybe rent an apartment and hope the neighbors don’t hear?”
“You didn’t have to grab her.”
No, he didn’t. “Go to hell.”
“Don’t get on my case. I’m just pointing out the obvious.” Damek cleared his throat. “No, I’m doing more than that. The cabin’s your sanctuary. What is it you told me, that you never bring anyone from Carnal there because you don’t believe in mixing your business and personal lives.”
“You’ve been here.”
“Yeah.”
As he waited for his fellow slave trainer to say something, he picked up his shoes only to drop them and reach for his slippers. Going by the clock near the headboard, he figured he’d slept about an hour. His body was humming, proof that the pain pill had kicked in. He was still a little groggy but that was fading.
“I picked up on some gossip involving you,” Damek said. “Sounds like you agreed to take a look at a couple of new hires. Were you coming back from that when you grabbed her?”
“”Yeah. What did management say?”
“A couple of things. You look better than they thought you would.”
“What was the other thing?” he asked even though he was pretty sure he knew.
“Paul and Dwight both asked what drugs you were on. They said you acted like you didn’t give a damn about the operation. You didn’t ask about the improvements going on at the West facility.”
“Right now I don’t care,” he admitted. He trusted Damek to keep his mouth shut. Otherwise he wouldn’t have said a word. “Management asked me to comment on the two apprentices and that’s what I did. I told them to get rid of one because he’s a damn sadist. The other has possibilities.”
“For the record,” Damek said, “they took your advice. The last thing Carnal needs is a trainer who ruins the merchandise. By the way, management asked me if you’d said anything about when you might come back to work. We need you.”
“I’m not ready.” He rubbed his leg.
“Physically or emotionally?”
“Go to hell.”
Damek sighed. “That’s what I thought. Maybe grabbing her is proof that you’re getting ready to get back in the saddle.”
“Maybe.”
Working for Carnal Incorporated paid more bills than anything else he’d ever done, not that he had much of a resume. All of the facilities were first class and for the most part he could pick when he wanted to be on the clock. As for the work itself—hell, what man wouldn’t want to spend his life pawing and endless succession of naked female flesh?
Maybe him.
“What are you going to do with her?” Damek asked.
He didn’t have to tell his co-worker anything. If he again told Damek go to hell, that would be the end of things. Their friendship would continue, he simply wouldn’t step over that particular line. But Damek was the only person on this earth he ever let down his hair around.
“I haven’t decided. I’m playing this one step at a time.”
“So you saw her, picked up some vibes, and decided to grab her?”
“Something like that.”
“Hell, it isn’t that simple and we both know it. Don’t damage the merchandise.”
“I don’t intend to.” He wasn’t sure he meant it because maybe if he broke her into little pieces and fashioned her into the ultimate sex slave, he’d stop asking himself who and what she was and why he wanted her in his life.
“Anything you want me to tell management?”
Good question. One he needed to answer. “I’m not sure.” Disgusted with himself, he stood and walked over to the door. Once this conversation was over with, he’d open it, go down the stairs, and—and what? “Tell them there’s been a complication.”
“That’s what this broad is to you, a complication?”
“I don’t know.”
But I need to find out.
#
He was wearing slippers.
If her captor asked why she’d noted that, Kaci wasn’t sure she’d be able to explain. Maybe the whispery sound made her think he was stalking her. Maybe he appeared less intimidating this way.
She hurt and yet she didn’t. Every nerve in her immobile body was on high alert which reminded her of what it had felt like to look out a cell window at a spring morning and know she wouldn’t feel the sun on her back today.
No! She wouldn’t cry, wouldn’t beg. Would get through this just as she’d survived her stint as a juvenile delinquent.
And her childhood.
“You have to pee.”
Her captor hadn’t said anything when he’d first re-joined her. Instead, after descending the stairs, he’d planted himself near her right side. Even though she hadn’t looked at him—ignoring him was her only defiant act—she had no choice but to face what he was seeing.
Helpless and partly naked female flesh.
He snorted and yanked on the rope between her legs, making her squeal. “Let’s get something straight, slave. Every time I ask a question, you will respond to the best of your ability. I know how to get the truth out of someone. Your choice—either it goes easy or hard.”
Damn him! He didn’t have a single speck of humanity in him. Angry, she faced him and jerked her head up and down.
“What’s that look?”
Fuck you. The emotion under control, she made her expression go neutral.
“I know what it is.” He tapped her cheek. “You’d like nothing more than to see me in hell.” Again he patted the side of her face, forcing her to concentrate on not shying away. “Interesting. I thought you’d be more scared than pissed.” He slipped a finger under the strap that held the gag against the sides of her mouth. “Your attitude is giving me something new to think about, to examine while I work with you.”
Was that excitement? And he was again making it clear that this wasn’t the first time he’d had someone under his control.
Had her fantasies come to life? If so, she was doing a piss poor job of fashioning them to meet her secret needs.
“All right.” His finger still hard against her jaw, he moved so he was directly in front of her. Bent over the way she was, he loomed over her. “Here’s how we’re going to get started. First off, I’ll haul you into the bathroom because—hell because otherwise things will get messy and I don’t want that. So far I’ve been easy on you, but it’s time for your training to begin.”
Easy? What a lie that was.
She was still silently cursing him when he planted his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back until her bare ass pressed against the post. The punishing rope tightened, forcing her onto her toes. Drool dripped. If not for the restraints, she would have fallen forward. Even more disconcerting was the added warmth to her pussy. No way had the added pressure and his presence turned her on.
No way!
“This serves as a quick lesson. I already made it clear that I have thorough knowledge of how a female’s body works, but in case you’ve forgotten, here’s the reminder. Keep that foremost in mind while we dispense with the essentials.”
Years ago she’d attended classes held at the juvenile facility. For the most part she hated them because the teacher aimed the lessons at the slowest students and his delivery was so dry she often fell asleep. In some respects what her captor had just said took her back to that time. Why did he think he had to warn her about anything when he was in control of everything?
“This place has two bathrooms.” He started doing something to the rope behind and above her. “Maybe eventually I’ll let you use my personal one, maybe not. I haven’t decided.”
Suddenly the tension between her legs ended. Off-balance, she stumbled forward. By the time she was standing upright, he’d pulled the rope off her sex and out from between her legs. He held it in front of her. A sharp tug yanked her arms up.
“There.” He jerked his head toward another closed door.
“Get your ass over there and you won’t get into any more trouble than you’re already in.”
His harsh chuckle cut through her, nibbled at the anger that had been sustaining her. Resigned, she started after him only to have to slow to an awkward shuffle because of the restraining clothes around her knees. He walked with his back to her and the hand holding the rope rested on his shoulder as if he was carrying a backpack. There wasn’t that much distance between the stairs and the bathroom, but it took what felt like forever to reach it. By the time she did, her bladder all but screamed at her.
He opened it the door but instead of stepping into the dark space, he shoved her into it. She slammed into something hard. It didn’t matter because she was alone. Before her eyes could adjust, he switched on a light.
The bathroom was small with a pedestal sink, small shower, and toilet. It was paneled in wood which made her feel as if it was closing in on her. Two people could just fit in the space and would be hard-put to maneuver around each other.
“You have choices,” he said from where he stood in the entryway. “Either you take care of business like a good little slave or I come in.”
Slave. Belonging to him.
Seeing the toilet made everything else unimportant. Even before she sat on it, her bladder started to let loose. She peed and peed, her useless hands resting on her thighs. The long rope lay on her stretched shorts and the tile floor near the one attached to her ankle. When she was done, she awkwardly took hold of the toilet paper and wiped.
He’d watched, seen her relief followed by her stumbling efforts to take care of the most basic function.
“One more thing before you get up. Let’s see if you can figure out what it is.”
Sick at heart, she pushed her shorts and panties to the floor and gathered up the ankle rope so she could slide it under her garments. As she stepped out of her clothes, she wondered if she’d ever wear them again.
“You’re a sticky, sweaty mess but there isn’t much point in cleaning you up until after today’s lesson.”