The Pleasure House

by Kitty Thomas

  “Good girl,” he murmured as he stroked her.

  By the time they got back to the house it felt like things had gone back to normal between them. Shannon had lost her feelings of awkwardness after being at Damian's for the weekend. Except for meals and those amazing baths where he prepared her body for his play, she and Damian had spent the weekend in bed.

  He'd spent the entire time training her ass for sex, but he didn't fuck her there, no matter how badly she wanted it or how much she begged. He just said... “We will get to it,” leaving her a hot needy mess all weekend even as he made her come over and over with his mouth, his fingers, and his cock inside her pussy.

  “Eat some dinner in the cafeteria then meet me in our room,” Lindsay said, kissing her on the forehead. Her face flamed at the things she'd just been thinking about. She felt guilty for thinking about Damian when she was with Lindsay.

  “Yes, Master,” she said, her fingers straying to her collar.

  “Did you take that collar off when you were at Damian's?” he asked.

  “No, Master.”

  “Good.”

  She watched as he grabbed a tray of food from the buffet and took it upstairs to his room. She wanted to join him up there, but he'd told her to eat in the cafeteria. Maybe he wanted her to be around the other girls. She needed to readjust to the noise of the house.

  Damian's house was so quiet and peaceful. Lindsay's was so loud and full of people. She got a tray from the buffet, thinking about her weekend and what this all could mean.

  Could she someday love Damian? Would she see him regularly enough for that? What had Lindsay meant that it was okay for her to love him? It seemed he planned to share her with another man long term. Once her initial fear had dissipated, it had been so easy to fall into a rhythm with Damian. It would be so easy to fall for him.

  She wasn't watching where she was going and walked right into Brian.

  “I-I'm sorry,” she said, almost dropping her tray.

  He caught it before it fell and gave it back to her. “Watch where you're going!” he snarled.

  “I-I'm sorry, Sir,” she said again.

  But he'd already stalked off.

  She let out a long shaky breath and sat at an empty table, still trembling from her close brush with Brian.

  Shannon woke to the sound of a knife scraping across stone. She was blindfolded, naked, and bound spread-eagled to a St. Andrew's cross. How had she gotten here? Was this a dream? But she knew it wasn't. Despite the realism of those dreams, being here, hearing that fucking grating scrape against the wall was more real than it had ever been in any of her nightmares in all these long years.

  “Master?” she asked, her voice faltering. Please be exposure therapy. Please be exposure therapy. Somehow she knew that wasn't what this was. Lindsay would never do that to her, but she didn't want to face reality just yet. Just another second of denial.

  “Nope. Guess again,” Brian said.

  How had she gotten here? How could this have happened... again? It wasn't like the last time when he'd dragged her kicking and screaming down to the dungeon and gripped her by the throat, binding her as she'd fought him. This had been a quiet kind of violence. Strangely polite in its execution.

  But... how? He'd drugged her, she realized suddenly. When he'd bumped into her...he must have put something into her food or drink. He'd been planning this. But hadn't she known that the day he'd stared at her from across the cafeteria?

  She cringed as his fingertips traced over the scars on her back. “Some of my best work,” he said, obviously proud of himself.

  She recalled Hunter down in Damian's dungeon telling her he'd just created some of his best work. She was a creation of these men, all these men. She was a creation of Lindsay, and Brian, and Damian, and even Hunter. And before that, the man who had broken her heart and led her to Lindsay's office in the first place. Was there even a single piece left of her that she'd created? Had she ever created a single piece of her own self or her own life or had she always been a pawn and plaything acted upon but never acting for herself? Never making the choice she wanted or taking the risk she needed to take. She'd instead lived as everyone else's background, never the center of her own life.

  But were the scars on her back really Brian's work? Lindsay had stitched her up that day. He'd been the one who'd fixed these scars into their final almost meticulous and neatly laid out form. These marks had more of Lindsay in them than Brian.

  If they were truly Brian's marks they'd be more chaotic. The sadistic psychopath had left her to die. He hadn't intended for her to survive to have scars in the first place. They only existed because she'd survived him. They existed more because of Lindsay than Brian, and not because the doctor had brought her to the house but because he'd saved her that day.

  Brian stroked the back of her throat around her collar as if he even knew how to be gentle with anyone but Mina. Or as if he wanted to.

  He leaned close and whispered in her ear, “Come on, Shannon, you always knew we'd end up back here. You had to know I needed to finish what we started.”

  The tears were already falling, turning into gasping sobs. “Please, Sir. Please. I've never done anything... n-not since that day. Please please.”

  “You're right. You've been a very good girl but you have terrible taste in men.”

  “I didn't choose him!” she said. Even as she said it, it felt like a betrayal. No, she hadn't chosen to belong to Lindsay. He'd made that choice for both of them, but she'd wanted him. She'd wanted him from the first day she'd seen him.

  “The doc has to pay,” Brian said. “He's got to lose something.”

  “Please, not me,” she whimpered.

  “Sorry, you're the only thing he cares about. So it's got to be you.”

  But Brian wasn't sorry. He sounded giddy, gleeful. Like he couldn't wait to rip apart her flesh and leave her a bleeding dying mess. And this time she knew he'd finish the job. He'd make sure he did it right. He wouldn't give Lindsay the opportunity to save her this time.

  She started to scream.

  72

  Lindsay had been looking for Shannon for the past twenty minutes. She was supposed to be waiting for him in his room but she was nowhere to be found. He asked several of the girls until one admitted she'd seen Brian carrying her down to the dungeon a few minutes before. He was so angry he wanted to fucking kill that girl.

  Everyone in this house knew Brian wasn't supposed to be left alone with Shannon, and one of these young stupid twits had just watched while Brian had carried her away.

  “I will deal with you later,” he snarled. Then he spotted Mina. “Mina!” he shouted. “Come here!”

  Mina was not accustomed to following anyone's orders but Brian's. But something in his tone made her rise from the table where she was having dinner and cross the room to him.

  “What is it?” she asked, a tinge of fear in her voice underneath the harder exterior she'd developed since she'd returned from Japan years ago. She didn't offer him a title. He didn't care about that one way or the other.

  He gripped her arm and dragged her out of the cafeteria, down the hallway and down the stairs. He heard Shannon's screams before they reached the bottom. Lindsay jerked Mina along down the hallway. It was so easy to forget how fragile she truly was... how breakable... how much physically weaker she was than him or Brian.

  Being the pet of the house psycho and having so many weapons at her disposal had made her seem superhuman, but she was still so breakably ordinary. Lindsay pounded on the door to Cell A, the one Brian didn't let others use.

  “Let her out this instant, or I will snap Mina's neck,” he shouted.

  Lindsay could see through the bars of the window. Brian had already struck Shannon a couple of times with the bullwhip. A few thin trickles of blood trailed down her back, but he hadn't really gotten to work on her yet.

  Brian didn't bother calling his bluff because he knew Lindsay wasn't bluffing. Brian just smiled that evil
soulless black-pit smile.

  “If you kill her, I will drag out Shannon's suffering so long she'll beg me to take her life. Is that what you want? You know I have the only key to this cell.”

  Shannon sobbed quietly. She seemed unable to even form words at this point.

  “Let her go. Your issue is with me, not her,” Lindsay said, his grip on Mina's arm so tight, she whimpered in his grasp. “Quiet,” he hissed at her. All he needed was for Brian to flip out because Mina was crying.

  “Maybe you should have thought about that shit a long time ago before you came between me and Mina,” Brian said.

  “Oh for fuck's sake. That was years ago. You can't still care about that! I never hurt her!”

  “Do you think she would have ever ended up in Japan with that monster if it weren't for your interference? If it weren't for you slithering inside her head so she wanted away from me?”

  “That was all you! It was your cruelty that made her want to get away from you, not anything I said or did. Do you think if you kill Shannon, Mina will ever want you to touch her again?”

  Brian laughed. “Mina's like me now. She's shut it off. All those inconvenient emotions. It's just me and her in the world now. She doesn't care what the fuck I do.”

  Lindsay turned to Mina, studying her face. It wasn't true. There was still something human in her. She hadn't shut it all off. She wavered even now.

  “Convince him to stop,” Lindsay whispered to her.

  She shook her head furiously. “I-I can't,” she whispered back. “I can't get between him and... what he does. T-there would be consequences. B-bad consequences.”

  “You think he would hurt you?” Lindsay asked.

  “I don't want to find out.”

  “But Shannon could die. You insufferable coward.” He spat the words out, disgusted.

  Mina was crying now. She turned to the door. “M-master, please let her go.”

  His reply came a moment later when the bullwhip landed in a loud crack against Shannon's back, and she screamed again. Brian stalked over to the door. He glared first at Lindsay, then his gaze went to Mina.

  “Do not get in the middle of this,” he said.

  Mina flinched. Lindsay couldn't remember the last time she'd flinched from Brian. Brian shot Lindsay a killing glare as if it were Lindsay's fault Mina was starting to remember exactly what kind of monster she was with. Brian reached through the bars to stroke her cheek. Her tear-filled gaze rose to his.

  When he spoke, it was in a low growl, almost more animal than human. “Mina, you know I would never hurt you, but you will not manage me. Do you understand?”

  “Y-yes, Master,” she said leaning into his touch, her eyes drifting closed as he petted her hair.

  He was so unbelievably gentle with her. Like an entirely different person.

  “Lindsay is not going to hurt you,” Brian said, his glare shooting once again to Lindsay. A warning. A threat. “I'm in control here, and he knows it. Don't you, Doc?”

  Lindsay didn't reply, he just gripped Mina's arm harder. “If you kill Shannon, what will stop me from killing Mina? You say you love her. But you risk her life by continuing this game. Let's just trade. I'll give you Mina. You give me Shannon.”

  Brian spit through the bars at Lindsay. “Never. I will do whatever I damn well please, and if you hurt Mina, I will keep you alive for months down here before I end you.”

  Brian stalked back over to Shannon.

  “I'm taking Mina with me,” Lindsay said. “And you're not going to know what I'm doing with her. You won't know if she's hurt or dead or alive. If you truly love her you won't take that risk.”

  Before Brian could reply, Lindsay had dragged Mina down the hallway to her and Brian's room. He shoved her into the bedroom and pointed to the door at the other end.

  “Unlock the door to the gun closet, Mina,” he said. His voice had gone so dark and cold it was clear she wasn't sure which of the two men down here was more dangerous right now.

  “I-I can't let you kill him. I know he's a monster, but I love him. He saved me. Not just in Japan. I can't live without him. Please.”

  “If you let me in that closet, I promise I won't kill him, but if you don't, Shannon is going to die. She's your friend. Do you want your friend to die?”

  Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she shook her head. She took a key from her pocket and with trembling hands unlocked the gun closet.

  Lindsay pushed her aside, grabbed a handgun off the closest shelf, slammed in a magazine, and racked the slide.

  “Please don't kill him,” she begged again, clearly unsure if she'd just signed Brian's death warrant. Her face was pale. It had been a very long time since Lindsay had seen her this afraid of anything.

  He should kill Brian, but Mina was yet another person Lindsay had ruined from his shitty choices. If he took Brian from her, it would destroy her. Shannon's screams pulled him out of the conflict and he raced back to the cell. He fired the gun at the lock twice and kicked the door open against the wall.

  Lindsay moved so fast, Brian didn't have time to react. He raised the gun and slammed it hard on the side of Brian's face, and the man went down, unconscious. Blood trailed from the side of his face as Lindsay dragged him to the neighboring cell. He checked all his pockets and took the cell keys. He handcuffed him to a pole at one end of the cell for good measure. Then he slammed the door, locking Brian in.

  Mina stood out of his way as he returned to the first cell and started to untie Shannon. When she was free, she crumpled to the ground, the adrenaline no doubt turning her legs to jelly.

  “I know you have another key to that other cell, Mina,” Lindsay said quietly. Cell A was the only one with a single key, which Brian jealously guarded. “He'll probably be unconscious for a while, but if you want Shannon to live through the night, you will not let him out until she's far from this house.”

  “I-I won't,” she said.

  Damian was right. Lindsay should have given Shannon to him. He was her age. He could protect her. And most importantly she'd be far from Brian and this house that had taken everything from her. How could he have ever thought it was appropriate to keep her here with him?

  Lindsay picked Shannon up off the ground and held her close in his arms. Her head went to his shoulder as she wrapped her arms around his neck, still crying.

  Shannon lay on her stomach in Lindsay's plant room as he whispered soothing nonsense in her ear. She couldn't process half of it, only that his tone was so caring that she actually felt safe for a brief moment, even after what had just happened downstairs with Brian.

  “This might sting a little,” Lindsay said.

  She flinched at the burn as he ran a cool wet cloth over the new marks Brian had left on her. These weren't deep. They weren't bad like before. They wouldn't scar. And they didn't need stitches. But it could have been so much worse. If Lindsay hadn't gotten down there when he did... if Brian had finished, there would have been nothing left to bandage.

  She continued to cry as he rubbed a soothing ointment into her back, then he laid a breathable gauze over the whip lashes and taped it down with medical tape against the untouched parts of her skin.

  There hadn't been untouched skin the first time. He'd had to wrap her up like a mummy. There had been nowhere safe to put tape the first time.

  Ralph flew from his perch and landed next to her, nuzzling his head against her face. “Yes Sir, fuck me harder,” the bird squawked. Shannon couldn't even find it in her to laugh at his antics.

  “Not now, Ralph,” Lindsay said, sounding tired.

  The bird looked up at him and said, “Excellent references.” Then he flew back into the foliage.

  Lindsay rested a hand on Shannon's lower back, the only place without any bandages or tape and sighed. “I'll be right back. Will you be okay?”

  She gripped his wrist. “No! Don't leave me.”

  “I'm just going to make a call. I'm not leaving our suite and the door is dead-bolted. You'r
e safe now.”

  She would never be safe. They both knew it. She would never be safe and she would never be free. She felt his weight lift off the bed as he went into the bathroom and shut the door. She heard his voice from the other side, but couldn't make out anything he said. She was in too much pain to get up and go listen by the door.

  The call lasted for a long time. Finally Lindsay came out looking exhausted, like a man who had almost lost the love of his life—or like a man who was in the process of losing her. She waited in the long space of silence wanting it to go on forever because she knew she didn't want to hear the words that were about to come out of his mouth.

  “Damian is on his way,” he finally said. “You belong to him now.”

  Shannon let out a strangled sob. “No, I want to be with you.” She struggled to sit. He sat behind her and just held her in his arms stroking her hair.

  “I know you do. I want the same. But we can't be together. You know Brian will never allow it, and now that he's proven he's willing to go this far again, you can't stay in this house. It's not safe.”

  “Just fucking kill the bastard,” she said, surprising herself at the amount of venom in her voice. Mina might not be the only one with a switch. Brian clearly had this effect on people, as if his sociopathy were a contagion on the air.

  “How would you feel if Mina killed me?” They both knew why he hadn't used Brian in that example.

  “Mixed feelings right now,” she said.

  Lindsay's laugh rumbled against her. “I love you so much, Shannon. And that's why you have to go. You know you have to go. Damian will be good to you. He will love you, and you will love him. I know it hurts now but...”

  Shannon pulled away from him. “No. Fuck you. No. You don't need this fucking house. You don't need the job in the city. You're rolling in money. Let's just GO. Far from here. We can run away and be together.”