by Kitty Thomas
Brian raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, since when do I obey your orders? I’m an equal partner here, or have you all forgotten? I may live underground, but that doesn’t make me some low-ranking servant. You don’t get to keep any girl within these walls from me. Just because I more or less stayed away from Vivian doesn’t mean that’s the precedent we’re going to follow. If Lindsay didn’t want me near her, he shouldn’t have brought her here. Or he should have cleared his policy with me, first.”
“You can’t touch Anton’s slave,” the blond said.
“Annette has a collar. She belongs exclusively to him. I respect that claim. Mina, however, has no such collar to protect her. Tell Lindsay to leave her locked up alone anywhere in this house at his own risk.” He moved forward, invading Gabe’s space. “Have you read the contract for her?”
Gabe gritted his teeth. “I have.”
“Then know this. I will break every boundary in that contract if I find her in such a vulnerable position again. Every. Boundary.” He turned to Mina, who shrank back. “What was the crime that got you put in the cage?”
“I-I spoke without permission, S-sir.”
Brian turned back to the blond. “A rebel, this one. Certainly it was worth the risk I pose to her.”
“Isn’t it your day off?”
“It depends. If you’re leaving her in the cage, I’m playing with her. What about the remotes for her bracelet?”
Most of the trainers kept a small remote that allowed them to send a shock to a bracelet. It was an effective form of training and punishment.
“Her bracelet hasn’t been programmed that way. The remotes won’t work.”
Was that relief Brian felt?
Gabe shoved past him and input the code. “It’s all right, Mina,” he said as he helped her out.
He took a blanket from one of the shelves and wrapped her up to help stop her shaking. Brian had wanted to do the very same thing, but it would have looked strange, and he didn’t want the third degree. It was easier to play to type. He got what he wanted, and nobody thought he’d gone insane. It was better that he try to come to terms with his odd reaction to her on his own.
Brian caught Mina’s gaze. “Don’t wander alone in this house. I might not be able to keep my hands off you. Ask Gabe; he’ll tell you what I do with these hands. You and your delicate sensibilities wouldn’t like it.”
He watched as she moved closer to Gabe for his protection—such that it was. Then he turned and left Lindsay’s room and the house, trying hard to get the dark, fragile beauty out of his mind.
Chapter Four
Mina watched Brian’s retreating form. Empirically he’d freed her—an obvious kindness. Yet he’d threatened her as well. But he could have acted on it before calling Lindsay. Why hadn’t he? She shook her head to clear it. She knew this. It was the same set of games Jason had played. Gain the captive’s trust with small kindnesses mixed with a touch of cruelty to keep her off guard. Find the most entertaining moment… and strike, unraveling any sense of safety she ever had.
If she’d learned these lessons with the first three men—abusive amateurs next to Jason—she might have salvaged some of her dignity and unscarred skin. But she’d learned the lesson well enough with Jason that Brian wouldn’t succeed in the same con. Though if she’d truly learned it, she wouldn’t have trusted Lindsay and come here in the first place. Surely now she was cured of any remaining remnants of her so-called kink.
Brian was devastatingly handsome, but more importantly, he was devastating. His home in the dungeon, his warning to run, his threats this morning, all gave voice to support the instinctive fear she’d felt the moment she’d first entered his presence. She didn’t plan to give him another opportunity alone with her. And she wouldn’t give Lindsay or any of the others the opportunity to lock her up and risk another run-in with Brian.
Gabe went into the main bedroom and came back with her clothes. “Get dressed and come down for breakfast while they’re still serving it. Lindsay canceled his appointments for the day. He’s on his way back.”
Mina dressed faster than she’d ever dressed and rushed to get down the stairs to a place that was more crowded, for fear that Brian might still be lurking. But he was nowhere to be found.
The scene that greeted her in the cafeteria was surreal. There were several girls, all around college age, in cliques at a couple of tables having breakfast. They looked normal enough. Kind of a mean girls vibe. Other tables were less normal. Some of the girls were naked, with men hanging all over them. Some were being touched by multiple men, fingers penetrating them while they tried to have breakfast.
She looked away.
It wasn’t that she’d never seen public sexual things. It was just that this was broad daylight, with the sunlight streaming in and a view of a pool out back. And while the kink clubs might have had nudity and bondage and whipping, there was something subtly different here. There was no sex in public at the clubs, but it seemed certain it was about to start happening here. At least at that one table.
Mina tried to quiet the urges that woke within her. Her body demanded this. But the price was too high to pay. She’d been kidding herself if she thought any kind of happy relationship lay ahead of her. Even before therapy and Lindsay’s offer, the hope of anything but loneliness and fear around men had been a fantasy—a fevered daydream she’d foolishly tried to make real. Again.
Mina got eggs, bacon, juice, and a bran muffin and sat as far from everyone else as she could get. She imagined herself a chameleon, fading into the chair so she wouldn’t call the attention either of the mean girls at the center table, or the men engaged in the breakfast orgy.
The blond who’d rescued her from Brian, approached as she was finishing and putting her tray away. “Lindsay’s back. He wants to speak with you in his office.”
Something inside her sank. After their earlier interaction, any hope she’d had that the doctor would keep her himself was gone. Now she wasn’t sure she even wanted him. This wasn’t a game, and even the smallest lapse in formality might earn her another punishment just as upsetting as being beaten. If so many things upset her, what did any of her preferences or urges in men even mean?
The doctor seemed impatient when she reached his office, as if she hadn’t flown there fast enough for his taste.
“Please shut the door and sit.” He indicated a chair.
The relationship they’d had as doctor and patient had evaporated, leaving in its wake something she wasn’t sure she liked at all. The freedom she’d felt to speak her mind—to address him even—was gone now.
Lindsay was silent for a long while as he seemed to gather his words together in a bundle. “Mina, I believe bringing you here was an error on my part. Even with all the therapy sessions, I’m not sure I truly realized the extent of the damage that’s been done to you. I wanted to help you. And in truth, I wanted to help myself. It was a conflict of interests even for me.”
She opened her mouth but then remembered herself and stopped short.
“You may speak freely inside this office. It’s still a therapist’s office, and without that freedom you can’t be helped.”
“You said you couldn’t let me go back home. What does this mean for me?” Surely he wasn’t going to have her killed. That would hardly be more kind than the situation he’d already initiated.
“My plan was to put you through the standard training protocol, keeping in mind the boundaries we agreed to. However, I realized this morning that without pain as a tool, punishments become more challenging. And with Brian in the house… I can’t risk you with him. I find that I have a personal fondness toward you that clouds my vision.”
Again, the question of why he couldn’t keep her bubbled to the surface.
“Before you say it again, I can’t collar you. It exposes you constantly to the danger of Brian. He respects Anton’s claim on Annette, but… he’s taken an unusual interest in you. I can’t speak about his past. It would betray d
octor/patient confidentiality, but I can tell you that you are not safe near him.”
She couldn’t argue with that logic. Though Brian had yet to hurt her, he felt like a bomb that had already been set to go off. It was merely a matter of the clock winding down to zero.
“W-where does that leave us? If you let me go back home, I swear I won’t say anything about anything.”
Lindsay shook his head. “I’m afraid that’s not an option. I intend to go ahead and find a buyer for you and get you out of the house within the next day or two. I went through my business contacts late last night, and there are several potential candidates who have bought other girls from us and who I trust implicitly with your safety. A few of them prefer their own training protocols, so your untrained state won’t be an issue.”
Mina was offended by his untrained state comment. It too closely echoed Jason’s not a real sub accusation. How could she be untrained if she’d lived in so many 24/7 D/s arrangements in the past? Though had she? If such arrangements existed and ever worked out, she hadn’t been lucky enough to be one of the participants. From her view and experience, it had been a nice shady corner for abusive men to hide in. And now she’d moved to the next level of the same fucking thing.
Why couldn’t she let her fantasies stay fantasies instead of insisting on finding a way to act them out and live them?
The doctor continued. “I’ll ask that you stay in the tower until it’s time for you to leave us. You may lock your door. I have a feeling it’s the only thing that will keep Brian out. Your meals will be brought up. Again, I want to apologize for everything, and I promise I will do my very best to find a good match for you, somewhere you can be happy. I can at least assure that you will be safe. Do you have any questions?”
“C-can I get some cigarettes?” Earlier in the cage, at least part of the shaking had been the need of a cigarette. With the stress and uncertainty of her future, she didn’t want to think about how bad the withdrawal might get.
“No. There will be no smoking here. You won’t be allowed to smoke once you’re sold, so it’s better to work through the cravings and discomfort now. You may go.”
Lindsay returned to the stack of papers in front of him, effectively dismissing her from his life forever.
When Mina reached the door, his voice stopped her. “To ensure your care and safety, and because you’ve been my patient, I’ll see you once a week if you still want that. I’ll arrange it with the buyer. We can do video conferencing.”
“Okay.”
She felt numb, empty, afraid, the fantasy once again unraveling—this time before it started.
“Oh, and one more thing.”
“Yes?”
“I’ll need to do a health examination and take some photos and video for the auction. You won’t be required to be present for the sale. Everything will be handled behind the scenes.”
“Photos and video?” Mina wasn’t sure she was comfortable with that, but she hadn’t thought to set no photos or video of me as a limit. That kind of thing could end up anywhere. It could come back to haunt her.
“They have to see what they’re buying. Would you rather be displayed naked on the conference table and be poked and prodded by myself or Gabe or Anton while bidders look on? Would you rather risk Brian being present for the event and touching you, too?”
She shuddered. No. She didn’t want to risk any of that. When Lindsay first suggested finding a master for her, and he’d mentioned money changing hands, what had she thought he meant? If it was enough money to bother, of course potential buyers would want to see what they were paying for. Of course she’d be treated like an object on the auction block. Wasn’t not having to be physically present a mercy?
There was a time when the idea would have excited her, but now… If being here had taught her anything, it was that Jason had truly broken her. Could even a kind master, following the rules of the contract, have any hope of reawakening her? Could she trust anyone to open that side of herself up again?
For months in therapy she’d focused on what she couldn’t have. She’d obsessed about it and held onto it. Now, presented with it, she began to wonder why she’d been so fixated. Maybe she was meant to be single with some cats. But it was too late for that. She’d signed her rights away. And Lindsay would enforce that choice to save his own ass. Only now, if she fought, he couldn’t hide behind the cloak of doing something noble and kind for her—of fulfilling all her fantasies and giving her everything she’d ever wanted.
If she fought now, it would be ugly and brutal for both of them. He’d be her captor and kidnapper. She’d be his victim. She couldn’t bring herself to be anyone else’s victim again right now. If she went along, maybe she could find that place inside herself that actually liked this idea.
“Come on, it’ll be all right, Mina. I’m sorry to have to do this to you. If you knew how rarely I apologized to anyone for anything, you’d know my sincerity. It was foolish to bring you here, and now I’ve started a chain of events I can’t release myself or you from. If it comforts you, everyone at the auction will be a previous buyer—someone the house has a history with and who has honored our contracts in the past. You need not fear anyone who might buy you.”
Lindsay led her to the end of the hallway.
“W-wait… we’re doing this right now?”
In answer, he unlocked the door and pushed her inside. The room looked like it moonlighted as a porn set. A medical examining area, including a table and stirrups, was set up in the back corner. There was lighting and camera equipment everywhere. The center of the room was a simple bed with fluffy white bedding and steel bars for a headboard.
Lindsay pressed a button on the wall intercom.
“Yes?” Anton’s thick accent caressed the air.
“I need you in the auction prep room.”
“Give me fifteen.”
Lindsay turned on the lights—not just the normal lights in the ceiling or the ambient lamps strategically placed around the room, but also the studio lighting.
“Get on the examining table. I need to take samples for analysis.”
Mina wore the white t-shirt and colorful gym shorts the girls of the house had been given for casual free time. It was weird to think that she’d yet to be involved in anything overtly sexual herself here. She felt like a nun, stumbling upon somebody’s porn stash. The only thing resembling BDSM had been the naked cage incident.
She sat on the exam table as the doctor took off his sport coat and replaced it with a white lab coat. He scrubbed up in the sink and pulled on blue medical gloves. He set up a tray with a syringe and alcohol and cotton swabs.
“I’m going to swipe under your tongue for a mineral and hormone profile. Then I’ll draw blood to do a full blood panel. After that I’ll do the gynecological exam. We’ll do photos and video both here and on the bed. Anton will join us for part of it.”
She’d become so consumed with her fears and the knowledge she had of how deeply her trust could be abused, that she’d forgotten the erotic charge of a little fear. Previous men had never dwelled in that space of erotic fear. They’d pushed right past that. Anticipation had changed to terror, and the mild flutter of flushed excitement had never returned. But inside this room with the doctor, she thought maybe it could melt back into anticipation.
“A-are you going to videotape t-the exam?”
“Not the boring parts, but yes. There will be no hospital gown as you may be used to in these types of things. Don’t you think your master has the right to see everything in the exam?”
“Y-yes Sir.”
Lindsay touched her cheek. “We will find you someone. He will meet your needs for a master who won’t harm you. Everything you’ve been through up to this point will have been worth it. Just trust me.”
Lindsay sealed the saliva sample in a bag, then took the needle from the tray and drew blood. When he finished, he put a label on the vial and put it in a bag as well. He jotted notes on a chart inside
a manilla folder. Then he put everything he’d gathered into a larger plastic bag.
She startled when the door opened, but it was only Anton. He moved behind the video equipment like a shadow. He adjusted it to view the examining table. Then he set up the photography equipment.
“Mina,” Lindsay said. “I want you to undress, lie back on the table, and put your feet in the stirrups for me.”
She’d thought she could do this. She’d wanted to believe. She’d tried so hard to believe that everything inside her hadn’t been broken already, that the pieces could somehow be glued back together so that no one would ever even notice.
She wanted the fantasy to work. She wanted to trust one more time. She’d thought she’d felt those hints that her body still wanted this, and maybe it did. But her mind couldn’t take any more of it. If only she’d known this the day the driver came. She wouldn’t have chased him. She would have let him go. But seeing those tail lights had made her panic… like this was her last chance for… anything. She knew it.
And she was so lonely. How could she go on this way? If some kind man could take her and remake her and heal her… She just wanted to believe the fantasy. That was all. Just one more time.
“N-no, I-I can’t.”
The doctor’s eyes narrowed. Something in his expression snapped apart and the mask came off. His voice went dark and low as if a demon had taken possession of him. “What did you just say to me? Maybe I should send you down to Brian. A couple of hours in the dungeon with him, and you’ll be grateful to do anything I ask of you in here. A couple of hours with him and you’d let every man in this house do anything he wanted with you and feel honored for the privilege. Believe me, you would do anything to stay out of one of his cells. You think you’re scared of me? Anton? This? You think this is too much for you? I’ve fucking had it with you!”
Mina dropped to her knees. “Please… I’m sorry I c-can’t. Please don’t make me do those things. Please. I swear I won’t tell anyone if you just let me go.”
Lindsay laughed. “Let you go? No my dear, you are in deep now. There is no going except to a master or a pine box. Your choice. I could make you do this. I can just strip you and tie you down, but the buyers we might attract with such footage wouldn’t be the ones you’d want.”
