by Vonna Harper
It felt that way now.
Only worse.
Fighting waves of dread, she watched Damek return. He carried several whips she couldn’t bring herself to study. Instead, her gaze fixed on the powerful, dominant man. Her skinny father had ruled with threats of hell, a raised voice, and spankings. Insane as it was, she preferred Damek. He wasn’t handsome but confidence exuded from him. He had her exactly where he wanted her and had no doubt about the final outcome. No matter how much she resisted, he’d break through her layers, reach her core, and do what he wanted with her.
She’d long been looking for a take-charge man, but Damek had found her and now—now what?
“I want you to think about one thing while I punish you.” He held up each whip in turn as if asking her opinion. “This first time I’ll keep things simple for you. You and I will have a well-defined relationship. Neither of us will need to question the parameters of that relationship because we each understand our roles.”
Even with her heart racing, she acknowledged his intelligence. Unlike her simple, dogmatic father, Damek expected her to meet him on his level.
One by one he dropped the instrument of torture until only a duplicate of what she’d seen being used on the woman earlier remained. Terror threatened to overwhelm her. At the same time, she couldn’t help but admire him. She’d never be able to match his assertiveness. In truth, she’d never known such self-confidence existed.
“About your task.” He snapped his wrist so the whip cut through the air. “I expect you to demonstrate to me your understanding of your role.”
“Please, please.” She couldn’t remember deciding to speak.
“Begging is part of the agenda all right, but that’s not what I’m getting at. Concentrate.”
He again snapped his wrist, making the whip hiss. “Granted, comprehending your mission throughout the process won’t be easy, but it’s essential.”
He lifted his arm. A half-second later, the whip slashed her right hip. Screaming, she tried to escape. Humming, he moved a little to the left and struck her left hip. A second scream drowned the echo of the first.
“That’s a lovely and essential sound. Proof that I’m already getting somewhere.”
“Please, please, no.”
“Sorry, the operant word is yes. Yes I’m going to beat you.”
Her world became fire as the instrument of torture found her arms, breasts, buttocks, back, and calves. She shivered violently. No matter how many times her captured body refused to obey her desperate command to flee, she couldn’t stop trying. The rope, which had slipped between her ass cheeks, ground against her pussy while her pulled-down arms felt as if they were being pulled out of their sockets. Even though doing so abraded her labia, she repeatedly twisted from side to side. He didn’t strike where her bones were closest to the surface. Instead, he concentrated the punishment on her ass, thighs, and breasts. The blows were knifelike, laying down thin rivers of deep-reaching pain.
“Please, oh God, please, mercy!”
“There is no God.” Grabbing the collar ring, he pulled her toward him. “There’s only me, and I’m the devil. Your hell.”
Her parents had been wrong, she thought when he released her and resumed whipping her. The evil being her mother and father had preached about was nothing like the real thing.
“Why me, why me?”
“I ask the questions, slave, not you.”
Suddenly he was gone. Thinking he’d dropped to his knees, she tried to look down, but the collar made that impossible. Like a cow waiting for slaughter, she waited.
Just as suddenly as he’d left, he returned, or rather he stood up. The thin whip was gone and in its place a short, lightweight cat-o’nine-tails.
“I can’t, oh God, please, don’t.” When had she started crying?
“There. Is. No. God.” He struck her breasts in time with each word. “Only. Me.”
The devil. Yes, that’s who he was.
He again stopped talking and concentrated on aiming the cat-o’-nine-tails so it laid down a multitude of fire-trails. Spent, she stopped trying to get away. Simply tried to survive.
She whimpered and gasped and sometimes cried out, but she no longer begged her abuser to take pity on her. He’d told her to concentrate on something, maybe answer something, but her mind had shut down. Only outlasting him mattered.
In a vague way she knew that wasn’t possible, that he could and might go on hitting her until nothing remained of her. From what she could tell, he hadn’t drawn blood, but every inch throbbed. In some ways she hated her body’s ability to feel as much as she hated him.
She needed to be dead. That was her only reprieve.
“Getting to the end of your endurance, are you?” He violently struck her right thigh. “I think of this as past the point of no return.” He again slashed the same spot. “Diminishing returns for me. You can’t hurt any more than you do right now.”
What was he saying? Did he really expect her to understand?
He sighed as if weary. In contrast, the blows now raining down on her buttocks were as strong as they’d been at the beginning. She wanted out, to no longer be part of her body.
“Just before we started this exercise,” he said, “I advised you to concentrate on your role in it. The exercise has been going on long enough for you to feel familiar with it, to understand its purpose.”
The whip attacked her breasts. “Time for you to do more than experience and participate, got it?”
A question? Oh God, what had he asked?
The storm continued. Her breasts burned. “What are you? It’s a simple word, only five letters long. I’ve even handed it to you.”
He was going to hurt her until she gave him what he wanted, abuse her skin and nerves and drive her mad.
“Slave.” The word burst from between her clenched teeth. “I’m a slave.” Am I?
Positioning himself in front of her, he again snagged her collar and forced her to look him in the eye. With his free hand, he beat her buttocks and the backs of her thighs.
“Then who am I?”
No no no! Not that!
“Your choice, slave. Either I continue demonstrating which of us is in charge or you spit out the word.”
He and the whip were everywhere, controlling the air she breathed and turning her body against her.
“My arm’s going strong.” His breath seared her forehead while the cat-o’-nine-tails clawed at her ass. “Believe me, I can do this longer than you can. Sooner or later you’ll say what you have to. Holding out won’t change the outcome.”
You’re right. Oh god, you’re right. “Master.”
The blows didn’t slow. “Go on.”
“You—you’re my master.”
Chapter Seven
Willow was on her knees. Master Damek had drawn her arms out behind her at shoulder level and tied them to a couple of wall hooks. Her whole body was covered in sweat, a remnant from her beating of maybe a half hour ago. She might have a better grasp of time if he hadn’t said he was considering letting her have something to drink. He’d left her hanging with the rope digging into her crotch for a while after uttering those horrid yet true words, but eventually he’d let her down. She’d collapsed and huddled in a miserable ball until he kicked her and told her to follow him—on her hands and knees.
Another man walked in while she was crawling after this monster who’d become her master. Ignoring her, the newcomer removed the woman’s blindfold and released her restraints but left her gagged and with her holes plugged.
“You leaving?” Damek asked.
“Not yet. This one—“ The man slapped the woman’s cheek. “is horny. Time for her to earn a little pleasure. You get anything from yours yet?”
Reaching down, Damek roughly massaged her aching breasts. “No, but I’m looking forward to it. According to her ex-boyfriend she’s hot to trot.”
Boyfriend? Willow tried to concentrate on what Master Damek had just said only
to lose the thought, if she’d had one. Water. He was going to let her drink.
“Hey,” Master Damek pinched a nipple. “Are you listening? Just thought I’d let you know that your ex praised you. Given how things ended between the two of you, you’re probably thinking Mitch didn’t say anything complimentary about you, but you’re wrong. Would you like to know what it is?”
Confused, she nodded as best she could.
Smiling, he ran a finger over her throat just above the collar. “I haven’t used this model before. Now I can see why it’s popular. It forces you to look front and center, thus guaranteeing I’ll have your attention. About Mitch’s compliment, he spoke highly of your breasts.”
Despite her new master’s light tone, she felt chilled. She tried to look down at herself, but his hands were in the way. Even though her breasts were a solid C, her parents had insisted she wear B cups. They’d been old lady bras designed to conceal not celebrate. She now wore lace and underwire, or rather she had until this man had taken away her right to wear anything.
“You came up with the word I was waiting for when you called me Master, but you don’t really know what you’re saying. You don’t feel it in your gut which is what lesson number two is about.”
No more lessons, please.
Humming a maddening hum, he left her. Going by the sounds to her right, she guessed he’d returned to the cupboard. The other slave—how she hated the word!—was no longer near the X. Still wearing her gag and pussy restraint, she crawled after the man who undoubtedly was her master. They headed toward a sturdy, oversized sawhorse. Spotting the leather restraints on the sawhorse legs, Willow put one and one together.
“Wait a minute,” the other man said. “I just had an idea.” He pointed a finger at his slave. “I want you to give the new slave a glimpse of what the pussy harness I locked on you accomplished.”
The gagged woman had been staring at her master’s feet. Now she lifted her head and looked up at Willow. Willow didn’t want to know what the other woman was thinking, yet there was one thing she had no doubt of. Her fellow slave hated her existence.
“Go on,” the man snapped. “Show her.”
The woman turned around so her buttocks were to Willow. She widened her stance, then lowered her head to the floor. Reaching behind her, she pulled her ass cheeks apart. Even with the leather straps in the way, Willow saw how the two plugs distended her pussy and ass opening. Sex juices tracked down the sides of her thighs.
Watching Willow, the man stepped behind the kneeling woman and roughly pushed against the dildo. Groaning, the woman clenched her buttock muscles.
“You’re corrupting my trainee,” Damek muttered. “That’s probably the first adult pussy she’s ever seen.”
“How do you know? Maybe she—“
“Believe me, she only swings one way.”
“What if we cure her of that?”
“Maybe later. Right now I want her focus on me.”
“Your call. By the way, I’ve already had a couple of weeks to work with my slave. She’ll bring a lot more than yours.”
“In your dreams. Now get the hell to your corner. I have work to do.”
In some respects the banter between Master Damek and the other man were the same as what she’d heard at work. Raymont and his supervisors respected each other. At the same time they were competitive. The biggest difference between work and now was that Raymont had praised anyone’s success in cost cutting while this—this was what?
“Your knockers might be your greatest asset,” her master said, “but I never second-guess buyers. First order of business is to place focus on them. The sooner you realize what they’re good for, the greater value bidders will put on them.” He chuckled. “I was going to say men but given that Carnal doesn’t discriminate, a woman might buy you.”
Buy? Oh God, no!
But Master Damek had already said God didn’t exist.
He held up a length of red rope and a pair of nipple clamps connected to each other via a heavy chain. Remembering the clamps on the woman she’d seen being dragged from the training room, she shuddered.
“So you know what these are.”
Unable to stop herself, she shuddered again. The way he’d tied her with her arms stretched behind her prominently displayed her breasts. And she couldn’t get away.
“I asked you a question, slave.” He stuck her right breast with a clamp. “Tell me what these are for.”
“My—my nipples.”
He hit her left breast. “Finish the damn sentence!”
For a moment she had no idea what he was talking about, then it came together.
“My nipples, Master.”
“Better. And why would I want to attach these suckers to you?”
“I don’t know, Master.”
“Because I can. And because I’ll keep your attention that way.”
He already had it. Surely he knew that.
When he draped the clamps and chain over her thighs, it took all her self-control not to shake them off. He was testing her. If she failed, he’d hurt her again, maybe beat her senseless.
For the first time since she’d left home at seventeen, she wished her parents were here, but her father was dead, and her mother prayed nightly for her ruined soul because she’d left the fold.
Tightness around her left breast jerked her back to reality. She could barely see what Master Damek was doing, not that she needed to. He was wrapping the red rope around and around her breast. The loops weren’t tight enough to stop circulation, but her breast was already swelling. After circling the base of her breast a half dozen or so times, he snugged the rope around her upper body to keep everything in place. Then he did the same to her right breast. He finished by surrounding her chest a few more times, higher now and tied things off in back.
When he was done, she wore a bizarre rope bra that forced her breasts out. Even if she had use of her hands, she wouldn’t be able to get at the knots. Going by the feel, she guessed her breasts were turning purple. All she could see were her erect nipples.
“Lovely,” he said. “To let you know, I’m not the only one admiring my handiwork.”
She thought he was talking about the other man and his captive until she spotted them.
The woman was deeply bent over the sawhorse and the man was restraining her arms. Neither so much as glanced her way. Wondering who had come in while she wasn’t aware, she looked around.
“You don’t know?” Master Damek fingered her nipples. “How about the ceiling?”
A chill ran through her as she forced herself to do as he’d suggested. Cameras had been installed in all four corners.
“State of art,” he said, still massaging her nipples. “Some of Carnal’s clients are watching us in real time, but I’m guessing most won’t see this until they can set aside some time for their enjoyment. The video feed is one of the perks that come with the expensive membership.”
She began to comprehend how widespread and powerful Carnal Incorporated was.
“All right, here’s the deal. I know you’re thirsty.”
At the word, nothing else mattered. She licked her dry lips.
If he felt at all sorry for her, he gave no indication. “The question is what are you willing to put up with in exchange for all the water you can drink?”
Much as she hated his taunting tone, and she did with every fiber in her being, she willed herself to meet his gaze.
“Waiting for the punch line, are you? It’s really quite simple.” Releasing her sensitive nipples, he dragged the clamps and chain over her thighs. “You have a choice. If you let me put these on you, I have a bottle of cold, clear water with your name on it. If you say no, your nipples will be spared.”
And I risk dying of thirst.
“Hell of a decision, isn’t it?” He dangled the equipment inches over her aching breasts.
“Neither option is one you’d choose on your own is it?”
She tried to swallow onl
y to have to work at it for several seconds. “No, Master.”
“Have you thought of begging for my mercy? Are you so sure I won’t take pity on you?”
“I don’t know what you want me to say, Master.”
Something about his smile said she’d pleased him. “So begging and pleading doesn’t immediately come to mind. Why’s that?”
How much of me does he want? Maybe everything? “My parents were very strict. I was punished many times, even when I didn’t know what I’d done wrong.”
“Hmm. And you learned that asking for mercy only what, infuriated them?”
Say it. Just get it over with. “Particularly my father. He believed in corporal punishment.
Nothing I said or did ever dissuaded him.”
“So you stopped trying.”
Telling Master Damek what she had had pulled her into the past. Much as she needed to escape it, the present wasn’t any better.
“Answer me, damn it!”
The blow to her swollen left breast knocked her to the side. Her secured behind her arms screamed. Fighting tears, she struggled to straighten. She’d just succeeded when he struck her right breast, again pushing her off balance. Head hanging as much as the collar allowed, she again forced her legs under her. If he did that again, he might dislocate her shoulder.
“Answer.”
“Master, I’m sorry. I don’t remember—what do you want me to say?”
Pulling back on her hair, he made her look up at him. “Your father didn’t give a damn about you as a human being, did he? He believed you were going to hell unless he beat the devil out of you, is that it?”
“Yes, Master.”
“As a child you couldn’t overpower him so you became docile and obedient.”
Chilled by what he’d just said, she gaped at him.
