Owned and Owner

by Anneke Jacob

  It was late when he returned and made use of his woman’s mouth. She was tremulous, fervent as she sucked on him, his big hands controlling her head. He sat back and took his time, and eventually his eyes closed and he governed her completely through his fingers. He was half asleep, the space holo still wheeling through his head. He let the current of his pleasure move slowly, visualizing glittering mercury flowing through a moon valley.

  When he was done he left her in her little kennel beneath the stairs, her hands chained to her collar, her knees still separated by the spreader bar. He took off the nipple clips, but left the dildos in all night. Her eyes, trapped, glittering pools, were the last thing he saw in the dim light as he closed the kennel door. In the morning they were dark circled, deep with pleading. Garid enjoyed that very much, and did not satisfy her.

  Therin

  ‘You’re visiting Lave this time?’

  ‘I’m not a recluse like you. And I have to take opportunities as I find them. I’ve got days to finish that design.’ Therin’s eyes were dancing. Garid shrugged. His friend had an uncomplicated approach to pleasure. Garid dwelt in his own sense of difference, of seriously odd sexuality, and noted, not for the first time, that none of this cut deep with Therin. The man’s high spirits rarely failed him, despite the frustration of wanting something very much that he really couldn’t afford.

  ‘I thought you said you were taking on extra jobs to make money.’

  ‘Well, I admit it’s a hard decision sometimes – play with another man’s sweet pussy now, or work hard for some hypothetical, rare, extremely expensive female later, when I’m too old to enjoy her. Which would you choose? No, don’t answer that; I don’t need to hear about your talents for delayed gratification. Especially since you don’t have to delay it anymore.’

  ‘Just don’t lose the contract, okay? I’d hate to think of you having no chance at all, you lazy sod.’

  ‘You think I don’t take anything seriously, but actually this woman owning ambition of mine has done great things for my career. I work a hell of a lot harder than I would otherwise. It’s not natural for me. Don’t begrudge me a little fun. I only do it when I can freeload on someone for a lift – completely shamelessly, I might add – so I don’t waste the aircar fuel.’

  Garid had to admit that this was a good compromise. It was a big planet. ‘Don’t tell me that everyone but me shares their slaves around; I don’t believe it.’

  ‘No, you’re right; there are different degrees of possessiveness.’ Therin placed a long finger on his temple in a parody of contemplation. ‘Let me see. At one end of the continuum are the jealous ogres like you who won’t let anyone near their treasure. Not very many of them, but they do exist. Then there are the ones who’ll let you look but not touch, or fondle but not fuck. A lot will only share with other owners; guys like me are the rogue males being warned away from the herd. But some of them – the good guys! – have a great time sharing. They get a kick out of making the woman service their friends. And of course they like to give their friends a treat.’ He raised a sardonic eyebrow and wiggled it.

  ‘All right, all right. I told you I’d let you know. Don’t rush me, or I’ll throw you out of the herd for good.’

  Therin laughed soundlessly, stood back from the screen, lowered his head and prepared to charge.

  Garid took no notice. ‘What I don’t understand is how you can leave again afterwards.’

  Therin stopped pawing the floor and looked up at the screen. ‘Without a woman on a leash?’ He found something to look at off-screen. ‘Yes. Very depressing.’ He glinted at the screen again. ‘But it’s worth it. Pleasure now, that’s my credo and I’ll stand by it. If I didn’t want my own woman so much, I wouldn’t dream of planning ahead in this pompous way.’

  Therin had been working non-stop for weeks, with only glimpses of Garid’s pet on the vidcam to lighten his existence, when he had received the message to call Lave. He’d returned the call instantly, his heart quickening.

  ‘Therin, you horny extruding machine, what are you doing tomorrow?’ Lave was a manufacturer with a range of such metaphors.

  ‘Nothing I can’t get out of, my kind friend.’

  ‘I’m going to be out your way for a meeting. Do you want to come back with me? I can get you back as far as Maisk the next day.’

  The next day? He’d never been offered an overnight stay before. ‘Yes, I can get back from there. Thanks!’ He ruthlessly rearranged his schedule, and made the gleeful call to Garid. The rest of the day he sang with anticipation.

  The next day he sat on a terrace with the cooling breeze of late afternoon on his face, the light turning from lemon to a pale orange-yellow in the sky, taking a drink from the hands of Lave’s slave Merti. The woman had soft and generous curves, a handsome face and long, wavy dark hair. She was tall for a Ranizen, being all of 160 cm. Lave had allowed Merti to wear a diaphanous silvery skirt that slithered down her thighs in long triangles. This concealed very little of her darkly curled pubic mound, and through the material Therin examined the long marks decorating her thighs and buttocks. He wished he had put them there. The lush round breasts were bare, the big nipples wide and soft at the moment; Therin looked forward to making them stiffen under his lips and teeth. Merti, her eyes down, turned back to the kitchen, the tags on her collar jingling softly, the thin short chain that linked her ankles chiming a little louder. Her shortened steps made her hips dance invitingly under the diaphanous skirt, and Therin caught his lower lip in his teeth and groaned softly, his cock already rigid.

  He heard Lave’s voice in the kitchen, and a soft reply. Lave’s tone grew louder, and Therin heard Merti whimpering in a pleading tone. Then a sharp smack. Therin was already on his way when Lave called him in. The man had Merti by the ear, half bent over.

  ‘She didn’t prepare the seasonings like I told her. Hand me those cuffs, will you?’

  They were of thin metal, but wide, fitting tightly and covering half of each forearm. Therin brought them over and watched Lave lock the woman’s arms behind her back and pull her face down over his lap. Her husky Ranizen-accented voice was pleading low, ‘Please, master, I’m sorry I forgot, please don’t punish me, please?’

  ‘You don’t think you deserve it, you lazy girl?’ Lave used the word ‘ruzu’ for girl, a rural diminutive for a female herd animal. He was calling her a cow, and she knew it.

  ‘No – yes – I won’t forget again, I’m sorry, please don’t hurt me today. Please?’ she begged. She was clenching her buttocks fearfully and half crying. ‘I promise I’ll be good.’ She gave a tense but suggestive wriggle as she lay over his lap. Her silky skirt was tangled around and under her, but Lave had pulled it up over her back and her ass was bare. Her ankle chain jingled as she writhed her legs over his thighs.

  Lave laughed. ‘You’ll be better than good.’ He grasped both her arms firmly with his left hand and brought his right down hard, covering most of her ass with one blow. She gasped. ‘You’re a bad, lazy little girl, aren’t you, Merti?’

  ‘Nooo, no more, no?’ her cry was cut off by another explosive smack. ‘Ow, please, plea?’ another blow took her breath away, and only wordless wails were forced from her by the next few blows. Lave slowed down a little and she tried begging again, with no noticeable effect. The next blow tipped her over into tears. She sobbed incoherently through the next series of smacks, kicking helplessly.

  Therin watched with the deepest sort of delight, the kind of enjoyment that anticipates even greater pleasures to come. Lave had entertained him before, but scenes such as this never grew stale. The blows were not so much raining down as sleeting, the kind of sleet that strikes the ground in huge spreading smacks.

  When her ass was a bright crimson Lave stopped and let Therin feel the heat coming off her skin. Merti lay limp and sobbing, her head hanging low. Tears were dripping down her long hair and onto the floor. ‘Tell us what you are now, Merti,’ Lave said. His voice was deceptively quiet.

&nb
sp; She swallowed, panted a moment, and shuddered. ‘I’m a bad, lazy girl, master,’ she whispered thickly.

  ‘Now you’ll count for Therin.’ She stiffened in his lap and wailed. He set her on her knees in front of him. ‘Fetch the strap, Merti.’ She shook her head so hard the drops flew off from side to side, but looked up at her master’s face, gulped down some tears, and shuffled off at once on her knees toward the other side of the room.

  ‘Hold your skirt up so we can see your ass, Merti,’ said Lave.

  She choked out, ‘Yes, master,’ half a sob, and used her bound hands to pull the skirt up under her arms. Her buttocks emerged a painful red instead of the pink they had appeared through the folds of the material. She shuffled on, her knees taking each little step less far than the restriction of the ankle chain allowed. The men watched, mesmerized by the shimmying of the pretty red mounds of sore flesh. On the far side of the room was a low bench with several implements laid out. Merti bent from the waist, displaying the dusky red of her glistening cunt surrounded by dark curls, and picked up a strap in her teeth. Then she turned and made her way back toward them, her wet eyes downcast. The occasional sob still shook her.

  She brought the strap to her master’s feet, and then looked up at him, her eyes pleading. ‘Take it to Therin, you naughty girl!’ She dropped her eyes and looked as if she were about to burst into fresh tears. Then she sighed shakily and shuffled over to Therin, who took the strap from her mouth and sat down on the chair that Lave had been using.

  ‘What was that about?’ he asked Lave.

  ‘Nothing, she’s just trying it on. She likes to pretend I’m the only one that can punish her.’

  Therin looked at Merti on the floor in front of him, and took the opportunity to fondle the nipples that stood out so firmly now. The woman sighed with pleasure and thanked him in a tiny whisper, letting out a yelp and a wail when he switched to yanking, pinching and twisting them hard. Therin prolonged this until he was sure she was experiencing more pain than pleasure. Then he pulled her bottom up over his lap and examined the wet cunt, so swollen that the inner lips were visible and the clit was peeking from between the folds.

  ‘Don’t touch her there, yet,’ said Lave. ‘She’ll come, and she doesn’t deserve to until her punishment is over.’

  ‘All right. How many?’

  ‘I think twenty will do. Good ones. Merti, you’re going to count each one and thank Therin, or you’ll get another.’

  ‘No…’ she moaned. ‘Don’t make me, master, please?’

  ‘Yes. Didn’t you say you were a bad, lazy girl?’

  She writhed. ‘Yes, master.’ It was half a breathless creak from her position.

  ‘What do you need, then, ruzu?’

  ‘Punishment, master…’ she wept.

  ‘That’s right. So you’ll count, and you’ll thank Therin.’

  Her body shook briefly, and then went slack. A long moment passed. She nodded abjectly. Then she seemed to gather herself together.

  Therin gripped the slender forearms locked together on her back, raised the flexible strap over his head, and brought it down fast on one cheek. The required words seemed to be forced out of Merti in a gasp by the weight of the blow.

  Therin brought the next one down on the other cheek, and Merti groaned hard and rushed out her answer. She was breathing fast to contain the pain.

  Another blow. And another, and yet another, biting and burning across the already crimson ass cheeks, while the slave stumbled through the number and her thanks. Purplish swollen marks were appearing over the red skin. Therin aimed the eighth blow at one of these, and the woman shrieked and lost control, failing to say anything intelligible. Therin hit her twice more in the crease of each thigh before she forced out a cry of, ‘Eight! Thank you, master!’ Therin noted that she knew better than to skip any. She managed to sob out the required words steadily for several blows after that, and then lost it again over a very hard snap just above her swollen vulva. Howling and thrashing helplessly through three more uncounted blows, she then wailed an impromptu pleading through the next five. Therin pressed the squirming body hard against his crotch, took a fresh grip on her forearms, and hit her again, carefully and without mercy. Merti finally picked up the count again at fifteen, managing to finish the twenty with only about ten extra stripes on her bottom; a record, Lave said.

  He picked her up off Therin’s lap and put her back on her knees in front of them, her face tear-soaked and pitiful. ‘Well?’ he asked. ‘What do you say now?’

  Merti pushed down an anguished sob or two. ‘Thank you – for the punishment, masters,’ she choked out. ‘I deserved it. I – I’m sorry I was a – a bad girl…’ Her voice rose and cracked on ‘bad girl’, and she cringed. Then she took another shuddering breath. ‘…And I promise to try harder to do as I’m tol – told.’ She broke down and cried again, hanging her head. Lave wiped her eyes and helped her blow her nose.

  ‘That’s right. Now show us how grateful you are.’

  In moments she was satisfying them one after the other with her mouth. Her eagerness, despite her tears, bespoke her intense arousal, and the frantic suction gave Therin an excruciatingly powerful orgasm. Lave, too, came in her throat, and after he caught his breath, looked at her pleading face for a minute. ‘No, not yet,’ he decided. He lifted her skirt out of the way and circled her waist with a slim cord, knotted at the front. Then he pulled the line down between the lips of her cunt and tied it tightly to her wrist cuffs, pushing her skirt up again at the back in the process. She moaned and gasped as the thin cord cut into her swollen, hungry flesh, but at the first thrust of her hips Lave stopped her.

  ‘Go stand in the corner. And don’t you dare come until I tell you to.’ Merti walked with her restricted steps, very slowly in the direction he indicated, her hands tight and unmoving in the middle of her striped and swollen bottom. Reaching the corner, she adjusted herself until her breasts pressed against the two walls and her head was bowed into the corner.

  Lave smiled at Therin. ‘We’ll leave her there for a little while. The cord’s too thin and smooth for her to get much friction, and she won’t want the beating she’ll get if she tries to come without permission.’ They sipped their drinks and talked, watching the line of the slave’s thighs tremble from time to time.

  Therin mused, ‘Something happened there when she gave in about counting.’

  ‘Mmm. Counting humiliates her.’

  ‘I thought so.’

  ‘I make her participate in – even ask for – punishment and humiliation. If that’s not humiliating, what is?’

  Therin stored this away for future reference. ‘Does she do a lot for you around the house?’ he asked.

  ‘Oh yes, she’s not a bad housekeeper, really. I didn’t put in much automation when I built the place, because I was saving to buy a female. So I make her scrub floors and so on. Naked. It’s a very pretty sight.’

  Therin grinned. ‘You know, I never considered what it’s like day to day. Living with them, looking after them.’ He closed his eyes a moment, visualizing a pet woman on her knees, chained by the front door, waiting for him to come home.

  ‘You’ve just been thinking about the sex, boy. Fully charged and no outlet. I give you a place for your piston and then a few minutes downtime, and suddenly the rest of life occurs to you.’

  Therin laughed, lazy in the afterglow from Merti’s superb blowjob. ‘All right, tell me about it while my piston cools off. What do you do with her when you’re at work?’

  Lave stretched his arms over his head, cracked his knuckles, and glanced at the woman standing in the corner. ‘I leave her on a chain that’ll reach whatever chores she has to do.’ He gestured at a corner-mounted spy vid. ‘And I monitor from time to time from elsewhere, unpredictably, so she knows she has to behave.’

  ‘And does she behave?’

  ‘Mostly. She’s lazy sometimes. That’s what got her into trouble on Raniz; she kept taking the money for jobs and not
doing them. The one time it looked like she was actually working, she was in fact embezzling about ten years’ worth of someone’s funds.’

  ‘How did she keep getting hired if she didn’t do any work?’

  ‘Smart. She’s quite well-educated, you know.’

  ‘Not smart enough not to get caught,’ Therin said dryly.

  ‘Oh yes. She knew what she was doing. How else could she have gotten here?’

  ‘She planned it then?’

  ‘Maybe it planned her. I don’t know. Anyway, here she is, and I do all the planning now.’

  ‘And what about vacations? And long work trips?’ Therin had a sudden vision of a boarding kennel for women pets whose masters were on vacation, with himself as glad proprietor.

  Sadly, the vision was dispelled the next moment. ‘Take her with me,’ Lave said. ‘As long as they’re on a chain they’re safe enough. Hotel staff will come in and feed them if you pay a little extra.’

  They discussed Lave’s plans for a rigid transparent plastic suit for Merti to wear for punishment when she misbehaved. It would leave her breasts and ass cheeks free, but impale her cunt and asshole on hard plugs. ‘I can’t wait to see her scrub floors in it.’

  ‘All right, Merti,’ her master said after half an hour, ‘come here.’ She turned herself away from the corner and walked carefully toward him, her body shuddering with the effort to keep her hands still. Lave removed the crumpled skirt and examined the cord. He untied it from her cuffs and pulled it tighter, until the woman squeaked with pain. He tied it off, turned her around to face him, and said, ‘On your knees.’ Merti sank gingerly, the discomfort on her face now almost overcoming the signs of arousal. ‘Make yourself come, now.’