He forced her to the bench, but she suddenly pulled back, shaking her head and whimpering.
Dylan’s face became savage. “Don’t you fucking dare disobey me, you worthless slut. Get on the fucking bench.”
She suddenly screamed her refusal and flew at him, her fingernails sinking into his face. Dylan braced for further attack, but the force of her knee into his genitals was more than he had expected. The pain was a searing white hot eruption, momentarily blurring his vision as he sank to the floor. When she followed through with a kick to his face, he was having a few regrets about his choice of therapy.
Esther backed off, her mouth opened wide in a long drawn out howl that echoed through the room. Her face was distorted with terror and panic, her eyes sweeping about the room. She looked at the blood on her hands and then to his slumped, crouching form, with blood pouring from his nose. She backed away, stumbling and falling down onto her backside and still crawling further away from him.
He waited to see if she would run, but instead her gaze fell upon the array of whips mounted on the wall. She scurried to them, seizing a long, thick weapon from the arsenal. Dylan winced to see her choose this particular sjambok, knowing the damage it could inflict. It was too late for regrets. He had brought her to this point and now would have to see it through.
She charged at him, her face contorted with rage and confusion, stopping only a few feet from where he was still crouching, covering his wounded genitals. The whip was raised, seemingly poised to strike his face or neck. Dylan braced for the impact,
Esther stood over him, naked and predatory, her teeth gritted and her eyes wide and glaring. He didn’t move, and waited, prepared and resigned to the pending agony, while resisting his instinct for defence. When the strike didn’t come, he warily looked up at her.
“It’s alright, Esther. Hit me with it.”
Her arm suddenly came down, but the sjambok fell to the floor, with Esther following it, falling to her knees. When her mouth fell open, her howl rang out, low and tortured. Her body convulsed and she fell forward, curling up on her side, her anguish echoing through the room.
Dylan sat back and slowly pulled his t-shirt off to wipe the blood from his face. He breathed heavily to combat his pain, and made no move to approach her. There was only a few feet between them, which would allow him to observe her and still maintain the distance she needed. It would be up to Esther to dictate whatever would follow.
Time passed slowly before her tortured cries had calmed to shuddering sobs. She had shifted slightly and was watching him intently, her mouth trying to form words.
“Just breathe, little one,” he told her gently. “Don’t try to talk. Just know that you are safe and you’ve done nothing wrong.”
She managed one word. “Why?”
“Because you’re looking for something that will never exist between us, Esther, and the more you sabotage your recovery, the more you believe that I will keep you with me.”
“No.” Esther shook her head. “It’s not like that.”
“I’ve watched you grow stronger every day until recently. Tonight I forced you to see how strong you’ve become and remind you how ugly abuse is, no matter who’s dishing it out.”
“You don’t understand,” she sobbed. “I’m only strong with you. If you turn me out, I’ll just find someone who will abuse me, because that’s all I’m good for. I don’t need you to love me, just to keep me and do whatever you want with me.”
“What I want is to see you have the life you deserve, to see you start caring about yourself. I’m not about to send you out there unequipped and if you want I will set you up with work you enjoy, with Yvette. I want you to have dreams about your future.”
“Why can’t those dreams include you?” she pleaded.
“Because my time here is ending,” Dylan replied quietly. “I never meant to stay this long and I’m starting to make mistakes that could be costly for myself and others.”
“I don’t understand.”
He smiled. “It doesn’t matter. I care deeply for you, Esther, but we will never be lovers. When you first came to me, I told you how it would be, that you would serve me and I would use you, but you would always be in control. You were free to explore your sexuality in a safe environment, unlike the abusive one you ran from. I think tonight proved that you don’t want to go back there.”
“I didn’t mean to attack you,” she sobbed. “It just made me so angry that you would be so cruel to me. You were the only man who has ever cared about me, who never judged me for what I was. I always felt that you respected me.”
“Because I do respect you. It didn’t matter what you had fantasised about. Your thoughts belong to you, as does your body. Choosing to submit it to someone doesn’t take your power away, but that’s not what happened is it, Esther? Those men took you against your will. They left you no choices. That’s called rape, Esther, and if your body responded to it, that doesn’t make you any less a victim.”
Esther breathed heavily. “I felt so ashamed. I became aroused by what they did to me. I climaxed like some bitch in heat. I felt happiness when they were nice to me. It made me want to try to please them, so they wouldn’t hurt me anymore. I even returned to Pastor Lionel, when I had nowhere left to go.”
“Your body and mind responded to a situation it couldn’t cope with. It’s survival and is nothing to be ashamed of. You demonstrated brilliantly tonight how you would have responded, if you had been given half a chance.”
.Tears poured down her face. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“Except yourself,” Dylan added quietly. “You’ve been pushing the boundaries and not keeping safe, so tonight I forced you to protect yourself. You did a little bit better than I expected.”
“I’m so sorry, Master. I don’t know what came over me.”
“I’d call it pure righteous anger and I deserved everything you dished out, and when it stops hurting, I’ll tell you how proud I am of you.”
Esther frowned. “What about Tammy. What happens to her?”
“Tammy is a different story. Her abuse stems back years and it’s become impossible for her to go back to the world. She will always need me and I have to do everything to keep her safe.”
For a while longer, they remained apart, sitting on the floor. He could see the tension slowly leaving her body, though tears continued to run lazily down her face.
“Are you alright, little one?”
Esther nodded as she stared at the floor. “Do you really think I can do it?”
“I know you can, and when have you ever known me to be wrong?”
She grinned. “I won’t mention Mairead.”
“Don’t,” he growled. “If you know what’s good for you. Now are you ready to come to me or do you still want to beat me senseless?”
“Never.” Esther crawled to him slowly and allowed him to draw her onto his lap, where she melted against his chest.
“I want you near me for the next several days,” he told her. “I want you to talk to me about everything that’s going through your head. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Master.” She bit her lip, keeping her gaze averted. “I do have one request.”
“Do you? And what would that be?”
“Could I stay in your bed tonight?”
He grinned “And I suppose I’m going to have to make it up to you for being a prick.”
“Yes, Master.”
Holding her against him, Dylan got to his feet, wincing at the pain still lingering in his groin. “Just don’t get used to any special treatment. These are exceptional circumstances. Have you got that?”
“Yes, Master.”
“And if you talk about tonight with anyone, including Mairead or Tammy, you’ll be thrashed every night for a week.”
“Yes, Master,” she smiled, but as she looked up at him, her mirth slipped away. “Your face. I scratched you. Your nose is still bleeding.”
He grinned at her. “It’s a
good thing that injuries just make me better looking.”
“You let me do that to you. You could have stopped me.”
“Yes, but a good Master should always know the pain they inflict. Just don’t ask me to thank you for the reminder.” He frowned at her. “And now I have to pleasure you, and you can be sure Tammy will want her share. That’s a big, fucking ask for a wounded man.”
Esther grinned. “That’s why we call you Master.”
CHAPTER FIVE
West Coast, South Island, New Zealand, December 2004
“Merry Christmas, Master.”
Dylan Tyler got out of the 4WD and stared at the house before him, immediately critical of its appearance. He chose to comment on the one aspect that had merit.
“It’s certainly isolated.”
“Just as you like it, Master,” Mary said eagerly, hurrying to his side. “Half a day’s drive just to get here off the main road, and only a five minute walk to our own private beach. The nearest neighbours are three kilometres away.”
He continued to study the timber framed house, noting the brown paint cracking and peeling off the timber. Having been constructed on a hill, it was raised on levelling stumps partially hidden by the tall grass that grew all around it. A forest of gigantic pine trees made an effective wind break and kept the house well hidden.
“So, how is this your gift to me?”
“You’ll be proud of me, Master,” Mary beamed. “I bought it freehold, a year ago and the title belongs to the foreign trust you set up for me. At the moment the power is run on a generator, and it has a long drop, but I’m thinking solar power and some other upgrades that won’t invite any attention to it, just as we’ve done for your other house.”
“And you didn’t think to seek my permission before doing all this?”
“Then it wouldn’t have been a surprise, Master,” Mary offered nervously. “And I knew how perfect this place would be. It needs work I know, but it could be something special to escape to. We could come out here on weekends and do it up together, and I hear the fishing around here is incredible and…”
“And I can’t see it housing more than a few people.” He turned his glare to her. “Did that also figure in your plans?”
Mary bowed her head. “I thought we could bring tents sometimes, if there’s others, maybe build a guestroom.”
“There are always others, Mary. I’m giving you a week alone with me, not a lifetime.”
“I know that, Master, and this is where I want to spend my week with you, and, quite frankly, I think I’ve earned it with all the work I’ve been doing for you.”
His eyes narrowed. “Is that right? And was the ten thousand dollars deposited in Brendon North’s account something I directed you to do?”
Mary’s jaw dropped. “You know about that?”
“Yeah, I do,” he nodded, heading towards the house.
“Now, Master.” Mary ran after him to keep up with his stride. “I know we’ve had disagreements about this before…”
“Not disagreements, Mary. I told you no and you disobeyed me.”
“But this was different. Brendan had got himself into a bit of strife, some rather large gambling debts with a very bad crowd…”
Dylan stopped and glared down at her. “And how would you know that, Mary?”
She stared back at him silently.
“I asked you a question and I expect an answer.”
“I used the program,” she replied quietly, but quickly added, “But just to see how he was doing and it wasn’t good, and Brendan’s not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He’s just going to take that money, pay his debts and not question it.”
“No, what he actually did was drain the account and lose half that money at the casino.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Mary pouted. “I owed him that much.”
“You owed him nothing. He didn’t give you a moment’s thought when he sought to destroy you for a sleazy tabloid.”
“But he told the truth. It was me and I lied to cover it up. I ruined him, his reputation and his marriage. A bit of money hardly pays for what I did to him.”
“And what would you have suffered if you had confessed?”
“It doesn’t matter. I did wrong and I should have taken my punishment.”
Dylan’s voice grew harder. “Again, I asked you a question.”
“It would have cost me everything,” Mary conceded. “My reputation, my career and you… and probably my life.”
“While you were using my program, without my permission, did you happen to see the police report dated a month after Brendan’s wedding, when police were called to his house for a domestic disturbance?”
Mary shrugged. “His wife fell off a ladder or something.”
“Or something,” Dylan nodded. “Her face was swollen and bruised. Strangely, she had another accident two weeks later, that put her in hospital with three broken ribs. That’s the man you feel sorry for.”
“She never reported him for anything like that. If a crime had been committed, she had a responsibility to make sure justice was done.”
“It’s all so black and white for you, isn’t it, Mary?”
“We have laws that need to be obeyed.”
“And what should happen when you disobey me, Mary?”
She gulped. “I should be punished.”
He looked up at the house. “There’s a porch railing. I want you to go up there and remove your clothing and bend over it.”
“Master, please…”
“There are some interesting trees around. I’m sure I could cut a number of switches if you need something more than my belt.”
Gasping, Mary hurried up the hill, puffing as she climbed the few steps to the porch. It was a shady retreat from the summer sun but still more open than she would have liked. Even with the isolation, she looked about for anyone watching as she began to remove her clothing. She could see Dylan slowly approaching, his fingers already working his belt loose.
Despite the anxiety of her pending punishment, there was something exhilarating in getting naked in this primal wilderness. A light breeze was caressing her perspiring body, cooling it down and brushing between her thighs. Her nipples were stiffening from its arousing touch. It certainly wasn’t lost on her that she was alone in the middle of nowhere for a whole week with an exciting and dangerous man.
He was going to do things to her, terrible things and she would be helpless against him. The fact that she had disobeyed him only thrilled her more. Already, her clit was throbbing in anticipation.
Mary could only imagine how her colleagues would react if they could see her, one of the most powerful women in the country, naked and about to take a thrashing like a naughty little girl.
In two weeks she would be back in her position as Director of Intelligence and head of the Government Communications Security Bureau. There would be meetings with the Prime Minister and the heads of security for foreign governments. She would devise strategies and co-ordinate the operations of the Intelligence Services to investigate and enact upon threats of terrorism or corporate corruption.
But for this week she would be a slave to a man who didn’t exist. Mary knew enough that Dylan Tyler was not who he professed to be, but it didn’t matter. It just made her liaisons with him so much easier. One media exposure in a lifetime was one too many. Buying this house was an investment in their privacy, and he would understand that eventually.
Her skin prickled as she heard the tread of his boot on the wooden steps and the decking behind her. She didn’t dare look back at him, but hurried to press her tummy to the railing, only to yelp as a splinter pierced her. Trying again to steady herself on the wood, she reached down for the posts and screamed as a spider ran over her hand. Jumping up, she backed away, looking desperately to Dylan to understand her plight.
He didn’t look amused. “Just hold the rail and stick your arse out.”
“Yes, Master.”
Mary le
aned forward and gripped the wood tentatively, waiting for more spiders to appear. She thrust her hips out and eagerly spread her legs, hoping the sight of her vagina would tempt him to other pursuits. Instead, the belt delivered its first deep, painful lash across the crest of her buttocks. She took it silently, gritting her teeth and squeezing her eyes tightly shut.
“I’ve been patient with you,” Dylan said quietly, lashing her again. “But you still insist on disobeying me. Why is that, Mary?”
“I only wanted to please you, Master, and make a few things right.”
Another hard lash had her crying out.
“Obedience pleases me, and I’ve explained, time and time again, the program is not to be used without my knowledge, to satisfy your guilt. What else have you been using it for?”
“I’ve intercepted a few emails.” Mary twisted her head back to look at him. “But, Master, it was only because I was positive Doug Watson was involved in something bad. He had terrible pictures, of children, on his computer…”
“You hacked his computer?”
“And now he’s going to be prosecuted for it. Isn’t that a good thing? He’s going to go to jail and those children will not be hurt anymore.”
Dylan sighed deeply. “Yes, it’s a good thing for those children, but how long will it be, before people start wondering where this information is coming from? How long before you find yourself under investigation?”
“I know the program, Master. I know how to cover my tracks. It’s brilliant.”
“And dangerous in the wrong hands.” He whipped her buttocks harder. Mary yelled out loudly, ending her cry in a few distressed sobs.
“No government wants it for anything good,” he continued. “They want it to spy on multi-national corporations, to control the stock market. They want it to spy on other governments and get access to their weapon technology.”
Sins of the Master Page 6
