Demon Mine

by Marina Simcoe

  Sytrius. He gave me the one and only ray of hope, around which I was trying to build my next escape plan. For that I needed to figure out exactly how far he would go to help me escape, and how many rules he would be willing to break for me.

  I didn’t need that much from him, really. Could he just “forget” to lock the cell door for me one day, for example? Could he take me for a detour outside of my usual route to the arena, so that I could learn more about this place? Could he arrange for a walk outside for me, even a supervised walk, so that I could get an idea of where I actually was?

  I still wasn’t sure. He still confused me, now more than ever. The more I tried to figure him out, the more he continued to puzzle me.

  His feelings for me seemed to have moved past the mere requirements of his job. His movements, touches and caresses in the arena were not just passionate now; they had become much more personal and more intimate. Frustratingly, he also showed a complete disregard to my efforts to keep what happened in the arena separate from the rest of my life. Little by little he had been crossing all my carefully drawn lines, getting more and more under my skin, stripping me of any control I thought I had.

  This morning I sensed that something profound had happened. Something important had changed in him.

  He finally talked to me again. He thanked me. He told me his name! He hugged me desperately, passionately. I felt so many emotions in him now, when still a few weeks ago I wasn’t even sure that he could feel anything at all.

  At lunchtime, he didn’t even pause at the door where he usually lingered. Instead, he walked swiftly over to me before I even managed to get up from the mattress where I was sitting, placed the tray on the floor, then crouched in front of me with one knee on the concrete and took both of my hands in his. He had both gloves on this time, but it felt just as intimate as if he touched me skin-to-skin. He squeezed my hands gently, then, just as unexpectedly, cupped a side of my face with his hand and tenderly traced my cheekbone with his thumb.

  I found it distracting. So tremendously distracting! I realized that as much as I hated his earlier indifference, at least I had a way to handle it. I talked to him, I teased him, I joked around with him, I got frustrated with him, but I was in control.

  Now I didn’t know how to deal with his attention. I was powerless in front of him like this. I could deal with my sexual attraction to him while we were in the arena. I was there against my will, and it somehow released me in my mind from any personal liability for my responses there. However, the affectionate Sytrius in my cell, with no one but the two of us here, stirred emotions in me that I shouldn’t be feeling for one of my guards.

  When he came to pick up the bucket of water that afternoon, I had just finished my bath and had already put the dress on. I was trying to close all the buttons on the back by myself. It was not an easy task, since I had to twist my arms and hands in an awkward way to reach some of the higher buttons.

  I didn’t hear the door open and didn’t realize that he was here until I felt the leather fingers of his gloves brush by my own fingers when he began to help me with the buttons. I lowered my arms then and bent my head down, letting him finish all of them.

  His hands ended up at the nape of my neck, as they often did right before I entered the arena. He didn’t show any intention of removing his hands from me any time soon, though. One hand continued to massage the back of my neck gently, while the other arm circled my waist from behind. He pulled me into him until my shoulders hit the armor plates on his chest. His masked face came down over my shoulder, and I pressed my temple to the cool material of his mask. It was very much like our usual position in the arena, except that we were much closer now without the cross between us.

  “Alyssa…” he said in a slow thick whisper. It was for the first time that I heard my name from him since I introduced myself weeks ago. Honestly, I didn’t think that he remembered my name or even paid any attention to it when I said it. Hearing it from him now, said in this low reverent voice… It did things to me.

  I turned around in his arms to face him. His hooded eyes met mine, and I lowered my gaze immediately, shocked by their intensity.

  His look made my palms sweat, and the warm feeling inside my chest spread through my body, heightening all of my senses. I flattened my hands on his chest plates and then slowly slid them up to his shoulders. Still avoiding his eyes, I turned my head and pressed the side of my face to the left chest plate of his uniform.

  He had a heart, a very human-sounding heart! A heart that beat fiercely inside his chest while he gently pressed my body to his. At about the same time, his breathing had grown faster and more laboured.

  He never seemed to be affected by anything that happened between us in the arena, to the point that I was beginning to wonder whether he was asexual or maybe even a machine, at least in the parts that would make him male.

  Well, he was certainly affected now. As if to erase any doubts about his masculinity from my mind, he lowered his hands under my butt and lifted me higher, grinding our lower bodies together. With a pained groan, he rolled his hips into me, and I felt the hard bulge in his uniform pants thrust firmly into my lower stomach.

  His obvious desire for me fanned my own need for him. I wanted more of him. My fingernails scraped against the hard armor plates on his shoulders, finding no purchase on the smooth surface, and I wrapped my arms around his neck instead.

  I wanted more than what I ever got in the arena. I wanted all of him.

  I moved my hands back and forth along the back of his head and neck frantically, needing to touch his bare skin, searching for any opening in his armor and finding none. I buried my face in the side of his neck instead. There it was, through the smell of metal and leather I inhaled the warm spicy scent of a man. The man behind the mask.

  “Sytrius…” I exhaled.

  I was losing my mind and no longer cared about anything else. The need for him was so strong I had no other feelings, no other thoughts left in me. He seemed to be losing control too, swept into the madness with me. His breathing was more rugged. His hands moved along my body with increasing determination…

  I felt him tense at that moment and his hands stilled. I whimpered in protest before I heard the footsteps of a stranger down the corridor outside of my cell. For the first time since I met Sytrius, somebody was walking outside of my cell while he was here with me! What a horrible timing, I thought with a groan.

  But as the fog of blind lust dissipated slowly, the timing of interruption seemed rather fortunate. What was I doing, losing my mind like that? I could not afford to act spontaneously!

  Sytrius lowered me to the floor carefully and removed his hands off me promptly. A guard walked by the door of my cell, indifferent to anything that concerned me, as usual. Sytrius grabbed the bucket of now tepid water from the floor and promptly left my cell. I watched the door close and saw him turn and look at me through the bars on the window for the last time.

  I was sitting on the mattress now, waiting for him to come get me for the nightly session in the arena, wishing and dreading to see him again. I didn’t know what to expect from him after the way we parted. More importantly, I didn’t have a clear idea of what to expect from myself the next time I saw him.

  Crazy butterflies fluttered in my stomach every time I thought about him. The realization that he may have wanted me as much as I wanted him only made it worse. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t remember a time when I was so driven out of my mind by a man that I would forget everything around me as I did with Sytrius.

  The sadness of this discovery was that I didn’t even know him. And no matter how much more time we spent together, I would never know him as long as his face remained hidden behind the mask, as long as his heart remained enclosed in armor, and as long as he only ever touched me with gloved hands.

  After spending so much time effectively isolated from any human contact, I was losing grip on what was conventionally considered right or wrong. I just hoped that
the sexual attraction was all I felt for him. It was hard to deal with it on its own, but I could never survive to have my heart involved in this situation.

  Despite my best reasoning and efforts to calm down, my heart skipped a mile when I heard the sound of the door lock open. I raised my eyes slowly and met his burning look through the openings of his mask. Just like that, my breath caught and the betraying warmth spread along my face and neck under his stare. The anxious anticipation rose in my chest, and my heart beat frantically against my ribcage, like a bird trapped inside, looking for a way out.

  How could I ever stand a chance, if one look from him turned me into a complete mess like that?

  I walked towards the door, expecting him to step aside as I approached. He waited until the very last minute, letting me come up to him as close as possible before he finally stepped aside. My arm brushed by his elbow, and I felt his fingers stroke my forearm. He didn’t even seem to be too concerned whether or not the two guards by the door saw him do it.

  All of it felt different; he acted differently, and I didn’t know what to make of it. I couldn’t even concentrate on the thought long enough to figure it out. I just knew that his behaviour triggered certain responses in my body. I wanted his hands on me. I even stopped caring for now that it would only be his gloved hands again, as long as he touched me soon.

  I rushed through the corridors much faster than usual and stopped in front of the arched entrance to the arena.

  I exhaled loudly when his hands finally landed on me from behind to remove the dress, and I leaned back against his touch. His movements had more urgency now. He nearly ripped the dress off me, with a few buttons actually bouncing off to the floor.

  Without looking at the people gathered there as usual, I walked up to the cross and turned, pressing my back to it impatiently. He was already right in front of me, blocking the other men from my view. He went down on one knee at my feet to lock the cuffs on my ankles, and I followed him with my eyes this time.

  There was something so erotic in seeing this big strong man dressed in armor kneeling in front of my naked body, even if it was just to lock me in restraints. Or maybe it felt so erotic exactly because he was locking me in restraints, leaving me entirely at his mercy.

  I felt his hands wrap around my ankle and the image of his bare hand came to my mind. I knew exactly now what his hands looked like underneath the gloves. I imagined the soft skin of his warm, strong hands running up my leg now. He stopped mere millimeters from where I wanted him to touch me the most, and I released a frustrated groan, jerking my hips forward in a fruitless attempt to trap his hand between my thighs.

  My body wasn’t yet fully attached to the cross, though, and with my ankles fixed in place, the movement cost me my balance. I flayed my arms and would have fallen forward if he didn’t catch me in a hug. It was a real full embrace, with his arms going all around my back as he pressed me to him. Elevated on the platform of the cross I was almost at his height, and my breasts hit the hard, cool plates on his chest.

  Then I felt his heartbeat against my chest. His breathing was even and calm, like it always was in the arena, but his heart gave him away by pounding uncontrollably between us.

  He moved forward, still holding me in the embrace, and pushed my back to the cross again. He kept his chest firmly pressed to mine, supporting me, and then moved his hands up along my raised arms to fasten the handcuffs. Our foreheads were almost touching and his eyes were right across from mine. His weight against me felt like heaven, and I whimpered and wriggled impatiently under his body.

  “Shhhh,” came from behind the mask in a soothing whisper as his hands glided smoothly down along my arms. He cupped my face briefly between his hands, and I felt the silk velvet on his thumbs brush along my lips, light and slow like a sensual kiss. The things he could do using his hands only!

  I moaned and he slid his hands further down to my breasts. I felt a light pinch on each of my nipples and bit my lip with another moan. I was so ready! The throbbing heat between my legs was turning into a torture. And he hadn’t even finished restraining me to the cross! The two halves of the waist belt were still hanging loose at my sides.

  “Please…” I couldn’t hold it any longer.

  “Shhhh,” came from him again as he squeezed my breasts harder and rolled each nipple between his finger and thumb.

  I rolled my head from side to side: “Oh, God! Oh, my God!”

  He was still in front of me, but he leaned away a little, standing close but not quite touching me anywhere except for his hands… I arched my back searching for his body with mine again when his hands slid down my back and cupped my backside like he did in the cell earlier. Yes! I wanted to be closer to him. I wanted to feel his erection once more. But he let go off me suddenly, and I felt the belt circle around me, attaching me to the cross.

  Sytrius moved behind me now and tilted the cross into the position. I missed having him in front of me instantly. With the tilted cross between us, he couldn’t get as close to me as I wanted him to be.

  The faint buzz of the vibrator still came as a relief. I was too turned on and needed a release, badly. I wanted it to be him though, his hands, his mouth… him inside me… Everything I couldn’t have…

  He pressed the vibrator to the throbbing heat of my core and I exploded almost instantly! Yes! Oh, yes… Finally… He continued to move the vibrator in small circles now, reaping every last shudder of orgasm from me.

  I had been too turned on to calm down quickly. The orgasm came and went, fast and sharp, and not quite enough. But I thought about him lifting me off the cross now and about his arms wrapping around me to carry me back to my cell. I thought about my own arms wrapped around his neck and my face buried in that place where his neck met his shoulder. I could have him close soon. I could smell his warm scent again…

  The sudden, complete stillness in the room let me know that something happened… Sytrius didn’t remove me from the cross. He had just managed to unlock the belt when his hands stopped at my waist, and I felt him tense.

  Lifted slightly on the still tilted cross, I couldn’t see very well what was happening around me. I raised my head, trying to see what had changed. Sytrius lowered the cross at this moment, and I was face to face with the men watching me.

  I heard no words, felt no movement from them, but at some point, they all got up from their seats and now stood in a semi-circle around Sytrius and I. They moved closer, way too close, only steps away from me. Blue, black, brown and hazel eyes were fixed on me with the unsettling feeling of intense anticipation in them. Goose bumps covered my skin. Suddenly, all I wanted was to get out of there.

  What was happening? Things had changed and I didn’t know what the changes meant. By now I was used to the routine that Sytrius followed with me every night. The predictability of what usually happened in the arena calmed me and provided me with a false sense of security. Nothing bad could happen to me as long as I knew exactly what was coming next. The vulnerability and fear that I felt now reminded me just how little control I really had over my life and my body.

  His hands were still gripping my waist tightly from behind. Slowly he moved them up to my breasts again.

  No, not again, I couldn’t possibly… I just wanted to go back to my cell, or anywhere else for that matter, just out of here… As long as I was as far away from them as possible… I clenched my fists and closed my eyes firmly, shutting their faces out.

  “Shhhh,” I heard over my shoulder again, like a gentle calming breeze. His hands soothed me. They glided down to my hips then up again and over my breasts, reaching that tiny little spark still deep inside of me and slowly ever so slowly fanning it into the flaming need again.

  I was still fighting the rising fear and denial inside, though. He must have felt it. He always did. In less than a second he was in front of me again.

  “Look at me!” he commanded in a whisper, barely audible but nevertheless powerful.

  “Stay with me!
” He repeated the first words he ever spoke to me.

  I obeyed, slowly opening my eyes and meeting his focused stare. Contrary to the forceful command in his voice, there was a desperate plea that I didn’t expect in his eyes. He wanted me to follow him in what he was doing. He needed me to trust him.

  Whatever else was going on in the room stepped into the background in my mind. Like so often before, it was so easy for me to get lost in the cool blue of his eyes.

  I nodded slightly and inhaled deeply, surrendering to his touch again, being pulled back into the hypnotic trance created by his hands on my body. Soon it was just the two of us in the room… in the world…

  The beautiful men with the cold scary eyes fixed on me didn’t exist anymore. This dreadful place was no more. It was just his hands touching, stroking, kneading… He made me forget about everything else as only he could. Even the mask and the gloves didn’t matter anymore.

  “More,” I moaned. “I need more…” I wasn’t sure what I was asking for. I wasn’t sure what he could give me more of… But he knew, he always knew. He leaned closer to me, as close as he could without actually touching, and I felt his hand slide down between us. His velvet covered fingers slid between my thighs, gliding around in small tight circles, spreading the wetness seeping out of me…

  For the first time! The thought registered with me with a jolt, it was for the first time he ever touched me there without a vibrator. This thought along with the image of his gloveless hand in my head sent a new wave of heat through my lower stomach again, soaking his glove between my legs, just as two of the silk-covered fingers slid inside of me in one determined movement.

  I gasped in surprise at the sharp pleasure spreading over me and clenched my inner muscles around the fingers now moving in and out of me, taking me to a whole new height. It was so good, so very good… It was exactly what I needed...

  I felt every powerful movement of his hand. His other hand was wrapped around my neck. The cool forehead of his mask was pressed to mine. His hips thrust in rhythm with his hand between us, bringing me closer and closer...