Faith went to the mirror and knelt in front of it, spreading her legs, committed to the outcome.
***
Leo sorted through mail, mostly wedding bills and deposit receipts. Then he checked email. He wanted to put off the moment when he’d go upstairs, find her ready to go, and have to keep his end of things. The idea that she’d go to the dungeon was too far outside reality to hope for, especially after he’d asked her to relive that night. It would push her the final bit to wake her up and take her out of his life for good where she’d be safe and could find some happiness.
When she was gone, he’d call Mei Lin. If she hadn’t gotten back with her Master, perhaps there was something they could build on in this life after all. If it ended up being a rebound, that might be ideal, a short fling to scratch each other’s itches and help heal each other’s losses. Faith felt like she belonged to him, like she was his responsibility to care for and keep safe, but keeping her safe from himself meant she couldn’t be under his roof.
As he closed the browser window, his cell rang. He recognized the number.
“Hello, Caprice.”
“I miss you.” She sounded as if she’d been crying. He doubted it was over him. Most likely some other love affair had gone sour and he was the first person she thought of when she was alone again. Lucky him.
Leo glanced at the calendar. It was about time for a Caprice call. He should have known a few quick sessions during the holidays weren’t going to end with her meekly going off to Vegas and never contacting him again. But his dick could tell convincing lies when necessary.
“I told you it was just during the holidays,” he said.
“Why are you marrying her? I don’t get it. Honestly, I don’t. I mean she’s pretty enough, I guess, but she’s not what you need, and you know it. I’m what you need.”
Caprice wasn’t what anybody needed. Least of all Leo. But he held on to that retort. He also wasn’t about to tell her the engagement was broken off. It would send her into his arms faster than anything, or else it would start the rumor mill going. When it came out, he needed the family to hear it from him, not twisted in with Caprice’s jealousy and half truths.
“I need to be going,” he said. “I have somewhere to go with Faith.”
She made a disgusted snort over the phone. “Dinner and a movie? Maybe she’ll get the courage to hold your hand. Maybe you two can share a tub of popcorn and look longingly into each other’s eyes during the romantic comedy and come home and fuck in the missionary position with the lights out and roll over and go to sleep.”
“Don’t ever call here again.”
He was about to disconnect the call when her words stopped him. “Maybe I should tell your naïve fiancée what you were sneaking off to do during Christmas. Would she marry you then?”
“If you come near her, I will kill you. Is that clear enough? Stay the hell out of our lives.” He disconnected the call before she could reply.
No, Caprice wouldn’t meekly go home, and there was no telling what havoc she could bring to his life. Even without Faith, he didn’t want her, because at the end of the day she always came back to manipulation and nastiness to get what she wanted. He couldn’t train it out of her using any moral methods, anymore than he could train kink into Faith.
Leo took his time walking to the glass room in the east wing. He didn’t know if he could stand to see her sitting there, waiting with her bags packed.
He knocked, but there was no answer. He tried the knob, and it gave freely in his hand. When he stepped into the room, Snowball and Squish meowed and wrapped around his legs briefly before darting out the door. Faith must have forgotten to let them out. Normally they spent some time here, but otherwise had the run of the house.
The room was empty, all of her things still in their normal spots.
“Faith?”
Silence.
Snow fell outside the windows, the last gasps of winter creating a heavy blanket. He didn’t want to drive in this right now. And where was he going to take her until he found a permanent living solution?
He found himself irrationally irritated that she wasn’t packed yet. He’d been in his office for an hour at least. He searched the normal places she frequented: the kitchen, the game room, the family room where she liked to sit with a book beside the fire with a mug of cocoa or tea, even the pool.
He refused to consider she could have taken the other option. As obvious as it was, it felt like the kind of thing one would fantasize about and convince themselves of, only to be disappointed in the end. He couldn’t take any more disappointments. And he didn’t deserve a stroke of fortune. Despite this, when he was out of options, he made his way down the back hallways to the metal door at the top of the stairs.
He slid it open and pushed the flat switch that turned the LED lights on. He was halfway down when he heard the music. He hadn’t mentioned the music. Even he couldn’t be that sadistic.
Though he knew what he should expect, he still couldn’t believe it when he reached the bottom. Faith was in front of the mirror, watching her nude reflection, her legs spread as he’d requested.
He sat in the chair he’d been seated in that night. Her gaze never strayed. He glanced to the record player to find it on repeat, and he wondered how long she’d been waiting. Could it have been this whole time?
“Are you sure about this?”
“I’m not leaving,” she said, not looking away from the mirror.
It was practically an engraved invitation. If she was teasing him, she’d picked the wrong man to do it with.
“Come here.”
She crawled across the carpet to his feet as he unzipped his pants. “I think you know what I want.” Even as he said it, he berated himself for expecting she’d rush to please him with her mouth.
Leo let out a soft hiss and gripped the arms of the chair when her lips wrapped around him, her warm, wet mouth engulfing his stiff member. The way she gave a blow job was the way she did everything else. There was something tentative and sweet and almost innocent in the act as she sucked on his hardened flesh. It was clear she’d done this before and knew her way around a man’s anatomy, but she was still shy. It was the most deeply erotic thing he’d ever experienced. He became more convinced that, with patience, he could remake her. His fingers tangled in her hair as she pleasured him.
When he came, he didn’t allow her to pull away. He wasn’t going to scrub cum out of the carpet. If she was letting him use her mouth as a receptacle, she’d finish the job. His breathing deepened and then stopped for a moment as he came. She swallowed without fighting the degradation, and when he pulled out of her and tucked himself back into his pants, she remained on her knees with her gaze cast down at the ground, waiting, her breath coming out in short flutters.
He lifted her chin. Her eyes held a glazed expression that contained equal parts fear and longing, and a foolish sort of love that danced around the edges. He helped her to her feet and took her to the table he’d been strapped to a few weeks before with Esmeralda.
She panicked like a spooked deer and tried to pull out of his grip. Leo would never comprehend the level of fear she must feel when this wasn’t her kink, especially after the gore she’d witnessed when he’d been on this same table. But it was time to jump in or run, and she’d refused the chance to run. He wouldn’t keep offering freedom, and he suspected if he did again, she’d begin to see it as a sort of threat that he’d throw her away. If she’d made this choice with such resolute certainty—adding the music on top of everything—then to continue to question her desire to obey him, no matter how great the fear, disrespected her and what she offered. Whether he deserved it or not.
“I understand you’re afraid, but you knew what was down here, and I gave you a chance at your freedom. Not staying in this house and watching while I take other women, but real freedom away from me. And you chose to stay. I won’t be vanilla for you. I can’t. It’s not who I am.”
“I know, Mast
er, I’m sorry. I’m just scared.”
He took her into his arms, feeling her heart pumping against her chest, beating into his, practically throwing his own heart off its normal rhythm.
“Get on the table, on your stomach,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to her temple.
He went to the wall, expecting she’d do as he’d asked and selected a couple of the less scary items: the flogger and the paddle. Then he went to the toy box to retrieve the last coil of fresh rope.
When he returned, she was on her stomach on the padded table, shivering with her eyes squeezed shut. Leo dragged the thick blanket off the bed. He made it snug around her torso as if she were being tucked in for the night. Her eyes remained closed, but were squeezed less tightly. He took a knife from a drawer and began to cut lengths of rope, knowing exactly how long each should be.
The endless metal rings attached to the table, allowed for extensive and intricate rope bondage in all imaginable positions, but he was content to tie her down in a standard spread eagle. It was convenient and secure, while being the least distressing form of bondage he could use to start. Tying her down wasn’t just about his own pleasure, but for her safety.
If the ropes hadn’t kept him so tightly bound in place when Esmeralda had whipped him, he could have moved in such a way that the whip would have injured him much more severely than it already had. He didn’t plan on doing anything that sadistic and cruel to Faith, but it was safer for her to stay as still as possible so he could strike the places he intended and nothing else.
He changed the record to something more peaceful: Chopin. The first piece was the third Nocturne for piano. He left the player on repeat and went back to the box for massage oil and a few pleasurable toys, as well as a blindfold. If he intended to train her to want what he wanted, he must make sure that all pain came with a sharp dose of pleasure so the lines would blur and she wouldn’t know which she was getting. Her body would eventually respond to both.
It wouldn’t matter how she was wired or what her brain wanted. He could remap that, reprogram it to his liking so that her body did what he wanted it to do. She’d be aroused and ready when he demanded.
Leo didn’t anticipate she’d open her eyes, but he wanted to be sure. She let out a soft, almost begging whimper as he tied the blindfold around her head, but she didn’t seek to remove it.
He gently took one arm and then the other, and looped the rope through the metal, tying her arms so they were stretched over her head in a V. Then he repeated the process with her legs. She was still covered with the blanket. He let her lie like that for a few moments as he carefully stroked her back through the fabric.
“Faith, did you know that a lot of what we call pain is about expectation? When you expect something to hurt a lot, and you tense all your muscles, it hurts more. If you can relax and flow with it, it hurts less. Think of yourself like a stream flowing softly over rocks. The jagged edges of the rocks don’t hurt the water, it just flows.” He allowed his voice to drop an octave as he spoke, becoming softer and less harsh, lulling her into a sense of safety.
The music he’d selected fit well with the imagery he fed into her mind. He spoke quietly about water and flow and relaxing while he let his hands trail over her back, still wrapped in the warm cocoon of the blanket.
He continued to speak as he went to the thermostat to raise it a couple of degrees. As the room warmed, he took the blanket away. She tensed, but not as much as before, so he poured some oil onto his hands to allow his skin to slide more easily against hers.
He started at her neck, then worked down her back and her arms and hands, then her waist, and over her bottom, and legs and feet. He tenderly massaged until each muscle group unclenched in turn, until her body became limp and receptive.
Chapter Seventeen
Faith hadn’t thought it would be possible to relax. After what she’d heard with the other women, and after the first night the way he’d lost control and taken her in such a cold, heartless way… this was different.
He was right about relaxation and pain, and yet, she’d been determined to stay tense, as if it could magically protect her from him. Or maybe she didn’t want him to see the signs of her trusting him again, not after how he’d misused that trust the first time and she’d sworn to herself she wouldn’t give it again. To relax under his touch when he promised pain was shameful.
The blanket caught her off guard, and then the music changed to something more soothing, and… his hands and the massage. She fell into the illusion he’d created. His voice wrapped around her as the blanket had and the music moving through her like the energy that sustained her. His hot breath was on her ear when he leaned in and spoke again.
“Remember you are water.”
His voice was hypnotic velvet. It had the same power as when it was darker and more demonic. She thought back to Catholic school where the nuns had told her the devil came disguised as an angel of light. It was enough to make anybody paranoid because you didn’t just have to worry about the things that were overtly evil and scary, but about the things that appeared innocent and warm and loving.
Like Leo right now. She’d already seen the beast underneath this mask, and yet the spell he cast with his words and touch made her forget.
His hand came down across her bottom, jolting her from the drifting thoughts back into a more visceral moment. The smack stung, but it wasn’t as painful as the first night he’d spanked her when she’d been more tense, when her only thoughts involved how long she might live.
Fear for her life had disappeared, and after Leo’s sacrifice, fears he didn’t care or didn’t understand the damage he could cause or that maybe he did understand and wanted to cause it—those fears had left as well. Now it was fear of the unknown and how much pain she might have to endure to be with this man who she shouldn’t love or want to please.
After each strike, he caressed her flesh, soothing her so that her muscles stayed loose and receptive to more pain. Faith jerked against the ropes when a smooth, thin piece of lubricated glass slid inside her pussy. Despite her tension, the penetration wasn’t painful. She’d been tightly clenched—another piece of unconscious self protection. But he’d been prepared for that defense and had chosen something smaller to press inside her.
“That’s it, move with it. I like that. Exactly how my good little whores act.”
Heat crept up her neck and into her face. She hadn’t realized she’d raised and lowered her hips, her body begging for the toy as he moved it inside her in an achingly slow rhythm. The brief pain of the spanking was forgotten as she moved, grateful that he’d switched to something that could feel good and wouldn’t overload her so soon. But he was far from done.
She whimpered in protest when he extracted the toy and resumed the spanking. Her skin heated with each strike, the pain blending with the other sensations: the caresses, the light throbbing that moved from deep inside her skin. At the peak of discomfort—almost enough to beg—he backed off again.
Leo pushed the dildo into her, cold from fresh lubricant. She gripped the edges of the table as he fucked her harder with it this time. The force and momentum were enough that she could come if he’d keep doing it just like this at just this angle. He stopped too soon.
“Please, Master,” she found herself saying. She struggled in the ropes, knowing it was pointless, and a few tears slid down her cheeks. I’m not ready for more pain.
“Shhhhh.” He stroked her back, and a moment later, another lubricated phallus was inside her. This one larger than the first. Her walls expanded to accept it, and she moved, rocking against the cold toy as he slowly fucked her with it.
But slow wasn’t enough now. Faith struggled and pulled against her bonds, not caring as the rough rope dug into her wrists, tearing at her skin. She needed to push back harder, to force the dildo to be seated more deeply inside her, to fill her.
He pulled it away and she let out a frustrated cry.
“Eager is okay, demanding is not
. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Master.”
He waited until her pelvis had lowered onto the table, until she was calmly spread out, relaxed and docile, before he slid the toy back inside her again at that sadistically idle pace. Her pussy throbbed against the glass. It would take very little to make her come. If she was patient and calm, then maybe…
“It’s time for a choice,” he said, breaking her concentration. “I can stop everything for the night and we can go upstairs to bed, or I can move on to the paddle and the flogger and let you have your orgasm when I’m finished.”
Normally, Faith’s choice would have been easy. Stop the pain and scariness, and let’s go to bed. But he knew her body like a poem he’d memorized. He knew how to play nerve endings in both good and bad ways. It wasn’t a secret how close she was, or how desperate, given the rope burns she would likely wear around her wrists for the next several days.
“Master, please…”
“Choose or I’ll choose for you. Maybe this is all too much too soon. We should go to sleep. Or maybe you should sleep down here alone tonight. It’ll give you some space away from me to think and feel safer.” The honey in his voice was a trap, but it held such possibilities that she couldn’t resist entertaining the new option.
Yes. She could stay here for the night alone and masturbate and take care of this ache he’d caused with the toys he kept fucking her with. She’d have her orgasm and be spared further escalation.
“O-okay,” she said. “W-we should stop.”
“Of course, you’ll wear a chastity belt so you can’t touch that sweet cunt. That’s mine. You don’t get to touch it without my permission ever again.” He chuckled at the shock that must have been on her face. “Did you think your body was still yours to control? It’s mine.” The last word he whispered in her ear, his voice animalistic and guttural. “Does that change your answer?”