Annette hesitated for a moment. This whole thing was still so weird. It had helped having a few hours away from him to shower and eat and explore the house, but this was still so… strange. A blush crept up her neck as she thought about the things that had happened the previous night.
“I won’t bite,” he said.
She was sure that was a lie, but she left the towel on the lounger and got into the pool anyway.
“What did you say to your sister this morning?” He began to move around her in a circle. Like a shark.
“Why? What did she say I said?”
He shrugged. “Nothing. I just heard her end of things and then told her what I needed from her to pay her bills and get her set up working part time at the spa.”
“I don’t remember what I said exactly. I just told her I would be fine and that she needed to drop this and do what you said.”
“You’re afraid she’ll do something stupid,” he said, still circling her.
Annette looked away, unsure how much it was safe to say to him or what action he might take against her sister if she was honest.
“Of course I don’t think that.”
“Look me in the eyes and say that.”
But she couldn’t.
“Are you lying to me?” he asked, his voice going to a scary dark place.
“N-no.”
“No, what? I notice you’re avoiding addressing me.”
“I’m not avoiding it,” she lied again. It was too weird. If they were doing some dirty, kinky thing, and she was all worked up like she’d been the night before, then yeah, she thought she could play along and call him master, but there was no way here in the light of day she could just casually refer to him that way.
“That’s lie number two. Kiska, are we going to have a problem?”
“No. We don’t have a problem.” She wasn’t sure what it was about daylight that made this all seem so much more sordid than it had the night before when she’d been desperate.
“No, WHAT?” He backed her to the nearby edge of the pool and held her there. Even if she hadn’t been pinned in place by his hands, she would have been pinned there by his gaze. “SAY it,” he practically growled at her.
Annette looked down at his hands on her arms and finally said, “No, Master.”
His grip loosened. “And still, you lie to me. You were so brave last night. Did the sunlight swallow up your fire?”
He swam to the ladder and climbed out of the pool. “Come with me. I didn’t want to have to start your training with punishment, but you will not lie to me.”
Now she was legitimately afraid. In the back of her mind, she’d known he would hurt her; she’d just thought she could keep him distracted from it for a while. Maybe she still could. She knew all the buttons to push with men, after all.
She’d had no less than ten different clients within the past month promise her nearly anything if she’d just come meet and fuck them in person. Men were not complicated. Anton could be managed.
She screwed up her courage and got out of the pool. She put a sway in her hips as she slunk over to him. She was sure she could distract him from the punishment plan.
“Come on, don’t you want to do something more interesting than punish me?” Annette ran her hands over his wet skin, slipping one inside his swim trunks. She stroked his cock underneath the fabric. His hand closed tight around her wrist.
“No. I didn’t give you permission to touch me. Do you really think I can be led around by my dick and manipulated this way?”
“Ow, you’re hurting me.”
Anton released her wrist, and she fell backward onto the lounger. She scowled up at him.
“You’d better be wise and wipe that look off your face. Get up.”
Who the fuck did this Neanderthal think he was? He was turning down a fucking hand job? Who did that? When she didn’t get up, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her up. Then he scooped her into his arms and carried her back into the house.
She smacked at his shoulder. “Put me down! I can walk!”
“You had your chance. Keep it up. Your punishment will only get worse.”
She wasn’t sure why she was so much more angry and embarrassed than scared. Her pride had been hurt, and at the moment, it was the injury that was real.
Brian sat at a table in the cafeteria eating a large sandwich. The tables had arrived that morning, along with a bunch of other stuff in large boxes. Brian had picked them up in a rented truck from another location and brought them to the house.
“I need to use one of your rooms downstairs,” Anton said.
Brian’s eyes lit up as he rose from the table. “Can I watch?”
“I don’t give a fuck. Maybe it’ll be a stronger lesson that way.”
Brian seemed giddy as he followed them through the house, past the entryway, and to the back staircase that led underground.
At the bottom of the staircase was a long stone hallway. Stone walls, stone floor. At the end of the hallway was a large solid wooden door. Lining the walls were several slightly smaller doors, each with a small window and bars. They were labeled, A, B, C…
“Use Cell A. It’s the only one I have set up,” Brian said.
Annette’s anger was starting to be replaced by fear. “Please, I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.” She could barely remember what it was she had done to begin with. Oh, yeah, lying. But it was such a small lie. Couldn’t he see why? She was just protecting Janette. It wasn’t as though she was being malicious.
“Unfuckingbelievable,” Anton said. “You still won’t address me. Who am I?” He put her down in the cell.
As soon as he let go of her, she bolted toward the exit, but Brian stood in front of the door, blocking her way and smiling like a demented maniac.
“What are you going to do to her?” Brian asked.
“I’m going to break her.”
Annette spun to face Anton. She felt the blood drain from her face. A darkness had fallen over the Russian’s features. If she’d been asked in this moment to say who was more dangerous, Brian or Anton, she wouldn’t have been sure who to pick. If she’d been told to run to the safe one, she wouldn’t have been able to move at all.
“Impressive,” Brian said. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“It’s the only way she’ll take this seriously and truly see herself as my slave. Right now she thinks she’s going to play me and get her way.”
Any other time she might have gotten angry people were talking about her like this, like she wasn’t even in the room, but she was too afraid to say anything.
Finally he turned his attention back to her. “Last night I thought you were serious about being my slave in exchange for your sister’s release. Have you forgotten her already? Have you forgotten I will see her every week and that me continuing to write checks is how she will eat and pay for school?”
Annette looked away, unable to bear his scrutinizing stare. Why the fuck should he look so wounded, as if she were somehow betraying him by behaving like a normal human? “No, I haven’t forgotten.”
“Motherfucking… No, WHAT?”
“M-master. P-please, I’m sorry. I-I’ll do better.” She wasn’t sure anymore if she was lying. She wasn’t sure what had made her think she could do this. Even with the insanity of the kidnapping… even with them being criminals, the way he’d been last night, she’d thought it was all just kinky games to him.