This was the second time Lindsay had called her kitten. She wouldn't let herself like that pet name. It was sort of sweet and sexy and playful all at once. Was that how he saw her? She shook that thought out of her head. That wasn't what she was, and they both knew it. That pet name... it was such a mockery. Why not slut or whore or something that at least felt mildly honest? Kitten. Fuck him.
Still, there was the cane to contend with. It was the bigger threat at the moment. “Just let it go this once. Please, I'll do whatever you want.”
He paced beside the leather table she was tied to as if considering it.
“Hmmm. I thought you said you'd never fuck me. Never must be a very relative term in your world.”
“I-is that what you want? To fuck me?” Why was he doing this?
She shivered as he dragged the tip of the cane down her back.
“Oh yes. And so much more.”
“O-Okay. Done. Let's do it.”
Lindsay chuckled. “Oh no, I already told you not tonight. Fucking is for good girls only. And you've been a very bad girl. In fact, I think we can sweeten the torment a little so the lesson is well-learned.”
Shannon's eyes widened as he pulled a small white tube out of his pocket. It hadn't been used on her in years and never by Lindsay. But she remembered the arousal cream. It wasn't the sort of thing you forgot.
She'd experimented with creams like this years before when she'd been free. Some of them were pretty good, but none were like this. This one made you feel like you might die if you weren't penetrated or if you couldn't come. And the effects lasted a full hour on most of the girls. Shannon seemed to remember it lasted a bit longer with her.
“N-no. You can't.”
Lindsay chuckled. “For somebody who's tied up, you seem to make a lot of demands. You tried to escape this world tonight. I need to make absolutely sure you're here with me. I need your one hundred percent full focus. On living.”
Before she could protest again, he'd snapped on a medical examining glove and opened the tube. “It makes such a mess.”
Shannon squirmed as he applied the cream between her legs. Then he took the glove off and put it in the trash can in the corner of the cell, along with the plastic wrapping from her brand new mint-condition cane.
Brian was a clean freak. He let the other trainers and partners use his dungeons, but he expected everything to be kept as meticulous as he kept it. If anyone left a mess behind, there would be hell to pay. For someone who brought so much chaos into the lives of others, Brian was absolutely driven to keep everything around him neat and tidy.
Most of the men in the house thought, wisely, that it was probably best not to push the buttons of the sociopath who lived underground. And so they all complied with his obsessive demands.
When Shannon had gone to the spa after being with Lindsay in the kitchen, the fitness room had been quiet. Brian was probably back in his room with Mina. It was only a few doors down from the cell she now occupied.
Lindsay returned to her side and took the cane from the table. Again, he ran the tip of it slowly up and down the center of her back.
“P-please. Don't make me scream.”
“You're a screamer? Excellent.”
“I-it might wake him.” Suddenly being locked in with the doctor felt a lot safer than it had only a few minutes ago.
Lindsay's expression turned serious. “Why do you think I locked the door? Though I do find it interesting that you're locked in a cell with me and a cane, but Brian is the only threat you can think about. I'll make a deal with you. Take this punishment like a good girl and I'll set us up our own private dungeon on the other end of the house, far away from Brian.”
“Where on the other end of the house?” Shannon wasn't aware of other dungeons.
“You know the locked door in the south wing?”
“I thought that was storage or something.”
Lindsay shook his head. “It goes downstairs to another set of dungeons, or really, comparable stone-walled basement rooms like these. They aren't as equipped or set up as Brian's, so everybody just started using these.”
“Why are you training me?” The more he talked, the more it seemed he was planning something long term. Why would he set up their own private room in a set of dungeons she didn't even know the house had?
Lindsay leaned down, his eyes level with hers. He was too close, his gaze too intense. She wanted to shut her eyes and block him out, but she knew he wouldn't like it. So she held his gaze and waited for an answer.
“Because. I. Want. You. Do you understand, kitten?”
“Y-yes, Sir.” She would admit it was a good act, but she didn't believe him. There was no way he could want her. He just wanted to distract her into wanting to live long enough that he wouldn't feel he was to blame when she finally succeeded in leaving the house.
“Good,” he said, seeming to accept her concession.
Shannon clawed at the table, the cream finally starting to work. It was far more intense than she remembered. Or maybe it was more about the man she was down here with, the cluster of confused emotions, and the ever present fear of waking Brian just down the hall.
“Cream kicking in?” A taunt.
“Y-yes, Sir.”
His mouth brushed against her ear. “It's time to create associations that would make Pavlov jealous.”
Shannon tried to rub herself against the table to relieve the growing arousal, but the way he'd tied her down made it impossible to gain the necessary friction.
She jerked and yelped when the cane struck her thigh in a sharp, angry snap.
“Ah ah, kitten. There will be no more self care. If you receive pleasure, from now on it comes from me. No one else in this house, including you. Do you understand?”
It had only been coming from her for the past three years. Well, and Annette on occasion when they had time and could slip away. Anton usually liked to watch his pet with other girls, but Shannon knew he gave them privacy because he didn't like to see the scars. Annette assured her it wasn't personal, that it upset Anton to see what Brian had done to her, but Shannon could never believe that was all it was. Everyone had to close their eyes and pretend she was whole. They could never let their hands linger too long on expanses of skin that weren't as smooth as the rest.
It made her feel so alien.
She shrieked as the cane landed again.
“I'm sorry, am I boring you?” Lindsay said.
“N-no, Sir.”
“No one gives you pleasure but me. Do you understand?”
“Y-yes, Sir.” As if he could monitor that. He went to work in the city during the day. He was gone so much, there was no way he could enforce such a rule. As if he'd even bother. He didn't care enough for her to invest that much time and energy.
But if he wanted to play this game for a few days or a couple of weeks, she hated herself for it, but she'd take it. She'd grab onto it like a starving woman even if she hated him because they both knew it was the last opportunity she'd ever get. And then it would be back to being ignored again. She didn't have the luxury of turning this down. Before long the combination of the years creeping onto her and those marks refusing to fade into the past, and even the chance of anything with anyone would be long gone.