“Please take me. Please don’t do this,” she whispered. “She hasn’t done anything wrong.”
He stormed across the floor to her, and she cringed. “Is that an admission of your own guilt? First you sneak back down here and watch through the window while I’m punishing someone after I told you to go upstairs. Then you go to Lindsay and share our private business.”
“Master, I’m sorry. Please. Please just let her go.”
“No!” He grabbed Mina’s wrist and dragged her to a second chair and strapped her down. “I am going to punish her, and you are going to watch. Since you can’t seem to stop yourself from watching. Here, have a front row seat. Enjoy the show. Let me entertain you.”
He couldn’t stop the words flying out of his mouth. He couldn’t feel anything. Everything shut down. Her wrist was red from where he’d grabbed her so hard.
A dead weight settled in his stomach, a looming dread, seeing how easily he could hurt her. What was she doing to him? Why was this happening? He wanted it to be simple. He wanted to keep everything in compartments so he could go on. She was trying to break him apart. What would happen if he just punished her? How guilty would he feel? How much would it hurt him? Maybe he could push through it and retain what he needed to protect himself from… from whatever.
He left the room and slammed the door. He paced the dungeon corridor taking steady deep breaths, trying to think. He couldn’t think straight. The rage consumed him. How had he gotten here? This war between protecting her and possessing her?
After several minutes he gained enough control to go back inside. He shut the door calmly and locked it and made his way to the two bound women. Both seemed ready to come out of their skin with fear.
“Mina, you shouldn’t be afraid. I’m not going to hurt you.” He turned to the other girl. “This one on the other hand…”
The other girl whimpered and struggled and shot death glares at Mina.
“You’re a monster,” Mina said.
“Yes, but you knew that the moment you laid eyes on me. And you still crave me. You want my hands on you. You seek my comfort. You move closer to me in your sleep despite what I am.”
He bent to kiss her. When his mouth touched hers, she melted beneath him.
He pulled back. “That’s what I thought.” He nudged her knees open and slipped his fingers underneath her gym shorts and panties. He smiled in triumph at the wetness there. He’d known she would be wet for him because she was always wet for him now. It didn’t matter what he was. Or what he did. She was lost.
Brian turned his attention to the other girl, and the room pulled into sharp focus. The calm settled over him again, and he began to lay out his tools.
27
Mina squeezed her eyes shut. A few times, Brian had caught her doing it and made her open them, but whenever she could put distance between her and what was happening she did. Though there was no distance great enough. This girl was down here because of her.
Why hadn’t Mina just listened to him? Why hadn’t she remained upstairs and away while he did what he did? If she had, she wouldn’t have had the meltdown. She could have waited to talk to Annette privately somewhere, instead of spilling it in front of everyone to Lindsay.
“Mina… if you close your eyes once more, I will start over again, and I don’t think our toy can take much more.”
She forced her eyes open. Brian had completely lost it. He’d cut the girl. He’d whipped her. He’d fucking branded her. That brand might make her unsaleable. If it did, he might end up killing her.
“Maybe I should keep her in the house to punish whenever you do something wrong. Tell me, would you like to be Mina’s whipping girl?”
The girl had gone someplace else inside herself.
“I hate you,” Mina said.
Brian backhanded the girl in the chair, and she reeled back. “Say it again, Mina. I’ll bitch slap her every time you speak to me that way. I don’t care if you hate me, but if you do, you will motherfucking keep it to yourself.”
Now wasn’t the time to test him or push his buttons. He seemed even more unhinged than usual. She pressed her lips into a firm line, willing herself to keep her anger and hatred for this man bottled up. How could she have thought she was developing feelings for him? And love? How could she allow that thought into her mind?
Brian didn’t deserve love. He should be put down like any rabid dog. He was too broken to be anything but a danger to society. She could no longer excuse his behavior. She felt drained, exhausted, as if she’d taken the punishment herself. But to even think that way was awful because her skin remained unbroken.
“Mina, will you speak to Lindsay again?” Brian asked, his voice low and calm.
“No, Master.”
“Will you come down here ever again when I’m punishing someone, and I’ve told you to go upstairs?”
“No, Master.”
Brian untied the girl. “Get out of here, and pray my slave’s behavior improves. For your own sake.”
She slid out of the chair as if she’d turned to liquid, then she crawled on shaking hands and knees out of the room.
Mina didn’t speak as he untied her. He inspected her wrists, looking for chafing because God forbid she should suffer from something as terrible as chafing when he’d nearly turned her whipping girl into ribbons.
He led her down the hall to their room and pulled her into the bathroom. She tried to hold back the tears as he stripped her. “Sit and wait for me to call for you.” He pointed at the bathtub in the corner.
He was already peeling his own clothing off. She tried not to stare at him. He was so beautiful on the outside, but on the inside, he was a wasteland.
Mina sat on the edge of the tub while Brian got in the shower. She watched as blood spattered the walls and swirled down the drain. When he was clean, he said, “Join me.”
She was shaking when she got inside the shower. He ignored it and shackled her to the wall. He stared at her for a long time as the water ran off him. Then he began to work the soap into a lather between his hands. Then those soapy hands were on her, caressing and bathing. Instead of cleaning her body, she wished he could scrub the images of what had just happened in the cell from her mind.
He lingered over her breasts, kneading and rubbing them more than was necessary to get clean. Her body melted into his, surrendering as it always did. He spent an equally long time on her ass. Her breathing deepened as he stroked between her legs.
“Please don’t do this,” she whimpered. “Please stop making me feel things with you. I can’t handle it anymore. I can’t keep pretending I can deal with any of this.”
He gripped her throat and stared into her eyes, daring her to close them and shut him out again. But she was too smart for that now. He might not beat her, but he’d shown he had no problem choosing someone to take her place.
“If you didn’t disobey my clear orders this wouldn’t have happened. It gives me no pleasure to see you tormented, but you will not defy me. You will obey me in all things no matter how small my command. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Master,” she whispered.
Even if she were perfect it wouldn’t matter. He’d still hurt others. He just wouldn’t be doing it for her disobedience. She wouldn’t be the direct cause of it. But he would do it. And she’d be forced to share a bed with him each night while he carefully stroked and kissed and licked her and she returned his favors. He would touch her as if she were hand-blown glass. Then he’d beat and fuck others like they were trash.