He must have known she’d be leaving without him ever getting to dip his wick in her. She couldn’t say she was very upset about that. She tried not to look smug as he pushed her on the treadmill.
Later Annette talked her through the events for the following day and how she was to behave and what she was to say.
That night all three of them used her. They took her into the large bathroom on the first floor with the Jacuzzi tub large enough to hold them all. They bathed her and fucked her, repeatedly. By the end of the night she was so well-used, she was a languid heap of pleasured nerve endings.
Each of them pressed a kiss to her cheek before leaving her to sleep. But she didn’t sleep. She couldn’t. She’d tried so hard that night to float away, to not experience any of it too strongly. Even though she’d come so many times she lost count, she’d tried to remain detached because the thought of never seeing any of them again, of going off to become the property of another, was too difficult.
Vivian laid awake, staring at the ceiling, tossing and turning until she finally couldn’t stand it any longer and kicked the blankets off. They’d stopped chaining her to the wall at night because she never gave them reason to think they couldn’t trust her.
She’d never explored the mansion after dark. She’d never felt the compulsion, and she’d been afraid of the consequences. Now, punishment didn’t matter as much. Please them or displease them, they’d decided to sell her.
Some rich, entitled man had watched videos of her fucking and being trained, had chosen her to belong to him and agreed to pay their price. They’d done the proper background checks, no doubt.
Anton would have gone to extra trouble to check out the buyer, ensuring he was safe, kind, and fair. As much as those things were possible in this situation. He would have made sure the buyer could give her what she needed.
The floor was cold on her feet as she slipped through the house. She crossed through the cafeteria and out to the breezeway. When Vivian got outside, she looked up at the stars and breathed in the fresh air. The pretty illusion of freedom.
The edge of the property line seemed to call to her. Lindsay had walked her out there one day, showing her where the bracelet would be set off, the point where she’d be considered a runaway. After that day she’d never come near the line.
But tonight she stood here, less than a foot from the spot that would wake the whole house. She sat in the grass, staring at the boundary. She knew she couldn’t escape. That wasn’t the point.
If she did it, they’d punish her. They’d believe she wasn’t fit to be sold. How much time would that buy her?
The grass stirred and she jumped. Lindsay sat and pulled her against his chest. “Couldn’t sleep?”
“No, Sir.” She knew he heard the tears in her voice.
“Crossing that line wouldn’t allow you to stay. It would only make us disappointed in you. I know you don’t want to go. I don’t want you to go, but the sale has gone through. Money has exchanged hands. It can’t be undone, and even if it could, Anton wouldn’t undo it.”
They sat that way for a long time, until finally he stood and helped her to her feet. “Come. You can sleep in my room tonight.”
Without a word she followed him up the sloping hills back to the side entrance, then through the enormous house and up to the second floor to his room at the end of the long, silent hallway. When they were behind the door, he pushed the button on the wall to turn the water on for the plants.
She collapsed into the bed, exhausted, and closed her eyes. His arm came around her, and she drifted to sleep while the rain came down.
Vivian woke to the sounds of arguing. Gabe and Lindsay. She looked back and forth between the two as if she were watching a ping pong tournament. Gabe was angry she hadn’t been in her room. Cursing and heated words were exchanged, and then he grabbed an unresisting Vivian out of bed.
Lindsay slammed the bathroom door without a word or glance back. That was her goodbye to him. Then Gabe got her into the shower back in her room. His hands slid over her body, all cold business. She wanted to lash out at him, yell something about the fact that he’d wanted to have her in the shower, and now he wasn’t taking advantage of their last moments together.
But she didn’t. They’d trained her too well, and even now, she couldn’t bring herself to rebel enough to make one of them disappointed in her during her last hours in the house. Gabe didn’t try to have sex with her or even get a blow job out of the deal. He didn’t allow her to wash him. He just cleaned and dried her off.
He went to the dresser drawer and tossed a corset, panties, and garter belt at her, along with some fuck-me pumps. “You’re leaving with your master in this, today,” he growled.
Then he, too, was gone.
Vivian stood, stunned. She was scared enough about what was about to happen and neither Gabe nor Lindsay could be bothered to get out of their heads and their own issues. An hour later Annette brought her breakfast and asked if she was okay.
It seemed to be a rhetorical question because when Vivian tried to get into a conversation with the other woman, she looked like a doe caught in headlights and made an excuse to leave.
Soon after, when her nerves were completely frazzled, her mouth was dry, and she thought she might faint or cry or scream or all three, Anton walked into the room. He looked like he didn’t want to let her go either.
“Please, Sir . . . let me stay.”
He shook his head. “I’m afraid that’s not an option, flower. You’ll understand in time.” Then he said the words that made her blood run cold and her entire world pause.
“He’s waiting for you in the showroom.”
The showroom. Annette had told her about this. When they sold a slave, they presented her in a lovely room and paraded her around, making a grand show and ritual of changing ownership from the house to the buyer. Vivian guessed the buyer earned that much with the amount of money they forked over.
She crawled across the floor to Anton, pressed her lips against his boots, dripping tears onto them. “Please don’t do this.”
He bent and attached a collar around her neck. It wasn’t leather like the one Annette wore; it was platinum with aquamarine stones set inside the band. It was the most gorgeous piece of jewelry Vivian had ever laid eyes on. It didn’t even look like bondage-wear, at least not until a ring was attached around it, and then a leash. Anton unlocked the cuff from her wrist that kept her on the property.
She was looking down at her bare wrist and didn’t see the blindfold until it covered her eyes. Annette had said this was the way things went, and yet she still wasn’t prepared for how off-balance it made her, to not be able to steal a glance into the eyes of the man who bought her, to see if there was something human in him she could trust.
Anton jerked on her leash a little, and she knew she’d never see his face again. The trip down the hallway seemed to take forever. He let her walk until they got to the showroom because it was down one level.
When they arrived, Anton said, “down,” and she dropped to her hands and knees. He led her across the plushly carpeted floor and stopped.
“May I present your slave, Vivian.”
She groped in the darkness and bent to kiss the shoes of the stranger. “Master, this slut is yours,” she said, sure she’d pass out and thankful that was all she had to say.
“If you have any trouble, you may bring her back for further training. We’ll check in with you in a couple of weeks to make sure you’re happy with your purchase.”
Anton’s footsteps receded softly over the carpet.
There was silence for a long time. She heard a glass being filled and muffled whispers. She knew the man who’d bought her was being served a drink, perhaps something to eat.
The truth of the latter was confirmed when his hand pressed a bit of food to her mouth. A strawberry. She opened and ate it while he ran a hand over her. After several minutes, he stood and tugged on her leash.
This was r
eally happening. If the blindfold hadn’t been over her eyes, she would have felt the edges of the room go dark anyway. Such was the level of her panic. When they got to the entryway of the mansion and the hard, marble floor, he gripped her gently by the elbows and brought her to stand. Then he led her the rest of the way outside.
The man helped her into the back of a car and joined her, then he tapped on the glass, and the driver started the engine. She felt the car lurch away, taking her to god knew where. He slipped off her panties, then his fingers were inside her.
In spite of the circumstances and her anxiety, her body fired up like the well-trained machine it was. Vivian was immediately wet and flushed, knowing she was dripping down his hand, that he would know what a horny little slut she was, even without yet seeing his face. He could look like a scruffy cave dweller, and it probably wouldn’t matter.
His thumb flicked against her clit while his fingers pumped inside her, and she began to climb toward her orgasm in earnest. “Master, please,” she gasped out. She’d had to fight to remember not to call him Sir, that this wasn’t one of her trainers, though that was what she’d been fantasizing. The fantasy had been easy to engage in with the blindfold still shutting out the world and her new reality.
“Yes, come for me, Vivi.”
She froze.
Michael. She reached to remove the scrap of black fabric from her eyes, her emotions so torn she didn’t know what to think or do. The urge was strong to start yelling at him, screeching as the banshee rose from the dead to take her indignant revenge for this betrayal. Because it must have been planned. If he’d come to rescue her, he wouldn’t have started fingering her like that in the car when she was still scared, not knowing who he was.
His free hand gripped her wrist hard before she could take off the blindfold. “I don’t believe I gave you permission to do that. Come like I asked, or there will be consequences.”
His hand was still grinding against her heat, harder, punishing the swollen nub he’d been expertly manipulating. Had he taken a class or had she really been that shut down before? Her stomach tightened in response to his words and the way he handled her. Then despite all her jumbled emotions, despite the relief of being back with him, loving him, hating him, wanting him, being repulsed by him, she came, dripping in the back seat of the limo.
Michael kissed her, and she opened to him. She melted against his body in post-orgasmic bliss, her mind still whirring over what he’d done. The audacity of it. The fucked-up evil of it. The fact that she was wetter than she remembered ever because of it. He ripped the blindfold off her face and they just stared at each other for a long moment.
They were on the main road now, the tinted windows blocking out the sunlight and protecting the world from their debauchery. The look he gave her was so heated, so savage, she had to look away.
Tears filled her eyes. “Michael, why . . . ”
A hand cracked hard against her thigh. “Not Michael. Never Michael again. Master. And that’s exactly why. Even with everything I’ve set in motion, you still can’t believe it. You want to see me as your tame little husband. No more.”
He held up a hand to stop her from speaking. She had a feeling if she pushed him, he’d put a gag in her mouth so he could say what he had to say. She was desperate for answers, and a little scared. What was this man capable of, and how had she never seen it? Had he just snapped one day? Even with his business tactics she never would have believed he’d take anything this far.
“We weren’t happy, Vivi. We were dying in that sanitized little world we created. I wanted more. I wanted this.”
He pulled her panties up, then pushed her onto her knees in front of him while he petted her hair. The display of power imbalance was not lost on her.
“Why didn’t you just tell me? Why bring others into it?”
“Because it wouldn’t be real. And even if it was, you wouldn’t accept it. You wouldn’t believe in it. Do you know what I’d have to do to you to make you truly understand your new place with me? I’d have to punish you so severely you’d always fear me. We’ve been so normal and vanilla our whole marriage that springing this on you now . . . you never would have accepted it.”
“You could have tried. You could have given me a choice.”
“You had a choice. You kept going back to Anton. You wanted the things he did to you. I saw the way your eyes lit up the few times I got angry with you and didn’t let you push me around, but it didn’t matter. You would have fought me. Anton, Gabe, and Lindsay are friends of mine. They offered to train you so I wouldn’t have to break you myself.”
She stared at his feet. “You’re fucking crazy,” she whispered
He sighed. “And you’re planning your escape.”
“Hell yes, I am.”
“Lindsay warned me this might happen. Do not push me, Vivi. I love you, but don’t think for one minute I’ll tolerate you giving me an ounce less respect than you gave those men.”
“Love. Do you even know what love is?”
“We’ll deal with this when we get home.”
When they arrived at the house, he had to drag her inside.
Michael led her down the hallway toward the basement. He retrieved a key and unlocked the door, then she was being pushed downstairs. Her eyes widened when she got to the bottom. He’d turned it into a dungeon.
“How long have you been working on this?” she asked.
“Months.”
The level of premeditation shouldn’t have shocked her, but it did. He removed the leash and took the little ring off. Now it looked like any other piece of expensive jewelry. “You will never remove this collar without my permission. Do you understand me?”
“Yes,” she mumbled, still not meaning it.
“Yes, what?”
“Yes, Master.”
He attached cuffs to her wrists, and then raised them over her head to attach to a sturdy metal hook in the ceiling.
She could feel his anger pulsing off him as he ripped her panties off and went to get a cane. The first whack made every nerve ending in her body light up and cringe away from him.
“Who do you belong to?”
She shook her head. “This is abuse. This is fucking abuse. You sick fucking bastard.”
Michael moved to stand in front of her, his hand gripping her throat. She tried to avoid his eyes, didn’t want him to see the lust in them. Didn’t want to feel the lust at all.
“Look at me or I promise you will regret it. You know what I’m capable of now.”
She turned her gaze to his, letting him have the full force of her hatred.
“Is this abuse, Vivi? Or is it abuse to just let you rot away and die like you were doing? Did you like that feeling? Do you want to live a lie with me while we both fucking rot away from the inside? Or do you want something real? TELL ME!”
“I can’t . . . this is wrong.”
“I watched the videos. I saw everything that went on with you and them. I saw how you surrendered. I saw the wanton, slutty way you behaved. I jerked off to it every night. This is in you. You’ll give it to them, to strangers, but not your own goddamned husband?”
“They didn’t betray me. They were bad to begin with. I thought you were better than that.”
He wrapped his arms around her, burying his head in her neck. “Oh, I can be good. Submit to me and you’ll never doubt it again, but you had to see what lengths I would go to. You are mine. You will acknowledge you are mine. I am your master, and if you don’t learn it today, you’ll go back to the house and be trained until you do learn it.”
She wanted to give in. So badly. What he’d done was so wrong, but the throbbing between her legs hadn’t stopped since he’d revealed himself in the limo. So who was the sick fuck? Him or her? Both of them? Who the fuck cared anymore?
She’d wanted the safety of Michael but the control of Anton. And now the reality slammed home that he could give her both. Was she really willing to throw it all away? For what? F
or pride? For some philosophical viewpoint on rights? For social acceptability?
The tears sprang from her eyes, wetting his suit.
“That’s it, Vivi. Let it out. Who do you belong to?”
“You, Master.” She felt the little surrender, the first small step to bonding with him, as she’d bonded with her trainers. Though this would be more, and that both thrilled and scared the hell out of her.
“Good girl,” he cooed in her ear. His hand moved down to cup her sex. “Who does this belong to?”
“You, Master,” she said, her voice stronger this time.
“From this point onward, your body’s responses belong to me and whoever I share you with. Whether I want you to go for a week without coming or come every ten minutes, you’ll do it because you’re mine.”
“Share?”
“We’re going to be alone like this for about a month. When you’ve fully bonded to me, once a week I’ll send you to the house to play. You are my slut, and you’ll spread your legs for whoever I say. If I want to add more people to that list I will, and you’ll gladly comply. Are we clear?”
“Yes, Master.”
He chuckled at the breathy way her voice came out. “Such a dirty slut. I should have done this a long time ago.”
“So you didn’t really pay them?”
“I paid them to train you. They’re running a business, and I don’t mooch off my friends.”
The silence stretched between them for several minutes. “Vivi, I’m giving you one freebie. I won’t punish you because I understand why you’re upset and why you feel you have to fight so hard. But don’t believe I’ll go easy on you. Forget our previous relationship. It doesn’t exist. I am the man who bought you today. You’re safe with me, but I won’t let you use my love for you against me.”
She sagged in the chains, making bargains with herself. She told herself she’d surrender to him for a week, maybe two and see how it went. She could always leave him. But even as she thought it, she knew she wouldn’t go anywhere. She was only appeasing the newly risen banshee, shutting her up so she could quietly kill her again, this time forever.