"kiss me," he said. "and before you say no..." i cut him off by touching my salty lips to his soft, supple mouth. he pulled back slightly at my impulsive boldness. but then i heard him sigh and he leaned back in. i inhaled deeply, ignoring the press of all manner of emotion trying to infiltrate my numbness.

i struggled to make the kiss seem natural, fighting the impulse to turn my face away. his demeanor gentled. he was never gentle when he kissed me. it seemed awkward, but i felt something within him changing. he moaned ever so slightly, a sound i hadn't really heard from him before. he reached for my breast, but then withdrew his fingers. again, restraining himself. without warning, i felt the tiniest surge of something similar to control. i'd been powerless in every encounter with him, but in this moment i knew what he wanted. he wanted me. not just my body, but me. and although, he ruled me for the moment, while he dictated my future, in this one kiss...i owned him. abruptly, he pushed me away.

"good girl," he said softly, but the waver in his voice betrayed a hint of confusion. he stood up, looking down to find me staring directly at him. he smiled and grabbed a handful of my hair. "you shouldn't look at me unless i tell you to kitten, you'll only do yourself harm."

the moment was over. he was in control again, but angry. at having lost himself, even for a fraction of a second? i couldn't help but smile and didn't hide it fast enough. with a sneer, he led me by my hair into the bathroom and bathed me quickly in silence.

after he toweled me down and brushed my hair, he again joined my wrists together, this time in front. "raise your arms," he said sternly. the sudden power in his voice made me jump. he placed his hands around my waist and hoisted my bound wrists over the bedpost. i was slightly distressed in this position, my body stretched tightly on tiptoe. i shivered in my nervousness, waiting for another savage beating to commence. my anxiety rose to a pinnacle as he placed a thick leather blindfold over my eyes.

"please no master, please. it hurts too much." he ran his hands over my br**sts, squeezing my ni**les until they became hard little stones between his fingers. i winced and shifted my weight trying to get free.

"i like to hurt you kitten...it's what gets me off."

i froze, said nothing, waiting for the worst. "i'm not going to gag you, but if you don't keep quiet, i'll put a gag in your mouth so big, you'll forget any pain before it." i bit my bottom lip. i was still standing there, mind blank, long after he'd left the room.

seven

if i concentrated, i could stay on my tiptoes, which lessened the unbearable strain from my shoulders and back. i was my pain and nothing else. no thoughts, no emotions, only a body screaming to be released. my calves twitched with pain and a cramp formed. i pushed all my weight toward the floor, to alleviate the fire in my legs. i twisted this way and that, hoping to find a position that hurt a little less than the one before it. the minutes dragged into endless hours. pain saturated every muscle in my tautly stretched body. i began to whimper softly, which merely grew louder with every breath. panic in, panic out. i had been afraid of being beaten. now i'd let him beat me if only he'd let me go.

a horrifying thought broke through to me. what if he isn't even here? what if he doesn't come back for a long time? how could i stand this kind of torture for another hour, let alone a full night? if it was even nighttime.

i tried to stop being the pain, tried to let my mind conquer my body. i honed in on the sound of my leather bound wrists creaking against the post of the bed. my breathing. the way my body heat had warmed the wrought iron of the bed at my back. i tried to find the peace just beyond the pain, beyond my suffering. just as i had when he'd spanked me - but the trick didn't work for me this time.

every breath i took seemed to make my bonds tighter. i cried. quietly at first, then in loud mewling groans. my stomach turned and i suddenly understood why he didn't gag me...i was going to vomit. i struggled to keep breathing, and thinking soothing thoughts that managed to keep the stomach cramps at bay. the story of my life - keeping the inevitable at bay.

droplets of sweat ran down the well of my br**sts and gathered in my belly button. it agitated me, this feeling of sticky sweat all over. my hair clung to my face, back and sides. it was driving me toward delirium. i shook violently with frustration, every muscle turning to molten pain. then i heard the last thing i expected.

for a moment, i shook it off as a figment of my imagination. i couldn't remember how often in the past i had woken in the dark thinking i'd heard something. i'm imagining things. i stood silently and focused intently on the sounds around me. not being able to see sharpened my hearing, but i couldn't pinpoint the source of the noise. it was everywhere. i kept my breath shallow unwilling to let the sound of my own breath distract from my search. i heard it again. definitely a woman. crying? no, something else. there were screams, yes, some of them reminiscent of pain, but they rode on the wave of something much more primal sounding. sweat beaded on my overheated skin only to grow fat and race across the contours of my body. i strained to hear, but strove not to feel. i listened harder and caught the distinctly loud thud of something hitting what could only be a wall or some other hard, stationary object repeatedly.

i stood still, taking rapid breaths while trying to take in all that surrounded me.

someone was having sex.

was that...caleb? with her, that woman? even as i asked myself, i knew the answer. of course. caleb was having sex.

mother. fucker. heat bloomed across my body. i couldn't breathe. i couldn't scream. but emotion had returned. he had tied me - naked - to a bedpost. to suffer. and he was somewhere in the house f**king some whore's brains out. he wasn't thinking of me. of the pain i was in because of him. he simply did. not. care. hot tears streamed down my face.

i couldn't help but wonder if he was being kind to her. was his face buried between her legs as he had done to me? the thought did unusual things to me. i had never had an orgasm before. never. but he had forced it out of me. what did that mean? i panicked, frantic and trying with all my remaining strength to pull myself loose...nothing.

the other woman's cries had become louder and more guttural. in fact, as i listened - hard, her sounds alternated between soft, low purrs and loud, piercing cries. soft, then loud, without ceasing. i forgot about the pain for a moment, transfixed by the woman's sounds. the harder i listened, the more i seemed able to discern. she seemed to be enjoying it. suddenly, an undercurrent of deeper, heavier moans prevailed.

i remembered those moans from earlier as he lapped at me with his tongue. heat burst throughout my body at the memory - more sweat, more dizziness, more whimpers. shame, pleasure and i hadn't stopped thinking about it. i closed my eyes. why couldn't i just f**king black out? his sounds became a little different, angrier and more labored, a runner trying to finish a race. i grit my teeth and leaned forward for reasons unbeknownst to me. my shoulders burned. my struggling hadn't helped.

the woman screamed, hoarse, rasping screams that seemed to come from deep in her throat. she was yelling something. i wondered if it might be his name. the thought thoroughly irritated me for some reason. here i was, here, in this place, tied to a f**king bedpost like a thing while some other woman screamed his name. no doubt during intense orgasms. meanwhile, i had to call him master. i wasn't allowed to say his name. not even when i came, not that i would anyway, that wasn't the point.

she yelled again and this time i couldn't help whining his name out loud, not in ecstasy like her, but in agony. i'd never said his name before, and i hadn't realized until now. i'd thought of every day since i'd arrived here. he was caleb in my head, always, but i'd never let his name slip past my lips. i said it again, daring myself to call his name a little louder, willing myself to outdo the competition. new aches assailed me, heavy, warm, and wet between my legs. i pressed them together.

"caleb." i groaned.

"caleb!" she screamed.

i pushed forward in my straps, ignoring the pain, ignoring the burning in my legs, anything that distracted me from listening intently. i could hear him. "caleb..." i pressed forward. he was panting, low and hard. his sounds picking up pace even as the strange woman's moans became elongated and alien. panic swelled inside me. the sweat. the f**king sweat, sticking to me, irritating me, driving me toward frenzy i had never felt. if i thought i might be the least bit successful, i may have tried to chew through my arm like a coyote to get free.

"let me go!" i screamed. "let me go!" i cried piteously, panting and sucking in air as fast and hard as i could. i whispered his name. my muscles spasmed. my screams mingled with hers, with his, all of us together in a symphony of pleasure and pain. i heard her peak in one shrill scream that faintly outdid my own. i fainted. finally.

i don't know how long i remained there, vulnerable as i hung, gone to the world.

what i do remember is waking to the feeling of warm and dense weight straddling my thighs. i didn't even feel a twinge of panic. my hair was wet, but clean, smelling of familiar lavender. strong hands pressed my shoulders into the soft mattress beneath me and unable to resist i both moaned with relief and whimpered at the memory of the pain. i knew they were his hands, no matter who touched me in the future, i would always know his hands. what i didn't know, was what to make of it.