Her Submission (14 page)

I don’t want to do this, you can’t make me!

The silent protest didn’t help. Between the relentless camera flash, her burning breasts, and uncomfortable arms, she couldn’t find the courage to say the words aloud. He’d commanded her to stand with her legs far apart so that’s what she did. So far she hadn’t begged—he hadn’t broken her down enough for that—but did it matter?

“
You can do better than that, slave.” He leaned forward and pointed the camera at her crotch.  

No, no, no.

“
What’s this?” he demanded. “Are you refusing?”

Not trusting what might come out of her mouth, she settled for glaring at him. The camera lens shifted to her face. Click, click, click, the flashes practically blinding her. Lost in the cries lodged in her throat, she drew her legs together.

Enough. I’ve surrendered so much. Leave me with—with something.

“
What’s that about?” He sounded mildly curious.

She forced herself to face him. “I can’t. I won’t.”

“
Can’t? Won’t? By the time I’m done with you, you’ll embrace obedience in ways you never believed possible.” He studied her as if she was some specimen that had been presented to him. “Let me guess, you put your parents through hell while you were growing up, always testing the boundaries and breaking them whenever you thought you could get away with it.”

She tried to conjure up images of what her parents looked like but couldn’t. They, like everything else before last night, no longer mattered. Besides, everything he’d said was wrong.

“
You’re trying to embarrass me.” Even as she said the words, she knew they didn’t go far enough. “But I’m not going to play your game.”

He put down the camera. “I don’t play, ever.”

She forced herself to stand her ground when he rose then ground her teeth together as he extended both hands toward her breasts. Something in his expression made her wonder if he admired her courage, and she fed off what might be his newfound respect for her. Then, moving with measured efficiency, he released the tension on the clamps. She shook her breasts free. Renewed blood flow in her breasts forced out a cry. Trembling, she leaned forward and concentrated on breathing through the pain. The small bit of freedom felt wonderful.

“
Damn, damn, damn,” she muttered.

He grabbed the collar ring and forced her onto her toes. “What was that?” He slapped one breast and then the other as she stumbled and swayed. “You were cursing me?”

I don’t know.

The measured blows continued. She shook, not just from pain but the effort to wrench her wrists free. No matter how hard she tried to be quiet, she kept making pitiful sounds.

“
This is the crux of lesson one,” he said conversationally as he concentrated on her left breast. “I’ll warn you to try not to wear yourself out because it’ll take a while. And for the record, I’ll win.”

Win what, she wanted to know.
And what makes you think I need to be taught something?
 

After what like felt forever, the punishment being delivered to her throbbing breast lessened, the time between the blows became longer. Also, he no longer kept her on her toes. Finally, long after she’d forgotten how and why this terrible thing had started, he seized her shoulders and shoved her ass first into the chair where he’d been sitting. If not for her sweat, she might have slipped off the cool leather and onto the floor. Instead she stuck where he’d planted her. She couldn’t think how to straighten so remained slumped with her hands behind her, her breasts burning, and her legs wide apart.

He took more pictures, most of them of what had to be her wasted face. She could barely see for the hair in her eyes.

“
I bore easily,” he informed her. “Long as I’ve been in this business, it takes some doing to keep me entertained and engaged.” He started to turn away from her only to stop and clamp his hand over his left thigh. “Damn. God damn.”

He wasn’t as all-powerful as he wanted her to believe. Somehow, some way, she’d take advantage of that. Maybe.

“
All right,” he said at length. “As I was saying, I occasionally change things up for entertainment purposes, my entertainment anyway.”

She didn’t know what to think when he presented her with his back. Then she realized he was returning to the equipment bag and she sat up straight. Much as she wanted to get to her feet she didn’t because he hadn’t given her permission.

Permission? Had it come to that?

“
No,” she hissed when she saw he had hold of a long, thin whip. “Oh no.”

“
No what? All right, here’s the deal. I
may
alter the punishment part of this lesson if you do exactly as I tell you. For the record, I’m a stern taskmaster.” He snapped the whip so it slashed at the air. “I caution you to conduct yourself in such a way that I don’t feel it’s necessary to demonstrate what I’m capable of. You’ll try to do that, won’t you?”

What kind of insane question was that? “Yes,” she managed.

“
Hmm. That isn’t a complete response. Rest assured, you’ll understand the totality of what’s expected of you by the time we’re finished, if we ever finish. Now—“ He dropped the whip. “Stand up.”

I don’t know if I can.
Much as she longed to throw herself at his mercy, a part of her kept the words locked inside. Maybe they wouldn’t do her any good and she’d have demeaned herself for nothing.

Another in what seemed like endless waves of self-loathing passed through her as she stood. Her legs had weakened in the short period of time she hadn’t been using them. Whether she kept at least some of her sex hidden or not no longer mattered.

“
Now turn around.”

She’d no sooner presented him with her back when he shoved her into the chair. She landed on her knees with her face in the seat. Other than being able to turn her head to the side so she could breathe, she was at his disposal, a fact he drummed into her as he untied her wrists. She didn’t know what to think or how to react when he lifted her arms over her head and started massaging her shoulders. Bit by bit the strain of her arms’ long inactivity was replaced by warmth and lethargy. Maybe she’d been wrong to fear the whip. As long as she did what he wanted, he wouldn’t hurt her.

He might even show her kindness.

She tensed when he brought her arms back down to her sides then slid into a warm and quiet place as he stroked them.

“
Back to work,” he said and slid two rope strands around her elbows. The rope tightened, forcing her elbows closer together. She groaned and twitched under him as the pressure continued. Her elbows weren’t touching but not much separated them. He knotted the rope and then threaded the loose end through the collar at the nape of her neck.

When he unfastened the leather around her waist, she took several deep breaths. It still felt as if she was wearing the too-tight belt.

“
That’s what I mean by changing things up for my entertainment.” He remained so close his thigh pressed against hers—his warm thigh. “Take a moment to assess your new predicament. Then we’ll get back to business.”

Chapter nine

Reno debated helping his new slave to her feet, but if he did, she might think he felt at least a measure of sympathy for her. Determined not to go down that road until and unless he understood himself better, he entertained himself by running the nails of both hands over her sweet, so-available buttocks. At first she twitched and tried to move out of his reach, but much sooner than he’d anticipated, she dropped her head and let the chair support her. He hadn’t bound her elbows particularly tight. This new-to-her position left her hands free but useless which was the point.

At least one point, he amended. Reluctantly taking his leave of her soft buttocks, he pressed a practiced finger against her ass crack.

“
Oh,” she gasped and lifted her head.

When she left it at that, he realized he’d been hoping she’d say more. He wasn’t used to quiet slaves. Most of the time he had to stuff their mouths to keep them from blowing out his eardrums, but even when he’d been slapping this slave-in-training’s breasts, she’d kept things to almost ladylike gurgles.              

“
I’ve called you a slave,” he informed her, “but that’s a general term. It’s time for the specifics starting with taking another assessment of your receptiveness.”

He gave her a few seconds in which to get used to having him at her back door then withdrew the offending digit, reached around her, and touched his forefinger to her mouth.

“
Cover it with spit. It goes without saying that if you try to bite me, you’ll pay for it. Nod if you understand.”

Her head jerked up and down.

“
That’s a step in the right direction.” He worked his finger past her lips and waited for her to part her teeth. There was a good chance she didn’t grasp the depths of what she was doing when she complied. In her mind, she was probably doing what had to be done in an attempt to escape punishment but willingly giving him access to any part of her body said she’d stopped thinking about herself as existing separate from him.

He pushed in until a fingertip touched the roof of her mouth. She jerked and gagged but didn’t try to expel him. Patience hadn’t ever been his virtue, but strangely he wasn’t in a hurry. In truth he still wasn’t sure why he’d brought her into his world.

When she closed her lips around his finger and started coating it, he allowed himself a small truth. He preferred these moments of artificial intensity to what he had planned for next.

Turning her into something with value in the
marketplace
via punishment had become a chore.

“
That’s it.” He encouraged her efforts by patting her ass. “Get every inch wet so it’ll go in easier.”

She stiffened.

“
I can’t have said something you hadn’t already figured out. Damn it, I know you’re smart enough to have put one and one together.”

A ragged sigh escaped her, and after a telling pause, she went back to bathing his finger. Moments like this with a slave had always been a turn on. He hadn’t concerned himself with the specifics of why seeing a slave surrender to the enviable gave him so much pleasure, just that it did.

Today he wasn’t so sure.

Damn it, facing his mortality had really messed him up, kept him from the action so long he’d lost his edge.

His passion for the job.

The hell it had!

Fighting thoughts that had stalked him since he’d nearly died, he pulled out and repositioned himself in preparation for another kind of invasion. The chair was so low he’d be hard pressed to get the alignment right, but the last thing he’d do was kneel behind her. He was her superior, her master. A man with a bad leg.

The instant he
knocked
at her rear door, she bowed her back so her ass dropped a few inches.

“
What the hell are you doing, slave?” He slapped her ass. “Get your bung hole up there.”

“
Why?” she muttered and pressed her forehead to the chair seat. Her buttocks rose as if in invitation. He knew that wasn’t the case, at least not now. If he kept after her, the time would come when she’d beg for things she couldn’t comprehend today.

That’s what today was for, starting to change her, turning her into a sex hungry slut.

His.

“
Why?” he parroted. He positioned his slick finger over the puckered opening and pushed in. “Because I can.”

Her muscles were trying to expel him, but he’d had his finger squeezed enough times that the tightness didn’t surprise him. Eventually, once he’d trained her, he’d fuck her back there, but he saw no reason to risk injury to his cock while she was this raw.

Besides, truth was the damn accident had put his libido on the back burner.

Time to reverse that, starting with climbing back on the slave training saddle. No longer asking himself what the hell his life was about or mucking around in the hell-hole that was his past.

Adding action to anticipation, he continued the invasion. Her legs jumped and twitched and she started breathing as if she was running. He let her turn her head this way and that, figuring she wasn’t getting enough of a look to satisfy her curiosity. Knowing she was trying to keep her ass where he wanted it distracted him from the task at hand. In short her reaction had come to mean more than his.

“
This belongs to me.” He shoved, concentrating on keeping the alignment right as he did. “If want to plug you, you’ll be plugged.” He withdrew a little, pleased by how her anal muscles now struggled to keep him in her. “If I decide to fuck you there, you’ll pull your ass cheeks apart to help accommodate me, got it?”

He’d just hit her with a particularly demeaning comment so wasn’t surprised when she didn’t respond. Curious to see what it would take to break through her emotional barriers, he again changed position and started finger fucking her in earnest. His back protested his position and the harsh movements. More frustrating, his overworked leg howled every time he tried to rest his weight on it.

So he couldn’t spend much time hammering at this particular part of today’s lesson, at least he’d make the best of the moments he had.

“
This is what it’s going to feel like when you get ass fucked.” He plundered and retreated, dove deep followed by protracted withdrawal. “I’m only using one finger so unless you’ve done this a lot, taking my cock will make you feel as if you’re being ripped apart.”

“
Oh, oh, oh.”

Beautiful sounds, ones he’d nearly forgotten during the months of hell.

Relishing in her rapid-fire grunts, he ignored the burning sensations running up his arm. He was strong again, no longer a damn nearly dying weakling. This was what he excelled at, what built him up while at the same time taught his
subjects
the meaning of surrender.