Bind and Keep Me, Book 2 (24 page)

“Such a pretty show underneath this red dress. What are you, girl? Hmm?” He leaned in on me, undid the clasp, and took one wrist to the small of my back, then the other, and fastened them together again. “Tell me your name.” He left his hand on my back, fingers splayed, warm and heavy.

I did what I’d done so many of the recent times when he’d played with me, I sank into acceptance. I had a small epiphany. That word he wanted me to say no longer meant what it should. I rolled it around in my mind, tasting it, imagining how it would sound on my tongue.

Like the cat they had given me food and shelter and love, at least from Jodie, maybe even companionship before they saw that video, before Klaus decided I needed training. And, if I got hurt, I knew beyond doubt that they’d help me, because Klaus had. That first day he’d marked me, but every day he’d checked them all.

“Tell me what you are?”

“I’m your fucktoy,” I murmured.

Silence for a few seconds then he lifted his hand from my back and combed his fingers softly through my hair from the nape upward. “Oh, good girl. That’s a very good girl.”

I was tempted to thank him, but I didn’t. Instead I turned my head to the side and let him pat me while he stirred me down there with his fingers. I moved my thighs a little farther apart.

The crunch of feet on grass warned me of her approach. It had to be Jodie.

“Hello, Steph. You okay?”

After steeling myself, I turned and looked up at her. She squatted nearby, her arms on her thighs, hands dangling between. Casual, yet alert.

What a question. I could go on for hours about that, but then she knew what Klaus was like. She’d let him. I’d dreaded seeing hate, perhaps. Yet unlike in Klaus, where I saw dominance, desire and that contained aggression of his, in Jodie, overlaying everything, I saw an element of kindness.

“I’m good.”

“Uh-huh.” She nodded. The tweak of her lips at one corner and softness around her eyes—sadness?

Oh boy.

“I think she wants to tell you something, gorgeous.” Then Klaus slipped out from under me, standing up before he grabbed me and set me on my knees.

“What do you want to say?” Her denim shorts set off the curves of her hips and her little yellow top formed around her breasts so well I could see her nipple outlines. Her auburn hair draped in crisp curls about her shoulders and her lips were blushing red and pretty enough to make me wish I could climb on her body to kiss her. I sighed and hung my head. Before Klaus could tell me to look up, I did so, meeting her gaze again.

Yeah, sadness was there.

I had my hands tied behind me, her partner had been fucking me in their basement, and yet I felt as if I was in the wrong. Damn. I shook my head, wishing the lump in my throat would take a hike. Maybe I was. Guilty. I’d been a fool, and look where it had gotten me. I cleared my throat.

“I’m sorry, Jodie. That’s what I want to say. I know I said that before, but I hope that now you’ll accept it. Please?”

Slowly, she nodded. “I accept your apology. You understand that you made me very unhappy? I wonder, does that even matter to you?” The little frown line between her eyes made me want to smooth it away.

“It does.” I nodded, with my bottom lip sucked in and between my teeth. How to convince her? “I am sorry. Even though this is…” I shut my eyes for a second. “So very, very weird. I am sorry.”

“Okay.” She laid her hand on top of my head and stroked me. That simple touch let me breathe again.

“Thank you.” Then I managed to knee walk forward and lean down to kiss her knee.

“Oh Steph, baby.”

I smiled at her.

“I told you to call Jodie, ma’am. I’ll let it pass this time. She has more to tell you. Go ahead, girl.”

Oh god, he wanted me to say that again?
I grimaced. I had said it to him but now, reluctance surfaced. Say it out loud to her? I couldn’t do it. “I can’t. I’m sorry, Sir,” I whispered, keeping my focus on her neck level. Shit. Chicken? He was going to punish me for this but I just
couldn’t
say it to her.

“What is it, Sir? What’s she supposed to say? Oooh. Wait. I get it. That?” Amusement swelled from her last words. “I love you, Sir, but I can see she’s not ready for this. To defy you on this, hmmm. Brave. Are you embarrassed Steph?”

Her fingers tightened in my hair and drew my head back so I had to look into her eyes.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. I squirmed.

She was laughing at me.

“She said it to me. You can say what you want her to do. I like watching you and her with your smaller ways of domming her.”

“Domming?” She tsked. “Ha. Guess I am. Shh. It’s okay. You don’t have to.” Her other hand settled around my chin, each finger delicately arranged there as if she was figuring where to put them. Then, while she watched me avidly, she sneaked her thumb onto my bottom lip and brushed along me there, sending a tingle southward.

“You’re so pretty. So different to Klaus. I don’t need you saying you’re my fucktoy because I’d rather have you as my pet. It’s cuter, like you,” she breathed. Then she took my mouth. Kissing me softly at first then harder, urgently.

I moaned into her mouth, taking in her desire like it was the very air that kept me alive. Wanting her to want me. Loving that she thought I was her pet.

Klaus came in behind me, caging me with his legs outside mine and his big hands above my elbows, trapping my arms even more thoroughly. “You two, doing this, is so hot.”

My body relaxed into his grip and I gasped, mouth parting at the probe of her tongue. While I was still lost in the kiss Jodie pressed on me, he bit my neck and growled, “Ours. You’re ours. Whatever we call you, that’s what you are. Whatever we ask you to do, you will. You’re fucking ours, from now on.”

I couldn’t move at all. I shut my eyes and let them bite and kiss me, rocking my body. The knowledge wiped out my self-awareness, forcing away my thoughts. I was nothing. I was a possession caught between two predators lusting over their next kill. A conquered thing.

For all of us, settling back into having Steph upstairs brought a few hiccups. Should we let her in the bedroom again? We did. Klaus even told her to sleep at the bottom of our bed. In the middle of the night, she rolled off the bed. I woke up, startled, with my hand on my heart listening to it thump and wondering what the noise had been. Then her head popped up above the edge and we erupted into small giggles. I helped her back into bed, amazed that she’d not woken Klaus. But he had been working late.

Before going to work in the morning, he made a joke about eliminating the problem by building a cage under the bed.

At least, I’d thought he was joking, until I found a webpage link to exactly that—a cage built under a tall bed with steps leading down from it. The cage even had a mattress inside.

I looked up.

Steph sat opposite me, across the glossy timber expanse of the dining table, doing her old job of picking out relevant research for articles. We were both doing it, except I had the internet connected. Her laptop had all the internet programs disabled and the Wi-Fi passworded. Only a nerd geek genius could get it going again, or so Klaus and I thought.

We hadn’t spoken much about the previous week. Yet. I turned my laptop around and pushed it toward her. The picture of the bed was in the center of the screen.

“How about that for a bed?”

She peeked at it, then at me. “Is that a cage underneath?”

I nodded.

“For a person?”

“Yep. What do you think of that?”

“Umm. Different? People do that?”

I retrieved my laptop. “Which? Go into one to sleep? Or tell someone else to do it? Some people in the BDSM community have slaves. Some would do this happily for their masters.”

Why had I shown it to her? I didn’t want her inside one of these, did I? Though Klaus might. I mulled over my reasons but my subconscious was stubborn.

“Why did you show me that,” she asked quietly.

Nail on the head. Why? Maybe because such a bed said permanence, if we had one. That idea tantalized me.

“You know I can’t stay.” She nodded slightly, agreeing with herself, but her forehead crinkled as if in concern. “He said he was going to have to let me go somewhere far away. Truthfully, that’s scary, though maybe, not as scary as going to jail.”

“Yes. Jail…I want to avoid that too. He hasn’t told me a lot either yet. I don’t know what he plans, though I wish things were different.”

What a mess we were still in. I didn’t want her to go away. A heaviness settled in my stomach. I ran through her words. Both of us seemed to be going off on strange subconscious tangents. Questioning her was risky, but I needed to
know
.

“Steph, you said
can’t
, not
I’m not
. Does that mean, perhaps, you’d like to stay?”

The room stilled. My ears strained to hear words she hadn’t yet said.

“I…” She shook her head. “No. Just no. Fuck, no. I’m not crazy like you.” The heavy feeling in my stomach turned to illness. “Oh! I mean, I don’t want pain, like you. I’m sorry, ma’am.” As she spoke, her forehead went from smooth to frowning and back again.

Poor perplexed thing. I smiled weakly. “Don’t call me ma’am. I don’t want that. Just Jodie. But I do expect respect, pet.” I gave her a second to think. “Thank you for apologizing.”

“It’s not you though. It’s Klaus. If it were just you, I might. I really might.”

“Okay.” Was that desire or love I saw in her eyes? Was what I felt shared? Klaus thought I dommed her, but how pitiful was it for a Domme to feel so useless, so infatuated?

I pushed back my chair and went around to her side then hopped up on the table, swinging my legs a little as I contemplated her. I pulled the shoestring strap on my dress into a comfier spot as I thought. What if she wasn’t so afraid of Klaus? Would she stay?

“This table,” I patted the varnished timber. “Was where Klaus first really tied me up and figured out he liked dominating me. Then we both worked out that he liked giving pain and I liked receiving it, and how much and why and over many months we figured our kinks out. But you’re new.” I reached out and placed my hand over hers. “You’re only just figuring out what you like.” I was assuming she wanted to learn. I guess I was assuming a lot of things.

Her mouth was open, her head raised, and she was staring a little crazily. What had I just done?

Clearly, with us, she’d fallen into the submissive role, but where was I going with this argument? It was like I’d found a string on a forest floor and I dreamed it would lead me to some magical place. Now I was following that trail of string, hoping.

“You do want me to stay with you, don’t you?” she whispered. “And you know I can’t though? There’s so many things. To start with, Klaus has other ideas. Then there’s…”

She scowled and looked down at her lap then up at me again. “There’s yesterday. I’d almost forgotten what the sun looked like. You know? I mean if I walk out into that street now, am I going to be recognized? I don’t want to be locked up in a room for my whole life.”

Damn. I drew back. I hadn’t thought of that. Obvious though. Where could she go if she did live with us? The back yard? Facial surgery wasn’t an option like in Hollywood movies.

I squeezed her hand, overcome by a whole lot of regret. “Yes, people would recognize you. There’s posters up all over the island and the mainland, and pictures on the news.” I heaved out a breath. “Facebook even.” Her stepbrother had only flown out a few days ago and he’d stirred up a lot of sympathy for her. Though the papers still speculated that she was a murderer.

“Huh. I thought so, but what I said was true.” She looked sideways at me, face tilted in a cute way. “I would stay with
you
. I’ve been keen on you since uni.”

“Oh.” My heart lit up. “Oh my, Steph. You never said.” From here I could see down the top of her dress and I smiled. The naughty things we could have done if I’d known of her infatuation.

“Yeah.” She toyed with a pen, spinning it. “I was a coward. I tried getting you into bed with me once even, when you were drunk. Guess I never learned that was bad. I have now, though.” She leaned down and laid her cheek against the back of my hand. “I’m sorry how all this has worked out. I’m so lost that I don’t even know anymore how to figure it all out.”

Despite the ache as tears threatened, I drew my other hand through her black tresses, separating the locks with my fingers, watching them flow over my skin. “Me too, Steph. Me too. Maybe I could ask Klaus if you can stay? There might be a way.”

After a second she answered, “No, don’t. It’s just a silly dream. I couldn’t handle being around him permanently even if there was a way. I’m like a mouse compared to him. He’s some feral robotic love machine programmed to make women scream and come. Sorry, but that’s my take on it.”

“Oh?” Her criticism annoyed me and I tugged at her hair. “You’re not gone yet you know, pet. You’re to respect him even when he isn’t here. Understood?”

She stiffened. “But, I thought maybe you were setting me free soon?”

How fickle. To say she’d stay if she could and yet be so desperate to leave.

“No. You don’t go free until Klaus decides to do it. In the meantime, remember your place.” I wound a coil of her hair in tight until she winced. “In the bedroom, we’re not equals. Even out here, if I decide to get you naked so I can play with you, I will. Understood?” I pinned her hair down to the table then did something I never thought I would. I slapped her lightly on the upturned cheek.

Shock widened her eyes, and I imagined the thoughts chasing themselves in her head. I’d been there. I knew. I wanted, more than anything, to see her surrender to me as I did to Klaus. I didn’t break eye contact, I didn’t move, and finally she seemed to give in. A change in her expression? A small relaxation of her posture? There was something. I saw it.

“I’m sorry,” she squeaked. “I’m sorry, Jodie.”

“Good. Now stand up and come here.” I patted the side of my thigh.

When she did exactly that I enfolded her, hugging her for a while, soaking up the feel of her in my arms. The day would come when I couldn’t do this, when she would go. I arranged her so she was looking at me from an inch away. “I like when you’re like this. When you submit to me like you do with Klaus.”