Love Lies Dying (47 page)

She smiled, turned away from him and walked from the gazebo. John watched her go, waiting for the leash to lengthen and grow tight. When he felt it tug on the collar, he followed her lead and walked forward across the gazebo and down the steps onto the tennis court.

He followed her at a distance, watching her braids swing in the air as she turned her head from side to side, looking around her.

What’s she looking for?

The sun shined and warmed his whole body now. The numbness and cold from last night had completely evaporated from him. Although the constant dull pain from his injuries remained.

But playing her game was starting to pay off. Soon she would make a mistake and John would be free.

Soon they were on the paved path heading back towards the church. John looked down at the pavers and concentrated as he felt them under his bare feet.

Was this the way we came last night? It feels like it. But the pathway is too short. It took much longer to get to the gazebo, I’m sure of it. Even though I had the hood on. We must’ve gone a different way. But why?

The path rose up a slight incline.

I don’t remember walking down a decline last night. We couldn’t’ve come this way! It’s not possible!

John turned his head, looking for any sign of another path nearby that he may have missed Saturday night in the dark. But he couldn’t see one. He slowed down as he did so, and paid for his lapse of concentration by a sharp tug on the leash.

He stumbled forward and continued walking. His eyes fixed on Zoe’s back as she pulled him along. He watched her arse jiggle from side to side as she walked and that brought back memories of how she looked naked, how she felt yesterday as her wet hot flaps covered his face.

Soon, they reached the clearing and John could see the side of the church in the sunlight for the first time. It looked older than he expected, more weathered. Moss and vines covered much of the stonework, but had been pruned from around the windows. The roof was rusting in places.

He was relieved to see the church again as he knew that it housed his best chance of escape.

Zoe tugged once more on the leash and they began to walk around the side of the church.

The sunlight continued to shine and the rays reflected off the stained-glass windows, blinding John as he walked past them.

He looked up into the sky to find the sun overhead.

Probably around midday.

Half of Tuesday gone already.

He wondered if anyone had missed him. He wondered if there was a panic at work.

There would be.

I hope so.

Someone must be panicking.

And what about Helen? People will wonder where she is when she doesn’t arrive for work again too.

Yes! That’s right.

Helen! Oh, my poor Helen.

How could that bastard just kill you like that? I swear to you, Helen. I’ll avenge you if it’s the last thing I do. I owe you that much.

Zoe stopped at the front door of the church.

John walked the few feet between them and then stopped by her side. He looked over at the Jeep. It was facing down the driveway and away from the church. Its mud guards and tyres were covered in dust and dirt.

Zoe opened the church door, turned to smile at John, and then stepped inside.

John followed.

It was cooler inside and it took John’s eyes a few seconds to adjust to the darkness. As he walked to the centre of the main room, he turned his head around, surveying everything as quickly as possible.

It all looked the same as yesterday. The cutlery was still spread on the kitchenette counter, the glass he had drunk from was there too, and the phone.

The phone!

The ropes still hung limp around the large wooden table and the metal chair sat nearby with the handcuffs draped across one of the arms. He looked across past the wooden railing dividing the main room and the bedroom. Neither of the beds had been slept in.

Zoe turned to face him.

“I’ve got to leave you now, Johnny,” she said.

“
What?
”

“Not for long,” she replied, pulling on the leash and dragging him towards the wooden table.

No, not that again!

“Why?”

“You’re hungry, and I’ve got to get you some food,” she replied as she reached the table, turned around and jumped up to sit on it. “I went down to the store at Hepburn Lakes earlier, but it wasn’t open.”

Here’s your chance!

She looked at him with a strange expression. John almost believed she had heard his thought.

“Why do people in these country places insist on having totally weird shopping hours?”

John shrugged his shoulders, “No idea.”

“So, if I head back now, they should be open,” she continued. “And I’ll get us both some food. But that means I have to leave you here.”

John’s eyes dropped to the ground. “I wish you wouldn’t,” he said in a soft voice.

Zoe nodded, “I know, I know. But it won’t be long. Twenty minutes, half an hour at the most.”

Damn it, here’s your chance!

John raised his head and met her eyes, “You promise?”

She smiled back a wicked smile and bit her bottom lip, “I promise.”

John nodded, “Okay. I
am
slightly hungry anyway.”

Zoe giggled as she slid off the table and walked towards him. She reached out and touched his cheek lightly, and then turned around and slapped her hand on the table.

“You better climb up,” she said.

John took a step backwards.

Zoe jerked on the leash.

“
Climb up
, I said,” she ordered.

John looked into her eyes.

“Please, Zoe,” he begged. “Not the table again.”

“I said,” she continued slowly. “Up on the
table
.”

“But I was on that yesterday and I’ve been standing all night. I’m exhausted. My legs and feet are killing me.”

“So?”

“Couldn’t I lie down, even for a few minutes, on one of the beds? Please?”

Zoe turned her head and looked over at the beds.

She’s thinking about it!

“
Please?
” he asked again. “If you’re only gone for twenty minutes, that could be twenty minutes I can use to relax and rest. Then, when you get back we can start again.”

She turned to face him, her eyes cutting through him as her smile grew.

“You promise?” she asked.

John nodded.

“I’ll have to tie you up still. Probably to the bed and the railing.”

“I know.”

“And I’ll only be gone twenty minutes.”

“I understand.”

“You promise to be here when I get back?” she asked, worry creeping onto her face now.

He nodded.

“Promise?” she asked again.

“Zoe, where am I going to go?” he stepped towards her. “You’ll have the Jeep. I’m not going anywhere because there’s nowhere to go. I want to stay here. I’ll be here when you get back, I promise.”

“Really?”

“Really! I want to be here when you get back. And we can do anything you like.”

She smiled at him then.

“Anything?”

“Anything!” he smiled.

You’re mad!

Shut up, I know what I’m doing.

“Okay,” she said.

John sighed deeply.

She tugged on his leash and walked towards the beds.

John smiled and followed her.

This is my best chance.

So don’t blow it.

I won’t.

You better not.

Trust me, nothing can go wrong. Nothing!

But John was dead wrong.

Forty-four

“It’s all about love, Johnny,” she began as she tied his ankles to the end of the bed; running the rope around the bed legs and then tying them off at his ankles. “What we can have and what we can’t.”

He didn’t understand what she was talking about, but he let her continue as he relaxed on the soft bed. The mattress held his weight perfectly and he found himself relaxing and closing his eyes. His body needed the rest.

Keep alert.

I am.

Concentrate!

Just let me lie here for a minute or two, I’ll be alright.

“It’s like the key ring I gave you,” she continued as the knots grew tighter around his bare ankles.

Key ring?

John was listening intently now.

“You wear your keys on your right hip to prove you are mine. I wear my keys on my left hip, to show I own you.”

“I’ve got nothing to wear them on at the moment,” he replied.

She giggled, “Don’t worry, Johnny. You won’t be naked forever. Even though I’d like you to be. Your clothes are in the hatch up by the lectern. I’ll get them for you when we’re finished here.”

“Good,” John replied as he opened his eyes and watched her. “And I get the key ring back too?”

She nodded as she walked along to the head of the bed.

“Good,” John replied. “Right hip?”

“Right hip,” she smiled down at him. Her braids fell forward.

“Okay,” he smiled back.

“Do you want a blanket or something?”

John thought about his answer for a second or two and then shook his head. “No, I should be fine just laying here. It’s so comfortable. I think I’ll fall off to sleep as soon as you leave.”

“It’ll be only a short nap.”

“That’s okay, I think I need it anyway.”

He lifted his hands up to her and held them out ready. She took them and pushed them back over his head. His knuckles hit the wooden railing of the room divider and she pushed them down.

“Anyway, the key ring is like the ring in your cock,” she continued. “It proves we belong to each other.”

He felt the cold steel of the handcuffs bite into his left wrist and heard the clattering sound of the teeth as they locked into position.

You’re crazy letting her do this!

I know what I’m doing.

“I was going to pierce your belly button last night, just like mine, so we could be exactly the same,” she said as she pulled on his wrist some more.

He heard the metal snake through the wooden railing and felt his shoulder muscles tense as he was stretched further up the bed.

“But then I saw your cock. It was so inviting, so beautiful just sitting there. I had to pierce it instead. Manhood caged and controlled. It’s such a wonderful thing.”

The metal teeth snapped around his right wrist.

“So now we belong to each other. We’ll be together forever. We’re nearly the same.” She pulled on the handcuffs to make sure the wooden railing would hold. “You’ll get used to it sitting down here. It’ll be such a turn on when we fuck again. You’re not going to believe how good it feels inside me, rubbing up and down.”

“What about the diamond?” John asked, curious now. “I don’t have one of those.”

Zoe smiled at him. “The diamond is just for me.”

“Oh?”

“It serves as a reminder,” her face clouded.

“Of what?”

“Of past events,” her voice sounded small. “Of horrible things that I won’t let happen to me again.”

“I see,” John nodded.

Your time is running out, Fox. I’m going to come and get you for what you did to Zoe and Helen.

“It’s there to remind me of the day I decided to take matters into my own hands and control my own life.”

“Well, it’s beautiful,” John replied, lifting his head and staring at her checked shirt. “Pity I can’t see it right now.”

She smiled at him, “Don’t worry, Johnny. You’ll see it again, plenty of times.”

“Good,” he replied. “Well, I’ll see you when you get back.”

He closed his eyes.

Sleep could be so easy now.

Fight it!

“One more thing,” she said.

“Hmmm?” he said softly, keeping his eyes closed.

He felt her touch his cock again.

She lifted it up.

John smiled to himself as he started to grow once more.

“Any pain?” she asked as she massaged him, being careful to place her fingers under the ring.

“I can’t feel any,” he said, keeping his eyes shut. “It feels okay, actually.”

“Good,” she replied.

She touched the ring, pulled on it slightly.

Two pinpricks of pain charged along his shaft.

John gritted his teeth. But he wasn’t going to tell her it hurt.

She pulled the ring harder.

He could feel the skin lift away from his shaft. As it did so, his erection began to wane and his breathing increased.

Still, he said nothing.

Then the ring shook from side to side violently. He gasped as the pain ran through him.

Opening his eyes, he lifted his head and looked down along his body.

Zoe was tying the leash to the ring.

Her eyes were on his as she did so.

“Sorry, Johnny,” she said. “I just have to make sure you won’t go anywhere.”

No!

After knotting the leash to the ring a couple of times, she lifted the rest of it down between his legs. She walked to the end of the bed and bent down. He could feel the vibrations through the ring as she began tying the leash to the end of the bed.

“You don’t have to do this,” he told her.

“Just as a precaution,” she said.

“Please, don’t!”

She didn’t reply this time.

His body was stretched fully along the bed. There was nowhere for him to move, nowhere to go. The handcuffs held his hands tightly above his head, and his feet were tied, one to each corner of the bed.

The ring pulled more.

His now-limp cock stretched with it.

The leash pulled again.

John gasped as the pain shot through him. He arched his back, but it didn’t help. It felt as if the skin were being ripped from his cock.

“No,” he gasped. His cock stretched more, the ring pulling the skin further.

Then the pulling stopped.

John heard her footsteps as she walked back up the bed.

She came into his view once more as she leaned over and kissed his forehead.

“I won’t be long, my love,” she replied.

He nodded.

“Okay,” he whispered through gritted teeth.

He closed his eyes, trying to will away the pain coursing through the skin of his cock.

It wouldn’t go.

All the relaxation the bed had brought was gone now. His muscles tensed as he stretched his body, trying desperately to move down the bed, to give some slack to the leash pulling on his cock. But it was no use. The handcuffs refused to give another inch as they clattered against the wooden railings, and the rope around his ankles was tied too tightly around the legs of the bed to help him.

He concentrated on the pain and tried every small movement to relieve it. But no matter what he tried, the constant pulling on the ring remained.

He didn’t open his eyes until he heard the car engine.

Help? It’s arrived already?

He looked around for Zoe.

She was gone.

Then he realised it was her. He listened as the Jeep’s engine roared. He heard the tyres on the gravel driveway, and he held his breath until the engine sound died away. 

Silence returned to the church. Only the occasional bird chirp and the sound of the breeze in the trees outside could be heard.

He was alone once more. Tied and bound again.

And he needed to escape.

But he realised he couldn’t.

Zoe had won again.