A/N: Talk about the long-awaited chapter! This one has been in the works for weeks! I actually think it's the best chapter yet! Once you finish reading it, go over and read Liyorah's corresponding chapter. I guarantee you'll be blown away! Also, a quick warning, this chapter contains physical as well as mental abuse. Read with caution.
Chapter Six
"James," she whispered, her voice constricted with what I hoped was terror. "James, what are you?"
I smirked, she was clever. But intelligence was not a particularly desirable trait in a woman.
"For me to know, pet," I told her, playfully pressing her nose, "and you to find out."
She looked frightened and I ran my fingers gently through her hair, the gesture probably would have been comforting... if I wasn't handing her a bag full of underwear and hadn't just pretended that I was about to rape her.
"You're not human," she whimpered like a frightened child and I could hear her heart rate accelerate to a dangerously high level. Hmm, I would have to watch that. I would have a lot of explaining to do if I brought Victoria Sutherland, the daughter of a judge who mysteriously disappeared from her apartment in the middle of New York, to a hospital with a serious heart condition that she hadn't shown any symptoms of the twenty or so years of her life.
I laughed "I'm not," I breathed in her ear. "But, with both of our best interests at heart" - not that I had a heart - "I think it would be best if you forgot about that for a moment, alright?"
She took a few breaths and I continued to stroke her hair. She was like a porcelain doll, seemingly hard on the outside but, somewhere behind the painted mask, her hollowness had made her lonely. She was also just as breakable as the aforesaid doll.
When her heart rate had slowed, I bent down and kissed her cheek gently.
"Good girl," I congratulated, and she ruined the moment by saying, "You're so cold."
"If you mention my inhumanness one more time I'm going to punish you, Victoria Sutherland, and it won't be pleasant, understand?"
She took a deep breath and I was about to continue before she said "Forget about it? Don't mention it?"
I sighed, opening my mouth to speak but she continued, her fury rising, probably driven by her helplessness.
"I should just not know... not know anything that's happening to me? Why would you threaten me for wanting to know? Why can't I know?"
You don't want to.
Do you know what you are now, James Witherdale?
I shook my head to clear it, pushing Mercy's hated voice to the back of my thoughts.
SMACK!
It took me a minute to understand where the noise had come from, what had touched me and why Victoria had cried out in pain.
I glanced down to see her clutching her hand, pulsing bright red, to her chest and then it all came together. The feisty little bitch had slapped me!
She stared at her hand, then at me and then, fear clouding her eyes, back down at her hand. Hmm, did I punish her now? Or did I wait; let her see a softer side to me? I chose the latter.
"You shouldn't do that, pet," I crooned gently, running my fingers through her hair. "You've hurt yourself now, and I can't have that. What would I tell the nurses on duty if I had to take you to a hospital, hmm?"
She didn't look at me, but stared down at her hand and I gently took it inbetween my own palms and held it, letting the cold of my palms hopefully ease the pain of her stinging hand. I rubbed a little bit, cooling her inflamed fingers with mine. I liked the feel of her hand. Soft, warm and fragile; I could crush it so easily with just the slightest of pressures... and yet, I didn't want to. A strange feeling, a sudden protectiveness swarmed up inside me as I cradled Victoria's gently throbbing hand. But the feeling was gone as quickly as it had come. I dropped her hand like it was red hot and fought the impulse to move away from her.
Thirst, I told myself. I'm just thirsty, that's all. Possessive urges over prey. Convincing myself that it had been nothing more than that, I reflected back. Despite the pain it had caused her, this would be a good lesson for Victoria; she couldn't hurt me even if she tried.
"Alright, I think you learned your lesson from that, Victoria, so I'll let it go. If you do that again, I won't be so lenient. Do you understand? Answer 'yes' or 'no'."
"Yes," came the flat, expressionless voice that I was coming to associate with surrender. It was quite a surprise after her outburst from a moment ago, but she really did appear to have learned her lesson.
"Now, as I told you before we got off topic, there is clothing in those bags, my little darling, and you're welcome to wear any of it. Would you like me to go outside while you change?"
"Yes," came the flat monotone and I gently kissed the top of her head - "Alright, pet, you just give me a call when you're done" - and then walked out of the room, closing the door behind me. I suppressed a dark chuckle. Oh, I wished I could be in there to see her face when she saw what was in those bags.
I heard her start going through the bags full of skimpy, lacy underwear and her heart rate spiked. I guessed it was in anger or frustration, perhaps both; she didn't seem like the type to docilely accept that I expected her to dress in underwear for the rest of her life.
After twenty minutes the flat monotone sounded from the other side of the door, "I'm dressed."
I went back into the room to find Victoria curled up on the bed in her normal position. I would have to address that. Her body was mine, so she didn't have the right to hide herself from me if I wanted to look at her.
As far as I could tell, she was dressed in a pair of baby-blue lacy 'boy shorts' - why they had been given such a name I would never know - and the matching camisole. It was probably the most modest piece of lingerie that I had brought for her and I smiled, before you could break the horse you must make it as comfortable as you were able in its discomfort.
"There, is that better, pet?" I crooned and she ignored me utterly, looking as if she wanted to be absolutely anywhere but here with me.
"Now," I adopted a more business like tone, "You have some very bad habits, pet, habits that you will need to break if you expect me to take care of you. First of all, you are going to uncurl yourself and you are never going to curl up whilst in my presence again, is that understood?"
She nodded but refused to uncurl herself.
"Are you cold, pet? If you are, simply say so and I will turn the heating on. Now, uncurl!"
"I want some clothes," her voice took on a rebellious edge and I sighed.
"And I want you to uncurl, but that doesn't seem to be happening, does it," I pointed out and she glared at me, a defiant spark back in her eyes. If she wanted to be spanked...
"I will make the rules regarding the rest of your life, Victoria. I own you, you have no rights anymore!"
"I'm a human being!" she hissed at me. "I have rights!"
"To me, Victoria, you're merely one of a large herd of cattle destined for an abattoir and, last I checked, cattle didn't have rights. Now, you are one of the more fortunate cattle in the herd, my dear, because I have chosen to extend your life and I will take good care of you while doing so. In return, you will do exactly what I tell you, when I tell you to do it. Am I clear?"
"I'll tell you what's clear," Victoria said, any hint of fear gone from her eyes and face. "That you're a bastard! A disgusting, heartless, soulless bastard who..."
I didn't even let her finish. My vision took on a red tinge and I felt anger and hate boiling up in me. Bastard. She'd called me a bastard. She knew...
I grabbed both sides of her face, pressing just hard enough to cause her pain but not to break anything.
"Never," I growled, my lips rolling back off my teeth, my face inches from Victoria's, "call me that again, do you understand me, girl?"
She struggled desperately against my grip, her fingers wrapped around my wrists, trying to pull my hands away. I shook her, "Do you understand!"
Her foot moved and I felt its warmth press hard against my groin and I drew back for a moment, my anger dissipating in an instant; distracted and confused, I tried to understand why Victoria's leg had pressed suddenly against me and why she had then withdrawn it with a yelp of agony. Had she...? Would she actually...? Anger clouded my vision again, but it was not as vicious as before, it was tinged with sadism and the desire to inflict pain on the innocent and helpless young woman who lay before me.
"Very well," I hissed. I was angry with her for attempting, however futilely, to kick me in the groin, and excited at the thought of actually being able to cause her injury. "If you're like it that way, Victoria, then we can do it that way."
She wouldn't even have had time to blink before I had her naked, cuffed, gagged and hanging across my lap. I ran the hand that wasn't holding her down across her ass, patting her very gently once in a while. She made a muffled scream through the gag, struggling desperately and I twined my free hand through her hair in a mock-comforting way, moving my hand away from her backside with deliberate slowness. I was about to administer the first slap when a stray thought got my attention. What if I split the skin and she started bleeding when I wasn't expecting it? Not that I would actually drink from her backside, the very idea was disgusting, but still...
I wasn't thirsty, but if fresh blood spilled onto me and I wasn't expecting it then I could very easily lose control and that would bother me immensely. Also, even if I managed to keep control, any serious damage done to her backside would cause complications to my future plans for her...
I made the decision: no spanking.
It had probably taken me all of half a second to make the decision and I threw her from my lap onto the bed and, for her benefit, I muttered, "No, no, too risky."
She wriggled and squirmed as she tried to get out of the cuffs and I laughed softly at her efforts. I wasn't finished yet.
Quick as a flash, I had her on her front, so that I could get to her back, her hands cuffed above her head to be bed head and was sitting back over her legs and buttocks. I pulled the whip from one of the bags and ran the tails lazily over her back. She struggled desperately and I drew my arm back, putting as much force as was safe into my swing. As I brought the whip down towards her milky flesh, I decided that my decision had been a good one. I was expecting blood and, as experience had taught me, if I expected there to be blood, then I very rarely reacted to it in the way I would if I wasn't expecting blood.
The whip cracked down over Victoria's back and her cry of agony was muffled by the gag stuffed in her mouth.
"There, pet," I crooned softly, wrapping the last of the bandages around her back, "feel better?"
She continued to try and fight her sobs and I sighed, "Would you like me to do that again, pet?"
"No," she whispered in a small voice and I nodded and then lay down on the bed next to her so that we were face to face. She made to roll away but I put an arm around her to keep her facing me.
"Then answer my question, does it feel better now with the bandages on?"
"Y-Y-Yes," she stammered and I smiled and kissed her gently on the lips, that reminded me of another thing I had to talk to her about.
"Pet," I whispered, stroking her cheek with my thumb. She was so warm, so soft and her cheeks glistened with tears - hot, wet tears. I felt lust rise in me as I imagined what other parts of her might be warm and soft and wet. "I think I need to teach you how to react properly."
She looked at me, confusion rather than terror reflected in her wide, green eyes. Well, that was a start.
"What, what do you mean?" she asked shakily and I felt my lust continue to rise. Focus, I reminded myself. Control.
"How to react, when I kiss you, when I touch you..." my voice trailed off huskily as I imagined it."You will react to me - you will leave me satisfied. I want to hear your moans, your whimpers, you begging... do you understand, pet?" I pulled her into a tighter embrace, resting my chin on the top of her flaming head. "Just answer 'yes' or 'no'"
She said nothing and I sighed too quietly for her to pick up. She'd been doing so well... but there was more than one way to answer this question.
I pushed her out of my embrace, grabbed the hair on the back of her head in a vice like grip and pressed my lips against hers. She squirmed and jumped badly, trying to fight me off. I kept my grip firm and shifted my lips slightly to whisper, "A cane hurts much worse, pet."
The movement of her lips was small, hesitant, but it was definitely there. She was kissing me back. Something in my stomach flipped. Satisfaction, I told myself firmly. Nothing more, nothing less. I liked having her warm, soft lips against mine.
"That's a good little girl," I praised her, moving my lips back to kiss her again. I licked at her bottom lip, my intention very clear. She refused to open her mouth and I sighed softly again. Did she really think she could stop me having what was mine?
I moved my hands down her body until I reached her breasts. I pinched one of her nipples, not enough to hurt her badly but hopefully enough to open her mouth. Ah, sweet success! She gasped and I slipped my tongue into her warm, wet mouth.
She seemed to stiffen as I brushed my tongue against hers, trying to entice her tongue to dance with mine. She started pushing hard against my chest, as if she was trying to fight me off. I wasn't finished and I didn't release her until I was. When I did, she gasped for air as if it was the most delicious thing she'd ever tasted, ah, of course! I would have to remember that she was human and, unlike me, she needed to breathe.
"That's enough for now, pet," I told her. "That was, however, the absolute minimum expectation, dear. As I said, if you cannot -" or will not I added silently in my head - "pleasure me, the consequence will be very severe. I expect much better next time.
She looked up at me with hatred in her eyes. But it was a hatred that was tinged with something I wasn't sure I wanted to see this early on: submission. I got off the bed, not wanting to think about what that might mean, and looked down at the underwear I'd ripped from her body. Shame it was ruined, I had quite liked the baby blue lace against her milky skin and fiery hair.
"Get dressed, Victoria," I ordered, indicating the bag of 'clothes' that had been spilled across the bedroom floor. "I'll get you something to eat, after all, you must be very hungry, my little pet."
I went to walk out the door when I thought of something and stopped.
"This room," I told her, "and the bathroom and the only rooms you are allowed in, pet, unless I am with you," I smiled sadistically before going on. "You don't want to find out what will happen to you if you so much as take a step out of the bedroom."
With that I walked out of the bedroom door and closed it behind me. I saw no need to lock it, she would be well aware by now that I did not make idle threats.
A/N: Well…? Did you like it? If you did, leave me a review and tell me why you liked it. I managed to twist my ankle really badly today, so I'm in a lot of pain and a review would be the best painkiller! Pretty please? Also, make sure you read Liyorah's, she really is amazing!