My greatest fear was not being able to get there in time, but with the haze of clouds, Kyros wouldn’t be able to move overly fast, either. And he might not be able to find the water as quickly by instinct alone.
As my feet hit the beach and I got closer to the water, the haze started to clear enough so that I could see much farther ahead of me. I could see the waves now lapping the shore. Home. I didn’t even care that the sea would ultimately kill me. I just wanted to end it and escape the human’s wrath. Even if he wasn’t angry with me, if what Aric said was true, and hadn’t just been meant to scare me, then eventually Kyros would hurt me. And somehow I knew he’d drag it out a long time.
I didn’t want to think he’d do something like that after the kindness and patience he’d shown me, but after watching him kill a man in front of me, I could no longer sugarcoat his ferocity.
The fishermen were all down the beach, quite some distance from me, so I felt safe to take the toga off.
The water was comforting as I stepped into it. I looked behind me to see Kyros getting closer. He didn’t run, just walked at a steady pace as if he had all the time in the world. He must have thought I was trapped with nowhere to go and that he could therefore take his time.
“Nerina!”
I turned away from his voice and dove into the water. I would swim until I couldn’t go any further and then I would let the sea take me under, back to my family where I belonged. As the water rushed around my moving form, I started to think that perhaps I could swim far enough before tiring to make it. Maybe I could swim around to another side of Meropis and escape him that way. The idea of being alone in another foreign place, with nothing but more human threats to look forward to, was equally unpleasant. No, it was better to just go home.
I’d gotten maybe a mile out when I could hear him gaining on me, another frantic disturbance in the water. When his arms finally wrapped around me, I struggled, kicking out at him.
“You’ll take us both down. Stop it!” he shouted, his voice just as hard-edged and angry as it had been in the kitchen.
“Good! Go away. Leave me alone.”
His arm went around my neck, pressing, tightening. I struggled harder but then everything went dark.
I was surprised to wake up in Kyros’ bedroom, and at first I thought it was a final dream before death. I’d thought his intent was to kill me, as if he couldn’t give the sea that one victory; it had to be him. But he’d only meant to render me unconscious so I wouldn’t fight him as he took us both back to the shore.
I found myself wrapped in a towel, a sudden chill sweeping over me.
“Here, drink this.” He held out a mug of something hot and dark-colored, with steam rising off it. Some type of tea.
I took it, half-afraid it was poisoned, but then the logical side of my brain kicked in. If he’d wanted to kill me he could have just done it out in the ocean. There was no need to go to the trouble of bringing me back. And with the violence I knew he was capable of, there was no point in more civilized forms of murder.
As I drank the warm liquid, he reached out to brush the damp hair off my face with his fingertips. I jerked back, and he sighed.
“I’m not going to hurt you. You’ve done nothing wrong.”
I’d done everything wrong, and we both knew it. I’d wandered all over his castle and gone somewhere I’d known I shouldn’t. I’d run from him, fought him. I didn’t believe it when he said I’d done nothing wrong and he wasn’t going to hurt me. I just couldn’t figure out why he was playing it this way. What was the benefit to him?
“Why did you run from me?”
I took another sip of the tea, trying to put off answering as long as possible. When the look on his face reached maximum impatience, I set the cup on the table beside the bed. “You killed a man, and you were still angry when you turned back to me. I was afraid.”
“I was upset someone almost hurt you. It wasn’t directed at you.”
“That wasn’t how it felt. Besides, it’s enough that you showed that kind of anger to anyone. It means you have it inside you. How can I ever feel safe knowing that’s coiled and waiting to strike?” Mermen weren’t like that. They weren’t angry or violent to anyone. We were a peaceful race. The scene in the kitchen and in the dungeon before only confirmed that I was now among barbarians and could never feel safe again.
He nodded and watched me for another minute. The formality between us had been abandoned for the moment in light of the morning’s happenings.
“I would never harm you, Nerina. You have to know that by now. What’s really going on?”
I could have explained the nature of my people to him, but it would have fallen on deaf ears. Besides, he was right. It wasn’t really all about what happened in the kitchen. He’d killed a man, but he’d also removed a threat from me. I looked down at the floor, unable to meet his intense stare.
“I saw what’s downstairs.”
I expected anger, then pain, but it didn’t come. Instead, he merely said, “I see,” his voice mild and noncommittal. “And what did you think about what you saw in the dungeon?”
Dungeon. I didn’t like the word, but it seemed to fit the dark, damp place. The contraptions, the cages, the strips of leather I somehow knew were meant to hurt people, and I couldn’t understand why. I’d thought perhaps they were for dangerous enemies until Aric had filled my mind with a far worse scenario.
“Aric said you had dark desires and wondered if you took me down there a lot. Did you intend to take me down there?” I chanced a look up at his face, desperately hoping to find some kindness in his eyes.
The kindness was there, but it didn’t go with his answer. “Yes. And I still do.”
I shook my head furiously. “No! Please.”
“Yes.” He moved closer to me and a panic filled my chest because I couldn’t get up and away from him quickly enough, and anyway I knew he was faster than me and stronger than me, even with my new legs. I couldn’t get away from whatever he intended to do, because I knew this time he wouldn’t be foolish enough to loosen his grip.
I whimpered as his hand cupped my cheek. “Why didn’t you just let me die in the sea? Are you going to hurt me because of what Aric said about me? I’m not a witch. I don’t have any special powers.”
“I know that. It’s not because of Aric.”
“Then why?” I’d thought I’d managed to find some reference point to understand humans and their strange ways, but this was beyond what I was capable of processing. There had to be something very wrong with him. It made the prospect of never getting away more dangerous than I’d ever feared.
“Nerina, there are many different types of pleasure. Some types look like pain to the untrained eye. I’ll show you.”
I couldn’t accept what he was telling me, what he was implying that he intended to do with me. I thought perhaps it would just be a matter of discussion for now, that I’d still have time to talk him out of it since I’d just been dragged out of the sea unconscious. But he had other plans. Before I could react, he picked me up, still wrapped in the towel, and carried me down the main steps.
“No, please, Master. You can’t. Please. I’ll be good. I won’t ever disobey you again.”
“It’s not about obedience or disobedience. I’m not going to punish you for anything that happened today. You were the victim, and you were scared. I understand that. I just want to show you that there is nothing to fear from me in the dungeon. If I awakened your body once to something you didn’t think you could experience and want, I can awaken it again.”
I’d gone still in his arms, my head resting in the crook of his neck. I didn’t struggle against him, even though I wanted to. I still felt too weak and exhausted from everything that had already happened today. My pulse ratcheted up again to an unnatural pace as he carried me down the spiraling stairs to the dungeon.
The lights were still on from before.
He didn’t put me down until he picked the contraption he wanted me on. “We’ll stick with simple, this time,” he said. I wasn’t sure if simple would hurt more or less.
I didn’t resist him when he helped me straddle a bench and lay forward over it. I was afraid whatever he was about to do would be much worse if I fought him. He took my wrists and then my ankles, each in turn, fastening them down in heavy metal. The sound of the locks clicking in place leeched the last bit of hope out of me.
Even without him touching me, I was immobile. Naked, spread out, tied down. Completely helpless, leaving his hands free to bring whatever torture on me he so desired.
“Shhhhh,” he said. “You’re okay. Everything is okay here.” My body trembled under his touch as he stroked my back. “I’m just going to use the flogger on you today. Something light and easy. I’ll work you up very slowly over time. There is nothing to fear here.”
It didn’t matter how many times he said it, I didn’t believe it. He couldn’t change reality and pain with only words. He moved away from me then, over to the nearest wall, and selected an instrument with a leather handle and several long leather pieces attached to it. I cringed and closed my eyes.
He made his way back over to me. I jumped, then settled when his hand stroked over my back again. “While I was out this morning, I dropped several messages in the ocean for your people. I’ll keep trying until I get some kind of response. My intent isn’t to keep you from ever seeing your family again.” He swept my hair to the side out of his way. “We’ll find some way for you to visit them. Maybe we’ll take a boat out once we’ve established contact.”
A tear slid down my cheek and dropped onto the stone floor. “Thank you, Master.” I didn’t understand how someone who could be so kind to me could have this in him. I was tempted to beg him again, thinking maybe I could reach him and gain mercy, but before I could open my mouth, the flogger came down on my back.
It was just once, then a long pause, as if he were letting me assemble the sensations and turn them over in my mind. I needed that processing time. Going from someone who was uncomfortable with simple human touch to being initiated into pain as a purported pleasurable activity was a big leap.
While my body had cringed away as the leather fell on it, it didn’t feel like I’d anticipated. It was a more intense sensation than I was used to, but in honesty I couldn’t define it as pain. The little leather fingers of the flogger were stimulating, warming, but not painful.
He did it again, and again, and again. Each time, the intensity and feelings slowly escalated, but they never got to a point where I couldn’t tolerate it. Just a light sting and a warmth.
His hand stroked over my back again. “If you relax and accept it, the feeling will transform.”
To what? It wasn’t horribly painful, but the idea of relaxing my body while he hit me with anything was too foreign to assimilate, but I tried. I breathed slowly in and out, and closed my eyes. I thought of the sea and swimming alongside the dolphins. Anything to release the tension still curled inside me, as if I were only waiting for it to get worse somehow.
I managed to calm myself and the next time the flogger came down, my body was relaxed, loose. I gasped at the sensation skimming across my skin. Inexplicably I felt safe and warm and loved. These seemed like wrong emotions to have, but I couldn’t help having them, all I could do was lie there as the feelings washed over me in waves.
“Better?” he asked.
“Yes, Master.” When I relaxed, it was oddly almost pleasant. He kept it up, my back growing warmer as he continued. That was when the throb started between my legs.
It caught me off guard. I had intended to survive, to somehow endure whatever his strange tastes were. When it hadn’t hurt too much, I’d felt relief. I hadn’t expected to feel arousal or excitement. The idea that this could be mutually pleasurable and not just about him hadn’t entered my mind.
“There it is,” he said. As if he’d seen the thing inside me unfurl and completely accept and welcome this new form of pleasure.
He placed the flogger on the floor and moved behind me. With my legs spread and chained down, it was easy access. I felt completely at his mercy, grateful he
had
mercy. Glancing at the long row of increasingly scary implements on the wall, I knew he could easily do true damage if he wanted to, but that wasn’t what he was about. This side of him fit perfectly with the patience he’d shown me.
Tears flowed down my cheeks, and I let out a moan as he entered me from behind, his body thrusting into mine in a steady, calming rhythm. It was a rhythm that hypnotized me and made me willing to do anything he wanted forever to be allowed this strange catharsis.
The orgasm bubbled from within me, from some place deep and sacred. His pleasure joined mine and it was as if we merged on a level I hadn’t known before. As intense and frightening as humans had proven to be, there seemed to be infinite layers of sexual and emotional experience to be had with them.
As we both came down from the peak, he let himself fall forward over my back, his sweat-slicked skin resting against mine, his fingers threading through mine.
“Tell me you love me, Nerina.”
“I love you, Master.”
This time it was true.
About the Author
Kitty Thomas writes dark literary erotica. Her stories explore the psychology of ownership. This work is fiction and meant for an adult audience. The author does not endorse or condone any of the behavior carried out by characters in her stories.
Inspiration for Kitty’s work comes from many sources including Story of O, Nine and a Half Weeks, and the work of Claudia D. Christian.
For updates on new releases, please subscribe to Kitty's newsletter via the contact form at her site: www.kittythomas.com