He smiled fully then. “Really? No? Nothing to say about that last comment? You’re in complete agreement with me?”
She turned her head to the side and looked at him for a moment, then turned back.
“Well,” he said. “I just hate awkward silences. So I’ll talk a little. I’ll tell you what the next thing we’re going to do is. Shall I? Yes. You are going to act like you love me and like you enjoy this.”
He waited a moment.
“You know what I mean? You’ll be my girlfriend. No more objections when I want to have sex, whatever I want to do. You’ll want to do it too.”
He heard something. It sounded like: “You’ve obviously never had a girlfriend.” It came very quietly out of her mouth, but he heard it.
“It can always get worse,” he reminded her.
She nodded.
He brushed the crumbs off of her ass, turned her over onto her back and crawled up next to her.
“Do you think you can do that? I want an answer.”
“I’ll do whatever you want,” she said quietly.
“And why is that?”
“Because I’m grateful.”
His eyebrows rose. “Grateful for what?”
“Grateful that you didn’t keep your promise, that you didn’t hurt my cats.”
“Oh, that. Right now that might be more trouble than it’s worth. I think they’ve gone to ground.”
“Still. I appreciate it. I fucked up, and you could have.”
“Are you really serious?” He looked at her skeptically.
“I’m really serious. I’d be ecstatic right now if I’d managed to kill you, but I screwed up, and you told me what that would mean, and so I’m grateful. Thank you.”
“You are really something else.”
“I just want you to know.”
“Ok, ok, I’ll leave them alone for now. That’s not what you have to worry about right now.”
“I’ll do whatever you want. I want you to win. I want this to be over.”
“It’s not as easy as that.”
He reached out and stroked her swollen cheek. “I know that,” she said, not pulling away from him. “I know it won’t be easy. But I’ll do whatever you want.”
“Music to my ears.”
She just nodded and lowered her eyes.
“Do you have any more weapons hidden around here?”
“No.”
“I somehow missed that one. I found a few others. I wasn’t surprised. Living out here in the boondocks all by yourself. But I missed that one. I guess I should take my share of the blame for that.”
“It was my fault,” she said.
“This is an interesting change,” he said. “I like it, but I think I miss the old you.”
“I’ll be whatever you want.”
“Why is that, again?”
“Because you’re in charge. And I’m powerless.”
“Mmm. That’s nice. I almost believe you believe it.”
“I believe it as much as I can.”
“I can see, you’re really trying. I do appreciate that. I’m always going to remember you.”
“Do you not remember the others?” Her voice was still quiet, her question very gentle.
“Oh, I remember every detail. Every single, beautiful detail. But none of them will equal this. Rest assured of that.”
“Every detail?” She sounded doubtful.
“Sure,” he said, turning over from his back to his side to face her. “The woman before you, a profit skimmer, as it happens, not very bright, middle-aged, got quite a little visit from me. Let’s see: my usual opening move, didn’t come because
she
couldn’t, finally moved to her ass, came, beat her some with my belt because she didn’t come like I told her to, fucked her again in the front, made her suck my cock for about half an hour, when she couldn’t move her mouth anymore, I fucked her mouth. She nearly choked right then – like you,” he added, with a laugh. “Ate her out, which she did not like, for some reason, fucked her up the ass with a dildo while I fucked her from in front, then I shoved the dildo in her mouth, because she just wouldn’t stop crying. Got tired of that, gagged her, fucked her doggie-style just for the hell of it. Let her stew for a while, while I watched a movie. Fucked her again, normal style. Told her if she could come, I would stop. And she really tried. I let her close her eyes. She did try. But she was too terrified. So I didn’t stop. I rolled her over and fucked her, back and front, for a couple of hours, with, of course, occasional breaks for my cock; I used other things that were handy. I hadn’t tied her arms because she was really small, small-time criminal, small-time person, actually. Finally, she broke, hysterical, running around, falling, trying to hit me. I let her go at it for awhile, ultimately I smacked her down. She begged me to kill her then. So I did. Can you believe it? I did not have one decent conversation with that woman in all that time, maybe 12 hours total.”
He noticed that his companion looked a little stunned.
“Let’s see. At the other end of the spectrum, a few years ago, there was a very intelligent one. She figured if she just kept her cool, she could outlast me. The usual opening move, she wasn’t able to come, but she faked it, for which I gave her partial credit. Tied her legs to her hands for a while so that she was basically a fuck doll. She was quite flexible, in fact. Front once, back once, front twice, back once, mouth once, gave her the double stuff both ways, with a dildo, made her suck me off to the point of choking and vomiting. Not pretty. Changed rooms. Which was a bitch because I had to move the nearly dead weight of her boyfriend, the one my employers were really angry with, from where I was making him watch the whole thing. But I did. Rode her for a while, made her ride me. Made her try to come again. No dice. Probably felt guilty in front of the boyfriend. All this time, she didn’t scream, she didn’t cry, she didn’t argue. She kept her mouth clamped shut – well, most of the time, anyway
– and tried to endure. I got a little rough. I mean, you know me, I’m a people person. I like the interaction. I mean, really, there’s only so many ways to fuck a person without causing serious internal injuries. It’s all about the context. Anyway, she held out for quite some time. I don’t know if it was noticing that her boyfriend was dead or realizing that I was showing no signs of stopping – except, of course, for occasional penis breaks while I stuffed her with various devices – after something approaching 24 hours when she just started screaming. Like, uncontrollably. So I stopped. Her.”
“And then there was the one who did everything I asked.” He stopped and looked away from her, into space, for a moment before resuming. “An innocent witness, as it happens, one of those in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time cases. She didn’t just submit and pretend to be somewhere else. Well, at first, she fought me, then she tried to persuade me, then, after the beating, she said, like you, that she would do whatever I wanted. And she did. Without complaint. Humiliating things. I made her fuck herself up the ass with a dildo. And she did it. She did everything I asked. I could see it in her eyes, that she thought she would make it through. She did everything right. But what she had witnessed was one of the top guys doing something very nasty. And he was a vindictive bastard. If it had been up to me, I would have let her go after that. But it wasn’t up to me. She was ok, that one. The nearest thing to you. But not nearly as much personality.”
He noticed that her swollen face was getting even paler. She looked startled, her bound hands in front of her. “Oh, god,” she said.
“What’s the matter?”
“I think I’m going to throw up.”
He moved fast. He picked her up and carried her into the bathroom, setting her in front of the toilet. It didn’t take long. Following a series of shudders emanating from her belly and traveling up her esophagus, she retched into the bowl. He knelt down next to her, stroking her hair, which only made her retch more. But very soon she was empty. She heaved a bit more after that, then let herself fall back on her ass. There were sweat and tears on her still-pale face. He filled her tooth-brushing cup with water and handed it to her. As they both sat on the cold floor, she took some swigs and spat out the water into the bowl.
“You know,” he said softly. “You’ve been so tough. There is a part of me that would just like to let you rest for a few minutes. But I can’t.”
“You mean you won’t,” she rasped, but with very little anger left. “Couldn’t you have just stopped while you were ahead?” she asked sadly.
He pulled her by the hair over to him until her mouth was once again in front of his hardening penis. He forced his cock in and moved it back and forth, back and forth, while she gagged and heaved. And cried, finally. And when her sobbing made it impossible for her to breathe, he pulled out. She collapsed in the fetal position on the floor and continued to sob.
“It just took a little extra,” he said softly. “You see you’re human after all.”
“Stop talking,” she begged. “You’re right. That’s the most annoying thing of all.”
“I was just pointing out,” he said, in almost a hurt tone. “That means we’re really on our way. And once you break, you’ll be free. Not that you’ll be able to appreciate it by then.”
“This isn’t breaking?” she said, looking up at him. She was still hiccuping and gasping.
“Just human frustration and disgust. Your mind is still intact.”
She stared at him for a moment and then looked away.
“God,” he said. “You’re so beautiful to me right now.”
The sobs started to rise again, but that didn’t stop him from picking her up and carrying her to the bed. He pushed her up toward the top of the bed, then spread her legs. Then, with an especially evil grin, he bent down over her crotch and began to lick it, starting from the outside and working his way in toward the clit. She was still crying at first, but gradually it subsided. He looked up at her for a second; she appeared shell-shocked. He went back to what he was doing. He knew that she knew that he wouldn’t stop until she made herself enjoy it. She was moaning now, but it wasn’t a purely sexual sound. She was fighting with herself inside. He was very curious to know who would win. He inserted a finger into her vagina, and, after a while, one into her anus. His tongue was light and teasing on and around her clit. And then he felt her whole body tense before she exploded in a series of heaves that almost swallowed up his fingers. Her groan this time was long and shuddering, part pleasure, part anguish. And again, he wouldn’t let her rest. He shoved his penis into her oversensitized vagina and began to fuck her with great vigor. She tried to cover her eyes with her hands, but he pulled them away and held them, still cuffed, above her head against the bed in one of his. He went on for quite some time, before allowing himself to come. When he did, he let himself fall onto her body, his head inches from hers. He continued to hold onto her hands, so that she couldn’t cover her eyes, so that she would have to see the victory shining in his.
“Wow,” he said. “You’re like the man that can shoot his own dog.”
She exhaled quietly.
“What is it– How do they describe that woman in
Body Heat
? ‘She was the kind of woman who could do what was necessary.’ That’s it, isn’t it? That’s you.”
“If you say so.”
“Usually it’s to describe someone who’s set on doing evil. But for you, it’s just about surviving.”
“So what are you saying?” She seemed suddenly even more upset, but she was talking again. “That I’d hurt other people if it would save me?”
He looked taken aback for a minute. “Calm down. No. I didn’t mean that, as a matter of fact. There are plenty of people like that. It isn’t rare at all. In fact, I don’t think you
would
do that, now that I’m thinking about it. It’s much harder to be able to do things that will make you question yourself, blame yourself. Feel like you were cooperating.”