Page 20 of Spinning Out of Control

“Okay,” I agreed. I didn’t really know what to expect with what he would send me or what we would talk about after he did, but if Caleb kept coming back to spend time with me, I would talk about anything he wanted.

Chapter 7

Caleb

As soon as I got home Saturday evening, I started browsing online, assembling some links to send to Teracht. It was a little weird, going through porn sites looking for bondage porn that was not too over the top but still would give him an understanding about human desires and BDSM. I found a few sex-positive articles too, with some helpful tips. The list I sent him was not short, so I was surprised when I woke up on Sunday morning to a text from him.

TERACHT: Is there more?

I was assuming he meant more porn, and I wondered if I had just created a monster, figuratively speaking. I sent him links to more videos and some books online that maybe he could look at. I wasn’t sure if he was much of a reader, but I figured it couldn’t hurt.

Monday evening, Teracht sent some links back to me that I prayed were not viruses, but I opened them to find a variety of Not Safe For Work videos and images, and not the ones I had sent him. He had obviously found them on his own. He had some questions, which I thought was rather cute. He seemed much more confident asking me things via text than he did in person, but I supposed a lot of people were like that. I tried to answer everything I could from my own knowledge. I hadn’t exactly been a slut in my sexual years. I had a few longer relationships, one of which lasted almost two years before we decided to call it quits, and I’d had a number of one-night stands and a handful of repeat partners at various times. I wasn’t a prude, but I also was not exactly the most exciting person in bed either. I didn’t go to sex clubs or swinger parties, though I had been dragged to a few in my earlier modeling days. It just wasn’t my scene. I liked being photographed, sometimes even nude, but when it came to actual sexual activity, I preferred to keep that private.

He had more questions when he started sending me porn with women in it, but his interest still seemed to gravitate back toward guys. I considered myself pansexual; I could work with whatever someone had if I liked them, and I wasn’t strictly dominant in bed either. A couple of my partners had tied me up once or twice, usually just with ribbon or something we had on hand, nothing overly elaborate. But I had to admit that Teracht’s curiosity about the whole thing, as well as his concern about not being evil, intrigued me.

I wasn’t sure how soon he wanted to get together, so I suggested Friday night, and he agreed. Every day leading up to that, he would send me more porn and ask more questions. Whatever government lackey got to review our communications probably was disgusted, or maybe turned on, who knows.

Friday afternoon, I found myself primping even more than I had for last week. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but if Teracht wanted to start investigating his urges, I wanted to be ready. I had not replaced my car after the accident; I wasn’t sure if I would ever get behind the wheel of a vehicle again. Most everything in Edgewind was within walking distance, and there was a bus that went around town, as well as a train that went to the surrounding areas. I often rode the bus if I was going across town; being in a confined space with a smaller number of people made me less self-conscious than walking down the street where I might run into any number of acquaintances. And, while it wasn’t constant, sometimes my scars were overly sensitive to temperature, especially cold, and having my scarf tied so tight to keep out the chill physically hurt my face and neck. But the weather was starting to warm up, and I made the choice today to wear my scarf around my neck instead of wrapped around my face.

I stepped off the bus at the stop a short distance from Teracht’s house. My phone pinged in my pocket with some sort of message, and I pulled it out as I moved away from the curb, checking to see if it was anything important, but it was just some marketing stuff.

A wolf whistle caught my attention, and I turned to see two large guys leaning against the wall of a nearby building. They were younger than me, probably students at the college, definitely jocks. One had his phone out and up, obviously taking a picture or maybe even filming me. “Dude, you got a dragon for a girlfriend?” the one not filming said. “She get too hot for you?”

The old me would have said something snappy and flirty in return. Something to let these punks know that I wasn’t intimidated by their posturing and that they would be lucky to find someone like me who’d be willing to suck their dicks. But that was the old me. And the new me was intimidated as fuck. My hand immediately went to try to readjust my scarf to hide my face, but being flustered and with only one hand, I couldn’t get it to move.

The one filming me smirked. “Smile for the camera, gorgeous.”

I forced my feet to move, flipping them the bird with my left hand as I walked past them. I tried to keep my head up, feeling their eyes and their phone on me until I turned the corner. All I wanted to do was run, but I forced myself to walk at a steady pace until I reached Teracht’s gate. He must have been watching for me, because he had the front door open by the time I was through the gate, holding it open for me to enter.

I stepped inside and realized as I pulled my jacket off that I was shaking. Teracht took my coat but paused when his hand brushed mine. “Caleb? What is it?”

I took a deep breath and shook my head. “Nothing.”

Teracht frowned as he put my coat in the closet. “The way you said ‘nothing’ does not sound like nothing.”

I toed off my shoes to avoid answering, then moved to sit on the couch. Teracht followed me at a slight distance. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” I said, then looked up in surprise as Teracht slid his segmented body onto the couch to sit next to me instead of crawling up onto his web where he usually sat.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No!” I said quickly, turning to him. “No, you’re just fine. A couple of dickwads just harassed me on my way here.”

Teracht’s eyes narrowed, and for a moment, I saw the predator he once had been. He hissed, a sound that made every hair on my body stand up. “Did they hurt you?”

“I’m fine,” I said, holding up my hand reassuringly. “They didn’t touch me.”

Teracht’s eyes, all eight of them, were still slitted dangerously. “Do I need to report them to the police?”

“No,” I said again, my chest warming at how much he wanted to help. “The police aren’t going to do anything about a couple of catcalls. It’s nothing I haven’t dealt with before. I’m fine, really.”

Teracht looked uncertain. “That doesn’t seem right, that they should be able to do that.”

I reached up my hand and placed it on his forearm, though I could see I was still shaking. “Yeah, I know.”

Teracht shifted closer, and suddenly his arms and several pairs of his legs wrapped around me and pulled me close against him. I blinked at the sudden close contact but carefully wrapped my arms lightly around him. “Humans have a way of hurting one another with words,” Teracht said, and I felt the rumble of his voice against me as I hugged him. “And while the wounds do not show, I think they can cut much deeper than physical ones can.”

I let out a shaky breath. “Yeah,” I admitted, curling closer to him. His skin was smooth but warm, and I realized that this was the longest he and I had ever held a single touch. In fact, it was the longest touch I had had since before my accident. I hadn’t realized up until that moment how much I missed hugs. “It hurt, but I’m all right.”

---