Page 11 of Violent Delights

I can’t breathe! He’s going to choke me!

I want to warn him that he’s actually hurting me, that I will faint any minute now, if he keeps this up. Maybe that’s what he wants? Is he trying to kill me?

But just when I feel actual panic emerging, he lets go of me, withdrawing his hand from my throat, and ready to catch me as I collapse forward, coughing and gasping for air.

“What did I tell you to call me?” he asks with a calm and steady voice, entirely unfazed by my desperate struggle for air and the obvious pain he inflicted upon me.

Shit. This man is seriously disturbed.

I try to speak, but I can’t. My throat is sore from his violent treatment and I am caught in another coughing fit as I try to give him the reply I hope he’d rather hear.

“Master,” I finally manage to utter. “Master. You said I should call you Master.”

He’s holding me by the shoulders and sets me upright with a gentle push. My chest is still heaving in abrupt bursts, when I look up at him, met with a stoic expression that makes my blood run cold.

“That’s right,” he says. “When I ask you to do something, you don’t say ‘Yeah’, you say, ‘Yes, Master.’ Understand?”

I cast him a sinister look. This is ridiculous. He must know that. Why would I just agree to any of this before he gives me an explanation?

“Where am I?” I ask. “Who are you? Did Luke send you?”

He furrows his eyebrows and lets out an angry growl that is probably supposed to scare me. But I only react when he squeezes my shoulders, a subtle yet effective warning on how much power he possesses over me.

“I am losing my patience with you,” he hisses through gritted teeth. “And trust me, you don’t want that to happen. So, let’s try this again. You will listen to me, obey me, please me, and you will address me as your Master. Do you understand?”

The grip on my shoulders intensifies. I squint, fighting an internal struggle between defiance and fright. I have no need for further pain, but I also refuse to just go along with his ridiculous demands before I get an explanation as to what this is all about.

But maybe the only way for me to get an explanation is to go along with his wishes. For now.

“Yes, Master,” I whisper, lowering my eyes in defeat. “Yes, Master. I understand.”

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