Page 21 of Currency in Flesh

The path I was walking led me back to the familiar building I knew as mine. However, now there was a door where there had been only a solid wall. Did this mean I wasn’t a captive anymore? The doorknob was warm in my palm and opened to my untouched room. I went through the motions of setting the flowers atop the table, lighting the candles, and pulling one of the blankets from my bed to wrap around myself. The chair I settled into was ridiculously comfortable, but I couldn’t sit still. I slammed my book down with more force than was necessary, and stood, tossing the blanket on the bed in a disheveled heap.

I paced like a wild animal in a cage. Somehow, despite all the evidence of trust she had shown me, I felt less trusting. Ididn’t like not understanding people. It had been a big part of why I stayed with Sean, even at the beginning. I wanted to figure him out, find what it is that would make him really love me. Clearly, I never had, and I hated thinking I might be repeating the same mistake here. This felt like manipulation—going from being chained naked to my bed to freely shopping with no chaperone in such a short time. I’d pretty much begged Lady Cora to take me to her bed, and she refused me. If she didn’t want to fuck me or treat me like a pet, there must be some other thing she wanted. Not knowing clawed at me from within.

At last, I gave up my pointless rumination. I didn’t know what time it was, but I’d been awake a long time. I crawled into bed, not bothering to do much more than tug off my jeans and get beneath the covers, and forced my eyes closed. As sleep finally caught up to me, I allowed myself to drift into the black.

Before it all went dark, I heard the sound of breathing from somewhere in the undefined space. I must have been dreaming—I seemed to be suspended in grey nothingness. I still wore my shirt and underwear, which was a good thing I supposed, but there was nothing else I recognized. Again, the sound of someone breathing heavily came from behind me. I attempted to turn, but nothing really happened. I was floating like a fucking goldfish.

However, as the ragged breaths grew louder, everything began to swirl and shift. I saw flashes of faces—Sean, my mother, my best friend from college, Lady Cora, the woman from the coffee shop—and I opened my eyes once more and found myself in the slate tile shower of my old bathroom.

Lady Cora’s breasts pressed against my nude back, and the hot water cascaded over both of us. Her lips grazed my ear before finding their way to my neck. My head fell back, giving her more access, and she nibbled and sucked at my damp skin. I felt her hand slide around my hip and slip between my thighs,parting the drenched flesh and rubbing firm circles against my clit. “Yes, please,” I groaned, rolling my hips in time with her fingers. Just as I was about to come, her other hand snaked up to my throat, pressing against the sides and restricting my air. I detonated, my legs nearly giving out beneath me as I cried out her name.

Sudden,sharp pain tore me from sleep. I screamed, swinging my arms wildly, hoping to fight off whatever attacker had found me, but I hit nothing but empty air. As my mind began to clear, I realized someone had me by the hair. “Let me go!” I yelped as my combatant’s grip tightened and agony spread across my scalp.

“So quickly you forget,” Lady Cora whispered. Immediately, I ceased struggling.

“What?”

Her fingers wrapped around my wrist, yanking my hand down and in front of my face. Still confused, I sucked in a breath—preparing to ask what I had done—and it hit me like a truck. I could smell my arousal on my fingers, and knew I must have touched myself in my sleep.

“I was asleep!” I pleaded. “I specifically went out today tokeepmyself from… doing that.”

“Your body says otherwise. Are you truly so desperate?”

Indignation heated my face. I wasn’t desperate, I was frustrated. “Well, noteveryonegot off yesterday,” I snapped. “You’ve been teasing me since I got here.”

She spun me around and I floundered, crawling through the tangle of blankets on my hands and knees. She wore a skintight black mini dress and Louboutin’s I recognized as their nearly five-inch stilettos, the So Kate model. “That sounded suspiciously like a complaint,” she replied in adangerously low voice. “Are you displeased with your treatment here, pet?”

I shook my head, averting my eyes to stare at where my hands pressed into the mattress and the long line of her leg where she stood before me. “No. I’m sorry, Lady Cora. I really didn’t mean to, truly.”

“Regardless,” she began, “you defied a direct command. I was quite clear—you do not touch yourself again. Ever.”

“I won’t do it again, Lady Cora,” I promised.

I lifted my eyes to see a wicked smile spreading across her crimson lips. “Oh, I know.”

I was not surprised that she dragged me forward. I staggered, nearly falling as I tried to find my footing on the cool tile floor. It felt like the skin of my scalp was about to give way, and tears filled my eyes as I stumbled clumsily behind her. “I’m sorry,” I said, and it came out on a whine. I sounded pitiful.

Her tone was flat and held no emotion. It frightened me. “No, you are not sorry yet.”

We rounded a corner and stepped into a large, nearly empty room. There was a large X shaped structure in the center, and candles placed haphazardly around the floor. The glow of the small flames lit the massive X from beneath and it looked far more like the standard image of hell than anything else I had seen so far. I tried to ask what it was, but succeeded only in stuttering a few syllables as Lady Cora wrenched my head to the side with a harsh tug.

“Undress,” she commanded, releasing my hair.

I did. With tears streaming down my furiously red cheeks and shaking hands, I pulled my sweaty tee over my head. Hooking my thumbs beneath the waistband of my satin cheeky briefs, I slid them down my thighs. I didn’t want to anger her any more than I already had, but wasn’t sure what to do with the small bundle of clothes. She snatched them from my handand they immediately caught flame, incinerating to ashes in the blink of an eye.

She wasmad,mad.

I sank to my knees, head bowed before her. She had liked my penitence once, maybe it would be enough now. But the hope was quickly dashed when her smoke-scented hand took hold of my hair once more and pulled me to my feet.

“Turn around,” she snapped, and I complied. Her hands moved with no clemency, securing an assemblage of straps and buckles around my body. She tightened each one with a sharp yank, with the final piece fastening around my throat. The metal was like ice against the skin of my neck, and I heard aclickas I felt something attach to it. I gagged as she pulled hard against the collar, spinning me to face her.

I looked down. My breasts and stomach were framed in leather, straps criss-crossing across my chest so my tits stuck out indecently. My waist was cinched smaller than I’d ever seen it, but the plump folds of my stomach were horribly exposed, bound tightly almost to the point of pain. The straps crossed at my neck and met in the center with what felt like a metal ring. In one of Lady Cora’s hands a leash dangled, and in the other she held what I was pretty sure was a whip.

“Oh god,” I breathed as real fear curled up my spine.

“Goddess, actually.” She smirked when she said it, and a flicker of amusement burned in her eyes.

“Yes, Lady Cora,” I replied quickly, hoping it was the right thing to say.

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