Page 16 of Kept

I realized my fingers were still on my pussy, stroking my wet lips, and pulled my hand away. I’d given them what they wanted to keep my place. No more.

I hadn’t bargained on the next part being the genuinely hard portion of the deal. Touching myself on video had sounded like the worst part at the time. But typing in that number and clicking send… worse.

Much worse.

I flopped back onto the bed, snapped my legs firmly shut, and pulled up a new, blank text message. I wasn’t even going to watch the video before I sent it, or I’d definitely chicken out.

The number slowly appeared in the bar across the top as I hit each digit. When it was done, the empty text box still flashing, I glanced at the clock.

11:55. I’d spent much longer making that video than I’d meant to.

The remaining minutes ticked by at the speed of light. When 11:59 popped up, my thumb was still frozen over the video I’d pulled up. I held my breath for thirty seconds, counting each number, then tapped the video and hit send, my heart in my throat.

It was marked as delivered. Then read.

12:00 AM ticked into place, ringing in the new day, the new status quo.

I set my alarm, flipped off the light, and buried myself in the covers, but sleep was not forthcoming. My limbs were tight as wires, stomach roiling with an emotion I couldn’t pinpoint. Regret and shame were the most likely candidates, but those didn’t feel quite right.

Nervousness? Was I genuinely afraid of what Thayer might think of my body? If it was just adequate, a task to be accomplished?

When my phone lit up the room with a new text, I didn’t hesitate to snatch it off my nightstand, unsure of what to expect, let alone what I wanted to see. My thudding heart skipped a beat in my chest.

All it said was:

Beautiful.

Chapter Six

“Earth to Jane.It’s been hours since you spoke. Are you in there? Helloooo?”

Rachelle cupped her hands around her mouth, calling to me from what felt like a thousand miles away. I blinked and she sighed.

“Sean, we’ve lost all signs of life. Abort the mission.”

He crunched a potato chip. He kinda smelled like potato chips to me, mixed with that chlorine-athlete-boy smell that some guys had. Nothing like the Three Demons, who smelled like sin and made you want to join in. “I wasn’t aware we had a mission.”

I forced myself out of my thoughts. I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of any of those demons today, and I had no doubt if I hadn’t sent the video on time, one of them would’ve stopped me from entering the university today.

My sacrifice had been accepted as a worthy tribute.

“I’m just tired,” I said, giving them my most pale, wan smile. It wasn’t hard. “I was up all night reading.”

Half-true. I was up all night reading not a book, but one word, dissecting and analyzing it like a formaldehyde-preserved specimen stretched across a steel tray.

Beautiful. What did Thayer mean by that? That watching a woman touch herself was beautiful, no matter the woman doing it? That his power over me was beautiful?

He couldn’t mean me, my body, because no one would think that. Mice weren’t beautiful. They were convenient fodder, kept in cages until they were trotted out for the snake pit.

“Don’t go overboard with the extracurricular nighttime activities,” Sean said, wafting potato chip breath my way. “You’re going to have it hard enough with classes and a job.”

My breath shallowed as the last students filtered into English 510. Rhett would be right behind them. I’d have to look him in the eye, accept that I was his pet, and make my peace with it.

I wasn’t ready for peace. I wanted to throw a sharp-cornered hardcover at his head.

Right on cue, he strolled into the classroom, dropped his books and briefcase, and hooked his thumbs in his belt-loops.

Pale blue eyes met mine, and he smiled. “Good afternoon, everyone.”

---