Caprice wasn’t what anybody needed. Least of all Leo. But he held on to that retort. He also wasn’t about to tell her the engagement was broken off. It would send her into his arms faster than anything, or else it would start the rumor mill going. When it came out, he needed the family to hear it from him, not twisted in with Caprice’s jealousy and half truths.
“I need to be going,” he said. “I have somewhere to go with Faith.” She made a disgusted snort over the phone. “Dinner and a movie? Maybe she’ll get the courage to hold your hand. Maybe you two can share a tub of popcorn and look longingly into each other’s eyes during the romantic comedy and come home and fuck in the missionary position with the lights out and roll over and go to sleep.” “Don’t ever call here again.”
He was about to disconnect the call when her words stopped him. “Maybe I should tell your naive fiancee what you were sneaking off to do during Christmas. Would she marry you then?”
“If you come near her, I will kill you. Is that clear enough? Stay the hell out of our lives.” He disconnected the call before she could reply.
No, Caprice wouldn’t meekly go home, and there was no telling what havoc she could bring to his life. Even without Faith, he didn’t want her, because at the end of the day she always came back to manipulation and nastiness to get what she wanted. He couldn’t train it out of her using any moral methods, anymore than he could train kink into Faith.
Leo took his time walking to the glass room in the east wing. He didn’t know if he could stand to see her sitting there, waiting with her bags packed.
He knocked, but there was no answer. He tried the knob, and it gave freely in his hand. When he stepped into the room, Snowball and Squish meowed and wrapped around his legs briefly before darting out the door. Faith must have forgotten to let them out. Normally they spent some time here, but otherwise had the run of the house.
The room was empty, all of her things still in their normal spots.
“Faith?” Silence.
Snow fell outside the windows, the last gasps of winter creating a heavy blanket. He didn’t want to drive in this right now. And where was he going to take her until he found a permanent living solution?
He found himself irrationally irritated that she wasn’t packed yet. He’d been in his office for an hour at least. He searched the normal places she frequented: the kitchen, the game room, the family room where she liked to sit with a book beside the fire with a mug of cocoa or tea, even the pool.
He refused to consider she could have taken the other option. As obvious as it was, it felt like the kind of thing one would fantasize about and convince themselves of, only to be disappointed in the end. He couldn’t take any more disappointments. And he didn’t deserve a stroke of fortune. Despite this, when he was out of options, he made his way down the back hallways to the metal door at the top of the stairs.
He slid it open and pushed the flat switch that turned the LED lights on. He was halfway down when he heard the music. He hadn’t mentioned the music. Even he couldn’t be that sadistic.
Though he knew what he should expect, he still couldn’t believe it when he reached the bottom. Faith was in front of the mirror, watching her nude reflection, her legs spread as he’d requested.
He sat in the chair he’d been seated in that night. Her gaze never strayed. He glanced to the record player to find it on repeat, and he wondered how long she’d been waiting. Could it have been this whole time?
“Are you sure about this?”
“I’m not leaving,” she said, not looking away from the mirror.
It was practically an engraved invitation. If she was teasing him, she’d picked the wrong man to do it with.
“Come here.”
She crawled across the carpet to his feet as he unzipped his pants. “I think you know what I want.” Even as he said it, he berated himself for expecting she’d rush to please him with her mouth.
Leo let out a soft hiss and gripped the arms of the chair when her lips wrapped around him, her warm, wet mouth engulfing his stiff member. The way she gave a blow job was the way she did everything else. There was something tentative and sweet and almost innocent in the act as she sucked on his hardened flesh. It was clear she’d done this before and knew her way around a man’s anatomy, but she was still shy. It was the most deeply erotic thing he’d ever experienced. He became more convinced that, with patience, he could remake her. His fingers tangled in her hair as she pleasured him.
When he came, he didn’t allow her to pull away. He wasn’t going to scrub cum out of the carpet. If she was letting him use her mouth as a receptacle, she’d finish the job. His breathing deepened and then stopped for a moment as he came. She swallowed without fighting the degradation, and when he pulled out of her and tucked himself back into his pants, she remained on her knees with her gaze cast down at the ground, waiting, her breath coming out in short flutters.
He lifted her chin. Her eyes held a glazed expression that contained equal parts fear and longing, and a foolish sort of love that danced around the edges. He helped her to her feet and took her to the table he’d been strapped to a few weeks before with Esmeralda.
She panicked like a spooked deer and tried to pull out of his grip. Leo would never comprehend the level of fear she must feel when this wasn’t her kink, especially after the gore she’d witnessed when he’d been on this same table. But it was time to jump in or run, and she’d refused the chance to run. He wouldn’t keep offering freedom, and he suspected if he did again, she’d begin to see it as a sort of threat that he’d throw her away. If she’d made this choice with such resolute certainty-adding the music on top of everything-then to continue to question her desire to obey him, no matter how great the fear, disrespected her and what she offered. Whether he deserved it or not.
“I understand you’re afraid, but you knew what was down here, and I gave you a chance at your freedom. Not staying in this house and watching while I take other women, but real freedom away from me. And you chose
to stay. I won’t be vanilla for you. I can’t. It’s not who I am.”
“I know, Master, I’m sorry. I’m just scared.”
He took her into his arms, feeling her heart pumping against her chest, beating into his, practically throwing his own heart off its normal rhythm.
“Get on the table, on your stomach,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to her temple.
He went to the wall, expecting she’d do as he’d asked and selected a couple of the less scary items: the flogger and the paddle. Then he went to the toy box to retrieve the last coil of fresh rope.
When he returned, she was on her stomach on the padded table, shivering with her eyes squeezed shut. Leo dragged the thick blanket off the bed. He made it snug around her torso as if she were being tucked in for the night. Her eyes remained closed, but were squeezed less tightly. He took a knife from a drawer and began to cut lengths of rope, knowing exactly how long each should be.
The endless metal rings attached to the table, allowed for extensive and intricate rope bondage in all imaginable positions, but he was content to tie her down in a standard spread eagle. It was convenient and secure, while being the least distressing form of bondage he could use to start. Tying her down wasn’t just about his own pleasure, but for her safety.
If the ropes hadn’t kept him so tightly bound in place when Esmeralda had whipped him, he could have moved in such a way that the whip would have injured him much more severely than it already had. He didn’t plan on doing anything that sadistic and cruel to Faith, but it was safer for her to stay as still as possible so he could strike the places he intended and nothing else.
He changed the record to something more peaceful: Chopin. The first piece was the third Nocturne for piano. He left the player on repeat and went back to the box for massage oil and a few pleasurable toys, as well as a blindfold. If he intended to train her to want what he wanted, he must make sure that all pain came with a sharp dose of pleasure so the lines would blur and she wouldn’t know which she was getting. Her body would eventually respond to both.
It wouldn’t matter how she was wired or what her brain wanted. He could remap that, reprogram it to his liking so that her body did what he wanted it to do. She’d be aroused and ready when he demanded.
Leo didn’t anticipate she’d open her eyes, but he wanted to be sure. She let out a soft, almost begging whimper as he tied the blindfold around her head, but she didn’t seek to remove it.
He gently took one arm and then the other, and looped the rope through the metal, tying her arms so they were stretched over her head in a V. Then he repeated the process with her legs. She was still covered with the blanket. He let her lie like that for a few moments as he carefully stroked her back through the fabric.
“Faith, did you know that a lot of what we call pain is about expectation? When you expect something to hurt a lot, and you tense all your muscles, it hurts more. If you can relax and flow with it, it hurts less. Think of yourself like a stream flowing softly over rocks. The jagged edges of the rocks don’t hurt the water, it just flows.” He allowed his voice to drop an octave as he spoke, becoming softer and less harsh, lulling her into a sense of safety.
The music he’d selected fit well with the imagery he fed into her mind. He spoke quietly about water and flow and relaxing while he let his hands trail over her back, still wrapped in the warm cocoon of the blanket.
He continued to speak as he went to the thermostat to raise it a couple of degrees. As the room warmed, he took the blanket away. She tensed, but not as much as before, so he poured some oil onto his hands to allow his skin to slide more easily against hers.
He started at her neck, then worked down her back and her arms and hands, then her waist, and over her bottom, and legs and feet. He tenderly massaged until each muscle group unclenched in turn, until her body became limp and receptive.