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At least safer than she'd been in the dream.
He'd been so calm and... non-violent so far in her short time as his captive. So different from the introduction she'd given him when the power had been reversed.
She'd expected more direct retribution. Her gaze fell suddenly on the chains hanging over his bed and the whips lining the wall, and then back down to her own ankle, chained. She swallowed hard.
Pet. Hispethad slept up here. But if Ari was telling the truth, that woman was safe and happy in Paris. So then she must have been here willingly. He wouldn't have let her go unless she'd agreed to be here. Ari hadn't been committing a crime with her.
So all of this was... a kink? Claire squeezed her eyes shut trying to block it all out. She hadn't had an orgasm in three years—since before she'd been taken. Before... the things she'd fantasized about hadn't seemed wrong. But after...? She'd thought after something so terrible had happened to her, she wouldn't fantasize about those things again. Because she knew better. She knew it wasn't a fantasy, and it wasn't sexy to be hurt. But she couldn't get off thinking of normal sweet romantic sex. She'd never liked normal sweet romantic sex.
But anything darker... she couldn't let herself think those things anymore and get off to them. So she'd stopped. She'd shoved her sex drive down a dark hole where she never had to take it out and look at it or think about it. She could never have an orgasm that way again. It was wrong. How could she after...?
She'd tried a few times with more normal thoughts, but she couldn't come. She couldn't even get aroused until the fantasy started to go darker, more depraved, more dangerous. Until she was a captive at the absolute mercy of a beautiful powerful male. She'd stopped herself before she could come, and then she'd run to the bathroom and lost her dinner.
Since then, she'd shut down that part of herself, distracted herself from it. People could live without sex. They could live without orgasms. Plenty of people did it every day, and she'd been determined to be one of them because the alternative was too shameful to contemplate. But now, looking at Ari's bedroom and the stark evidence of what he was into...
She was sure he hadn't demanded she call him Master just because he literally owned her in some clinical way. It was sexual. She'd known it the second the words had come out of his mouth. The way his fingers had played gently at the nape of her neck as he'd stroked her hair. He was going to fuck her. She couldn't use that other word.
Except this time she couldn't use that other word because no matter how wrong she knew it was, she wanted him inside her. Sheneededhim inside her. She needed to be fucked so badly she could barely breathe from everything she'd repressed and shoved down and denied herself. There was an aching hollow pit inside her from the vast lonely stretch of life without pleasure. And he was so raw and masculine and beautiful. She couldn't imagine any woman who could resist Ari's charms if he aimed them in her direction.
Claire shouldn't want him. She shouldn't want any man inside her, let alone a man who clearly intended to keep her as his slave. Not after the things she'd been through—and definitely not knowing the way he would want it. But her body, which had remained rigid and dry throughout her entire captivity with the first man, was awake and hungry for this one. Right or wrong be damned.
When he'd held her in the night, both of them had been naked under the blankets. She'd felt his thick, hard erection pressed against her low back. The place between her legs had answered that hardness with soft, pliant wetness. Her body had been ready to welcome him inside her. She'd tensed, both afraid he'd penetrate her and hoping he would even though it was sick and wrong. But he did nothing but hold her until she drifted off to sleep.
It didn't matter. There was an animal inside her that recognized the animal inside Ari. And the two of them wanted each other. It was pure raw lust. And it was going to be sated one way or another. Claire had no doubts about this. And that terrified the shit out of her.
Only now in the space of emptiness Ari had allowed her could she admit this truth to herself. When he'd told her to kneel and she'd gone to the ground so quickly at his feet, it hadn't just been about fear. Because even in that moment, though she'd tried not to think about it, she'd felt the beginnings of the throbbing wetness between her legs.
She was sick and wrong. Maybe she should have died in that basement.
Before she could entertain that dark thought any further, the door on the lower level opened, and Ari walked through it. She watched as he moved toward the stairs, his eyes never leaving hers.
It didn't matter what she craved and fantasized about, she'd already experienced the harsh reality of captivity, and this man had scars left by her hand. She couldn't let herself hope he wouldn't hurt her. He would definitely hurt her.
Ari watchedher from the main level. She looked like a doe, frozen in fear. But there was something else in her eyes. Desire. He shook the thought away. No. It would be convenient if she easily went along with and wanted all the things he wanted, but he knew that was insane.
She likely didn't even wantnormalsex after what had happened to her, let alone what he brought to the table. What if he couldn't train her? What if he couldn't make her body respond as he wished?
Of course he wouldn't be able to make her body respond. She was traumatized. Broken. And he just wanted to take more because he was a selfish fucking bastard who felt she owed him or that he was saving her somehow from the world. Or saving the world from her.
He climbed the stairs and stood in the same place he'd stood the night before when she'd first woken to her new circumstances. She didn't speak a word. She dropped her gaze and crawled across the mattress until she was on the ground, kneeling at his feet just like she had the night before.
A sharp breath left him. It startled her and drew her gaze up to his. Ari quickly wiped his face of all expression and stared her down until she looked back at the ground.
What in the fuck?
Now that she'd had something to eat and some non-drugged sleep and time alone to gain a sense of her situation the last thing he'd expected was for her to kneel before him without a word. He'd expected her to cry. Or beg him again to let her go. Maybe even fight or scream or throw something. The only thing she could throw was sheets and pillows. Still. He'd expected her to act out in some way. Maybe it just hadn't bubbled to the surface yet.
He was determined to train her, to demand her unfailing obedience, but he still couldn't believe she'd done this without a single command.
He'd always thought some subs played dumb. Or maybe they were afraid to act on their instincts and submit without being directed at every turn. Maybe they were self-conscious, afraid he would laugh or judge them. Not his Claire.
She flinched when he began to stroke her hair, but it seemed more from surprise at the touch than anything else. Surprise he was still being gentle. She didn't seem actively repulsed by him. Though he could easily change that if he made the wrong move. Everything was so precarious.
He sighed. “Claire, I have to punish you.”
He expected her to beg, to move away and huddle against the wall like she had the previous night, but she didn't. She only cried softly. She didn't ask what her crime was. At least she wouldn't insult him that way.
Ari had spent a good part of his time in the cell fantasizing about keeping her as his slave. He'd had dark fantasies before, but these were different. These weren't just spank fantasies to get him off. They were plans. Now that he had her, he wished he could get inside her head and know what she was thinking. He could ask, but there was no guarantee she'd be honest.
