Nicholas

 

The man descending the stairs in front of me was dour and silent. I followed him along a row of dank cells and across a threshold. The vibe changed as we crossed into the second wing. Instead of a prison environment, this felt more like some abandoned Gothic castle. A red carpet lined the floor and massive chunks of gray stone made up the walls and ceiling. Each of the doors was thick and wooden.

 

He led me to the last one. As he reached to open it, the handle turned and someone emerged from within. To my surprise, a small blond woman stepped out. “Just checking on your purchase,” Alessandra said to me with a twisted grin on her heavily made-up face. “She’s all ready for you.”

 

The stocky man looked back and forth at us for a moment, then shrugged. Alessandra trotted away. Her footsteps were nearly silent on the thick rug walkway. “Take as long as you want,” he told me. “But do what you’re supposed to.” Then he left, too.

 

I turned to face the door. I couldn’t decipher what I was feeling and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. Time to see what lay within. I opened the door and stepped inside.

 

The room within was strange. I noticed the sex toys and whips covering each of the walls. This was a place for giving and receiving things. Whether that was pain or pleasure seemed to be up to whoever was in charge at the moment. I supposed, for now, that that was me.

 

The girl cowered in one corner. I could see fresh tear tracks glinting on her cheeks in the flickering light of the chandelier overhead. She was huddled into a little ball, hiding her body from me. But she was even more beautiful up close than she had been on the stage.

 

Her cheekbones stood in high relief, framing her delicate eyes perfectly. Her skin was flawless and had the creamy texture that had made my cock stir to attention. I wanted to run my hands over her, my tongue, to taste and feel that body. Even without being able to see all of her, I wanted her more badly than any other girl I’d ever come across.

 

But she looked terrified.

 

“What’s your name?” I asked. The room was silent enough that I could hear my pulse in my ears along with the soft whirr of her breathing.

 

“Natalia,” she murmured. She refused to look up at me. Instead, she kept her eyes trained on her knees.

 

Natalia. Something was tickling at my memory, a long-forgotten sense of déjà vu. I couldn’t place it, but it persisted like an itch. I set it aside for now.

 

“I’m Nicholas,” I said.

 

I thought she would stay quiet, but she whispered something I couldn’t quite hear. “What was that? Speak up,” I demanded.

 

“I said, you’re the one who bought me.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“What are you going to do with me?”

 

“I don’t know yet.”

 

I stared at her. Slowly, one by one, my thoughts fell away. In their absence, there was only a raw, pressing need. It was too powerful to ignore. I felt myself slipping into it and letting it consume me like fire. I became the wanting. I was my desire.

 

“Stand up.” She looked at me and knew right away not to refuse. She unfolded gracefully from the ground but stayed close to the wall. One hand covered her breasts and the other hid her slit from my view.

 

“Come here.” She still wouldn’t look at me, but she began to walk, step by tentative step, padding across the cold stone floor with her bare feet. She paused just out of arm’s reach. I turned and circled slowly around her. I wanted to take my time, to drink her in and appreciate the perfect angle of her hips, the way her ass swelled and swooped.

 

If I was going to fuck her, I was going to do it right.

 

I reached out a hand and touched her shoulder lightly. She recoiled, like I’d shocked her. That wouldn’t do. Neither would this bullshit with her keeping herself covered. “You’re mine now,” I said in a low rumble. “You’ll never hide anything from me.” I stopped in front of her. “Move your hands.”

 

She was shivering crazily, but the temperature in the room had begun to climb. She wouldn’t budge. I reached out and encircled each of her wrists with my fingers. I plucked them away from her and set them down by her sides.

 

There. Now she was perfect.

 

I paused to let the image sink in. Starting from her feet, I looked up, noticing and admiring each detail as my eyes swept over her. Her calves were thin and lithe, rising into a pair of thighs that I ached to shove my face between. I could see the dark, neatly trimmed strip of hair just above her slit, bordered on either sides by hips that would no doubt be perfect to wrap my hands around. Her stomach was taut and flat, making the heavy, full breasts dangling above look even rounder and perkier. I extended a thumb and forefinger and gently laid them to rest on one brown nipple.

 

She looked up at me. Her face was a mixture of fear and hate, but smoldering just below that was an animal desire that I recognized. So what if she was scared of me, so what if she hated me.

 

She was mine now. Mine.

 

“Don’t touch me,” she whispered suddenly. A bolt of courage must have just struck through her.

 

I laughed out loud. “Are you telling me what to do?”

 

She hesitated. I could see the sudden spike of bravery draining away from her face. She wasn’t as sure as she had been a moment ago.

 

I drew myself up to my full height and begin to slowly unbutton my shirt one at a time as I resumed my circles around her. With each patient rotation, my torso came more into view. I watched her eyes grow big and round as she saw more and more of my tattoos, my scars, my brawn. My body was saying everything for me; I didn’t need to add a word.

 

I am the master.

 

“You belong to me,” I said coldly as I walked behind her.

 

She spun around to face me. “You can do whatever you want to me. But you’ll never have my consent.”

 

I laughed my hardest yet and tossed my shirt to the side. Stepping forward, I moved my hand to her throat. I didn’t squeeze or pressure her, but I rested my broad palm over her airway as if to say, Now what?

 

“We’ll see if you don’t change your mind,” I told her. “Very soon.”