Chapter Ten
Briarlee
We wake to the dawn breaking over the treetops. There’s food to eat and very little else to do but enjoy each other. A perfect morning.
“I never saw any of this coming,” I muse over my granola bar.
He takes his dose. It’s a weird liquid. It shines in a strange way. He takes it like a shot and chases it with some orange juice.
“How much of that stuff have you got?”
“Enough,” he says. “We’d synthesized a few courses, hoping to be able to start some human trials.”
“So you kinda, I mean, stole them from the company?”
“I guess I did.”
“And that’s… criminal, right?”
“I suppose.”
“So we really are criminals on the lam.”
“You really like that idea, don’t you,” he smirks at me. “Appeals to your issues with authority.”
“I don’t have issues with authority.”
“Yes, you do. You never used to listen to your dad. And you never listen to your bosses either…”
“I listen to you.”
“That’s because you know I’ll tear that little ass up if you don’t.”
He did punish me once. But that was cathartic, and I needed it. What he’s talking about now is something different. I think. I don’t really know.
“I don’t think that’s it…”
“If you knew your ass and pussy were on the line at work, you’d behave yourself.”
I snort and laugh. “That drug makes you a raving misogynist.”
“No, just telling the truth. It doesn’t matter, because you’re mine. Nobody else is ever going to lay a hand on you.”
“Is that right.”
He looks over at me and I see the animal in his eyes. That drug unleashes something in him, something primal and sexy and even a little frightening. When he takes a dose, he doesn’t care about how he should behave. He does whatever he wants to.
“Come over here and get that cunt on my cock.”
A crude, lewd command, and one I prove him right by obeying.
Before I know it, I’m being bounced on his dick like a toy. He’s lying back, his hands on my hips, working my pussy up and down the long, hard shaft. I whimper between moans, because he’s been ravaging me for what feels like days. My poor pussy is starting to truly ache, and I’m not sure I can take it anymore.
“My pussy needs a break.”
He doesn’t skip a beat. He pulls me off his cock, and drags me up his body until I am sitting on his face. His tongue plunges between my cheeks, finds the tight little bud of my asshole and starts flicking and licking and working his way inside me there. I am held upright, vulnerable and exposed, my pussy aching and empty as he prepares my other hole.
It takes a long time to get the head of his cock inside me. He has to hold me in place and push slowly until the tight ring of muscle gives way. I wriggle and whimper, making it harder for him, but I want his cock in my ass. I want him to prove to me that he will take me as he pleases, and that I am here for his pleasure. Maybe that’s twisted, but the thought fills me with arousal and a sense of deep contentment that wraps around me even as he patiently guides my misbehaving bottom down on his cock.
Before he comes, he lifts me off. I am in an erotic haze where I simply accept what he is doing to me, so when he lays me next to the fire, I simply stay there, waiting for the return of his hard, pillaging rod in whichever of my holes he chooses to take.
* * *
Daniel
A vehicle is coming up the trail. Looks like a SUV of some kind. Maybe it’s someone looking for some peace and quiet. I picked this place because it was well off the beaten track. The car barely made it up here. An SUV will have an easier go of it, but still. We’re going to have to move on.
“Let’s get packed up,” I say. “We’ve got company.”
She’s lying in a fucked-out stupor. We’re alternating between adrenaline and eroticism right now and it’s exhausting her. I’ll have to make sure she gets enough rest, as soon as we get to a place that’s actually safe.
When she doesn’t respond, I scoop her up and put her on her feet. “Briarlee, come on.”
She makes a grunting sound. “Really, we have to leave already?”
My hand meets her ass hard enough to shock her into full consciousness. “Yes. Now.”
“Ow, dammit, Daniel,” she pouts, rubbing.
I reckon we’ve got about two minutes to clear out of here before that SUV comes over the ridge. In my mind, I’m thinking that some kind of APB probably went out when I left the company. I could be paranoid, but better to be safe than sorry. Right now we’re running from shadows, but I’d rather run from them than bullets or whatever else might be coming my way.
I start packing the tent down as she sits on a stump, watching me with a pout. I’m going to have to deal with her lack of discipline. If she wants to be out here with me, she needs to do as she’s told and follow orders. It could mean the difference between life and death.
It’s strange how all these thoughts come to me instinctively. Before Regenermax, I would have never done this. I would never have left the city, sought high ground, made sure that I knew precisely who was in my vicinity. I would have gone back to my apartment and waited for my fate. I would have followed authority blindly, let myself be overrun by the company, the military, whoever. Now, my senses tell me where danger lurks. I am vigilant, prepared to defend myself and the woman I love.
* * *
Briarlee
“Hurry up, Briar!” He shouts the words at me in a rough growl. Goddammit. I haven’t even had my coffee today. I need coffee. This sex is wearing me out. I don’t know that any mere mortal woman could keep up with his monstrous libido. I can’t even muster the energy to be scared anymore.
I’m tired. I need a nap, and I’m pretty sure that whoever is coming up that trail, it’s not the military. They’d come by helicopter or something. Or they’d dart out wearing camouflage with bits of tree sticking out of them. They wouldn’t drive up in a single late model SUV.
I try to tell him that, but he’s not listening. That drug makes him more animal than any man should be. He’s paranoid. I’ve come out into the wilderness with a crazy man.
He’s throwing things into the back of the car, but it’s not fast enough. Cursing, he slams the door shut and grabs me, pulling me over his shoulder, and then he races into the forest just as the SUV pulls up.
“Daniel…”
My words are cut off as he clamps his hand over my mouth. We hide behind a tree and watch as the rear door of the SUV opens. I feel his heart beating against my back, powerful and quick. There’s adrenaline coursing through the pair of us now as he lets out a low, feral growl. Whoever gets out of that car is going to be in trouble.
But it’s not heavy boots that hit the ground, it’s a pair of small pink trainers, and a blue pair behind them. They belong to a couple of kids of indeterminate age, a boy and a girl.
“Mom! Kayden put gum in my hair!” the girl shrieks, holding out a curly blonde lock of hair clogged with pink gum.
“Alright, Nevaeh, calm down,” a woman says blithely as she gets out of the passenger side. A man I’m assuming is Dad remains in the car, his hands somewhat white-knuckled around the steering wheel. It’s not the look of a mercenary. It’s the look of a man who just drove eight hours with squabbling kids and a nagging wife and is thinking about driving off and leaving them all there.
The female child has started hitting the male child with a branch while her mother lights a cigarette and makes a comment to nobody at all about how nice it is out here in the peace and quiet. If the military has decided to annoy us to death, then this could be related, but I don’t think so.
Daniel lets me go. I turn around and give him a look. “You’re out of control,” I say, trying to remain calm. “I mean, honestly. Daniel, you said this medication might have some side effects. Are you sure you’re being followed by the military? I mean… it’s not very likely, is it?”
My skepticism is not met with joy. I didn’t expect it to be, but I can’t help it. All of a sudden, I’m realizing that there’s not actually any evidence that the military is after him. There’s just his word. And he doesn’t seem to have the best perceptions right now. Maybe the treatment is messing with his mind. It’s certainly messing with his body. He’s bigger and meaner and madder every day, and he fucks longer and harder too.
“I’m not paranoid,” he says. “I was told the patent was held by the military and that my taking it made me their property.”
“Okay, but does that make sense?”
“Kayden, stop it!”
A high-pitched squeal adds audio background to our hushed argument.
“It doesn’t matter if it makes sense. It’s what’s happening.”
“Okay, but you told me the drug could have effects on you… is this one of them?”
“It might make me hyper-sexual and hyper-aggressive. It won’t make me think the military is looking for me.”
“Are you sure?”
“The rats didn’t become paranoid.”
“And how would you have known if they had?”
He stops at that, because it’s a good question.
“Those rats could have been convinced the walls were talking to them for all you know. That drug could easily be turning you insane. Maybe you should stop taking it and see if the military stops chasing you.”
His jaw clenches. “I don’t like your tone, Briarlee.”
“Well, there’s nobody else here to tell you these things. Bratty kids aren’t a SEAL team, are they?”
“Just because it wasn’t anyone from the military this time, doesn’t mean they won’t be coming. If you don’t believe me, that’s fine. You take the car and go back home.”
“And what, leave you in the woods with no way out? I’m not doing that.”
“You’re not my caretaker. I’m yours.”
I don’t know if that’s true or not. He’s massive, but maybe he needs me to take care of him, even if he doesn’t want it. If these are paranoid delusions, someone needs to get him the care he needs. And that someone might have to be me.
* * *
Daniel
I see the doubt in her eyes. Briarlee has always been an open book to me. She came with me because she got caught up in the drama of it all, but she doesn’t really believe it. I suppose I can’t blame her. There’s an old adage: if you hear hoof beats, think horses, not zebras. I suppose it does seem more likely to her that I’ve gone mad on my medication than the military is actively stalking us. I know the truth, but I also know that’s what people with mental illness issues always say, so telling her that isn’t going to help.
The worst part of this is that if I do a good enough job of keeping away from the military, she’ll never see them. There will never be any real evidence. So I’m making a claim I can’t prove, and I’m expecting her to believe it without evidence. Not exactly scientific.
“We’re going to wait until they leave,” I say. “And then we’re going to park the car deeper in the forest, take our things out and carry them deeper. I want to go fully wild.”
“Do you think that’s a good idea? I mean, I already need a shower.”
“I’ll lick you clean if I have to,” I rumble.
She smiles, but only a little. The woods aren’t really her scene. Briarlee is used to being comfortable. She’s used to things coming easy to her without really having to try. One night in the woods was romantic. But hiding from every sound isn’t. And having to wait while this family rampages around the parking lot isn’t either. I curse the fact that I left the car out in the open like I did. The only saving grace is that I’m pretty sure not one of the people performing in the family circus out there have noticed it, or anything else for that matter.
We sit about two hundred feet from the parking lot, listening to screams and laughs, usually followed by a parental shriek. They’re having a picnic. This could go on for hours.
“Get some rest,” I say, pulling Briarlee into the space between my legs as I sit with my back against a tree. She cuddles up with me, but I feel the stiffness in her body. She’s not happy. Not even when the sounds of the forest start to overtake the sounds of the family beyond. There are thousands of birds here, most of whom seem to be interested in competing for some kind of bird talent show with their calls and trills.
It takes some time, but Briar starts to relax and then even doze, curled up against my body as I stroke the hair back from her head. She hasn’t showered. Her hair is getting messy. She’s going to complain about that I’m sure, but I think she looks as beautiful now as she ever has. Maybe it’s because she’s fully mine to protect. As mad as she might be with this situation, she feels safe enough to sleep. There’s a trust that has always been there between us, and I hope it always will be. We’re going to need it over the coming days, maybe weeks.
After about an hour, the family decide they’ve had enough of nature. I hear squeals about flies and how it’s boring and they can hardly get reception, though apparently the boy can. Eventually their car rumbles into life, that perfectly pristine SUV that just justified its existence with this one trip into the wild, though it remains as pristine as ever.
“Wake up, sweetheart.” I nudge Briarlee awake.
She blinks and frowns, curling up with a grumpy expression, then extending her legs and sitting up to look at me.
“Are they gone?”
“Yeah.”
“I gotta pee,” she announces. “Where am I going to do that?”
I cast my arm at the wilderness around us. “Pick a spot.”
The look she gives me is one of pure disappointment. “This is so gross.”
“Don’t go too far. Don’t want anything wild to find you.”
“Something wild already did find me,” she pouts. She’s referring to me, of course. Except I’m not wild. I’m controlled. I know exactly what I’m doing and why. Even if it doesn’t make sense to her. Even if it looks like paranoia—though if I am, being paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you, as the old adage goes.
“Go pee.”
She stamps into the bush. I listen, getting a sense of how far she’s going by the way her petulant footsteps crashing through the undergrowth and litter recede.
“That’s far enough!” I call out to her.
The footsteps stop. There’s silence.
She’s going to pitch a fit if I get too close when she’s toileting, but Briarlee doesn’t have the best instincts for danger and I wouldn’t put it past her to let an animal creep up on her while she wasn’t watching.
I walk quietly through the bush, my larger frame making much less noise because I make sure not to step on twigs, to land my feet softly instead of stamping my way through the undergrowth.
The soft flow of her urine is what I expect to hear. Instead, I hear muffled cursing.
“Hello? Can you hear me? Hello?”
I look around a tree and see her with a phone she is absolutely not supposed to have pressed to her ear. Did I tell her not to bring it? Maybe I forgot. But the fact she sneaked off to use it makes me pretty certain she knows I wouldn’t approve.
“Police, please…”
She’s calling the cops on me! I flare into action before I can think this through. I don’t know if she has a line open. I don’t know if they have enough to track her call. All I know is that phone has to die, and now.
Coming from behind, I snatch the phone from her hand, drop it onto a rock, and stamp on it with my heel and crush it to plastic dust and circuits.
“No phones,” I growl.
She looks at me with fear in her eyes. I never wanted this for us, but now she’s in this with me, she can’t decide to opt out. We are being tracked, of that I have no doubt. And that phone she’s carried around has probably been like a big flashing red light for people with the resources to track that sort of thing.
“That was fucked up, Daniel,” she complains. Not so afraid she can’t still give me attitude, I see.
“Who were you calling?”
“The cops!” She doesn’t even try to deny it. “We can’t live in the woods forever because you took some drugs that make you think the military is looking for you. I saw enough of that in college.”
“Regenermax isn’t LSD or pot,” I growl. “I’m not making this up. This is serious.”
“No, it’s not! You’re fucking crazy! Nobody is after you! Nobody cares!” She throws the words at me wildly.
* * *
Briarlee
I see the exact moment that he loses all trust in me. I feel the moment I stop being his ally, and start being another person he has to worry about.
I made a mistake. I never should have said that I didn’t believe him. The look he gives me isn’t one of anger—it’s of pure, utter betrayal. I hate seeing that look in his eyes. It breaks my heart. But he had to hear it, because he’s going too far. He’s getting too extreme. We haven’t seen so much as a toy soldier, let alone the actual military.
He grabs me by the hand and marches me out of the forest, back toward the car. Thank god. Maybe he’s going to send me back. I refused to go before, but now I’m thinking I won’t be of any use to him out here, feeding these delusions.
“Put your hands behind your back.”
“What?”
He repeats the order in a deep, rumbling gravel. I don’t comply, because I don’t understand what he’s saying, or why he’s saying it. He sounds like the cops he didn’t want me to call.
When I don’t do what he wants, he takes me in those big hands and pulls my arms behind my back, then begins lashing them together with the tape I thought we had purchased for constructing shelters.
“Daniel!” I panic. “What are you doing?”
It’s a stupid question. It’s obvious what he’s doing. He’s taking me prisoner.
“I’m sorry,” he grunts as I struggle. “I have to do this.”
“No, you don’t!” I kick and twist and squirm, but it’s useless. He has me and he’s not letting go. I have no idea what he plans to do with me. I do know that he won’t hurt me—at least, I hope I know that. This man is not the one I used to know, though he must still be in there somewhere, lurking behind this bestial creature.
“Daniel, please,” I beg. “Don’t do this to me. Don’t hurt me. I’m not going to do anything bad. I’m not going to hurt you. Daniel… Daniel!”
I screech his name as he finishes binding my ankles with the tape and throws me up and over his shoulder. It’s so horribly easy for him to handle me, especially now I can’t really do anything more than caterpillar kick. I’m no longer his willing partner in evading the law. I’m his captive.
“Daniel! Let me go! Daniel!”
He doesn’t listen to me. He doesn’t even respond to me. He acts like he can’t hear me at all.
He sits me down next to the car and I watch as he pulls out the pack he brought and fills it with the tent, our food, water, other stuff. He’s getting ready to go deep into these woods, and that terrifies me because these are the kind of forests you can absolutely get lost in and never come back from. I try to talk to him, beg for forgiveness, plead for mercy, ask ever so nicely for him to let me go. I half expect him to gag me with the tape too, but he doesn’t. It’s like he’s turned off a switch and he no longer cares what I say.
He shoulders the pack on one side of his body, then pulls me up from the ground with his other arm and tosses me over his shoulder. He is so much more powerful than any man should be. He doesn’t grunt or bow under the weight.
He carries me into the woods, each one of his great strides taking me further and further from civilization. I start to panic, but that doesn’t matter. There’s nothing I can do against his strength.
It’s a very long time before he stops walking. We head down into the forest, then up a gully, across a ridge, and down the other side. It’s as if he knows where he is going, though there’s no way he possibly could.
By the time we stop, I have no idea where we started from. The world has been upside down and mostly green since we started. He hasn’t put me down for what feels like hours, though it’s impossible to tell time out here. There’s no TV shows to measure the passing of the day. There’s no neighbors coming and going to indicate it’s 8.30 a.m. or 5.30 p.m. All the rhythms of modernity are gone. Even the light is different, dappled and golden through leaves. It’s as though we are somewhere outside of time, and out of place. There are no references to go by. No street signs, no shop windows, no square blocks. Everything is a blooming confusion of green and brown and blue and I could be anywhere in it.
He sets me down at what feels like random, but probably isn’t. We’ve found a clearing near a brook, a place Daniel seems to think will be good for setting up the tent. He puts me down and sets to work. It’s been so long since I heard his voice I’m almost starting to think he will never speak to me again.
This is the world I find myself in, where everything feels endless and eternal, where escape doesn’t even make sense. Where would I be escaping to? Into the embrace of yet more wild places? I’d heard you can navigate by the sun and the stars, but I’ve never understood that. They’re just generally up. How does that even work?
I sit there as Daniel pitches the tent, builds the fire, and starts boiling some water from the stream. Watching him is frighteningly fascinating. He’s so utterly confident in everything. Before the drugs, he used to be unsure of so many things. It was an aura that used to hang around him, a repellent to women. He’s been transformed by the drug. I wonder if it’s permanent. I wonder if he will always be a beast of a man, willing to do whatever is necessary to get what he wants. He seems to think so. He said after thirty days, the treatment is finished.
Don’t you dare fucking find this hot, I lecture myself.
“This is fucked up. Even for you.”
I break the silence that had fallen between us after I realized he wasn’t going to respond. I’m surprised when he looks right at me and replies.
“We’re in danger. Even if you don’t understand, or believe, we are. And I’m going to protect you, even if you don’t know you need protecting.”
It’s a relief just to hear his voice again. Then he picks up a knife, and some of that relief drains away.
“I’m going to take that tape off,” he says. “You’re a smart girl, so you know that if you go running off, you’re in a place where you likely won’t make it out. There are mountain lions, coyotes, and bears out here. Don’t leave the fire without me.”
“Asshole,” I growl as he frees me.
“I know you don’t believe me,” he says, still so damn calm. “And I know you are going to hate me after this. I just want to make sure that there is an after this. We’re going to wait three days. If that call doesn’t bring the military down on our heads, I’ll take you back to the car and this time you better make sure you leave.”
“Don’t worry,” I bite out. “I’ll get as far away from you as I can. This is fucked up. You’re fucking…” I don’t even know what to say, and in spite of my anger, I don’t actually want to be swearing at him like this. There’s just something about him, the way he looks at me, something that lets me see to the core of him. He believes this. With everything he has.
“Daniel, please.” I change tack. “We have to go back together. They’re not looking for you. Just because someone at your work made some noise about a patent doesn’t mean there are tanks scouring the countryside for you. If the military had the patent, they’d be using it on their own people.”
“They have the patent for the previous version. Which doesn’t work. Mine does.”
* * *
Daniel
I can’t give into the frustration at knowing she doesn’t believe me. She doesn’t know enough about Regenermax to understand, though really it should be obvious. A treatment that can regenerate damaged nerve, bone, and muscle is essentially a panacea for all humankind. It has applications across the spectrum of illnesses, and of course the military are going to be interested in it. More than interested. This is a weapon in its own right. A battalion of soldiers on Regenermax would be far stronger, go far harder, be able to sustain many more injuries than even the most elite soldiers today. They would be nearly unstoppable. In a world where most warfare is conducted at a distance, it’s not as useful as it once was, but they’ll have dozens of applications for it.
It was a mistake to bring Briarlee on this. She’s never been dedicated to anything. She’s never sacrificed anything. Her comfortable, sheltered world has left her incapable of understanding that very bad things really do happen. Even the crash we were in together left her mostly unscathed. She has sailed through life, never really feeling the possibility of true failure or real pain.
The truth is, I am the worst thing to ever happen to her. Maybe I should have left her behind, but now that I’ve taken her, she has to stay, at least for a while. Some consequences can’t be avoided. Even for Briarlee.
She sits there, pouting and pretty as I prepare food. It doesn’t occur to her to offer to do any of the work. She’s a passenger in this now, not an ally, not a companion, not even a lover. A woman who has scorned me over and over again in every form and who now, in my hour of need, has decided I am a madman.
My next dose is due soon. I’m almost reluctant to take it, because I know what will happen when I do. The lust fog will rise and I won’t be able to contain my desire for her. The Regenermax doesn’t put me into a fugue state anymore, but it sure as heck messes with my consciousness.
After thinking about it for a few minutes, I realize there’s only one thing to do. I pick up the dose and a handful of rope, sit with my back against a small but sturdy tree, and begin wrapping the rope around my body.
“What are you doing?”
She gives me a skeptical look as I wrap the rope around myself.
“I thought I was the one you were keeping captive.”
“I don’t want to fuck you in the mood I’m in,” I say. I don’t know how she’ll take those words, but it’s not for lack of desire for her. It’s out of concern for how badly I might ravage and punish her if I lose myself. She was a very, very bad girl. She had her reasons, but I know those reasons will matter a lot less after the next dose. “I’m pretty sure you don’t want me to fuck you either. So I’ll take this dose and you can let me out after a few hours, when the lust passes.”
“I could just leave you here in the woods,” she points out. She could, but I know she won’t, and I say as much as I form a knot and then slide it around so it’s at the back of the tree.
“You won’t. You’d never find your way out of here without me, and you wouldn’t leave me tied up at the mercy of the wild things.”
She narrows her eyes. “It would serve you right if I did. You’ve kidnapped me.”
“You’re too sweet for vengeance,” I say. “Now go back and tighten that knot.”
* * *
Briarlee
Tie him up? Sure. Why not. He’s turned into a fucking asshole, and being tied up is probably the best thing for him.
The fact that he trusts me to do this isn’t heartwarming anymore. It just pisses me off. He doesn’t respect me. My thoughts, my feelings, my opinions, they don’t matter to him. He thinks of me like an ambulatory fuck doll, a robot he can carry around and give orders to.
I walk around the tree, make sure the ropes are tight and yank the knot into a secure position. He’s not getting out of there any time soon.
“Okay,” I say. “Done.”
“Good,” he grunts, before chucking the rest of that poisonous brew down his face.
He closes his eyes and rests his head back against the tree. Can I still admit to myself that he’s a very handsome man? I can’t really avoid the truth. He was always good looking, but this treatment is enhancing all his natural features, making him hyper-masculine, beefing him up. I can see the ropes straining even tighter as his musculature swells.
I’m too angry at him to admit that I find this hot, but I do. I can’t help it. My body reacts to his like a moth does to a flame.
When he opens his eyes, he looks at me directly. There’s hunger in his gaze. Something raw, and powerful, and so fucking primal. Almost like I’m looking back through thousands of years of evolution, to a creature who wants only to dominate and fuck and ravage me.
“Briar,” he growls. “Come here.”
I stay right where I am. This is the Regenermax talking. He didn’t tie himself to a tree for no reason.
“Briarlee…” His voice is a low rumble of pure command. “I want you.”
“Well, you can’t have me,” I tell him. “You tied yourself up, remember? You didn’t want me either.”
“I always want you. I hunger for you. You’re the one thing in this world I will always protect.” His voice is pure gravel and lust.
“You’re not protecting me. You kidnapped me. I was trying to get help. You stopped me.”
He gives a deep sigh. “Naive little girl. They are coming for me, Briar.”
“There’s no evidence for that.”
“Come here.”
He commands me again, and I know why. The front of his pants is tented with a brutal erection. I know how that would feel inside me. I know what he will do to me if he gets loose. It was written all over his face when he had me tie that knot. When he has control of himself, even he knows that what he becomes under the influence of the drug is something that needs to be contained.
I stay where I am, saying nothing.
“I can smell you,” he grunts a moment or two later. “You’re aroused.”
“I am not,” I lie, defying his animal senses.
“You are. Undo these ropes and let me have you. Let me show you what you are, Briarlee. Let me make you remember why you came with me in the first place.”
“You said you didn’t want me seconds before you took that drug.”
“I wanted you,” he growls. “I was being pathetically weak and civilized. That doesn’t work with you. I should have fucked you senseless and whipped your ass red when I found you with that phone. I should have made you scream my name until you forgot your own.”
I sit there, knowing he can’t reach me, feeling his frustration building. He did this to himself, but now I have control. It’s an interesting feeling, seeing him so vulnerable, and so fierce at the same time. Like having a lion leashed in front of me. He is seething with sex. If I were to cut the rope holding him, he would be on me in an instant.
“Is this the real you? Or is this the drug talking?” It’s what I’ve been wondering since he revealed the truth. This dominant, fiercely sexual man—is he a figment of a drug? Does he disappear as soon as it wears off? Or is the drug like a window to the soul of the real Daniel? The Daniel who has been in there all along, pretending to be mild-mannered and gentle all the while harboring rough dreams of claiming me in every way he can.
“Untie me and find out,” he smirks handsomely.
“I’m not untying you,” I tell him. “I might not ever untie you.”
“Oh?” He cocks his head to the side. It’s not the reaction I expected. I anticipated rage and fury. Truth be told, I’m disappointed. This felt like my chance to get back at him, but he doesn’t seem to care when I tell him I’m thinking about leaving him tied to that tree forever.
“Yeah,” I say. It doesn’t sound as bold as I want it to.
He lets out a short chuckle. “We had an agreement, Briarlee.”
“No, you told me what to do. Maybe I’m sick of you telling me what to do. Maybe it’s time you did what I say.”
“You think so?”
“Yes,” I say, getting bolder. Yeah. I’m going to see this through. He’s going to see things my way. I walk up to him and crouch down in front of him, so close our noses are almost touching. I look deep into his eyes, see the beast within the man. “You’re mine. You’re going to do as I say. You’re going to stay tied to that tree until you promise.”
A muscle in his cheek twitches. “Until I promise what?”
“Until you promise to take me back home and then do as I say. No more dominating me. No more Mr. Boss Man. I’m in charge now, Danny.”
His eyes flash with irritation. He always hated being called Danny, even when we were kids.
“You won’t be in charge after these ropes come off.”
“Then they’re not coming off,” I say, giving him a sweet peck on the nose.
I stand up, feeling very smug and satisfied, and I go to the rations. There’s some chocolate in there, I’m sure of it. What better to eat while Daniel gets used to the idea that the tables have been turned.
“You’re going to untie me,” he says casually. “Because you’re a good girl. And good girls keep their end of the bargain.”
“Eh, I don’t think I care about being a good girl anymore,” I shrug.
“Good girls also don’t have their asses switched and fucked.”
“Who are you going to switch my ass with? There’s no one else out here.”
He gives me a dark look, no trace of amusement on his brilliantly handsome features. “I mean I’m going to cut a nice long branch from one of these trees and use it on you until you cry.”
“Oh,” I say, taking a bite of chocolate. “Well, you can go fuck yourself then. I hope you’re comfortable. Hope you don’t have to pee.”
“Come over here and untie me,” he growls. “Now.”
“Ehhhhh, no, I don’t think so.”
It feels so incredibly good to take my power back this way. It makes me feel excited, and giddy, and only a little nervous. Daniel’s expression has become stormy. His eyes are locked on me with an intensity that makes my stomach do little flips. This is so worth it.
“I’m going to count down from five. If you haven’t untied me by then, you’re going to be in a world of hurt.”
“You can count down from five, or you can count up to five hundred,” I say, stuffing the last delicious part of the chocolate bar into my mouth. So damn good. I’d usually worry about having another one out of concern for my waistline, but now I don’t think I care. I’m filled with reckless energy and I’ve abandoned all consideration of consequences. Right now, right here, nothing can touch me. Not the calories in this candy, not the angry man tied to a tree.
“Five…”
I let out a giggle as he begins.
“Four…”
“Forty-two,” I sass.
“Three…”
“Six hundred and ninety-two point nine recurring…” None of these numbers mean anything, so why be so linear about it?
“Two… Briarlee, if you don’t start moving, you’re going to regret it…”
I smirk and peel another bar.
“One.”
I snap a block off and smirk at him as the countdown ends. “Oh, well,” I say. “Maybe give it another try. Maybe start from ten this time. That might work.”
He lets out one of his near feral growls, the sound rolling right through me as I chew my chocolate. This is so funny. And so perfect.
He shifts in his bindings, shuffling maybe an inch or so.
“You shouldn’t have tied them so tight if you wanted to be able to get out of them,” I snort. “You weren’t really thinking right, were you, Danny? You should really be more careful, you silly boy…”
Daniel flexes. The muscles in his shoulders, chest, biceps, and back all bulge at the same time. The rope holding him snaps like a piece of cotton before my stunned eyes.
“Oh, shit.”
He’s standing up. I have about 0.002 seconds before he grabs me.
I drop the candy and I run.
I make it 0.004 seconds before his huge hands grab me around my waist and pluck me, screaming, up off the ground.
“Okay, Daniel, that wasn’t fair! This isn’t fair!”
He doesn’t say a word. He sweeps me around and holds me under one of his armpits, his left arm wrapped around my waist to press me up against the powerful side of his torso. His right hand goes to tear a small branch from a tree. Just like he said he would. Oh, fuck. Oh, god. I’m stammering, begging, lying. I’m telling him that it was just a joke, that of course I was going to untie him. That he knows that, surely he has to know that.
Daniel doesn’t listen to a word out of my mouth. He sits down, traps my thighs between his legs and pushes me over his left thigh so that my ass is on display over his leg. This is bad. There are bits of leaf and twig falling around me as he strips the branch bare, and then follows up by doing the same to my rear.
“Daniel!” I scream his name as the first lash lands against naked skin. He hasn’t said a word, and he doesn’t have to.
Over and over again, the branch whips across my ass, biting into my skin, leaving little patches of intense heat and lines of fire. I am being punished deliberately, painfully, and completely as I deserve to be.
It doesn’t take long for my tears to start to fall. I’ve never had much in the way of pain tolerance, and that hasn’t changed. It feels as though the switch has landed dozens of times, though maybe it’s closer to ten. I can’t count with that searing sting igniting every nerve in my body.
“Daniel! Stop!”
He stops. I know well enough it’s not because I told him to. It’s because he must be seeing what I am feeling. Any more of the switch and my bottom is going to become seriously marked and perhaps even bloody. And he won’t do that to me, even though I was just telling him I planned to leave him tied to a tree.
This is mercy. Not the kind of mercy I would expect outside this forest, but still mercy. All things are relative, and when you’re gasping for breath in between cuts of a wickedly supple switch, you’ll beg for respite—and worship anyone who gives it.
“You’re a brat,” he growls, his hand on the back of my head. He’s not gripping my hair, he’s palming my skull. I can feel his strength like a promise, my own physical vulnerabilities more pronounced than ever.
“I’m not!”
“Yes, you are. Sitting there, raiding the candy stores like a naughty little girl. You didn’t even try to get away. You didn’t even really look for anything to bargain with. You just sat there and smirked and taunted and riled me until I came for you, because you wanted your pussy fucked. Isn’t that right? You think this drug has made me mad, but you’re the one who has become addicted to what it does. You need this cock.”
I don’t know anymore. Daniel turns my world upside down. He makes it hard to even start thinking about what I was doing. I thought I was telling him to get fucked, but maybe he’s right. Maybe I was just trying to get fucked myself.
“What did you think was going to happen when I got free?”
“I don’t know,” I sniff. “I was going to figure that out later.”
“That’s your problem, Briar. You’re so smart, but you don’t think, and you don’t plan. You dismiss what you’re told if you don’t want it to be true, and you don’t realize what the consequences of ignoring things are.”
Now he sounds like my father—or, like my father would sound if he didn’t just sigh and ask me how much money I need this month. Held over his lap, my ass burning like hell, I feel like the naughty girl he says I am.
“We’re in danger. I put that rope on to try to protect you from the worst of my lust, but you decided to take advantage of it, so now I’m going to take your ass, just like I promised I would.”
“Daniel,” I whimper. “We don’t have lube.”
“Yes, we do,” he says. “Your cunt is soaking. You’re making enough to start a small lubrication factory.”
He proves it by pushing two fingers into my slit then bringing them out to show me. I see the clear fluid of my desire clinging to his digits right before he pushes them into my mouth, makes me taste myself. Gives me a reminder of what I really am, at my core. There are words to describe women like me. Words that Daniel, even in his most lusty state, would never use. I use them though, in the chamber of my mind, imagining how I must look trapped over his thighs, my ass bright red and crisscrossed with lines from the switch. I’m a dirty little slut for him. I’m everything every girl is told she should never be, and everything she craves to let herself degenerate into.
“I’m going to let you up,” he says. “And you’re going to get ready for me.”
“Wha? How?”
“You’re going to bend over, reach under, and start lubing your ass,” he says. “If you run out of pussy juice, we have oil.”
This is a greater punishment than the whipping was. This is him asking me, without any physical force at play at all, to forfeit the fucking I crave in my pussy, and give him my ass—make it ready for him.
I’m about to ask him what happens if I don’t, but I know that would just defeat the purpose. He wants me to prove I’ve learned something, and I think I have. Daniel is never weak, even when he looks it. And I owe him more than taking advantage of him whenever I think I can get away with it.
He lets me out of the grip he’s had on me, and watches me carefully as I slowly, shamefully, bend over the same log he is sitting on. My fingers go back to my pussy to gather the wetness I’ve been making throughout this, from well before he started whipping me. The truth is, the moment he told me he was going to take another dose, my body began to prepare for the inevitable onslaught.
I am so wet. My fingers curl inside my sex, drawing out the lubrication I then push up toward my bottom hole.
I hear him rumble with arousal, then get up. I stay where I am, preparing myself for the fucking that is to come.
He comes back and I feel a drizzle of oil running down my crack. He is pouring it over my ass in a slow cascade.
“Get your fingers in there,” he orders. “Make sure it’s nice and stretched for me. Good girl.”
His orders are filthy, but I follow them. I push a finger into my bottom, feel the tight ring of my ass squeezing it. I understand now why so many men like anal. There’s no comparison to my pussy. My pussy can grip, but my ass has a strength and a resistance like no other hole in my body.
Lying there, exposed to Daniel, preparing myself according to his orders, I feel flush after flush of hot shame running through me. If the drug exposes his raw side, it does the same for me, and I didn’t even take it. Just being at his mercy turns me into the primal female displaying herself.
“Enough,” he growls, pulling my fingers free. There’s a gravel and tension in his voice that tells me how long he’s been holding back from just fucking taking me. I pull my fingers away, and he puts the thick, punishing head of his cock to that tight ring of muscle.
“Ask me for it.”
I whimper as he makes me thoroughly complicit in the taking of my ass.
“Please,” I moan softly. I don’t know if I’m saying please take me or please show me mercy or please… something else. My mind is addled with discipline and desire and now his cock is stretching me open, his thick rod sliding inside that tight ring of muscle.
I feel him clasp my hips between big hands, and then he is inside me, pushing deeper, harder, taking more and more until I am filled and stretched, my cheeks spread wide, my legs wider still.
He has punished me with anal sex before. That time he was relatively gentle. This time, he is not. This time he pounds me, fucking me roughly against the tree, demanding every bit of my ass.
My cries make the birds take flight as he yanks me up against his body and pulls me back and forth along his cock in powerful strokes that make me gasp, and whimper, and moan.
I betrayed him. I deserve to be punished. I teased and I taunted him because I wanted him to feel as helpless as I do. But that’s never going to happen, because Daniel doesn’t know what weakness is. Even when he couldn’t walk after the car accident, he was stronger than most people ever are in perfect health.
“I’m sorry!” I shriek the words, but they don’t stop his cock from thundering in and out of me.
“What are you sorry for?”
“I’m sorry I messed with you. I’m sorry I came out here with you. I’m sorry for everything I’ve ever done, every stupid mistake…” I trail off into a sob as he fucks me to his climax, not mine.
My tight anus feels every throb of his cock as he pumps his cum deep inside me, filling me up. This is how I make my apologies and my amends. I am a vessel for his lust, I provide him the relief he can’t get anywhere else. He needs me, and I need him.
My bottom is stinging inside and out. He has shown me, yet again, that crossing him leads to deserved pain. I taunted him and tormented him. In turn, he punished me and made me his little fuck toy all over again.
I whimper as he pulls his cock out of me, knowing better than to ask where my climax is, but wanting one all the same. I reach my hand down between my thighs, but he slaps it away.
“No,” he says firmly. “Good girls get to come. Bad girls have sore, fucked bottoms.”
His words bring a hot blush to my cheeks. “You’re a brute,” I complain.
“Damn straight, girl,” he says without any hint of shame, wrapping me up in his arms. I get hugs. Not orgasms. I suppose I shouldn’t complain—and I don’t. I settle in with him, accepting my fate, whatever it might be. I still doubt the military are after him. He knows that I can’t be fully trusted out here. But still, we cling to each other. We are all the other has ever had. Even if he is rampaging on some cocktail of his own making, and even if I am a faithless brat, we’re in this together. For better or worse. Like a married couple would be, but there’s no divorcing our way out of this bond. He’s stuck with me. And I am stuck with him.