Chapter 10

BIG TRIGGER WARNING FOR THIS CHAPTER.

IF VIOLENCE AND DUB-CON BOTHER YOU, SKIP IT.

~~~~~~~~~~

The knocking on the door was soft but insistent. Leo looked at the time. Nearly midnight. He lifted his glasses and rubbed his strained eyes before going to answer the door.

"Oh, my god."

There were dark circles under Marie's eyes. The sleeveless shirt she wore hid none of the freshly blooming bruises on her arms. Her lips were chapped and her cheeks were streaked with dried tears. She leaned weakly against the door frame.

"I'm sorry to bother you so late-"

"No, don't worry about it. Here."

He realized too late that he moved too quickly. She flinched away. He tried again more slowly, supporting her under the arm as he ushered her to the couch.

"What happened?" he asked. He draped a blanket over her shoulders. She had never looked so tiny.

"I was stupid," she said simply. "I knew better but I did it anyway."

Leo shook his head in confusion. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I'll get you some painkillers and we can assess the damage." He paused, thinking how to tactfully ask his next question. "Do you think you'll need a hospital?"

Marie shook her head. The fewer people who knew, the better.

"Okay. How about a bath, then?"

She agreed, slowly making her way to the bathroom. She paused in the doorway when Leo followed her with a glass of water and the painkillers.

"Will you sit with me?" she asked.

"If that's what you want."

She huffed lightly. What she wanted. That was what got her into this mess in the first place.

***

"I was wondering how long it would take you to come back," Nate said when he opened the door.

It was all Marie could do not to cringe. The smell of Nate's house brought back all the memories of why she left.

"Oh, we're doing the silent thing, huh? Ok, then. You know what to do."

She did. She stripped in the doorway and kneeled, her palms faced up. All the while, she focused on not thinking about Leo. She decidedly didn't compare Nate's calloused hands to Leo's soft ones, nor the weight of the first slap across her breast.

"I'm going to try something new with you, pet," he said, more to himself than to her.

He grasped a handful of her hair and made her walk on her knees into the second bedroom. A month ago, it had been a guest room, but now it had been transformed. The four poster bed had chained cuffs at head post, a padded sawhorse stood in the corner, and against the far wall stood a Saint Andrew's Cross. The new footlocker next to it stood imposingly unfamiliar.

Nate walked her to the Saint Andrew's cross and yanked her up to her feet.

"Stay," he commanded simply.

She didn't dare disobey as he attached leather shackles to her ankles and wrists. Roughly, he pushed her face first into the X of the cross and secured her ankles. Her lack of height made locking her wrists in difficult, but Nate forced her onto her tiptoes and hooked her in.

"Now, I'm feeling generous, so I'll let you choose: cane or flogger?"

"Flogger."

"Pussy," he admonished.

Heading to the footlocker, he pulled out a rubber flogger. Marie's eyes widened in fear. Rubber floggers didn't have the same give as leather and Nate's face promised little restraint.

"You thought you were getting off easy with the flogger, didn't you?" he asked with a smug smile. "After how you walked out, I hope you don't think I'm going to be nice."

***

Undressing in the bathroom was a clinical, if slightly difficult, task. Marie's joints were stiff and sore. Her scalp was tender as she pulled her hair up, nails catching on new little scabs. She swallowed against the roughness in her throat, knowing she must look as awful as she felt.

***

The first blow of the rubber flogger made her eyes water. She gritted her teeth. Tilting her head back slightly to steady herself, she spotted the soundproofing tiles that had been added to the walls and ceiling. Their presence allowed her to yelp at the next blow.

"How many strikes does it take to break a slut?" Nate asked. "You always had a high pain tolerance. Let's see how long you last."

The next strike fell immediately on top of the last. Marie could swear she felt blood vessels burst.

"Yellow!" she cried. The brutal flogger in tandem with the stress position had pushed past her endurance.

"That was quick." Nate sounded disappointed. "Oh, well. I guess that just means I have to move around."

He reached between her legs and found no moisture. He scoffed. That was all the warning she got before he laid into her – rubber tails whipping over her back and legs, some even wrapping around her arms and sides like cruel tentacles.

***

As she lowered herself into the warm water, she caught Leo's worried look.

"I'm sorry to bother you so late," she repeated. "I didn't want to go home."

"It's okay. I was trying to reach you most of the evening."

***

A phone was ringing in the other room. It was hard to hear, but the sweet melody could be heard. Nate came around the front of the Saint Andrew's Cross and looked at Marie angrily.

"That's the ringtone you used to have for me," he accused. "Your new Dom?"

Marie didn't reply. She couldn't tell whether it was because she was out of breath or because she didn't want to answer. Just that it made him madder.

He wrenched the door open and snatched Marie's phone from her purse. Bringing it back into the room, he slammed the door.

"Who's Leo?"

Again, she didn't answer.

Enraged, Nate stomped to the footlocker and, finding a heavy cane, smashed the phone to pieces.

"Red!" she shouted, this time in anger rather than desperation.

Nate wheeled on her. "No. You lost the right to safeword."

"That isn't how this works!"

She regretted speaking when he jerked her head back by her hair.

"It is now."

***

"My phone broke," she said.

Leo looked like he didn't quite believe her, but he said nothing. He settled for stirring the water around gently, subtly checking her injuries for anything that needed attention. On the surface, there was nothing worse than a bruise. But deeper, he couldn't say.

"Well, I'm glad you came here."

"I'm so sorry about earlier. There's no excuse for the way I treated you."

He took her hand, genuine touch and genuine eyes. "I appreciate the apology, but right now, don't worry about it. I just want to make sure you're okay."

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak without telling him every detail of the last few hours.

***

She held out through another three blows with the flogger before her legs gave out. The tendons of her shoulders and wrists stretched painfully at the sudden weight. She had already called "red" and "mercy" at each lash, to no avail.

"Now that you're nice and pliant, I think it's time for the next round," Nate commented gleefully.

The next round had her bent over the sawhorse, kneeling and shackled. Tears were flowing freely as Nate forced a ball gag into her mouth.

"Look how pretty you are."

He ran a finger over her strained jaw. The touch trailed over her abused skin, sometimes prodding at obviously tender spots. He came around behind her and checked for wetness again.

"God, Leo must have really done a number on you. This shit used to have you soaking."

Marie was too far away to consider that she had never played so far on the masochism scale. All she could think was how she hated hearing Leo's name on Nate's lips. She screamed into the gag.

"I'm sorry, what?" Nate said. "I can't understand you, slut."

She screamed and cried and heaved against the restraints as he applied a zipper of clothespins to her back. She fought until she had exhausted herself completely.

When Nate decided he was done with her, he roughly pulled her clothes back on and unceremoniously kicked her out.

"Until next time, slut."