Chapter Nine: The Fallacy of Freedom
My wrists were shackled above me to the St. Andrew's cross. My abdomen rested against the padded centre axis. I pulled. The leather shackles tightly encircled around my flesh. There was no slack. I was positioned spreadeagled. My ankles were affixed to the restraints located at the bottom of the apparatus. The coolness of Gabe's bared chest flattened against my back, counteracting the heat radiating off my body. The coarseness of his cotton slacks cool against the warmth of my pinkened thighs and buttocks. His hands ran up the length of my flesh. His thumbs traced the silhouette of my hips and curve of my waist before his hands settled to cup my breasts, outlining circles around my nipples with his index fingers. Gabe had already spent the better part of an hour warming my buttocks and thighs, first with his hand, then with a wooden ruler.
"My little Lolita. How you wish you weren't here hmmm?" His hand rolled and swiftly pinched my nipples before he fastened the alligator clamps. The earthiness of leather filled my nostrils as Gabe tightened his hold on my neck, forcing my head forwards. His tongue licked the beads of perspiration dappling my nape. I could only emit garbled vocalizations from the ring gag he had inserted earlier that forced my mouth widely open. The deadened echo of the room amplified my unintelligible pleas and desperate grunts. I could feel the gathering moisture in my core as Gabe's fingers languidly pressed deeply inwards, effortlessly sliding within my satiny folds as my legs threatened to buckle from each of his insistent, forceful thrusts.
Gabe's breath was hot against my ear as he stood behind me. His slow, deliberate exhalations a presage of the pain to come. I clenched down in trepidation, inadvertently spreading the intense sting of the ginger Gabe had inserted into my ass. I recoiled as my rectum burned. Gabe had imprisoned me securely against the equipment. It wasn't supposed to be like this. I hadn't foreseen that the first time I'd be shackled to a cross would be in retribution, rather than pleasure. I could only recollect the events of the last few weeks that had culminated to this point. Gabe slipped a blindfold over my eyes, plunging me into an unsettled darkness.
After Gabe confronted me that evening in bed following our CNC scene, he hadn't mentioned his suspicions again. For days afterwards, I approached our interactions with apprehension, mentally fortifying myself for the inevitable punishment I knew awaited. Yet, days passed under an uneasy treaty of peace. Gabe's accusation that night proved yet another off-hand dialogic tactic that the two of us perpetually engaged in. His comments were intended to generate and maintain my state of disequilibrium, while affirming that I was always his prey. His allegations and my inevitable denials operated similar to a call-and-response catechism. Ever threatening, never biting. It was mentally exhausting maintaining the faΓ§ade.
I desired for Gabe to continue to connect with me as a human, not through me as a conduit for his pleasure. The kernel of empathetic morality I had rekindled in Gabe that night required reinforcement if my ploy was to be successful. The intended consequence of my manoeuvrings seemed to have functioned as predicted. Gabe was overly solicitous, attentive to my needs, and showered me with a tenderness and consideration that had characterized my initial days in captivity as a petrified casualty of his cunning. He repeatedly inquired as to my mental health as he pulled me onto his lap, taut against the sinew of his body, crushingly possessive. "I cherish you, Amelia. You understand that? I value you as a person. I see you. I've always seen you. You don't doubt that do you?" His eyes urgently flickered searching mine for confirmation.
I lowered my eyes, unable to bear the weight of his imploring gaze, the greenness of his irises so intense on my form. "Sometimes you make me feel small Master. I feel insignificant to your desires at times. I know as your submissive I must obey you. I struggle, especially when you act on me, rather than with me." My answers were deliberately vague, yet intentionally damning. They were meant to exact the greatest emotional burden on Gabe's empathy. My eyes cast upwards with timidity following my wounding words.
Gabe only nodded. Dejection clouded his features. His shoulders slumped as he sighed. I implored Gabe to communicate with me on what cast so heavy a grievance on his soul. But he consistently demurred, despite my repeated appeals. My persistent guilt-tripping successfully afforded me a latitude I hadn't experienced before with Gabe. It was as if his once suffocating hold on me loosened even further, and I could freely depart his presence of my own volition. I no longer required his permission or directive to take leave. I was also no longer held hostage by his needs. His demands on me sexually were less wounding on my psyche. The fantasies we enacted drew me to him, rather than alienated me from him. I had carved out a modest victory.
"Master? Can we snuggle tonight? I feel at odds with myself, and with you. I need reassurance."
Gabe's arm wrapped around my shoulder immediately, his fingertips uncomfortably firm against my skin. He pulled me into a stifling embrace, territorial in its possession. "What's wrong?"
I hesitated, uncertain as to how to articulate to Gabe the worrying shadow occupying my thoughts. "I feel different Master. Not only closer to you, but also differently about you. You look different to me, feel different."
Gabe smiled uneasily.
I placed a comforting hand on Gabe's forearm and squeezed. I hadn't been entirely untruthful. I did feel differently about Gabe. As my manipulations drew to what I saw as their inevitable conclusions, I knew that there were only two paths. I could either continue denying with vehemence my feelings for my kidnapper. Or, I could reconcile the reality that Gabe generated affection within me. I could acknowledge that he was a flawed human being, whose absolution from me would never be freely granted, but earned, if ever, through penitence. The lingering difficulty was that my own uncertainty was reflected in the sincerity of my admission of love that I professed to Gabe every evening. I knew he perceived the doubt that tainted my words.
It was why I so desperately desired to utter those three words when I was deep under the thrall of dreams. In the days subsequent to our CNC scene, free moments were devoted to repeating the mantra that I loved Gabe. It wasn't to convince myself. I already knew there was verity to the admission, regardless of how conflicting its reality. The exercise was intended to embed those words into my subconscious so that I would confess my desire while barely awake. Such a gesture would lend credence to my assertion and impart confidence in Gabe's convictions of my devotion to him. Gabe was exceedingly transparent with his needs. I knew that a true affirmation of love from me was a component of "training". Declaring it with intent was evidently less genuine than muttering it when unconscious, in a moment absent of contrivance and artifice.
"I want to feel safe near you Master, like I experienced after our CNC scene when your arms held me tight, and your fingers caressed my trembling form. I knew, without hesitation that Master would protect me. I felt treasured." I glanced up at Gabe's profile and he pulled me onto his lap, pressing my naked chest against his dress shirt as he squeezed my rib cage, and his fingers trailed down my spine, resting in the crease of my buttocks.