The Reluctant Journey Ch. 07

She shrugged. "I was bored."

"It's time for lunch." He left the room expecting her to follow him. She sighed when she realized that she would have to follow him, at least if she wanted to eat. They ate in another building which housed a typical cafeteria exclusively. There were soldiers everywhere and they seemed to be nervous whenever Cain walked by them. There was a large industrial fan on the way to the line, Cain made sure to walk directly past it sending a large gust of air directly up her dress. She held her skirt down and glared at him as he smirked knowingly at her. They stood in line, though the soldiers in front of Cain offered their spots up to him immediately. He declined politely. She was the only woman in the room except for a few women serving the food. Some of the men looked at her openly, she smiled at them and waved a few fingers in their direction. Cain pulled her in front of her and the men instantly looked down at their plates.

"Jealous General?" Malia taunted.

"Clearly taking away your panties did not have the intended effect. With your spirits so high maybe we should just do away with them altogether." He taunted her back. Hell if she was going to give him an inch.

"Maybe we should, it is quite liberating. You should probably try it, your panties seem to be in a bunch most of the time don't they?"

He laughed. "So we're back to the over confident smart aleck Malia who doesn't know when to shut up?"

"You prefer the scared little girl version. Sorry to disappoint General but I'm done being scared of you." She said as confidently as possible.

"Is that so?" He laughed as he handed her a tray and took one himself.

Malia was so tired of being scared and helpless. Since she'd been taken she had been repeatedly moved around like a pawn without any control over her own circumstances. She still didn't completely control her circumstances but she was done being scared. She was ready to fight back. She intentionally went through the line quickly, picking things without thought. She took the tray and walked quickly away from Cain who was still filling his tray. Her heart was beating quickly as she walked over to the table with three men that she had waved at. She sat down and they looked like she'd tased them all. She knew Cain was close behind her and she couldn't back down now.

"Hi boys, mind if I join you?" She said slowly and she hope provocatively. They didn't look seduced, but then again they looked very scared. She knew without looking that Cain was standing behind her. They stood and saluted, forgetting their food and ignoring her question.

"As you were." Cain ordered them. They sat slowly, still looking skittish. Cain placed his tray beside hers and sat down at the last place of the circular table. She glared up at him.

"I'm Malia." She smiled at them. The man in the middle had light brown hair and glasses, he cleared his throat. "Um Clay. I mean Private Clay Benson, um, sir." She rolled her eyes, kiss ass. The rest of the lunch went pretty much the same way. The three privates sucked up to Cain like they were having lunch with a rock star. He eventually turned his charm on enough to have the men relax and they basically ignored her. She got up as soon as she was done eating as the men were in mid-conversation. She didn't say anything to them as she left the table to put her tray back. Cain finished eating soon after her, probably so she didn't catch something on fire while he was sidetracked. They returned to his office.

She sighed as he sat down behind the computer and started plugging everything back in. "This is so boring." She complained. He didn't respond.

"So you joined the army after your father died. That would have been, according to you, after the war was ending. How did you avoid fighting in the war with a general as a father?" Malia had asked Tristan questions about the war but he had an annoying habit of not answering her questions about Cain.

"Question time again?" Cain asked annoyed.

"My options of entertaining myself are limited, so yes."

"I have no incentive to answer your questions." He said as he turned the computer on again.

"I will answer a question in return."

He looked at her. "I know everything there is to know about you, and even if there wasn't something I didn't know I have all the means to find whatever I want to know out."

She thought for a moment. Once again they were unequal, he knew everything he wanted to know and she knew nothing. "You don't know everything about me." She argued. "You can't know everything from a dossier."

"You aren't very tight lipped about the rest." He countered.

"Fine, I'll answer your questions first, make them as hard as you want and if I don't want to answer yours I'll stop talking and let you work." He looked at her skeptically and shrugged.

"Okay, I'll bite. This should be over soon enough." He smiled arrogantly and she prepared herself for the worst. "You mentioned last night that you hadn't had any previous sexual experience. What exactly was the extent of your experience before yesterday?" He asked the question straight-faced, as if she were being interviewed for a job. He arched his eyebrow as he looked directly at her. She had been preparing for something embarrassing in nature, so she didn't openly react to his question.

"Well some jackass spanked me one time, but I found it less than fulfilling sexually." She started in her best smart assed tone.

"Ah ah, no deflecting my dear. If you want me to answer your question, I want a real answer." He interrupted her before she could continue.

"Fine." She complained. "As I said before, I haven't had sex before last night." She paused and looked up at him, but he wasn't going to let her off that easy. She sighed. "I hadn't even kissed anyone before last night." She clenched her teeth as she made the admission. He looked stunned, she wasn't sure if it was because she'd answered him or because of her answer.

"You haven't even kissed anyone?" He repeated.

"I answered your question." She furrowed her brow as she felt herself blush unwanted.

He nodded. "Fair enough. What did you ask? Why I didn't fight in the war?" She nodded. "My father wanted me to follow in his footsteps as soon as I was out of high school. Tristan was taking college classes right after high school and though he also wanted him to join the effort he was less adamant. I on the other hand was his firstborn son, it was expected of me." He gave a disinterested look. "I rebelled. My father and I had a difficult relationship at the time. I would have done anything to avoid giving him the satisfaction. There were a lot of arguments that escalated as time went on. Eventually he would have cut me off. I can't blame him, I was out of control. He died before it came to that, and I joined the army not too long after. The war was in its final stages. I didn't see much fighting, though there were the occasional rebellions. I followed in my father's footsteps and rose through the ranks quickly."

She was surprised that he'd offered so much. It was clearly more than enough to satisfy the question. If he was going to answer questions she was going to give him some she'd been wondering about for weeks. "Who is Milly to you?" She asked in lieu of the harder question she wasn't sure he'd answer.

He nodded. This unintentional game they'd made up used their pride and competitive natures against both of them. It made them reveal things they wouldn't have revealed. It also revealed how much Cain didn't want to answer the question based on the difficulty of his corresponding question for her. "Was last night the first night you came?" He gave his over-confident smirk, expecting her not to answer or to provide a one-word answer which would allow him to do the same with his question. She wasn't comfortable talking to him about sex, but it still excited a small part of her and that confused the rest of her. He was pointing out the fact that she had climaxed as well, a major contributing factor for her not being able to think of last night as rape.

"No, it wasn't the first time." She answered, looking directly into his dark brown eyes. There was something thrilling about making herself vulnerable for him willingly. She knew it wasn't enough to get a good answer so she continued. "Privacy is a precious commodity in a unit. There is only one room in a home and the bathrooms are communal. Married couples in the unit can apply for a private room at a sort of make-shift hotel for the purpose. They usually ask friends to house their children for the night though. However, there isn't really any consideration to provide privacy for any other reason." She blushed at the subject but continued to look at Cain and had his full attention in return. "Olivia has extreme claustrophobia and the showers get very crowded in the morning, so she would wake up when it was still dark and be the first to the showers. When we were younger she would wake me up to go with her because she didn't want to walk alone in the dark. The showers are in a large room, but each stall is divided from the main room by a thin curtain. The first time I'd tried it had been a mistake. I was slowly washing myself with a washcloth and the water was especially hot that day. I wasn't totally awake and I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. I moved the washcloth down and I was moving slower than usual and it just started to feel nice." She chewed on her lip to try and take some of the edge off the admission. "My sister was in the next stall, I mean we were separated by a wall but still I shouldn't have been doing that with her right there. But I kept touching myself anyway because it felt so nice. I didn't even know what I was doing when I started going faster and I made myself, um, orgasm." She had to look away from his entrancing eyes as she made her final admission. It wasn't something anyone else knew about. She knew she had to finish answering the question, but she didn't want to look at him in the eye anymore. "I did it after that when we would go to the showers sometimes, sometimes I was scared Olivia would catch on somehow. I didn't make any noise but I still felt like she would know what I was doing. I always had to pretend like I didn't want to go o the showers because I usually hated getting up, but I did want to go after that first time." She wished she would have asked a better question, but it was too late now. She looked up at him again and was surprised that he wasn't smirking at her or otherwise trying to embarrass her. He was staring at her intently. Malia wondered if her story had aroused him. She couldn't see why it would, she hadn't been attempting to arouse him. She wished she just knew what he was thinking so she didn't have to try and guess what his facial expressions meant. There weren't very many variations with him to distinguish between, any differences were especially subtle and he hid them well.

He cleared his throat and she looked up at his eyes again. They looked a little more focused, she wondered if it was her imagination. "Milly came from an affluent family. They were part of the in crowd of wealthy families. We were all connected, Milly's family, Finn's, and my own. She was at all of the important parties and we went to the same school, though she was a year behind me. Basically we, as well as several others, grew up together. My family was at the center of the group. My father had prestige and charisma as well as an abundance of money. My mother was beautiful and was also raised with money and knew how to conduct herself. Tristan and I were the epitome of ideal sons to round off the perfect family unit. Milly was attracted to the prestige and power and she chose me as her way into the family." He smiled. "My mother took me aside and threatened my entire inheritance if I ever married her. I was thirteen at the time. She didn't like Milly's demeanor. Milly was always there though, she made sure of that. Eventually, after years of her flaunting herself in my face, I fucked her. I wasn't her first, she wasn't mine. I didn't take it seriously, we were young and she had grown to have quite the reputation. Milly, however, did take it seriously. I shouldn't have done it, I knew I was only encouraging her. She never really gave up hope that we would get together someday. I didn't really help, as she was offering sex at my convenience I let her think whatever she wanted. Once I joined the military I cut ties with Milly completely. She was insistent and would call me sometimes or visit the house occasionally, but I ignored her advances for years. The night before you saw Milly was the first time I'd slept with Milly since I was twenty."

"Why?" Malia asked when he stopped.

"Is that your next question?" Cain asked in reply.

"I answered your question fully, that wasn't a complete answer to mine." She argued.

Surprisingly he sighed and seemed to agree with the argument. "She was from a different era in my life. I was highly rebellious and out of control when I was younger. She was a part of that rebellious behavior." He shrugged. "I wanted to spite my parents in every way possible and Milly was one of the ways I did that. I drank and tried several variants of drugs during that time. I gave all of that up when I enlisted. Theres a freedom to that kind of recklessness though, the freedom of being completely and utterly selfish. When I called Milly.." he paused and contemplated his next words, "it was as close as I was willing to get to that feeling again. So to answer your question simply, Milly is nothing but my past. Though she fails to see it, that's all there will ever be there."

Malia hadn't ever visualized Cain the way he described himself, but she could see it. That vision ,however, didn't match up with the man sitting across the desk from her today. He valued control and order, though he'd lost his temper numerous times now where she was concerned. Something had changed him monumentally and she was quite certain that it had to do with Tristan. Malia hoped he would answer her next question, though she had her doubts.

"Tell me the full story of what happened to Tristan." She asked him softly. He didn't give anything away in his expression.

"That's not a question." He replied straight faced.

"Will you tell me the full story of what happened to Tristan?" She asked again.

"No." He answered immediately.

"I answered all of your questions. I'll tell you whatever you want to know, and if I don't I'll let it go." She promised him sincerely.

He thought about it for a moment. "You still didn't come up with a proper question. Your request requires a bit more than a typical question would. If I answer you, I think you are going to offer a service in return."

"Fine." She agreed without hesitation.

He smiled wickedly. "Okay little girl, I want you to take off the dress, come behind the desk, get on your knees, and suck my cock." He said it slowly, pausing between each part of the request. She felt a jolt go down her spine directly to her clit at his crude words and the vivid images they provided.

"That isn't an even trade." She finally said once she could find her voice.

He raised his brows and shrugged, "I'm sorry you feel that way. Now let me get back to work." He was smirking arrogantly again, and started to work on the computer. He knew she wasn't going to go through with it. He didn't want her to go through with it, he would have to tell her his story if she did. He had chosen his words to ensure maximum shocking power. But some part of him did want her to go through with it, that was why it was what came to his mind. She felt another flush of arousal. She kept to her word and remained quiet for the remainder of the day. She watched him work as her mind went crazy. Eventually they left the building and returned to the car. There was a new driver and Cain spoke mundanely to this man as well. She stared out the window and thought about the bizarre situations she continued to find herself in. She would have never experienced any of these things in the unit; the good and the bad. She had wished she had more excitement in her life, but now she wasn't so sure. Would she rather be safe in the unit with the familiar day to day safe surroundings? It should have been preferable to the continuous emotional turmoil she was put through being out of the unit, but she couldn't make herself feel that way, no matter how much she wanted to. She hadn't really spoken to Cain since he'd made his abrupt proposition, but she soon found herself abandoned with him once again in the small confines of the cabin.

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As soon as Cain walked into the cabin he told Malia that he was going to take a shower. He knew he was putting off the inevitable but he didn't care. She had driven him crazy in every way possible today; from 'reorganizing' his bookshelves, to telling him she masturbated in the unit showers, to her lack of reaction to him ordering her to give him a blow job in the middle of his office. He had expected her to be shocked and appalled and to lash out at him, but for a second he thought she had almost considered going through with it. Luckily he'd had a couple of hours of her silence to cool down behind the cover of his desk, or she would have noticed his highly tented pants. He'd told her things he hadn't planned on sharing with her. She'd told him things he couldn't believe she'd said. How could she never have been kissed? He'd felt a moment of guilt when she'd told him that. He'd had a flashback to the night before, of him kissing her after nearly raping her dry. That had been her first kiss. She deserved better than that. He had been sucked into her little game, knowing that it wasn't going to end well. But he just couldn't quit playing with her. His questions had been thought up to try and win. He wanted her to relent and refuse to answer his inappropriate questions, but she'd answered them completely, holding nothing back. He'd done the same in return, his sense of honor invoked by her honesty. He had went instantly hard as she'd described the first time she'd brought herself off in the shower stall next to her unsuspecting sister. She'd deserved her answer after her little admission.

He'd told her about Milly, which really wasn't much of anything to tell. When she'd asked why he'd slept with her recently though, he'd revealed something to both her and himself. He remembered staring at the bottles and wishing for the sweet blissful release provided by not only just the alcohol or the drugs, but also by the absence of caring. He'd felt the weight and pressure of guilt and responsibility bearing down on him for so long that it was almost a palpable heaviness on his shoulders. He'd wanted to go back for just one moment to when he'd been blissfully free from it all. He wouldn't be reckless like he was again, and he didn't want to be, but for that small amount of time he could pretend that he was just a little less trapped. It hadn't provided any lasting relief to Cain. He'd never been especially fond of Milly anyway. He turned the cold water off and reached for a towel.

He wasn't sure how he was going to stand spending an entire night alone with Malia, let alone an entire week. When she wasn't infuriating him she was making him uncomfortably hard. He'd taken her to the base camp today to get out of the stiflingly small house. He hadn't been planning on going there this week, but he'd wanted to avoid talking to Malia about the night before. The whole plan had seemingly blown up in his face however, as sex seemed to be the topic of the day, mostly as he kept bringing it up. He was expecting her to shy away from the topic. She was once again doing the opposite of what he expected. She'd found some sort of inner resolve today and was out to prove something. He smiled as he remembered the stunned faces of the men she'd attempted to flirt with at lunch. They'd looked thrilled until they'd made eye contact with him heading towards the table himself. He'd made it clear that Malia was off limits completely. They'd been especially prudent in ignoring her completely. She'd looked disappointed and for a moment he'd wanted to comfort her and reassure her that he was the reason they'd lost interest in her. He'd stopped himself, her self-confidence seemed to be in better shape anyway. He dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He couldn't waste anymore time in the bathroom without looking conspicuous.