A Bargain Made: A House Fallen Ch. 04

After what seemed like an eternity in orgasm she found that hearing, "Good girl" did not annoy so much as remind her of her distaste for him, which aroused her like little else ever had. She looked upon him as he came towards her. When had he stripped? Was his chest always so muscular? Those arms look so...powerful, too. Her eyes drifted down to his hard, twitching cock. {Goddess, if that was all he ever had as a man to offer his woman it's enough.}

He grabbed her ass as she hung there, but she didn't flinch. He'd told the truth. She was sweaty and disheveled, but she felt energized and still as though she could take that train of peasants inside her, and part of her wanted to.

"Our business is concluded, so I think we should have some fun together." His voice firm and seductive, promising her even greater passion. "Have you ever tried one of us...guttersnipes, was it?"

"No." She waited, but nothing happened. She wailed plaintively, asking what had happened to her reward without saying a word.

"Shhhh, Cassea. Your rewards will come back soon, but only if you continue to answer me honestly. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Deres." The whimper in her voice wounding her soul.

He kissed her chin as he squeezed that ass, so firm, even it resisted him, "You know noblewomen come to us. You know noblemen line up to grab the ankles of and wishbone the women of the this quarter. "Have you ever wanted to try?"

There was shred enough of her left to feel shame for a fleeting moment. "Yes. Your kind down here...breeding with no care."

"Like animals?"

"Yessss...it's disgusting."

He bit her neck and she whimpered and leaned into it, "But that makes you wet."

"...Yes."

"Is there talk about whether or not I please my mate?"

"The workers mutter. We notice that she smiles more."

He slapped her breast hard enough to leave a mark and she grunted. "You know we're going to fuck now? You know I'm going to fuck you like the animal you think I am. You know I'm going show you the animal that you are." He kissed her lips and her tongue snaked in on its own. He pulled away and her lips chased him, "Though three hours of you screaming like a slut while you begged me to ask you questions should have told you enough about who you really are."

"I had no choice."

"You chose to stop resisting, that was choice enough. Do you still hate me?"

"More than before." They kissed again.

"But I won't be raping you, will I?"

"No."

He commanded her, his voice as fierce as any noble to their servant. "Show me."

Without hesitation she lifted herself on the chains and locked her ankles around his waist. He nestled closer to her, reaching down to guide the tip of his cock to her wet folds, pleased to find her cunt drooling on his cock. He held her effortlessly so that, to her, she seemed to float, "You may give me one command. That command will reward you, no matter what it is. Since I have what I need, you can even order me to let you go and I will. Command me, Cassea Voss."

She swallowed hard, her aches overriding her shame. She could tell him to go and it would be over, but she shivered, craving that mind-melting reward. She let her body scream at her mind just to build the sensation of impending surrender before she finally uttered the words that were really her only choice, "Fuck me, animal. Fuck me hard. Fuck me without mercy like you must fuck her."

She smiled a slightly crazy smile as she howled as another of the countless orgasms took her. Her pussy clamped down on his cock as if to strangle it as it drove up and up through her seeming not to stop until it reached her mind.

And, when his cock started to fuck it, she found she had room in it for nothing else.

Cassea touched her neck for what seemed like the hundredth time to find the collar still gone. On the outside, she looked none the worse for wear. She'd been able to clean herself and put herself back in an outwardly presentable position. Inside was another matter. Inside she felt hollowed out to her core. She'd betrayed herself and her House, not to mention given in to the most vile, debasing sex she could have imagined with a man she despised on a dozen levels.

All of that was nothing compared to the fact that she remembered every delicious surrender.

He sat behind the table with a satisfied look on his face. {Why shouldn't he? If I had so bested him I'd be planning a party.} It took all she had to keep looking him in the eye, but she would not let him cow her so completely that she couldn't.

He spoke to her, his voice firm, but seemingly not without sympathy, "Bring me an item that belongs to each of them. It doesn't matter what beyond the fact that it must be something that you *know* they will wear to the spring celebration at Court. You tend to that just as Tessa does for our House, yes?"

Her voice was barely audible. "Yes."

He leaned forward, clasping his hands, "Bring me what I need and I'll make as much of it go away as you want. That empty feeling you have will grow over time like the sick before, though not as quickly and you should be able to conceal it. I'm the only one that can remove it, and I can't exactly do that if I burn, can I?"

"I understand." The bitterness dripped from her words. "You'll have them as soon as I can get them to you." She paused, trying to grasp the enormity of what had happened, "I betrayed my House...and I'm going to do it again."

He leaned back, surveying her."Don't expect all that much sympathy from me. You and yours started this, we're going to finish it."

Words were on the tip of her tongue, but she grabbed the door and left before releasing them.

A week had passed and Deres kept to his normal routine of throwing hours into his healing practice, mostly helping the upper classes before going to the poorer parts of the city. They all, regardless of where they came from, needed his help, but without him reaching out to those most in need, they could never afford the services of a healing mage. That's where he knew he was doing the most good.

It was in his clinic in the upper quarter at closing where Cassea came to him. She came through the front door, having made an appointment, and no one looking at her would have questioned the need for one. From the dark circles beneath her eyes to the fact that she hid her hands whenever possible so she didn't have to see them shake she looked ill indeed. Even so, the rest of her appearance was as immaculate as would be expected from the house mistress of a noble.

Deres found even more respect for her as he was certain she was not the type of woman to have asked for help in that regard, so, despite everything, she'd maintained herself and likely her House, too. Anger and fatigue both reflected in her eyes as she stood opposite him with a small table between them in one of the examination rooms. She reached into her tan cloak and pulled out a black, drawstring pouch, placing it on the table while keeping it in her hand.

"I assume this is what I asked you for?"

She nodded, her voice quiet as though she weighed each word as a separate betrayal. "Brooch, ring, and a necklace; always worn at official functions, ignored otherwise. They'll ask for them just to see them and make sure they're properly cleaned soon, so you cannot have them for more than a day or two."

"I only need them for a few seconds. The spells are already set and stored."

Ordinarily she might have asked what it all meant, but it hardly mattered. When he reached for them she tightened her grip and pulled them to her while still leaving them on the table, her eyes burning fiercely like a wild dog trying to warn others away from its food. "First things first, mage."

He gave his head a small shake, "After I'm finished, then I'll clear your spell." Even as he spoke, she removed the braided silver and gold necklace she wore and tossed it harshly, it clinking on the table in front of him.

"I don't need that," he told her.

Her blue eyes suggested she could either scream in rage or burst into tears. "I cannot sleep. I can barely eat. I feel...empty. I feel like I will never feel joy again. All I do is go back to the memories of that day."

His voice hardened just a bit. He knew she was fragile and understood why, but his own ends were clear. "And I'll make that end, but not until I get what I need."

"I despise you," she spat.

He sighed. "We've covered that."

Her eyes narrowed, "Are you really so obtuse, pauper? This isn't just a game to make me squirm so you can savor it?"

"Perhaps I am, but I genuinely don't know what in the depths you're asking me for."

She picked up her necklace and clenched it in her hand, adrenalin giving her a respite from the quavering muscles. "I hate you with all that I am and I hate what you did to me even more." She threw the necklace to her chest as hard as she could in a barely contained rage, "But I want the collar. I *need* it.

He tried to be civil and understand and he honestly tried not to enjoy it. Even so, a small smile escaped him.

Her spine straightened and she stood proud. "Gloat if you wish." Her voice wavered as she touched the truth again, "I can barely function in the world. I'm already a shell that looks like a person, mage. It walks and talks and does its duties, but it's a shell. The only relief I get comes from...touching myself thinking of myself chained, aching for your next question." Her eyes were distant for a moment, "And even that feeling, so powerful that it paralyzes everything but my fingers, is a pale shadow of what was."

She looked down at the floor for a moment, "I...cannot go back to a life where that was nothing but a memory. Endless pleasure and all I had to do was be controlled in a way I couldn't stop no matter how hard I fought. To never touch that again..." The thought chilled her.

He thought about her words. She had a hand in what was done, but, on one level, she was only serving her House. He knew Tessa would have done no less. "I could and I will take the memory of it from you wish. I have what I need from you. In a few moments you'll be on the street heading home after having the jewelry cleaned. You'll place them back as you always would, without a second thought, and that will be that."

"Mercy?" She almost looked amused by the idea. "Stop, or I may actually want to thank you for something. I've thought of that, mage, but having the memory of such feelings taken away is, in its own way, worse than knowing you will never have them again." She gripped the pouch again, "Collar me. Make me feel what I felt before and you can have what you want."

The necklace was a pile of coiled metal in his hand before he closed it, "That was a means to an end. If I give you what you want permanently, you would have to be bound to me."

"Mistress? Secret whore? I've thought of that, too, Deres. I...accept any terms you offer. I've sacrificed my House to whatever you plan. I knew that, one way or another, I was forfeit as well the moment I left the grounds to come here. Do as you must so long as the feeling of that day never dies inside me."

Cassea tossed the pouch to him casually.

He looked to see that what was promised was there. Once done, he eyed her curiously, "What keeps me from sending you away as though you had these cleaned as I offered before?"

Some of her old confidence returned, "Because you've fucked and been fucked by this body and it offers you its slavery; there's no way you don't take it."

He laughed and shook his head, "I do like you." He paused, wanting her to hear and feel the truth of what was coming, "Know that I will treat you well."

She shrugged, "Since I'm not sure I will care either way after what is done is done... Tell me one thing though: did you enthrall the general in the same fashion?"

He shook his head. "She'd already agreed to marry me in exchange for my help in unraveling the plot. She chose a love spell to help make her life pass more pleasantly, and because she touched some of the feelings that you did, though not by my hand."

He thought of her and contentment was simply there, "She also knew before she chose that I love her." He focused on the now. "She is still completely herself though. You will be something slightly less."

She nodded, flashing a sardonic grin, "I don't wonder why she smiles more. So she will not care that you have collared me?"

"Not at all."

Cassea dismissed anything further. "No matter, do what you will."

The family trinkets were easily disposed of. Laying them out on the table, he pulled out from his own pocket, one at a time, slips of glass two inches long and about the width of two fingers. Inside, green and red gasses mingled together. Cassea watched as he placed one in his palm and then over each item. A second later the glass broke and the gasses infused themselves in the metal until there was no trace to be found. He hadn't lied when he said it would only take a moment.

"Yours will take time," he said, focusing his concentration on the necklace she'd offered, "as I have to start yours from scratch. Be quiet, please."

She took a seat from near the door and put it before the table before using it to watch as he created the tool of her enslavement. She watched as light seemed to simply appear from the space between his hand and the necklace and how the metal would move in response to it, sometimes seeming to almost liquify and re-solidify before her eyes as Deres watched the process intently. She saw the light reflecting in his eyes for a long time before she realized some of it was actually emanating from them instead.

With nothing to do but wait, the nervousness returned and she rubbed her hands together to calm them. The hollowness returned as well. Rocking slowly seemed to help, but she'd freeze every time the floor decided to creak, fearing that would disrupt his work, though he didn't seem to notice.

Cassea sat there for over an hour before the light faded from his hands and he took a deep, cleansing breath and a moment to stretch stiff muscles. She looked up anxiously, "Is it done?"

She reached for it and he placed his hand over it. "I like you, Cassea so I did not wish to change much. You will be mostly who you have been, but you will also be mine. Once you put it on, it doesn't matter if you take it off."

She snatched it from under his hand and clasped it around her neck. The metal felt different somehow; heavier and warm to the touch. It felt like a lover's caress around her neck. Seconds ticked by but she felt nothing else. Panic set in and she pressed it into her flesh with both hands, "It's not working. The spell is wrong. Fix it! You have to fix it!"

Her eyes were saucer wide as she watched him casually take a chair. "Please fix it. Please. I need what it was before. Deres, please." Her tone as she repeated herself alternated from commanding to abject begging.

He sat down, leaned forward, and clasped her trembling hands, "Tell me, Cassea Voss, do you still hate me?"

She squeaked and her eyes fluttered shut. There it was. It was like standing in a tank that was slowly flooded with water. That was what the warmth felt like as it bubbled upward from her toes and up through her legs. When that heat hit her clit she jerked and froze, her mouth hanging slack. Up it flowed, and when it met her breasts, her nipples hardened to points. When it flowed through her heart, she began to weep. It was different, yet the satisfaction was the same as what she felt that day in the dungeon. When the heat engulfed her mind, she welcomed it and happily drowned in the sea that had claimed her.

She opened her eyes, tears still wet on her cheeks. "More than ever." She felt energized and alive in a way she never had before save that day, but she knew now that it would always be a part of her, the fatigue and emptiness gone.

The answer pleased him. "To whom do you belong?"

"I belong to you, even though you disgust me." Both parts of that answer fired her heart and her body, the loathing of him making even the thought of riding his cock or obeying his whim that much more profane and thrilling.

"Good girl." He relished the flush in her cheeks, "Your master's House will be diminished if not gone soon, are you all right with that?"

She searched herself; the answering pleased him and contented her, as it kept her on her back, floating in that ocean of control and submission, "No, but..."

"But?"

"I don't want to prevent it. I want to help you make it happen...because it would please you and I belong to you." {Goddess, the thrill of sacrificing my loyalties and people that I care for to my Master.}

"With your House not being what it was soon, I find that I would be in need of an assistant, someone to aid me here, when I may need to travel and, certainly at Court. You'll help me?"

"You do seem helpless at Court and I suppose it's in my interest to help you." Instead of wanting to entirely rip the smile from his face, it truly pleased her. That the two feelings co-existed was curious to her. "Once my House ceases to be what it was, I will be able to come to you without suspicion."

"I may have you taste Neral," he teased, "just so you know how frigid she is not. I know that you'll resist that."

"But I will break." Knowing that was like the long draw of a tongue along her clit.

"And you will ride a guttersnipe's cock frequently."

She finished the thought, her eyes twinkling in anticipation. "Hating every moment of it and you even as I cum so hard the world closes in."

He eyed her with lust and her skin tingled more than it crawled, "I may well ruin the firmness of that belly one day."

She bit her lip, feeling the submission and luxuriating in it, "It's yours to ruin."

He sent her away thinking of what was to come. Revenge was indeed at hand for those who threatened Neral and that pleased him. In his more immediate future though, was the return home. He would, of course, tell Neral of today and, she would, of course, not be bothered by the turn of events. Bryana, on the other hand, would likely roll her eyes and never let him hear the end of it.

That, in its own way, pleased him as well.

To Be Continued...