Birdcage Ch. 06

"It's...not a game." He looked crestfallen, but stepped away to allow Joni to hop off the worktop and adjust her dress back down.

"Ok well I'm done. Is that ok? I want to leave. Or are you going to punish me for speaking back? Beat me with a wooden fucking plank? can I go?...please." Any fear of him was gone in that moment, and Joni couldn't tell if that was because she thought he would no longer hurt her, or if she just didn't care if he did anymore.

4 leaned over, jerked the handle down and open the door wide, holding out his arm for Joni to leave. He looked down at his feet, his stony features empty of emotion again.

Joni had never felt so confused in her life. As they walked in silence back towards her dormitory, she tried to think back to her first meeting with 4, in his office. She had felt the tension thick in the air, she had feared him, but she also recalled the wetness of her inner thighs and the racing of her heart. She hadn't wanted to get up and run from him, instead she'd felt drawn like a moth to a flame. Did he feel that too? In the back of her mind she couldn't eliminate the possibility that this was just entertainment for him; that he did this with other girls and enjoyed toying with them. As they reached her dormitory door, she reminded herself of her 'punishment', and the predatory anger in his eyes that day. She reminded herself of his reputation, how he'd hurt girls, possibility killed them. She wasn't going to be his 'redemption' if that's what he was looking for.

"I may bring you to my office later to discuss this, if I'm able." His voice was quiet, but his tone clipped and harsh again. She flicked her eyes to the camera above the door.

"Don't bother." She turned to open the door, but his hand caught her elbow and spun her back towards him. He brought his mouth down close to her ear and whispered into it.

"No more late night bathroom trips. Please."

- - -

When Joni entered the dormitory, it was quiet. It was still halfway through working hours, and she wasn't expecting to see many people at all, so she was overjoyed to see Marnie's smiling face looking up from the edge of the bed. She launched herself towards her and pulled her into a hug.

"Woah J, you ok?" She held her firm but whispered into her ear.

"I don't know Marn. I can't talk about it, but I think I'm in trouble." Marnie's hair smelt like coconut, and Joni breathed it in, holding back the tears threatened to spring forward.

"You've just got to play by the rules...worry about work and nothing else. Get the job done and keep your head down! And we'll take care of each other ok?"

"I think someone's bought me as well Marn."

Marnie didn't reply, but simply crushed Joni tighter into her chest.

"Distract me. Tell me all about your date with your Clint Eastwood lookalike."

Marnie pulled away from her, a bright smile on her face, and sat down on the edge of the bed, patting the spot next to her for Joni to join.

"It was so fucked up! He brought his wife's clothes for me to wear...and then he cried when he came!..."

Try as she might, her brain couldn't switch off from him, she felt his hands on her skin, felt the heat of his gaze and his soft lips on hers. She cursed herself for it. As more people filed into the rooms and tucked themselves into beds, Joni curled up next to Marnie in her small single, pressed tightly to her back. When she finally nodded off, she had dreams of 4 in her tiny flat back home, his huge frame stretched out on her couch, Joni in her sack dress and handcuffs, sitting at his feet.

- - -

"Up."

Joni woke with a start, as someone shouted into her ear and pulled the covers down. Her eyes searched the dark to see a guard standing over her, his mouth a hard set line of impatience.

"Now."

She pushed herself to her feet, tucking the cover back over Marnie who simply grumbled and turned back over in her sleep.

"Where..." She forgot herself for a moment. Speaking to 4 so freely had made her forget that the other staff here wouldn't take to it so kindly.

"Quiet." His eyes flashed angrily at her as he marched them out and down the hallway.

As they walked Joni assumed they would be heading to 4's office, he had said he would try to speak to her again if he was able. But as they turned a corner, the brass number plate '600' came into view. Joni knew the white room was on this floor, only a few doors down. She cursed herself. She had been so wrapped up in 4, that she had forgotten the one man here who had ever actually treated her well, who could maybe help her. She took in a deep breath and tried to plan what she would say to the white knight.

When the door to the room swung open, Joni was hit with the heady scent of lavender. The guard gestured her in, but as Joni headed for the bed, he pulled at her elbow, marching her towards the back corner. It was then that Joni saw an doorway that she hadn't noticed before, hidden away behind the large wicker chair. Inside was the most beautiful bathroom Joni had ever seen; white tiles from floor to ceiling and a large walk in shower at the back, behind a long glass partition. The thing dominating the room however was a huge white freestanding bath, from which the lavender aroma was wafting from. It was filled high with bubbles, and steamed invitingly. On a small side table next to it was her black leather blindfold.

She turned, expecting the guard to instruct her further, or blindfold her himself as he often did, but when she looked, she just caught sight of him disappearing through the main door, slamming it shut behind him.

"Okay..." Joni looked down. The bath was clearly there for her, it was an invitation. But she couldn't figure out the blindfold, was he giving her the choice this time? Not giving herself time to worry, she stripped off her dress and sunk herself under the bubbles. It was heavenly and scorching hot, just how Joni liked it. It coloured her pale skin a warm rosey pink where it touched and left a sheen of sweat across her forehead. She wondered to herself if she could bar the door and stay here forever. She felt the tension in her shoulders slink away, and let the warmth of the bath cradle her.

Out of the corner of her eye though, the blindfold reappeared. She stared at it for a moment, considering her options. She was desperate to see his face, and felt like the conversation she wanted to have with him was better eye to eye. But it was clear this is what he wanted, and in spite of herself, she wanted to please him. Taking a deep breath, she pulled it around her face and secured the buckle at the back. Marnie's words rang out in her ear 'play the game'. She sunk deeper into the bubbles and closed her eyes behind the blindfold, drifting into a half sleep.

The sound of the main door opening awoke her fully, and snapped her back to reality. She lay under the warm water, listening to his footsteps as she had done before, but this time he didn't seem to undress, he moved erratically around in the main bedroom, his footsteps pacing from one end to the other. When she felt her skin prickle, she knew then that he was in the doorway watching her.

"Hello?" She squeaked, her voice sounding louder than she intended in the silence.

His footsteps approached, a soft padding noise that told Joni he was barefoot on the tiles, and then the creak of the stool as he sat down next to the bath. The stool creaked again and she felt the warmth of his breath against her lips. Her heart jumped in her chest and she lifted her chin up towards him as he eased forward, delicately pressing his lips down on hers. Fire ignited in her stomach, sweeping through her like an inferno, and she urged forward, opening her mouth to him as his tongue swept in...

Spearmint.

Joni jolted back, hearing the splash of water as it sloshed out over the lip of the bath behind her. She scrabbled at the buckle at the back of her head for a moment, then gave up, yanking the blindfold violently up and off her face.

His icy cool eyes surveyed her impassively, his mouth pulled down to a frown.

"I'm sorry."

Joni remained silent.

In that moment it was so obvious to her that it had been him, and she felt a fool for not realising sooner. Her shock turned to anger, her anger turned to embarrassment, and her embarrassment turned to something else entirely, as images flashed in her brain of 4's face pressed between her legs, 4's hands clawing at her skin, 4's cock sliding up against her wetness.

He sighed, accepting her silence, and continued on.

"This fucking room. It was my heaven and my hell Joni. It took every bit of my restraint not to rip your blindfold off and look into your eyes as you came for me. I wanted to speak to you too, whisper into your ear how fucking perfect you looked spread out on that bed...and when you asked me to stay...I don't know how I brought myself to leave."

He heaved out another sign as Joni leaned back and quietly listened.

"The cameras are always off in here, I managed that little blindspot a couple of years ago. It's my place. I come here to just be on my own mostly, until you came."

He leaned forward further, resting his chin on his forearm overhanging the bath lip. His fingers trailed into the bubbles below, inches from her skin.

"I don't really know where to start...I thought I could just forget it, let this one go...but I can't."

"I don't understand...let me go?" Joni spoke now, his words slowly sinking in.

"Well...yes. I tried to get you out of here, I had a pickup and a drop planned, had it timed perfectly. But then I couldn't let you go. I'm so sorry..."

Joni sat up, still edging away from him, and wiped the damp hair from her face.

"You nearly got me out?...I could have been free?"

"I'm so fucking selfish, I know. I didn't want to tell you because I knew you'd hate me. I'm the reason you're still here. And now it's gotten too messy...they're onto me I'm sure. They were before though."

Joni turned the new information over in her head. He had a way out.

"You've done this before?"

"Yes. Well no! Not this." He gestured, pointing back and forth between them both.

"I've not done 'this' in a long time." He laughed mirthlessly, his hand inching towards hers at the edge of the bath. Joni moved her hand away a fraction.

"But I've gotten girls out before yes...as many as I've been able to without drawing too much attention. The ones I thought were most at risk. Nowhere near as many as I'd have liked."

"You're...a good guy?" Her eyebrow arched up sarcastically.

Again he laughed. The smile not reaching his eyes.

"No Joni...I don't think you could say that. I've done some awful things during my time here, most under orders, but I still had the choice. I always had the choice."

"Wait... what do you mean you've not done 'this' for a long time?" Her brain picked up on the words he had previously skimmed over.

"I haven't had sex for 4 years Joni. Not since I became a head. I'm practically a virgin again, so I'd say we were on level pegging." He raised his eyebrows, mouth pulled up in a cautious smile, as he waited for her response.

Joni gasped, her mouth snapping open.

I don't...what were you before you were a head?"

"...you." He watched her carefully now. the smile gone in an instant, and his mouth pulled down. When she stayed silent, he continued.

"I came here when I was very young. Younger than you. I've not really known any different my whole life. I was a slave for most of that, but when they offered me to move up, I knew I could do some good from here...like I say, I haven't always been able...but I've never hurt anyone by my own hands since I was a head...except you."

His eyes shut tightly as he remembered Joni's punishment.

"...I'm so sorry. 6 had come to speak to me beforehand, it was obvious he suspected something. I think they all might have at some point...well definitely now...but I couldn't risk them finding out my intentions. They'd have killed you there and then, or sold you off quick to some Psychopath...please don't bite your lip like that. It makes me want you, and it's hard enough to keep my train of thought with you like this." His hands swirled in the rapidly disappearing bubbles, exposing glimpses of her nakedness underneath. Joni swallowed the lump in her throat as the conversation swerved direction.

"Why me? There's 300 girls out there? I don't understand..."

"I don't know Joni, If I'm honest. You just...opened up something that had been closed in me for a long time. For the first time, you made me want more...more than this place. I read your file before they'd even picked you up, I saw your pictures and the videos and...you were an angel. Besides the fact that you're beautiful...and my god you are...you're smart! Everything you have, you earned. And you're caring; I watched you walk home every night past that homeless woman, and you'd sit and pretend to wait for a bus, and you'd share your food from work with her...When you laugh with Marnie your nose wrinkles up, it's gorgeous but I've never seen it in the flesh. When you're aroused, you can't hide it...your chest flushes red, and it creeps up your neck to meet the flush in your cheeks. Jesus...when I see that...and...you're so strong, you don't let your past define you. You don't let it darken you...and I want that. I thought at first it was just infatuation, but you came...and that shit with Michael. I wanted to kill him. I wanted to rip out his fucking throat! And thats when I knew...I knew I needed more with you. That's when I brought you here."

The words looked like an effort for him to get out, but he seemed to gain momentum and confidence with each second. Joni watched his animated face as he spoke about her, his eyes lighting up. She realised how much he knew her, felt the depth of feeling in the words.

"4..." she wanted to reach out to him now, but couldn't bring herself to move her hand to his.

"Joni I'll get you out, I'm trying to figure it out! You don't have to want me, I'll understand if you don't, I really will. But I'll still get you out, you can't be here."

Joni brushed the damp hair away from her face again.

"I know. This is a lot. I'm sorry, do you want me to go? You can stay here as long as you need." He stood as if to leave.

"No wait..." The words bypassed her brain, and she heard them before she knew it was her voice speaking. He turned and waited, the hope evident in his eyes.

"just give me a bit more time...can you stay?"

He nodded, sitting back down into the stool and loosening the tie from around his neck. The dark hairs of his chest peeked over the top of his shirt and Joni was reminded of the feel of his skin against hers, when she hadn't known it had been him.

"When...did you know?"

"I think I really knew how I felt that first night you came to my office. I had to watch that video of you in the doctors office...I watched it 3 fucking times trying to figure out who the man who touched you was, trying to track him on the other cameras."

"I just thought you were getting off making me watch it."

"Are you kidding? I was so torn, because yer I was hard as a rock, watching you like that...I jerked off after you left. I was so jealous and I'd imagined in my head how it would be if It was me instead. That fucking brute didn't know what he was doing with that wand...you start here with it..."

He moved forward, reaching out to touch her, and Joni held her breath. He made a fist with his hand and rolled it along the long sloping muscle between her neck and shoulder. The sensation was heavenly, and as he pressed harder, Joni felt a warmth flow down each arm, reaching to her fingertips.

"It's called a 'massager' for a reason. You start slow, rub it all along here...it gets tight just here." He released his fist and rubbed his thumbs down the sides of her neck, rubbing the lavender soap into her skin as he did. She gasped, drawing her knees up closer to her body.

"Tell me to stop and I will."

Joni closed her eyes and after pausing for a moment, shook her head. When she opened her eyes again, his were alight, the icy blue now a white hot fire.

"And then I'd move here...just gently. I know you're sensitive here." He held her gaze as he trailed his thumbs down her chest, agonisingly slowly. When he reached her nipples he rolled them gently under his thumbs. Joni let her mouth fall open as she watched him, her body aching for more.

"And then down...slowly, on the lowest setting." He sunk one hand deeper, disappearing under the bubbles to slide along the soapy skin of her stomach. He grazed past her mound and moved to her inner thighs, pressing them apart to massage the delicate skin at the back of her knee. He was up to his elbow in soapy water, still wearing his white shirt, that now clung transparently to the muscles of his arm.

"And by then you'll be wet. But actually if it's you we're talking about, you'd be soaked. You're so responsive...shall we see?" Joni's eyes begged him now, she vibrated with need. He brought one hand up and pressed a single finger against her entrance where she knew he would feel the evidence of her desire, slippery against his skin even under the water.

"Fuck Joni...and then...and then if you weren't a virgin. I'd do this, I'd put these two fingers in, curved up like this." He brought his hands up from beneath the water, and took her hand in his. Joni clenched her teeth to hold back her whine of desperation. He curved her fingers over to shape a loose fist, then he took his two middle fingers and pressed them upwards into the 'o' shape he had created, clenching his other hand around hers to bring her fist in tighter. Joni was entranced.

"To think you've never had your g-spot touched...I'm going to be the first to do that to you. I promise you that." The words were fuel to Joni's fire and her breathing was heavy as she watched his hand wrapped around hers.

"And then I move them just like this, slow at first and then quicker...and then hold that rhythm just like that." He moved his fingertips inside her fist, gently stroking the soft sensitive skin of her palm. He moved slowly at first, and then sped up, increasing the pressure until her palm tingled. His eyes were full of mischief as he looked down at her, the corner of his mouth pulled up a fraction.

"And then I bring the massager back down, and just settle it just here." He dropped her hand back onto the lip of the bath, and sunk his own under the bubbles, settling one finger lightly against her throbbing clit. Joni arched her hips up, desperate for the friction that her body begged for, but he stayed motionless; his finger just resting against her.

"Please." She panted.

He leaned down, bringing his mouth to the curve of her ear and taking her earlobe gently between his teeth before whispering.

"And then you'd scream my name and beg me to never stop."

"Your name?..."

"...Henri. I hate that fucking number." He pulled away from her neck to look at her, his eyes searching hers.

"Henri." She tested it out. It fit him perfectly, and in that moment she couldn't imagine him being anyone else.

"Please don't stop...Henri."

"I won't. I want to ruin every other man for you Joni. I want all your orgasms. I want to show you how it should feel." The tension was unbearable now and Joni felt like she was ready to combust at any moment. His fingers stayed perfectly still against her.

"Do you feel that?" He asked.

Henri lifted her arm with his free hand, and brought her wrist to his mouth. His lips laid out a path up to her palm, creating a tingling heat under her skin that carried on long after he stopped. It made her scalp itch and her thighs close around his hand instinctively.

"That's how it's should feel."

He finally rolled his finger over her clit, and Joni moaned loudly, spreading her thighs wide under the water for him. She felt like a tightly wound spring, her body shaking with need.