Leah's Bondage Ch. 08

Leah spent four days at the little hospital under the careful watch of Dr. Larson and his two slave nurses. Carlton stayed with her the whole time. He took time to snuggle up next to her in the bed, propping her head against his chest , reading to her, letting her voice comments when she wanted or listen in a peaceful haze until she fell asleep again. He took care that when he touched her, it was a tender touch. He knew she needed time to heal mentally as well as physically. It was time in her training, he decided, for her to come to him of her own will.

He watched her sleeping and ran his fingers over her sheet covered nipples, half-smiling at her sleepy moan of hunger. Yes, she was ready, but she didn't realize it yet.

"May I have a word with you, Sir," Raymond spoke softly so as not to wake Leah.

Carlton carefully slipped off the bed, easing his pet down and walked to the door with his assistant. He motioned for one of the nurses to watch Leah. In the hallway, he turned his full attention on Raymond, "What can I help you with?"

Raymond handed him a file, "I wish to purchase Ming's contract."

Carlton's eyebrow's shot up in surprise, "I had no idea. Do you plan to keep her as a mistress or a slave?"

Raymond's expression never faltered, "A slave, Sir. I have been studying you for years and have filled in for you on occasion. You will also see in the file, a recommendation from Mr. Willers of New York, as to my skills."

"Willers?" Carlton was more than surprised now. He opened the file and read the letter. It appeared that Raymond had spent his last vacation training with the renowned trainer.

"Well," he closed the file, "I see no reason why it cannot be arranged. I had planned to let her rest and recuperate before making any decisions about her future, but this is a fortuitous solution. You are aware of the fair market value?"

"Yes, Sir. The file also shows that I have the funds waiting in a separate account."

Carlton nodded. It seemed his assistant had thought of everything. "She is yours then. I am reserving the right that she help Rabbit while she recovers. They can share quarters."

"Excellent, Sir." Raymond smiled. "Thank You. This also came over by messenger right before I left the house." He handed his employer some papers.

Carlton looked at the sellers copy of a contract with grim satisfaction. He had not expected the merchants to have prepared Bruger for market yet, let alone have found a buyer, but apparently someone had. Lady Abernathy from Australia had seen him quivering and pleading and bought him without haggling.

Carlton had seen her buy a slave before and had pitied the slave. That woman had put the S in sadist. She had branded the slave before she left the merchants. Her ranch in the outback was known for being a particularly harsh environment for the untrained slave. Feeling no remorse, he folded the contract and put it in his pocket.

"Go home and see to your slave, Raymond." He smiled and went back into the room. Dismissing the nurse, he removed his shoes and slipped into the bed next to Leah, putting his arm around her and drawing her close. He smiled when in her sleep, she snuggled closer.

At the house, Raymond unlocked the door to the slave quarters, carefully holding the dinner tray. He let the door shut behind him as his eyes searched for Ming. Not seeing her, he set down the tray and went into the bedroom. Ming lay curled up on the huge bed looking very scared.

He sat near her, reaching out slowly so as not to startle her, "What is wrong?" He stroked her hair.

"What is to happen to me, please? Master Carlton has a slave and will not want the trouble of another. Am I to be sold to a private owner or to..." her voice trailed off painfully.

"Do you enjoy being a slave, Ming?" Raymond spoke softly.

Ming blinked slowly and turned her face toward him, "It is my life. My parents sold me when I was of interest to the first foreigner. Not all my owners have been like Bruger."

"But do you enjoy it?" he persisted

"When I am at a good Master's feet, and am helpless, and he touches me. I wish to be no other place. My second Master had a couple visit. They were Master and slave, but she was not bought and sold. They had such passion." her voice was wistful, "I have often wished I were her."

"Why is that?"

Ming was silent for a long moment, "Forced devotion, no matter how sincere from the slave's heart, is still forced. I would want the opportunity to serve for the love, not for the bonds that require me to do so."

Raymond continued to stroke Ming's hair, "I can tell you what will happen to you for now. I have bought your papers." he felt her begin to move under his hand to get into the proper subservient position, "No, do not get up. I am going to take a risk, Ming. I am going to give the papers to you. You are free to walk out the door and leave. I will even give you the money you need to get to where ever it is you want to go."

Ming rolled on the bed and looked at him in amazement, studying his eyes to see if this was a test of some kind or a joke, but all she saw was sincerity.

Raymond continued, "I would prefer for you to stay. I have desired to know you, to work with you, to even train you since I saw you a year and a half ago when Bruger first acquired you.."

Ming was almost breathless, "I would be able to leave these rooms when I wanted?"

Raymond gave a small nod of his head, "You would have a key, but I would have a schedule for you. I don't want you wandering around at all hours. Carlton may also have some areas that he lists as off limits."

Ming's eyes were bright for the first time since they had rescued her, "I would be able to leave the house? Alone?"

"Within reason. In time, I thought you might be interested in enrolling in some classes at the university nearby. It could be arranged, or--"

"You would do that for me?" Ming reached up and touched his face, as if she were making sure he was real.

"You are a person, Ming, not just a plaything. In the evenings, I am hoping to have conversations with you, a relationship. There will be times when conversation is the least thing in your mind," He ran the crook of his finger across the line of her jaw and then down her neck, marveling that even after the months and months of trauma at Bruger's hand, how she trembled so willingly, her beautiful eyes already filling with passion. He gave her a smile of promise and then stood.

"Think about it tonight. I will be back in the morning to see what you have decided. Your dinner is on the table. Don't let it get cold." Purposefully, he walked from the room, leaving Ming lying flushed on the bed.

When Raymond brought up the breakfast tray and was not surprised to see Ming waiting for him by the chair. She was wearing a tight, blue Cheongsam embroidered with sprays of pinks flowers. She had carefully arranged her hair and set an intricate hair ornament.

As with other mornings, he set the tray on the floor in front of her, and then sat cross-legged on the floor across from her. Nothing was said between them as Ming started what had already become a morning ritual with them over the past five days. She prepared a cup of coffee for Raymond and offered it to him with a bow of her head. He thanked her, took and a sip and then nodded. She then took food for herself, pouring herself a cup of green tea. There was silence as she ate, and Raymond contemplated his coffee.

When Ming was done, she set her bowl and cup on the tray and waited more patiently than Raymond had seen any slave wait before, her eyes downcast demurely.

"Have you decided?" He finally asked, thinking it was cruel to make her wait.

Ming looked up with a look so erotically charged, Raymond would have sworn she had been trained to do that by a specialist if he had not seen her training folder.

"I have a few questions of my own before I would give my decision, if I may."

"Of course," He nodded.

"For how long would this arrangement last and by what means would it be arranged?"

Raymond smiled, "I thought you would ask that. The arrangement would be for a length of time mutually agreed upon. A contract of service would be drawn up and signed. At the end of the contract you would be free to resign or leave."

Ming gave a slow nod as she absorbed this information, "Ah. At such a time as I did leave, what provisions would I have to survive?"

Raymond paused a little longer, "Of course it is in my interest to have you stay, but I would not have you stay here because you are financially unable to do anything else. As I said last night, I would pay for you to go wherever you want. I would also give you some money to get you on your feet. However, for each contract that you serve, a sum of money, equal to that of a freeperson 'selling' themselves for a similar length of time, will be invested for you - with your approval, of course - and paid out to you upon your departure." He took a breath from the formal sounding details and tried to put a more human face to it, "I would never have you suffer again."

Ming nodded, "What qualifications do you have to offer me as a Master?"

Raymond was stunned. He had not expected that question. With growing respect, he outlined his experience and skill. She seemed to know the names he mentioned.

There was a very long silence while Ming sat with her eyes closed. When she opened them, she smiled a Mona Lisa smile at him, "I will sign your contract on one condition."

Raymond was intrigued, "What is that?"

"Since I was bought I have been used mostly as help - serving and cleaning. In sex, I was just an object. My best Master's had slave's they kept for pleasure, that they could touch and they would breath passion." Her bright eyes dropped back to the floor, "I doubt I could ever be like them, but if you will teach me to find pleasure in sex, I will sign your contract."

Raymond managed to hide the horror inside him. She would serve out of her love and desire to serve? No one, not even the best of her masters had taken the time to be sure that she had found pleasure in sex?

"I will make sure that you always find pleasure in sex, Ming."

****

On the fourth day, Carlton brought Leah home. By the time Leah had been tucked into the huge bed in her rooms and her Master had snapped commands at just about everyone, she was glad to hear the door shut and lock. There was finally silence. Leah lay back on the mound of pillows and gazed at the shimmering gauze curtains around the bed.

In the silence she could finally face what had been growing more and more troublesome to her over the past week at the small hospital. She was confused. Terribly, horribly, unmistakably confused.

She hated Master. She must. He bought her; he had tormented her; he had locked her away. She had run away from him. Yet here she was thinking how lonely it would be to sleep tonight without him snuggled up next to her in bed.

No, she told herself, she was glad that he was gone. But she knew she was lying to herself. The silence was too deep. There were no comforting sounds of Master dealing with his business or reading a book while he thought she slept.

"Stockholm Syndrome," she muttered. "That must be it." But the ache was real. Still, she consoled herself, he would be up in a few hours with lunch and she would see him then. It was much to her surprise when Thomas came up with the lunch tray. The afternoon hours passed slowly, and Leah's excitement at hearing the key in the lock faded quickly when once again Thomas brought in the tray. Not quite sure why, she cried herself to sleep that night.

The next day Carlton entered the rooms with the breakfast tray. He was not surprised to see that Leah was still asleep in the bed. Setting the tray on the bedside table, he gentle shook her awake.

For the first time, the little start of fear in her eyes did not excite him, but disturbed him. What disturbed him more was the mask that he saw her mentally slip into place.

"Good morning, Master." Her voice was proper, her posture now that she was sitting up was lovely, but there was something about it that bothered him.

"Good morning, Rabbit. I trust you slept well." On a whim, Carlton placed the tray on her knees and nodded permission for her to start eating. He noticed the flash of wariness in her eyes as she judged this for a potential trap. She still did not trust him.

Curious, he reached out and lightly stroked the bare breast that was peaking out above the sheets. The nipple hardened nicely and Leah made a purely unconscious movement of pleasure.

A strange sense of disquiet filled him. He had been fairly successful in training her body, but the realization that the obedience was a sham drilled into him. She was still very much a trapped animal, being still to be petted because it had no other choice. Carlton mulled this over in his mind with the comparison of Raymond and Ming. Raymond had done the one thing he had never expected his assistant to do - give the girl her freedom.

Where would be the challenge in taming Leah if this were a consensual agreement? Where would be the looks of fear and terror in her eyes? But even as he caught a shadowed glimpse of one, he wasn't sure he wanted to see it again in Rabbit's eyes.

Abruptly he rose startling Leah, "Ming will be up later for the tray." He left the room frowning. He had been spending too much time with her. That was it. She was a toy, a plaything. He wasn't to let himself get so emotional over her. Men in his family had been buying, selling and training sexual slaves for generations and the first rule his father had taught him was never to get too emotionally attached to a slave -- no good ever comes from it.

Carlton stormed into his office causing Raymond to look up from where he was arranging the files for the days business. Wisely, he said nothing. Carlton switched on the camera's to Leah's room and the switched them off. Some time away from her - that would do it. Besides, she was no good to him broken.

Raymond made no comment when Carlton ordered that Ming take over bringing meals to Leah for the foreseeable future. Nor did he make any mention of Carlton flipping on and off the cameras twenty times that day, like someone trying to break a nicotine habit.

After five days without seeing Leah, Carlton's mood had grown from tense to surly. The staff of the house was avoiding him at all costs and even Thomas was finding more reasons to stay to the kitchens than normal. Only the unflappable Raymond stayed at his side.

The office was quiet except for the soft tapping of keys as Ming worked on a computer to type up a report. Raymond had brought her in to help with the amount of work that Carlton was generating in his frustration. Raymond sat at his desk balancing ledgers and watching his boss out of the corner of his eye. He was half tempted to drag Carlton up the stairs and lock him in the room with Leah until the next morning.

Carlton was starring at the monitor of the slave quarters with a frown. He had been starring at her for almost two hours now. There was a snapping sound as the pencil he had been holding broke in two. With a muttered curse, Carlton stood and stormed out of the room.

Raymond gave a soft sigh, as if to say, at last and bent his head back to the ledgers. Ming tried not to shift in her seat. She was finding Master Raymond to be quite a creative Master for torment and arousal. The dildo he had put in her this morning had a hair trigger to vibrate if she moved too much. Bent over his ledgers, Raymond heard Ming gasp in surprise and arousal. He smiled. What she didn't realize was that each time she set it off, the vibrator went longer and longer before shutting off. He couldn't wait until it was quitting time.

Leah heard the door to her rooms slam and she sat up on the bed confused. Ming never slammed the door. No one had. Curious, she started to lift her head from the pillow, but fingers wrapped in her tangled hair and yanked her to her knees, pulling her head back sharply. Terrified, she looked up into the angry eyes of her Master.

"How dare you lay here day after day like this!" his voice was low and calm and all the more terrifying for it. "Do you have any idea what you look like? Do you think that I want to come up here to an un-bathed, disgusting, disheveled slut like this?"

Leah couldn't even move her head to shake no. Fear filled her throat making it impossible for her to speak.

He tossed her out of the bed, expertly giving her three hard lashes on her smooth unmarked ass with the training crop, "Get cleaned up and present yourself in the other room."

Biting back her sobs, Leah hobbled into the bathroom and washed herself up as best as she could with the cast. Twenty minutes later she was awkwardly kneeling on the pillows, the cast making the usual position impossible. Her freshly washed hair was curly damply around her shoulders and her skin was pink from scrubbing.

"Look at me, Rabbit," he ordered coldly.

Leah looked up, unable to stop her trembling.

"Do you think that I ought to let your running away go unpunished?" he dragged the tip of the crop across her collarbone.

Leah's eyes grew wide and her breath grew ragged. "No, Master," she managed to whisper.

Almost coldly, he cuffed her hands behind her back and sat back down. He traced the crop lazily over her breasts for several long minutes before speaking, "Your foolishness almost got you killed. What possessed you to go running off into the woods without the slightest bit of protection in the middle of winter? You were lucky not to loose anything to frostbite."

Anger flared up through Leah's fear causing her to speak before thinking, "Well, next time, I'll book my escape through a travel agent and pack better."

The crop snapped on her nipple and Leah gasped at the fire that spread through her of both pain and desire.

Carlton put down the crop and took out a pair of scissors from his inner coat pocket, "You almost caused me to loose something very precious to me, so your punishment shall be to loose something precious to you."

Leah looked at him with confusion; her body was still throbbing hungrily. When Master grabbed a handful of her hair, she understood and pulled away violently.

"No! Master! No! Please, No!" she pulled away from him, flopping helplessly to the ground, frantically trying to get some distance from him.

Ignoring her terrified protests, Carlton pushed her onto her stomach and held her down with his body as he began to cut handfuls of her hair and drop them to the carpet. Leah's pleas faded to sobs as the scissors snipped.

Almost casually, he pulled her to her feet and half carried her to the dungeon. He was hungry for her, almost too hungry. Her struggles seemed to draw out the beast in him. In the back of his mind, he knew he should leave, go back to his office and cool down, but the frustration, the denial of his pleasure warred with him. He was still in control, he told himself, as he strapped her face down to a bench, spreading her legs widely to make her available to him.

Leah was stunned. Nothing Master had ever done to her had so forcibly shown her lack of control, her helplessness as the feeling of the scissors cutting through her hair. She felt more naked, more vulnerable than she had ever felt before.

As he took her to the dungeon room, she panicked and began struggling madly. Already half-bound, she was no match as he fastened her legs to the bench and then secured her upper body.

"Please, don't touch me!" she begged, knowing that if he did, she wouldn't be able to stop her reaction.

"Why is that, Rabbit?" His voice in her ear was silky with desire as his fingers traveled up her inner thigh.

"I don't want to be touched by you!" Leah pulled against the unyielding bonds, knowing he could taste the lie. She felt his fingers slid against her slit and could feel her own wetness. She heard his chuckle and could not hold back a hiss of anger and need as his fingers played over her clit.