I hadn’t meant to laugh, but I found myself doing just that as I watched him struggle to figure out the water bowl. Had it not been for the fact that he’d just relieved himself, he surely would have just cupped his hands in the water and drank that way. It was too unwieldy for him to try to use it as a cup, which meant…
This.
I could practically imagine the tail plug in his ass soon, wagging as he drank out of his water bowl and fueling my fantasies for days.
My look turned from something amused into something heated, and I knew he’d be even more disconcerted to see that. He still thought I was going to barge into his cell and rape him.
He had no idea what he was dealing with.
So far, I’d gotten his clothing off of him without touching him, I’d gotten him to drink from a dog’s water bowl, and he’d pissed down the drain — because otherwise, he’d have soaked himself, I was sure. Everything I’d asked ofhim, he’d eventually done. He was a good student once he was backed into a corner… literally and figuratively.
Next he’d either need food or he’d need togoto the bathroom, and I was willing to take bets on how long it would take for him to admit that much to me. He wouldn’t enjoy it once he had, but he’d learn that there were certain things you had to do.
It wasn’t a cat, who could take care of its own needs when it felt like. No, puppies had to be properly taken care of, and mine would be.
“I recognize you,” he said abruptly, his eyes going a little wide as he brushed the back of his hand against his mouth.
I started. I hadn’t expected that, not then, but I shrugged. “And?”
“And?” he asked, incredulous, as he rose and grabbed the blanket again to hide himself from me. “You have to have paparazzi at your doorstep. How the fuck do you think you can get away with this?”
“Because the paparazzi don’t come to my doorstep anymore,” I told him. My voice turned dark, warning him to get off of that path.
I was nothing. I was a has-been. I had left the industry after the accident, and there’d be no one trying to scale the gates for a glamor shot.
“Oh, right,” he said, making a rude noise. “They don’t want you anymore. Not with…” He wiggled his fingers in my direction. “Must’ve sucked, huh? To have all of that go downhill.”
I lifted my chin, refusing to let the familiar self-loathing make me duck my head in shame. I wouldn’t let him see that. I couldn’t let him see a single iota of weakness, and my usual response… well, it was one wrought of weakness, not strength.
“It’s done with.” I flashed him a grim smile. “And now I have all the time in the world to spend at home to train my new puppy. It’ll give me something to do since, you know, all the rest went downhill.”
It hurt. It stung so much to know how quickly I’d become a thing of the past once my looks no longer held up, once my voice had been damaged and I just couldn’t produce the same music any longer. The royalties still poured in on my older hits, and the settlement had ensured I could live comfortably for years even without those… but I was no longer a part of that world.
No, they’d driven me out with pretty words and sidelong looks, friendly greetings but eyes that never stopped gazing at my ruined face.
Even if my voice hadn’t been affected, I still wouldn’t have been welcome.
But that was fine. Now that I had a project, something to work on, I wouldn’t be nearly as lonely. That had been the whole point of this, hadn’t it? To be less lonely? To find companionship? I didn’t want to pay someone to pretend to like me and have that hit the media.
Instead, I’d chosen this route. I’d taken someone who didn’t want me, someone who was far too pretty and far too much of a reminder of the past, and I was going to warp him until his loyalty was to me alone.
He’d never love me, but I couldn’t blame him for that. He could still obey me and be loyal to me, and he could have a life free of the mundane issues that haunted so many. Bills, jobs, dates, family — they were all burdens that could be easily cast aside.
In a way, I was almost jealous of him. But I’d get to escape too, in my own way, once our training had begun in earnest. Even if I had to return to reality each time a sessionwas over, I could still free myself of my thoughts and burdens whenever I pleased.
“What?” I asked sharply. “Nothing to say about that? No smartass comment?”
He glowered at me, curling back up in the corner of the cell with his blanket. It would get too warm for it before long, and I’d have the most intoxicating video feed to watch as it caught every angle of his body. I’d know what he looked like inside and out before I ever took him.
I didn’t think he’d shut up for long, but I’d take what I could get.
For a moment, we stared at one another, caught in a moment where neither of us dared break the silence. I wasn’t sure if he was actually thinking about what he was going to say or if he was finally out of comments.
It sure as fuck wasn’t because of empathy.
The boy could never know what it was like to be an icon of beauty only to be relegated to nothing more than a beast in appearance… and perhaps it had only been a matter of time until I’d started to act like one, too.
Maybe I should’ve just paid for a hooker, but it was too late now. I had committed, and this was the path I was going to have to take.
