Chapter 1: Cuffed
You understand that if you say "I've changed my mind" we stop, but when the collar goes on, that's itâfor tonight, we own you.
"Yes," I said, trying to sound confident. I asked for this, but knowing that I had asked to be cuffed, stripped, collared, and sold, I doubt I succeeded.
"Very well, turn around."
I hesitated for a second, then turned and placed my hands behind my back. It seemed a long wait before cool metal closed about my wrists. I turned back to face him, both to mask a slight shudder and to hide my testing the cuffs, as I tried, unsuccessfully, to move my hands apart.
"You won't be able to do that without the key, don't worry."
I guess I wasn't as subtle as I imagined, or perhaps no one can resist trying, and he had done this many times before. He was tall and muscular, wearing a black so intense it seemed to suck up the light. He had sharp cheekbones, almond skin and amber-flecked eyes.
Those eyes looked me up and down, slowly, carefully and appraisingly. Black hair piled upon my head, green eyes, white skin, red lips. Emerald silk, snug around my throat, draping my breasts, clinging to my belly, flowing around my legs to the floor. But backless, open and exposed from neck to waist.
"It seems a shame to waste you on some stranger; perhaps I should just take you for myself" he said, reaching up to stroke my breast.
I stumbled a half-step back, but could go no furtherâtwo large bodies blocked any retreat. One grabbed my arm to stop me from tripping, but also held me helplessly in place.
"Yes" he said, as he cupped my breast, "I'm going to enjoy this."
I tried to wriggle aside, but it just served to rub me against the creamy silk and his hand. I could feel my nipple harden and heat radiateâupward into my cheeks and downward into my loins.
He chuckled. "This is going to be funâand who knows, maybe I'll get a taste of you later."
With that he picked up a black collar. It was like polished marble, cool and smooth, but hard and unyielding. He said nothing, but I couldn't miss the message. I would soon be wearing that unyielding collarâbut nothing else.
"Are you ready?"
I tried to speak, but my tongue was getting signals so scrambled between "Yes, let's do this" and "No, no, no, this is crazy, I've changed my mind" that nothing came out. Instead I just nodded, shaking loose a curl of hair to hang across my eye and along my cheek.
With that, the hands at my back propelled me forward, through a curtain of hanging beads. They slid over me, hundreds of light fingers caressing my body. The swirling mix of heat and panic intensified sensation. One strand ran over my right breast, and I could feel each bead as it gently thumped against my nipple.
I was standing in pool of light so bright I could only see shadowy outlines of human shapes in the darkness beyond. I'd only been moved a few meters but I was breathing like I'd run up a flight of stairs. The hands steadied me on my feet before the large figures retreated. I looked again at the shapes beyond the edge of dark. One of those shadows was going to buy my body. But it wasn't going to be a shadow that bought meâit was going to be a live man and he was going to want his money's worth.
I stared about, trying to see the men beyond the lightâoh my god, there were women too! My fantasy was being sold to a man who would ravish and fill me. What if a woman bought me instead? I had no time to ponder what it would be like to be forced to serve a woman, as the black-clad man turned to the crowd.
"Here is our merchandise for this evening."
Turning back, his amber eyes met mine and held them for a moment; then he stepped behind me, close enough that I could feel his heat on the bare skin of my back. His breath was warm on my shoulder as were his fingers on the soft skin below my ear. But there seemed no softness in the fingers that latched onto my dress. With a twitch of his fingers, the pop of a snap opening echoed in my ear and I spasmed. I could swear the entire room heard that quiet noise, and know as I did, that with only two more snaps, the neck would fall open.
"That's one" he said, and I jerked again, his voice breaking me out of my reverie.