Author's note: Traumatised by being held hostage in the cafe siege, Chloe has chosen a new direction in her life. She gives up her steady boyfriend and stable job to seek out new thrills in risky encounters. Covalent has laid out his plans to make her disappear and Chloe finds herself spiraling deeper and deeper into his fantasy of total control.
The story contains themes of female submission, edge play and autassassinophilia. Discretion is advised: please check the story tags to see whether this a series you'll enjoy.]
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TRAINING DAY
I'm sitting cross legged in the sun on a wooden box, watching Covalent working. Ever been in that part of a relationship, the bit between telling them what they want to hear and what you really think? I'm struggling so hard, biting my tongue as I watch him. It's not because I'm forbidden to speak, though there's a distinct possibility that'll be imposed on me the moment I open my mouth. Some guys just have to do it all, as if asking for advice is somehow reducing their manhood, but I can see he's struggling mightily with the task at hand.
It turns out that the first job on his list is to try and repair the windmill. He's concerned about the water tank draining dry and wants to get the bore water pumping again. I don't ask him, but the thought crosses my mind that he's keeping me naked and unwashed not because it's degrading for me, underlining his dominance over my body, and instead maybe because he just can't spare the water. I also don't ask if he's washed himself recently either.
I can't tell anyway. He's stripped to the waist, wrestling with the fallen tower that's lying battered on its side in the long grass, sweating. I watch the muscles bunch in his back as he heaves, the way his skin glistens. I'm quite happy watching my captor straining away; I can watch his body from a distance so long as I sit quietly. It gives me a little warm feeling deep down. He raises the tower a little way up from the grass, struggling hard, but it crashes back down again. I let out a small sympathetic noise.
"Anything to add?" he asks, rounding on me, frustrated.
"Uh, maybe."
"Want to come and lend a hand?"
"I'd love to help but this looks like a work site, and I don't have enclosed footwear."
I stretch a bare leg out and wiggle my toes at him, grinning, adding to his frustration. I can't help myself; it's payback from being told that the field is now my toilet, like I'm a farmyard animal. He stands there, hand on hips, his chest rising and falling with the effort of his exertions.
"Do we need the bore?" I ask, getting up from my sitting place and padding barefoot over to him, "We got water, right?"
"Yeah, for drinking. I got that. But there's nothing for anything else. Washing, anything."
I sidle right up to him, looking up into his eyes.
"I don't mind being dirty," I murmur.
The heat, the sweat, the proximity is all conspiring to turn me on. I put a hand on his chest.
"I need to get this upright. You're not helping."
I have a quip ready to go about erections, but I stow it as I read his expression. It's something I haven't seen in him before. The cool, collected, in-control man who spirited me away from civilisation in a sack, who planned my abduction meticulously to avoid leaving any evidence behind, he's not so hot on the practical aspects. I look around and then give my opinion.
"Did you work out why it fell over in the first place?" I ask, pointing at the base of the tower, "It's blown over in the wind, yeah?"
"I guess."
"So, this wasn't anchored," I continue, walking over to the legs of the tower, "They rusted through, see?"
"Yeah."
Covalent's quiet now, conceding that he missed some basic details.
"The concrete foundations are still in the ground. We don't have any concrete to mix up do we?"
"No."
"So even if you get it to stand up again, it's just gonna topple when the next wind comes. It's done, it's just scrap now."
"We need water."
I crouch by the well head. There is a metal shaft sticking up out of the ground that used to link up to the rest of the shaft in the middle of the tower, turning when the windmill turned, drawing water out of the borehole. I point to this.
"If we can get this turning, I think we can get water up."
I look up at Covalent, seeing how he's taking my advice. I see that he's grinning at me. It's unsettling.
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I wriggle, adjusting the ropes that criss-cross my body, running between my breasts, wrapping around my waist. I lean forwards, feeling the strain on the back of my harness as I bear the load. I put one foot in front of the other, and there's a creaking sound from the apparatus next to me. I turn to look. It's working.
Once I'd pointed out the obvious, Covalent was quick to improvise and now I'm harnessed to a crossbeam that he's secured to the shaft, walking around in a circle like a beast of burden. I stop, huffing at him, but he's still got that goddamn smug grin from ear to ear.
"You have to admit, it's a novel solution," he says.
"In what way?"
"Swapping wind power for muscle power. Step it up, let's see if we can get it pumping."
He taps me on the backside and for a moment, I glare at him, seething.
"Hey, this was your genius idea."
"And I'm the one roped in, literally."
"It'll keep you out of trouble."