Auction Ch. 14

Something rawer, something purer. Something dangerously appealing.

Ethan held her tight. "I understand how the accolades drive you, how all the attentions you've been denied by others all these years are suddenly yours in such abundance. How my affections seem so meager besides the crowd calling out for you. How you crave the touch of other men, how you think that having all those pretty boys you've never had will somehow satisfy you."

There it was, the ugly truth of it.

She marveled at how well he understood her: all those years of being a bookworm, going unnoticed in frumpy sundresses and unkempt curls, pining after handsome men who didn't know she even existed. And now she was admired by men and envied and scorned by women.

For years she'd been a shadow in the social scene, a cute friend at best, pushed to the side as her more attractive friends had been eagerly pursued by the very same men she'd desired. But now ... now she was the center stage, the object of those affections.

An utterly sexual object, something that begged to be consumed, like a rare confection at a dinner party.

"But you must choose," he continued, running his hands through her curls, as he nibbled on her neck, "I brought you into my home, and made you into this. But I did it knowing that your inner hunger might one day consume you."

Her body burned from his kisses, and her pussy was suddenly very wet again. She was ready to be taken by him ...by anyone ... she couldn't shake Starke from her mind ... she was too consumed by her fugue.

"I took that risk because I want you for myself."

She kissed him on the lips again, her eyes bright with tears to hear his affections so plainly stated, "Master, I ..."

He stilled her with a hungry kiss, pulling her tight against him. Her chain caught on the buttons of his shirt, sending jolts of pleasure pain through her tortured nipples, making her whimper with lust.

After a long moment he released her a little, "I won't suffer you to be both. Either you will leave here with me tonight and become my concubine in earnest, truly dedicating yourself to me, or I will make arrangements to give you the life you need, to make you one of these masterless slutslaves, bound to nothing by your own hunger."

Jen stiffened in his arms to hear it stated so plainly. She glanced over at Persephone, saw that the kneeling slave's face was coated with hot discharge, and noted the look of utter normalcy on the man's face as the brunette, now joined by her sister slave, cleaned his shaft with her tongue. The two women lapped hungrily at the semen, cleaning the spent penis with skill she envied, and then rose to their feet and resumed serving drinks.

She watched the man fix his pants and take a drink from one of their tray, and then stride off into the crowd, utterly oblivious to the talents of the two magnificent women before him. Persephone dabbed lightly at the discharge on her face, before reapplying lipstick. Then she too strode off, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

Jen considered this, seeing the objectification of the two women taken to an extreme. They were so far removed from even the status of a bound submissive that they lacked even a presence in the room. The man had used them as he would have used a hand towel, and thought nothing of it at all. And yet, they both looked satisfied with that. It was as if they took power from their anonymity.

Was that the life she wanted? Was there no middle path between the two? One that would leave her free to pursue her ever increasing sexual appetite and yet find the fulfillment that only a dedicated partner could bring?

She asked Ethan, and was rewarded with a sad smile. "No, I don't think there can be a middle path. None that I've seen. Your need to please is at odds with your need for external validation – you cannot be a concubine like you want if you only take joy in the attentions of others. And you know this."

"What then?" she asked, breathless with the realization of her predicament.

Ethan ran his hands lightly over her ass, cupping her cheeks, warming the stinging welts he'd put there. "If you were a capable of it, I'd advise you to try becoming a dominant. But you're not. You're a submissive. More importantly, you're my submissive. So for the remainder of your contract, you really have no choice. What happens after that, however, is much harder to answer."

He stepped back, the leash in his hand once more.

"You crave the attention of others because they make you feel desirable."

Ethan picked up a martini from a passing tray – the brunette slave Daphne, she noted with something akin to jealousy – and took a sip. "And yet you forget that my desire for you has always been constant. That you think so little of that does me a great disservice."

He took another long sip, watching her. Jen's mind reeled from what he'd just said.

He was right.

Ethan had always had faith in her charms.

When she'd thought she was unworthy, his lust for her had been constant.

He'd taken her into his house, made her into something beautiful, into the archetype she'd wanted to be: The ingénue, the whore, the concubine.

And she'd forgotten that in the heady excesses of the celebrations before the wedding.

Had she betrayed that faith so quickly? And for such a cheap price?

He frowned again. "The thing is, I've never told you that you wouldn't be with other men. That I wouldn't indulge your appetites, which I've known of for quite some time. But you felt that you couldn't trust me to satisfy that, and so you've taken it on yourself to break that trust between us."

She swallowed hard. "I've taken you for granted, Master."

"Indeed you have," he said quietly, a wry, almost pained smile on his handsome face. Ethan snapped his fingers and Persephone appeared at his side, tray proffered that he might dispose of his drink. He placed the empty martini glass lightly on the tray, and reached out to caress the whore's nipple, and smiled at the hungry shiver his touch produced.

Jen could have died on the spot from the agony of that smile.

Ethan looked back at her. "I guess Kami was right about you after all."

And then he spun on his heel and led her away into the crowd.

She could only follow, hot tears in her eyes.