“I still don’t see what could have disturbed him so deeply,” Len said, vexed and not bothering to hide it. “He was doing so well with her. Why did he stop?”
“Maybe she didn’t tell us everything,” Garth suggested, stroking my thigh in an absentminded way. “Whatever was left out would have to be the reason.”
“She told us everything she knows,” Len disagreed, moving one finger down to touch the swell of my breast. “That whack you gave her did more than force her shield back open. It won’t last permanently, but right now she has us in Tammad’s class, and she doesn’t dare lie to him. If only she hadn’t closed her shield when she did.”
“Please, can I get up now?” I asked in a very small voice, appalled and nearly in shock over the way I was reacting to them. Sarcasm was my usual mode with these two Centran men I’d known so long, but somehow they’d managed to intimidate me. After the session I’d had with Tammad I shouldn’t have been surprised; he always intimidated me enough to last a good long while.
“I think you’d better take care of her,” Len said to Garth, withdrawing his hand and moving away a bit. “Tammad was specific about that, and I can see how badly she needs it. I’m not in the mood right now to do her much good.”
“Even I can see what’s bothering her,” Garth chuckled, squeezing the thigh he held. “Tammad got her all ready, then decided to go for a walk. Maybe he’s paying her back for doing the same thing to him with Gay.”
“She already paid for that,” Len laughed, reaching over to run the back of his hand down my cheek. “She must have screamed loud enough to deafen rocks when he switched her for it. You did a lot of standing up after that, if I recall correctly, Terry. ”
“Len, Garth, please let me go,” I begged, looking down at the carpeting in front of me as the tears ran down my cheeks. I couldn’t seem to find the nerve to look up at them, and I was afraid of what they would do.
“Terry, Tammad wants you taken care of,” Garth chided gently, his hand gone from my thigh. “Are you going to disobey Tammad and refuse to do as he wishes?”
I closed my eyes and shook my head vigorously, making sure they knew I wouldn’t disobey. The last thing I would do was disobey, but I was still frightened.
“Although you’ve done some pretty rotten things to us, I know you’re a good girl,” Garth said in a warm, approving voice, and I heard a stir, as though he were lying down next to me. “You’re going to obey Tammad, and you’re going to obey me. Open your eyes now, and come closer so that I can hold you. ”
I opened my eyes to see that he had indeed put himself on the carpeting next to me, among the cushions, but he was no longer wearing his haddin. I trembled as I inched closer to him, and the stream of tears from my eyes increased.
“Oh, now why are you crying, good girl?” he asked gently as he took me in his arms, smiling down at me. “Good girls shouldn’t cry when they’re being good.”
“I’m naked,” I sniffled, looking up at him only because his hand was under my chin. “I’m naked, and you’re looking at me, and I’m afraid of what you’re going to do.”
“Yes, you are naked,” Garth chuckled, deliberately looking at every part of me. “You’re beautifully naked, and if you were mine I would keep you this way most of the time. Would you like that?”
“No!” I wept, burying my face against his chest. “I’d hate it! I’d hate it!”
“But you’d still do it,” he said, running one hand over me very slowly. “You’d do it or you’d regret it. Tell me why you’d do it, Terry.”
“I’d do it to keep from regretting it,” I sobbed, feeling terrible all over. “Please don’t look at me.”
“Oh, but I enjoy looking at you,” he laughed, stopping the movement of his hand at my thighs. “I enjoy looking at you and so does Len, and so does every man around here. But what I enjoy more is touching you. You’re trying to keep me out, Terry, and you know what happens to bad girls. Relax your leg muscles. ”
“Please don’t do anything to me,” I begged, immediately obeying him. “Garth, please don’t—Oh! Ohhh!”
I suddenly felt as though I were on fire, shuddering and airless and dying. Garth held me to him with one arm as I choked and struggled, his laughter low but deeply amused.
“Are you sure you don’t want anything done to you, Terry?” he murmured, looking down at me. “Give me a kiss now, and think about the question.”
I quickly raised my lips to him, and his kiss cut off the sobs escaping me. The kiss was hard and insistent, almost ruthless, and it made me feel worse than I had before. I writhed against him, tortured and teased by his hand till I thought I would die, but I didn’t dare end the kiss until he was ready to end it. He tasted me deeply with his lips and tongue, over and over, and then finally, at long last, moved away again.
“Well, have you decided?” he asked, his light eyes dancing as he looked down at me. “Now, wait another minute before answering, and then tell me your decision.”
I writhed helplessly as I waited that extra minute, not wanting to speak but knowing I had no choice. Then, forcing the words, I choked, “I do want something done to me, Garth, but not by you! Not by you!”
“You want Tammad,” he said, still smiling pleasantly. “I know that, Terry, but Tammad asked me to take his place. Now I’d like you to ask me the same.”
“I—want you to—take Tammad’s place,” I whispered, saying the words not only because I had to. I was slowly but definitely beginning to feel a terrible need for Garth, one that would soon be beyond control.
“And so I will, Terry,” he laughed, kissing me lightly and quickly. “But first I want you to stand up and show Len and me your body, with nothing to hide our view. Go ahead, and wiggle a little.”
I scrambled to my feet with a sob, dying from embarrassment and need, but they had to see my body. I showed it to them, around and around three times, my arms up above my head and bent at the elbows, my cheeks wetter and wetter. Garth lay at his ease and grinned, but Len did nothing more than stare at me with a sheen of sweat on his forehead. At last Garth gestured me back to his side, put me flat on the floor, then began tasting me. I screamed so loud he finally stopped, separated my thighs with his hands, then plunged deep within me. I screamed again, at the presence of blessed relief-to-be, then immediately found myself overwhelmed. Len was in my mind, sharing it with Garth, taking everything there was as Garth took all my body had. It went on a very long time, draining every ounce of strength within me, and when Garth finally withdrew and moved away I curled into a ball on its way to being sound asleep. As I fell asleep I heard laughter, but I didn’t know what it was about nor cared.
3
“That miserable cretin!” I snarled, staring around the empty, jumbled room in a towering rage. “That insufferable sneak! That lowlife! I’ll kill him! I’ll kill them both!”
I hadn’t been awake very many minutes, but remembering what had happened before I fell asleep didn’t take many minutes, and I knew what had been done to me. Garth and Len had taken advantage of me, and when I thought about how servile I’d been, it made me sick! That little extra had been Len’s doing, his idea of a good joke with Garth playing along!
I stalked over to the windows and pushed a curtain aside, seeing the fading, late afternoon sunlight turning patchy with small clouds, wishing I had Len and Garth there to throw out into it. Len had gone far with his experimentation, but he seemed to have changed his mind about experimenting on himself. He must have gotten the idea when he saw how tired and weak I felt, obviously in no condition to defend myself from anything. It had to have started when they first began pushing me around physically; I’d still been groggy from what Tammad had done, and reviving my emotions toward the barbarian would have been simple. I remembered wondering why I felt so brow-beaten by them, but I shouldn’t have wondered. Len was encouraging the feeling without my even suspecting it! Once that receptivity was established, a touch of fear made the need for absolute obedience a shoo-in, all of it generously laced with humble submissiveness and heightened physical need. I crumpled the sheer, delicate curtain in my fist, fighting the urge to pull all the curtaining down and stomp on it. I’d get even with them, somehow, somewhere, I’d get even, damned if I wouldn’t!