“But why not?” I demanded, more than startled by his refusal. “How can it possibly matter to you if I bathe?”
“It doesn’t matter to me,” he answered, grinning down at me where I sat on the bed. “What does matter is that you have to learn how to listen to me, and I think this is a good place to start teaching you the lesson. Eventually you won’t be doing anything without my permission, but that’s a point you’ll have to work up to.”
“And if I decide to take a bath anyway?” I asked, pushed into putting the question by his insufferable attitude. “What will you do if I simply ignore you and act as I please? Hurt me? Send me back to be worked over by those low-grade sadists? What if I don’t care what you do?”
“Oh, but you do care,” he contradicted, still grinning as he brought his big, naked body back to the bed. I’d been trying to tell him there was only so much I was willing to take even with escape as an objective, but the message didn’t seem to be getting through to him. “You won’t care if I hurt you or let others do it, but you do and will care if I decide on something else. Would you like to spend the morning—and maybe the afternoon as well-as hot as you were just a few minutes ago? With no one to kiss you and make it all better? Under those circumstances, which do you think would be worse: being tied up and left here to squirm at an empty apartment, or be taken with me so my friends can see you? Friends who might even help the squirming along a little. Would you like to make your decision now, so I can get started with it?”
He put one knee on the bed and leaned forward onto his palms, as though about to come back to where I sat. I tried telling myself he would never really do that to me, humiliating me in front of everyone, but that was a lie that didn’t even need thinking about. In order to avoid suspicion he was prepared to put me through hell, and for some reason I wasn’t surprised. Just looking at him seemed to tell me he would always do exactly what he had to, whether or not I agreed, even if I were hurt. He was really a very handsome man, blond, blue-eyed, broad-shouldered and strongly made, but the one most important thing in his life wasn’t me.
“It looks like you win again,” I said, moving my eyes to the very big gold and white bed I sat on. “Another challenge successfully met for you to take pride in.”
“And don’t you forget it,” he said, but the satisfaction I’d been expecting in his voice didn’t surface, and the previous amusement he’d shown had faded. “No one will ever have any doubt as to which of us is boss. Now get belly down facing the door, and keep watching for me to get back. I also want you to learn to be eager to see me.”
I didn’t hesitate long before stretching out the way he’d told me to do, but I was expecting some sort of comment about how he’d have to teach me to move faster. When it didn’t come I glanced up to where he was standing, but didn’t understand the expression on his face. There was more disturbance in his frown than impatience, more upset in his eyes than amusement. Then what I’d thought I’d seen was gone, and he moved forward to pat me on the head.
“That’s a good girl,” he said, as though talking to a pet. “You wait right there, and when I get back we’ll feed you.”
After praising his little animal he strolled out of the room, leaving me an empty doorway to watch breathlessly until he returned. I wondered in passing if I could disobey him by watching breathfully instead, shook my head at the ridiculousness of it all, then spent some time glancing around the room. I hadn’t seen much of it when I’d been dragged into it the night before, but my impression that any number of athletic games could have been played in it without the players feeling crowded wasn’t far from from the mark. It was only a little smaller than the visitors’ room, and someone must have decided to bring a bit of relief to the overall color scheme of the apartment. Instead of being all gold it was gold and white, but use of the second color had been minimal. The giant octagonal bed I lay on had some of the white, specifically in its wooden headboard and thick but nearly weightless cover. The sheets and pillowcases were a gleaming gold, though, and I’d been surprised to find they weren’t silk. Couches and chairs and lounges and tables were scattered neatly all through the rest of the room, and one wall, the one currently to my left, was all mirrors. If it hadn’t been part of an apartment that had to be earned, it would definitely have been too much.
Kel-Ten took his time at showering, and when he strolled back in he grinned in my direction as he made his way toward the mirrored wall. His grin said he liked the idea that I was right where he’d left me, to be taken advantage of or ignored as he saw fit. Personally I hated the idea, but with nothing else to do I’d been forced into thinking about what he’d said and was finally seeing the point. He was trying to show those watching how much fun he was getting out of keeping me, establishing a reason for continuing our association. I had the feeling I was supposed to keep on grumbling and complaining before obeying, but wasn’t to try not obeying. He was going to do everything he could to get me mad, and then would force me to listen to him. An unending time of fun and pleasure, but not for the little animal chosen to amuse him. He was boss so he was the one who had to be pleased and the little animal didn’t matter at all.
My happy owner slid one section of the mirror wall aside and took out clothing for himself, the sort of very short pants and sleeveless shirt the men had been wearing the day before at lunch time in the dining room. He also chose a pair of tie-on athletic shoes, and it wasn’t long before he was dressed. I couldn’t understand how he wasn’t sick to death of the color gold, now the color of everything he wore, but his glance into the mirror was pleased rather than nauseated. After confirming the perfection of his reflection he reached into the closet again, pulled something out before reclosing it, then turned and came toward me carrying what he’d taken out.
“You need something to wear, and this is what I’ve decided on,” he said as he neared the bed, then tossed me what he was holding. “I don’t have to dress you in anything, but I don’t care to leave anyone in doubt as to whose you are. Put it on and let me see how it looks.”
There wasn’t much to the thing he’d thrown to me but I sat up and pulled it on, getting to my knees to urge it as far down as it would go. It was no stunning shock to find that my new clothing was gold in color, and it didn’t take long to recognize the thing for what it was: a sleeveless shirt like the one he wore, only one that had been torn at the front of its rounded neck. It was made of that new material that has an unbelievable amount of stretch in it, so that a single size will fit a very wide range of forms. Its twin fit Kel-Ten tightly but apparently not uncomfortably, which meant I couldn’t quite believe how tight it was on me. It also stretched down to the middle of my thighs, but that was not what I considered a positive point. Positive would have been if it came down, at the very least, to my knees.
“Don’t tell me,” I said, looking up at him after inspecting myself in that-shirt. “You’ve decided you don’t like the smock I was given to wear yesterday morning, but not because it matters. Only because this is the way you want to do things. If I complain, I get to wear nothing at all.”
“Certainly not,” he disagreed with a grin, getting a good deal of enjoyment out of looking me over. “If you complain you get to wear a gold neck ribbon and bow, which certainly can’t be called nothing. Come over here so I can make that look a little better.”
If I’d had any choice at all I would have stayed right where I was, but choice was something I’d given up in the name of escape. I crawled to the end of the bed and then got to my feet, and Kel-Ten came closer still wearing his grin. His hands reached out to raise my chin a little, and then he was pulling hard at the material, adding to the tear already in the top of the shirt. He kept ripping until the cleavage was almost to my navel, and then he let go and stepped back again.