His lips are close to my ear. “Don’t run from me, little human. Everything you need is right here.”
“Leave me alone,” I whimper.
I brace myself for something rough and demanding, for him to live up to his reputation and shove himself inside me. But he doesn’t. He keeps me still and his other hand rubs my ass, both cheeks, one to the other. It’s a caress and an invitation to intimacy. He’s not forcing himself on me, though his grip tells me that he could.
“Do you truly want to be alone?”
There’s so much depth to that question. No. I don't want to be alone. But I’d rather be alone than with the wrong person, or in this case, massive, scaled alien with an honor complex.
“Yes.”
His hands leave my body. I am surprised he has respected my wishes, but it is too late to think that such a show of consent matters now after all he has subjected me to. He is not a good guy. He is a villain through and through.
“You must be hungry,” he says courteously.
“Yes. I am.”
“Then come with me.”
He steps out of the bath, and I am treated to the sight of his naked body again, his cock still throbbing erect, and as he turns away from me, I see his muscular glutes and thighs besides. There is no part of him not built for mating and war.
He holds a towel out for me. As I clamber out of the water, he wraps it about me. It feels cozy to be enveloped in this soft towel, and even better when he drapes a robe of similar material over my shoulders. I draw the edges closer around me, feeling clothed, though in truth I am anything but.
Sithren leads me back to the jeweled bedroom with all its rich fabrics and furnishings. There is now a tray next to the bed, and on that tray are dozens of plates all laden with the finest delicacies of the Dinavri home world. Meats, sliced; cheeses, wedged; fruits, portioned. My stomach growls at the sight of them all. I recognize very little of any of the specific foods there, but they have a certain rich scent that appeals very much to my appetite.
He invites me to sit next to the tray and bides me eat. I do not need to be encouraged. I need calories in case food should become scarce in the future.
I eat until I am almost sated, and then I speak.
“I know what you’re doing.”
“Feeding you?”
“No. Breaking me. You’re taking care of my needs, making me reliant on you for everything. I need you to bathe. I need you to eat. I need you to move. I cannot leave your house without the risk of being torn apart by your vicious guards and allies.”
“Good,” he says, his teeth flashing sharp as he grins. “Then you understand. It won’t change anything, you know. Whether you understand it or not, it will be effective. I am your world now. Nothing will happen to you that is not approved by me.”
“I’ve been imprisoned many times before. I know how to resist.”
“It is easy to resist prison. Cells are unpleasant places which breed resistance through indignities and desperation. I’m going to do something to you that you will find absolutely impossible to resist.”
“Oh. What’s that?”
“I’m going to make you comfortable,” he smiles. “I’m going to make the world you left behind seem like a brutal, cruel existence compared to the cosseting and pampering you receive here. You will want for nothing. I will spoil you to the very limits of your capacity, and then I will mate you.”
Cosseting? Pampering? I have to say, that does not sound bad to me, even if it is all part of a ploy.
“So first you humiliate me to the point I can barely stand, then you shower me with kindness. These are the tactics of a monster, Sithren.”
“Oh, I know. Pleasure mixed with pain is so much more powerful than either by itself.”
He’s absolutely unashamed, and I know if I were more innocent, or just more desperate for comfort, I would sink into this all gratefully. As it is I have not refused it, and so I have allowed myself to be exposed to this influence. It will work on me whether I want it to or not. That’s what he’s counting on, that instinct will override sense. It quite often does. But I have spent the last decade of my life at least learning to quell my instincts. I am disciplined in ways he cannot imagine. And I will not give in. I will hold onto my impulse for escape no matter what. Eventually, he will consider me tame, and then I will be gone.
I take another piece of meat for the protein content and I allow myself a smile. I feel better now. Stronger. Bathed and fed, no longer scrambling to make sense of what is happening, I feel myself sliding back into my niche of spydom. But this time, I’m not operating for anybody besides myself.