Page 36 of Lay It Bare

“You’re shattering.” Sevastyan’s eyes rested fully on Lisa. “I could tell you it was your body being sick, your hormones disrupted from lack of nutrition, depression, separation anxiety from your master . . . But none of it would be true. Whatever happened in Morocco pushed you here. Everything before Morocco already had you on this path. You were never meant to be a slave.”

“If I’m not a slave, I have no place.”

Sevastyan picked up a second breadstick. His fist closed around it, crushing the end. He tore it in half, then half again. “Like slaves, some masters are designated by someone else. Some claim it for themselves until others agree. Some wait quietly and rip the positions out of the hands of fate.”

Rei’s heart pounded. Sevastyan was trying. He was offering. But Lisa couldn’t hear the meaning beneath Sevastyan’s words.

Sevastyan dropped torn bits of bread to the table top and flicked away the crumbs. “From now on, you—not Rei—are responsible for our living space. Cleaning it. Stocking it. Making sure there is food on hand, medical supplies, clean clothes. You can seek preferences and instruction from Rei, but it will be yours to handle. I’ll set you a passcode to the door in the morning and put a bankcard aside for you to shop with.”

Lisa blinked slowly.

Sevastyan picked up a third bread stick. He tore it open and started to smear it with butter.

“And if I don’t?” Lisa whispered.

“Then I’ll lock Rei in a closet while I’m gone, to keep him safe, until I find you a kennel.”

Lisa swallowed. “What if you don’t like what I spend money on?”

“Then I’ll tell you. With words. Eat. You’re not strong enough to skip meals, not with the work you’ll be doing tomorrow cleaning this place.”

“And when I fuck up? What will you do then?”

Sevastyan raised his eyes slowly. “I’ll whip you. Do you need that now?”

Lisa blinked, slowly. Then nodded, once.

Rei dropped his face, hiding his eyes. It was always worse as a slave, when you didn’t know the rules, when you didn’t know if you could bear up under whatever punishment was used. Lisa was fucking brave. He was deciding whether or not to stay. Whether or not he could survive. Rei had never been that brave. He’d just put his head down and suffered, watching what happened to others, and trying his heart out to never discover what “worse” was.

Sevastyan put his hand on Rei’s shoulder, squeezing gently, then went into the bedroom and came back with a leather flogger, short rubber crop, rope, and a chain. Lisa rose to his feet, his shaking settled, except for his hands.

Sevastyan put the flogger and the crop down. He attached the chain to a hook in the ceiling and pulled on it. Rope in one hand, he turned to Lisa. “Shirt off.”

Lisa’s fingers went to his chest. He was wearing one of Sevastyan’s collared shirts, only three buttons done in the middle. He dropped the shirt on one of the overturned chairs, the same one where Sevastyan’s gun still lay.

Sevastyan held out his hand. Lisa took the two steps required to meet him. He laid one wrist in Sevastyan’s open palm. Sevastyan wrapped a single column tie around Lisa’s wrist and tested the give. “Pull as much as you like,” he said. “This tie won’t close down.” He held his hand out for Lisa’s other wrist.

Lisa gave it. Sevastyan repeated the tie. He finished by bringing Lisa’s wrists together and lifting them above the slave’s head. With a clip, he latched Lisa’s wrists to the chain.

“Use the chain to ground yourself. Pull as much as you need. That anchor won’t move.”

Lisa nodded. He was already drawing inward, away from Sevastyan, the room, his own body, bracing to just survive what was coming.

Rei dug his fists into his own thighs. Sevastyan wouldn’t let him do that. Did Sevastyan understand the meaning of what he was about to do?

Sevastyan tightened the chain, bringing Lisa’s heels just off the floor. Rei swallowed, feeling the stretch of Lisa’s body inside his own. He knew this sensation. Under Sevastyan’s hands, it wasn’t one that scared him anymore. Even when Sevastyan tested his limits to find what Rei could withstand during a public demonstration, he knew Sevastyan would carry him through, never leave him alone, never break him without cause.

Lisa had none of that trust to carry him through. He thought he was in the hands of another Merchari, stretched out, bare, defenseless.

Hot tears burned in Rei’s eyes.

Sevastyan dragged his hands over Lisa’s body. His ribs showed from just below his collar bone to the very last line above his waist. Sevastyan brushed his fingers over Lisa’s belly, coming back and stroking firmly, checking for swelling or blockages. He pushed the sweatpants down Lisa’s legs, revealing fresh lengths of bare skin, nearly hairless from laser treatments years before, like Rei. For high end slaves, it was almost standard. Safer than trusting them with a razor.

Lisa closed his eyes, holding himself still as Sevastyan checked his thighs, calves, and feet. Sevastyan circled, stroking his back. Now and then he frowned. Finding safe places to hit Lisa was going to challenge his master. Lisa was still too thin. Strike on bone and it would just be pain and possibly serious injury. Hit too many times in the same few places where Lisa still maintained enough muscle and the burn would build too fast.

Sevastyan straightened up and reached for the flogger, leaving the rubber crop where he’d placed it.

Rei flinched as the first flicks of leather fell against Lisa’s back. This was between Sevastyan and Lisa. Had to be between Sevastyan and Lisa. Rei’s role was to sit and watch in silence. He pressed the knuckles of his fists into his thighs. He could do silent. He could do still. If Sevastyan and Lisa couldn’t build trust, there was no way forward. Among his limited options, this was the one Lisa had chosen.