Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 61982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 310(@200wpm)___ 248(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
“Evie!” Arkon shouts out to me.
“Uh-huh?”
“We’re going to have a ladder up to you soon. Don’t climb down it. Let me come up to you, okay?”
“I can climb down a ladder, Arkon.”
“I didn’t ask if you could, I told you not to!”
I really don’t know why I am provoking him. Maybe some part of me wants to see what happens when he reaches the limits of his patience and just straight up ravages me.
I look down at him, smirking. I’m lying on my stomach now, actually quite comfortable. I trust the Fematrix not to hurt me the same way I trust my own foot to suddenly not kick me. We are parts of one another.
“You can’t control me now,” I say. “I have the world’s biggest robot friend. You’re nothing compared to her.”
A ladder is extended up to me, and, to my surprise, the Fematrix lowers her massive hand enough that getting onto the ladder isn’t as bad as it could be. She wants to keep me safe. I think she has realized that Arkon is not a threat. He’s just a stern pain in the ass.
“Stay there!” Arkon calls. “I’m coming up to you.”
But I already started climbing down, so I just keep doing that. I know I’m testing him, and I really don’t know why, because I also know he really means what he is saying. He is going to absolutely whip my ass for not behaving, and it’s almost like I want it.
He comes up the ladder fast, grabs me with his two topmost arms and pulls me securely against his body. I snuggle up to him in spite of my rebellious words. It feels good to be held.
“Why is nothing simple with you, hmm?” He murmurs the question in my ear as we reach the ground. “Why can’t you listen to one single instruction?” He gives my ass a spank with a spare hand, making me yelp.
“That is nothing compared to what you are about to get,” he promises me in deep tones.
Quite a crowd has gathered, because the Fematrix is fascinating and not usually anywhere near this available. She is still looming over the whole compound, looking incredibly beautiful and astonishing.
She withdraws slowly when she is assured I am safe, retreating back into space with all the gentle demeanor of a setting moon sliding below the horizon of the asteroid.
I’m on my own again. Until the next time I need her.
“I am taking you home,” he says. “And you are going to be good for me, aren’t you?”
“Probably not,” I say, full of sass I can’t seem to contain.
“Oh, you will be,” he says. “I intend to make you.”
He looks around at the others. “Back to work, please. We’ll need to repair that hole.”
* * *
I should be afraid of what is about to come next, but I am riding so many simultaneous highs I can’t come to terms with any of them. The memory of flying through space inside the Fematrix, then waking up in my body, then all of the intensity of Arkon’s desire and possession, and her rescue and now I am being carried off to be very thoroughly punished and I can’t wait because pain and pleasure have long ago become almost the same thing to me.
He takes me home, stopping in his alien lounge where he sits down at the nearest chair, after walking about for a bit, gathering implements and such in his auxiliary hands. I try not to look at what he’s doing, burying my head in his neck. He holds and cradles me at the same time, comforting me even as he prepares to punish me.
“You know what I’m about to do, don’t you,” he growls softly. “You know that you’re about to find out what the consequences of all that were…”
“And I was only just finding out what the consequences of the previous thing were, when I got my head cut off by accident,” I quip.
He sighs and sits down, settling me in his lap and putting two fingers on my chin to turn my face toward him.
“I love you,” he says, catching me completely off guard with that declaration. “You have come to mean more to me than anything before you. My life has meaning now that I did not realize it could have because of you. I need you to understand that, regardless of how you feel, if you spend the rest of your life with me in rebellion, you will be spending the rest of your life with me.”
His words are firm, serious, and entirely committed. He means what he is saying. I am his. He has taken me. There is no part of me he will not claim and that means there is no part of me he will not punish.
I open my mouth to speak, but find myself closing it again. I could declare my love now, but it would feel… I don’t know. I have taken up a very contrary position and turning about now and being soft feels like it would undermine all my very hard work put into being wildly obnoxious in the face of existential trauma.