Mara bit back a sigh. “No, sir.”
“You will stay as you are, on the ground where you belong. You haven’t earned the right to sit on the furniture. You are zero; you are nothing. You will kneel up and place your hands behind your back. I will feed you when I am ready.”
At least she was going to eat. Her eyes focused on the plate of food, she leaned back on her haunches and then knelt up, back straight, hands behind her back. Alex sat on the other side of the small table in front of the second plate of food. He reached for the carafe that sat near his mug and poured a stream of steaming coffee into the cup. Without looking at her, he added cream from a small pitcher and lifted the mug to his lips to sip. Setting it down, he placed his napkin in his lap and picked up his fork.
Mara watched in impatient agony as he brought a large bite of eggs to his mouth. He chewed slowly and then selected a piece of bacon, folding the entire piece into his mouth.
Bastard, bastard, bastard, bastard. Feed me. Feed me. Feed me. Nearly fainting with hunger, Mara whimpered.
He shot her a glance. “Zero, mind yourself,” he snapped. “A proper submissive is patient. She waits to do her Master’s bidding. You don’t want to go back to the box, do you?”
The question had to be rhetorical. In any event, she didn’t reply, afraid if she opened her mouth, she would howl with rage. She wanted to close her eyes, to allow herself to drift to her peaceful place on the ocean, but she couldn’t look away as he buttered his biscuit and took a bite. She wanted to leap up and shove him hard so his chair toppled backward, taking him with it. Instead she watched with rapt, canine attention, tears of frustration rolling down her cheeks as he ate bite after bite of scrambled eggs, crispy bacon and flaky biscuit dripping with butter, washing it down with sips of hot, fragrant coffee and big gulps of orange juice.
Finally his plate was empty. Wiping his mouth with his napkin, he turned to regard her. “Would you like a little breakfast, zero?”
Would you like me to smash your skull in, fuckface?
No, she warned herself sternly. Don’t think angry thoughts. They’ll show on your face and he’ll punish you. She focused instead on the promised food. A fresh gush of anticipatory saliva pooled in her mouth. “Yes, please, sir.”
Pushing back his chair, Alex stood and moved to the second chair. He sat and angled his body toward Mara, who waited like a dog on the ground beside him. He scooped a small mound of eggs onto a fork and held it to her mouth. Mara opened, eager as a baby bird as he placed the food on her tongue.
The eggs were cold but she didn’t care. They tasted like a burst of buttery heaven. He held out half a piece of bacon, which crunched with salty perfection against her teeth. The biscuit was as flaky and delicious as it looked. The orange juice was fresh-squeezed and nothing had ever tasted sweeter to her. He allowed her to eat everything on the plate, along with the full glass of juice and sips of hot, delicious coffee.
She could have eaten a second helping of everything, but Alex wasn’t offering. Still, she was grateful for what he’d given her, and also aware if she ate more she would end up feeling sick.
Alex was watching her, his face curving downward in a frown. “You’ve been bathed and fed. You will sleep again soon. But first, zero, we need to talk about what you did, and what specific corrective actions will be taken. The first step to atonement is to admit your wrongdoing. I want you to tell me what you did wrong.”
I believed that bitch, Hillary Wallace, that’s what I did wrong.
Aloud, Mara forced herself to say, “I, I told the guest I wasn’t here voluntarily.”
“More detail. What precisely did you say?”
Mara swallowed hard, trying to recall her exact words. “Um, that I had been kidnapped. That I was here against my will and they—you—would kill me if I tried to escape.” The food she’d just enjoyed lay like a lump of lead in her belly and fear sweat pricked under her arms.
Alex shook his head slowly. “But it’s not true, is it, zero?”
Mara looked at him in confusion. “No, I swear. That’s what I said. I—”
“No,” Alex interrupted. “It’s not true that you’re here involuntarily. You want to be here. You might have felt otherwise at first, but now you understand this is your place, your fate. You exist to serve, to suffer, to please and to obey. You are a cunt. You are a piece of ass. You are property.”