Her Father, My Master: Enthralled (15 page)

“Aw man, a heated pool,” Jess
commented, and I mentally slapped myself.  Of course.  “I wish we could get one
of these!”

“No kidding,” Sophie said.  “Want
to go for a swim?” she asked me with a grin.

While I had no problem stripping as
many clothes as possible, I didn't think it would be wise, so I declined.

Jess snickered.  “Chicken.”

“Why don't you go for a swim, since
you're so obsessed with it?” I asked, scowling slightly.

“Oh, take a chill pill.”

We meandered through the party
crowds for a while longer, and I could feel my head begin to buzz pleasantly. 
The beer was finally beginning to affect me.  While I used to love this
sensation, now it only made me feel nervous, and uncomfortable.  Drinking
alcohol mean losing control, and I didn't want to lose control.

But, it was also helping me open
up, and socialize more.  It was helping me fit in.  It was helping me feel
normal.  I drank some more of my beer.

“Hey, how you doing?” someone
behind me asked, and I turned around.  The ground spun, and the stars swirled
in my eyes.

“Did you really just say that?”  I
eyed the guy who apparently had spoken.  He was young, my age, with tousled
brown hair and sparkling hazel eyes.  He also appeared to be quite drunk.

He laughed.  “Okay, you're not
drunk enough for that yet.”

“Apparently not,” I said dryly, and
finished my cup.  I was feeling better by the moment.

“Let me get you another drink. 
You're drinking beer?”

“No, it's okay.  I'll get it
myself.”

“You don't trust me?” he asked as
he gave me goo-goo eyes.

“Frankly, no.  I just met you.”

He laughed.  “Clever girl.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes before
turning back to the kitchen.  One more beer wouldn't hurt.

“Let me go with you.  I know where
the good stuff is.”

“The good stuff?” I asked as we
began to walk across the lawn and around the pool, which was now packed with a
dozen rowdy drunks.

“Yeah,” he said as he winked at
me.  I began to feel my anxiety rise.  More alcohol was something I definitely
needed.  “The hard stuff.  None of that watered down shit.”

“Oh.”  I wasn't sure what to say to
that.  I wasn't even sure that I should drink anything more than beer.

As we squeezed into the kitchen, I
suddenly realized that I'd lost both Jess and Sophie.  That only escalated my
fear, and my eyes darted around, looking for them.  They must still be outside.

“What's your name, anyways?” the
strange man asked me as we bypassed keg completely, making for another room in
the house.

“Krystal,” I said absently.

“Good to meet you Krystal.  I'm
Craig.”

That brought me back to reality.  I
stared at him, trying to take in the coincidence.  “Really?”

“Yeah,” Craig replied.  “Why, is
there something special about the name?”

“No, I just... I know someone else
named Craig,” I finished lamely.

He laughed.  “Well, it's a pretty
common name.  Here,” he said as he thrust a bottle of vodka in my hands.  I
looked at the label.  It was probably bottom of the shelf stuff, little better
than paint thinner, but I didn't care.  I poured myself a shot into the Solo
cup, and down it.

Bad idea.  I choked and coughed on
the intense liquid, and Craig laughed even harder.  “Take it easy, Krystal!  I
don't want to kill you!”

I finally recovered from my
coughing fit, and stood upright again.  The room spun.  One more drink wouldn't
hurt.  “I'm fine,” I brushed him off, and poured myself another shot.

“You're taking that kind of fast.”

“I'm fine, really,” I said, but I
wasn't.  My anxiety was rising.  There were too many people in the room, it was
too loud, and Craig was being entirely too familiar with me.  He was touching
my side.  I didn't know what to say or do, so I knocked back another drink.

I didn't cough this time, but I
stumbled backwards, hitting the sideboard that held more alcohol, and nearly
falling over.

“Whoa, I think you've had enough,”
Craig said, grabbing my arm.  “Let's get you upstairs, and find a bed for you
to lie down on.”

Every alarm bell was going off now,
but I mechanically followed him.  I was having so much trouble concentrating
that I could barely even walk straight.  He pulled me around a corner, and up
some stairs.  The lights were bright, far too bright.  Too many people.  I was feel
woozy and nauseous.  I just wanted to go home and sleep.

Craig was pulling me into a
bedroom, and it was blessedly dark and quiet.  I let him pull me onto the bed. 
He hand brushed down my body, and I tensed up.

“No,” I said.

“Come on, don't be a baby,” he
murmured, and brought his hand back up along my side.  I didn't want to be
here.  This was nothing like the play with my master.  I wasn't in control.  I
couldn't do anything.

“Gatling,” I gasped reflexively,
and Craig stared at me, perplexed by the random word.

“What?”

“No, stop,” I said.

“Come on,” he wheedled, letting his
fingers brush over my breast.  I screamed on the inside, but my body just
wouldn't respond.  “What's this?” he asked when he found my collar, on my neck.

That was enough, remembering that I
belonged to my master.  I had to keep myself, for him.  For Mr. Hendricks.

“No means no!”  I lurched myself
upright with a Herculean effort, and stumbled out of the room.

Thankfully, Craig didn't follow me,
or try to stop me.  I stumbled around the party, searching for Jess or Sophie,
and I finally tracked them down outside.

“We have to go,” I said.  I felt
crazed.  My body was on fire, and not in a good way.  I felt like a desperate,
trapped animal.  I had to go.  I had to get out of here.

“It's only been a couple of hours
though!” Jess whined, but Sophie, sensing my panic, put a hand on her arm.

“No, Krys is right, we have to go.”

“Thank you,” I whispered inaudibly,
and the three of us made for Jess' car.  I didn't even know if Jess was sober
enough to drive and I didn't care.  I just had to get out of here.

This world was not my world.

We somehow made it home without
incident.  I was in the back seat of the car, lying prone, trying to keep the
world in focus around me, and also trying to keep from vomiting.  Jess seemed
completely unaware of my discomfort, but Sophie kept throwing worried glances
back in my direction.  Had I been drugged, I couldn't help but wonder.  Was
there something in the vodka, or had I simply had too much to drink?  I didn't
know.

We reached my home first, and the
two girls pulled me out of the car and helped me into the house.  It was
blessedly quiet, inside.  My parents didn't think I was going to be home for
another two hours, and they'd gone to bed.  We were quiet as possible as well –
we didn't want to raise the ire of  my mom.

They led me up the stairs, and
Sophie deposited me in my bed.  “Are you all right?” she asked.

I nodded, though it couldn't be
further from the truth.  I wasn't all right.  My world was a mess, turned
upside down and shaken all over the place.  I had to get out of here.  I had to
get back to my master.

But I didn't say anything, and they
left me.

And I plummeted into sleep like a
rock.

*****

I woke up in a flash.  The room was
dark, my mouth was dry, and I had a pounding headache.  I'd just been dreaming
about drinking glass after glass of water, as Mr. Hendricks poured more over my
naked body.

I looked down at myself, and
noticed I was clothed.  And I wasn't in my room in my master's house.  I was at
home.  This was wrong.

Not knowing exactly what I should
be doing, I shakily swung my legs over the bed and stood, nearly falling over
with the first attempt to do so.  I plunked back down on the bed, and tried
again.

I took a couple of wobbly steps,
still feeling the effects of the alcohol, though not nearly as much as before. 
Mostly, I was a little woozy, and my head currently felt like it was being
squeezed in a vise.  I didn't like this.  My body would barely obey me.

I had to get to my master.

I glanced over at my alarm clock. 
It read two in the morning.  I wanted nothing more than to go to his house, and
be with him, and I wasn't thinking clearly, so I did so.  I stumbled down the
stairs and out the door, barefoot and still in my rumpled party clothes, and
made for my sedan.

I was practically on autopilot as I
drove to his house.  I wasn't thinking.  But my brain woke me up sharply when I
saw Maddie's car in the driveway.

Maddie.

“Shit,” I cursed quietly as I
pulled over down the street.  What could I do?  I couldn't leave him.  I needed
him.  But Maddie was there, and Maddie couldn't know about our strange
relationship.  She just couldn't.  My master forbade it.

I did the only thing that I could
think to do.  I crawled into my backseat, wrapped myself in an old blanket back
there, and fell asleep again.

*****

I awoke, shivering with cold, to a
knock on the car window.  I groggily cracked an eye open, feeling even more
confused and discombobulated than I had when I woke up in the middle of the
night.  How did I get here?  Why was I in the back seat of my car?

I lifted my head in the direction
of the knocking, and my blood froze in my veins.  It was my master.  I stared. 
He knocked again.

Fumbling, I sat up and unlocked the
door, and he pulled it open.  “What are you doing here?” he growled, and I
shrank back.  I was more embarrassed than anything – I was mortified by my lack
of self-control.  How quickly I'd come running back to my master when I needed
some.  It was utterly clear to me at that point that I still had so much to
learn.  I still needed to be taught.

“I... I had a bad night,” I
admitted, and he glared at me.  But as I quickly explained everything to him –
the party, the drinking, the vodka and the college kid named Craig, I saw his
features soften from anger into sympathy.  I could only hope that he understood
what I was going through, and didn't hate me for my stupid mistakes.

“Come on,” he said gruffly,
reaching in and pulling me out of the car.  “You can't stay here.”

“Yes, sir,” I said reflexively, and he guided me to the driver's seat.

“Are you good to drive?”

“I think so, sir.”

“Good.  Maddie's still asleep, so
no harm done.  But you can't do this again.  Not while Maddie's home.”  He
paused as he helped me into the car again.  “And no more drinking.  At all. 
You understand?”

“Yes, sir.”  I was glad of that
command.  I never wanted to drink again.

Chapter
12

Spring Break drew to a quiet
close.  Jess urged me to go to more parties but I declined.  I just couldn't do
it, not after that traumatic experience.  I didn't want to be within a hundred
feet of a bottle of vodka ever again, and college boys scared me.  I knew that
was a ridiculous fear to have, but it was there, all the same.  They were wild
and untamed, aggressive and selfish.  They were nothing like Mr. Hendricks. 
They were nothing like my master.

I didn't like them.

In spite of all the awkwardness of
some of the past few weeks, I found myself craving Mr. Hendricks again.  I
needed his warmth, his protection, his control.  I needed him to tell me what
to do.  I was beside myself for the remainder of the break.  I didn't do
anything, and I hated it.

I still felt nervous and anxious as
I returned to his house, though.  What I had done the night of that party was
not good.  I already knew that.  He would have some punishment in line for me,
and I knew, I just knew that this time, it would not be a pleasurable one.  I
would be admonished, and not spanked.  I would get a stern lecture, not rough
sex.

God, I missed sex with him.  It had
been weeks since we last engaged in any sort of play.  I couldn't stand it.

I found myself hoping, as I drove
back to his house, that he would pull out the leather collar again.  That he
would beat me bloody, and force me.  That he would tell me exactly what to do,
when, and where.

Maddie's car was gone when I pulled
into his driveway, and then his garage.  Good.  I found myself beginning to
hate her again.  Though it happened so long ago, more than a year now, she
stole my boyfriend.  And now she was keeping me from my master.  She was the
only reason I was going home, after all, for all these damned vacations.

It was strange how, just a week
ago, I was eager to take a break from all of this.  Now I wanted nothing more
than to be with him again.

I turned my car off, and pulled my
bag out of the back seat.  He wasn't waiting for me at the door this time.  I
began to feel nervous, once again.

Hesitantly, I stepped up the stairs
to the garage door, and opened it.  The inside of the house was dark, and
totally silent.  There was no sign of my master.  Worried, I glanced back in
the garage, confirming that his car was there.  He had to be around somewhere. 
Was this another test?

I knew what he would want me to do,
before he even commanded it.  As soon as I stepped over the threshold of the
door, I began to undress, quickly slipping out of all my clothing, leaving my
skin bare and naked against the elements.  It was cool in the house, and I
could already feel gooseflesh rising on my arms.  It was a lot colder in here
than I was used to.

I gathered up my clothes, my bag,
and my laptop, and headed for my room.  I hoped I would find him there, but I
didn't.  The house remained stubbornly quiet and empty.

What should I do?  I didn't know. 
After I put everything away, I stepped out of my room again, looking for my
master.

I ended up finding him in his
study, reading a book, seemingly ignoring me.  Unsure of what to do, I merely
stood there, silent, waiting for him to give me a command, any command.