The 30 Day Sub (11 page)

The gym was in the back room and it looked like a professional
place. There were multiple machines of each kind spread out over the large space.
Mirrors were completely surrounding her on all walls. At the loud music that
burst through the overhead speakers, she jumped.

“
Treadmill,
set it at four
with an incline of one. Twenty minutes. Go.”

Cate hadn’t run with the incline yet. Regardless,
she held her head up high as she started running at the steady speed. The
reflection in the mirror reminded her of when she was putting on her make-up
the night she and Torrance were planning on going to the club, and instead made
up and moved her back into his room. While the minutes ticked away, Cate let
herself get lost in his eyes.
His touch.
She could swear
she could even smell his cologne.

Before she knew it, the time on the treadmill was
done. Christopher was running full speed a few treadmills over. “Elliptical,
set the resistance where you can feel it. Thirty minutes.”

“Yes, Sir.”
Sweat was pouring from her already. Cate had never been much of a runner. Even
after her weeks in Tor’s gym, the speed Christopher had her at surpassed what
she’d built up to. Now he wanted her on an elliptical for thirty minutes.
Fucking dick.
He was making it impossible on purpose.

Cate looked back at the mirror and let Tor help her
through it. After nineteen minutes of memories, she could feel her legs giving
out. The only reason she was still standing was because of what she was holding
onto. “Eleven more minutes,” she whispered.

The time dragged out and the moment her time was up,
Cate collapsed to the ground. Her legs were numb and felt like JELL-O. She
swore they weighed over a hundred pounds apiece.

“Up, pet!
You
have the stair stepper now for forty minutes.”

The horror must have shown on her face because he
laughed. Cate tried to stand and got two steps before her legs gave out.

“Stair stepper or punishment?
Your pick.”

Cate went over her options. Her legs were not going
to be able to take the exercise. But could her body take the punishment? Would
he be brutal? She let the fact that he was Dr. Henry’s friend come into mind.
Surely, he knew not to hurt her too much. If word got out, then too many people
would know. Well, it was time to see what her master was all about. If he
pushed the bounds, she’d call Tor the moment he went to bed. If nothing else
happened, she’d give it a few days and see if his slip-up was a one-time thing.

“Punishment.”

A smile came to his face, but it wasn’t like Tor’s.
Torrance’s was all dark, sexual energy. Christopher’s was all about the pain.
There was nothing sexual about it whatsoever.

He jumped down from the treadmill and wiped his face
off with a towel. A sense of dread went through her as he pulled off his shirt
and pointed to the door at the back of the gym. Cate tried her best to walk
toward it. He grabbed her arm and pulled her along. The moment they crossed the
threshold, she wasn’t so sure this was a sex room at all. The only thing in it appeared
to be a pair of restraints hanging from the ceiling by a thick chain.

The drain in the middle of the cement floor caught
her attention and she looked up at Christopher. “What is this place?” He kept
quiet and pulled her shirt off. The moment he had her completely nude, he lifted
her hands up and restrained them.

Cate watched as he circled around her.

“Did your Torrance cane you?”

“Cane?
No.”

Christopher nodded.
“Pity.
It would have been nice to have you thick-skinned already. Well, we all
gotta
start somewhere.” He walked behind her and she tried
to turn and look at what he was doing. The sound of a door opened and she
looked around nervously. Maybe she was overreacting. People did this for a
lifestyle every day. There was pain involved. She knew that. As long as he
didn’t go past the bounds of her threshold, she knew she’d be okay.

Cate tried to turn around. “You didn’t tell me the
safe word.” She knew she was pushing it by telling him, but she wasn’t about to
go into this without one.

“
Mulher
Desmazelada
.”

“Wait, what? What does that mean? Say it again. I
don’t understand.”

Christopher laughed. “It’s Portuguese. It basically
means slut. And I told you, so don’t say I didn’t … Let’s see how good your
memory is.”

The first contact against the back of her thighs was
so crippling that Cate’s legs gave out and she couldn’t even scream. Her mind
searched for the word, and she knew she’d never remember it. As the cane made
contact again she screamed what she thought he’d said. Over and over she tried
remembering what it was called. And each time she failed.

Chapter
Ten

Torrance rested on his bed and stared at the pillow
where Cate’s head used to lie. It’d been over three weeks since she’d left. He
went through everything in a daze. He was sure she would have called by now, at
least to say hello. But of course, whom was he kidding? She was probably living
the high life with her
MMA
trainer guy. Hell, they
could possibly already be in Brazil, seeing the sights together, and making
love on the beach. Or whatever they did there.

Vibrations had him looking down at his phone. Doc
had been texting him all day and now he was getting a bit tired of it. It was
like false hope every time the damn thing went off.
Come to the club.
Pleeeeease
.

Torrance rolled his eyes. He took a deep breath and
texted back.
Give me an hour
. It took
fifteen minutes for him to get out of bed. He wasn’t in the mood for loud
music. He’d been to the club once since she’d left and it brought back so many
memories of her that he could have sworn he’d seen her a hundred times that
night. But it never was. It was always someone else with dark hair that looked
absolutely nothing like his beautiful doll.

He forced himself from the bed and threw on a light
blue button-up with some khaki pants. As he walked into the restroom to style
his hair he caught the sight of the growth on his face. The light shadowing fit
his mood lately. He’d gotten quite used to it.

The drive to the club was filled with only one song:
Cate’s song. He knew every word by heart. It was pitiful, he knew. But he
couldn’t help it. Wind whipped through the car and he pushed the accelerator as
fast as possible. The Audi roared to life while he weaved in and out of
traffic. As he parked, he took his time walking in.

Techno sounding music completely ruined his mood. He
headed for their table and Doc slapped his shoulder. “Glad you came.” The
others greeted him and he gave them a pathetic attempt of a smile. “Here, I
ordered you a beer.” Doc pushed it over to him and he took a long drink. The
coldness felt good, but he missed the scotch. It too reminded him of Cate.

 
The minutes
dragged out and Torrance glanced around the club, seeing all the regulars, and
a mix of kids on the dance floor. Strobe lights were in full effect and he
watched them move to the motion of the music. His friends were deep in
conversation and it wasn’t until someone stepped in his path that he looked up,
annoyed. Christopher shook Doc’s hand. Torrance’s heart exploded. He looked at
the woman hooked to a collar, and his mouth parted in shock.

Cate didn’t even look like the same person. She had
to have been at least twenty pounds lighter. The black dress she wore came down
to just above her knees and it hugged to her skinny body. She had to have
weighed less than one hundred and thirty pounds. What had that guy been doing
to her? Torrance felt his eyes lift to her face and she slowly looked at him.
Her eyes were so full of pain that his breath turned ragged.

“Cate.”
Torrance stood and Christopher immediately pushed her behind his back. Torrance
ignored him and walked around trying to see her.

“Get the fuck away from my sub,” he said
threateningly. “She doesn’t want to talk to you anymore. Do you, pet?”

“Tor!” She tried stepping around him, but he jerked
the chain around her neck, hard.

“We were just on our way out. We have a plane to
catch, tomorrow. Doc, it was good seeing you. Call me sometime. And get your
boy in check.”

Christopher glared at him, and Torrance lunged for
Cate. He grabbed her by the waist and ripped the chain from her master’s hand.
Doc, Justin, and Benjamin put themselves between them. He turned to Cate. “Do
you want to go back with your master? Talk to me, Cate. You don’t look happy.
God, you look…” Torrance was sure he was going to be sick. “What did he do to
you?”

She immediately burst into tears and threw her arms
around his neck. Doc turned around and glanced back at them. His eyes got big
as he looked toward their legs. He pointed and Torrance pulled her arms off and
spun her around. He lifted up her dress a few inches and felt a rage like he’d
never experienced before.

Christopher’s eyes glared at him and Torrance lost
it. Before he knew what he was doing, he slammed her master on his back and
started punching him in his face, repeatedly. Screams broke out and people ran
around hectically, but he could only see one thing: The man who’d hurt his
Cate. And that shit was intolerable.

These types of men were the ones who gave
Doms
a bad name, and Torrance was all too willing to give
him a taste of his own medicine. “You fucking piece of shit. I trusted you to
take her! I let her go, and this is what you do? She was mine! Is mine.” He
gripped Christopher’s bloody face and made him look into his eyes. “If you ever
come looking for her, I’ll fucking kill you. Do you understand me?” He pushed
his hands against the guy’s face harder. “Answer me!”

The bouncers pulled him off, but he wasn’t anywhere
near ready to stop. They dragged him toward the entrance as Cate ran beside
them. When he got outside, he pulled her to his car. He wanted her away from
that monster as soon as possible. Torrance took one look at the collar around
her neck and unbuckled it, throwing it out of the window. He picked up his
phone and called his building, alerting them that no one was allowed to come to
his floor.
Period.

The car started and he took off fast, heading back
toward the heart of the city.
“Cate.”
He looked at her
face and she immediately hugged herself around his arm. “Why didn’t you call
me? I would have picked you up. I told you that.”

Sobs filled the car’s interior and he thought it the
most heart-wrenching sound in the world.

For minutes she cried, and he let her. “I would have
called if I had a way. My cell was destroyed, and he didn’t have a house phone.
I once tried to use his phone, but he woke up and caught me. God, Tor, It was
horrible. But I stuck it out and did my best. I was so good for him that I was
able to convince him to take us out, tonight. I was hoping you would be here.”

He brought his hand up from the arm she was holding,
and he held her head. “You’ll never have to worry about anything again. I’m sorry
about what happened to you. I know that doesn’t mean shit. I should have
stopped you from going. God, why didn’t I? I wanted to.
So
fucking badly.
But I knew how much you wanted to go.”

Cate lifted her head and looked at him. “Why didn’t
you tell me you wanted me to stay? I would have, in a heartbeat. I was hoping
you’d say something.
Anything.”

Torrance pulled into his parking garage and threw
the car in park. “I didn’t know.” He shook his head. “Cate, I thought you
wanted a master.”

“I did, Tor. I wanted you.
Permanently.”

His fingers trailed the length of her face. She was
still there, just different. The change was so drastic that he couldn’t get
over the shock. “Cate, what happened to you, there?”

The fact that her head was down aggravated him.
“Cate, look at me. I am not that piece of shit. From now on you’re not allowed
to bow your head. You look into my face. Now tell me.”

“What do you want to know, Torrance? I practically
lived in the gym from sunrise to sunset. I got pushed every day to go until I
collapsed on the floor. Then I was given a choice. Continue or be punished.
After the first time, I always continued to the best of my ability.”

He eased back the length of her dress until her
black lace panties came into view. Bruises littered the skin, even in the
front. Torrance closed his eyes. “Caned?”

“How did you know?”

“I’ve seen it before.” He opened the door and Cate
got out and met him behind the car. As they walked to the elevator, he held her
close. “Did he do anything else to you?” The question made him sick to ask, but
he needed to know.

She shook her head as they stepped onto the
elevator. “It wasn’t about that with him. Sex wasn’t involved at all. To him I
was dirty because of you. He made me wash like crazy. During my punishments he
spoke in Portuguese. His favorite thing to call me was
slut
. He was all about trying to break me completely. But I didn’t
break, Tor. I wouldn’t let him have that power. I planned, and I convinced him
we needed a night out before we left for Brazil. And it worked.”