Chapter 11 Ian
I sat in my office, watching her reaction to the complete darkness. She fumbled around, unsure of herself. Tears still ran down her face.
This was wrong in such a fun way, I was beyond caring what anyone thought about my secret activities. It was none of their business.
Darkness brought people’s deepest fears to the forefront. Anything that could be imagined seemed much worse with the absolute blackness. All the things that could normally be explained or talked through were amplified by the dark.
While I did want to teach her a few lessons and rules later on, I needed to see how she reacted to things that were out of her control. Would she be able to handle not being able to fix things?
I could almost see the wheels turning in her head as she realized that the appliances would have lights.
This was going to be a lot of fun. I laughed.
She began feeling her way over to the refrigerator. She yanked it open. Only to find that I had removed the light bulbs.
“Bastard.”
She slammed it shut and leaned against it.
Smart, and with a streak of common sense, her attitude was something to be admired. She thought she could outsmart me.
Her next move was to feel her way down the counter toward the microwave.
The energy flowing through my veins at her actions had me leaning closer to the screen so that I didn’t miss out on anything.
Better than watching tv or a reality show, I almost wished I had someone else to share it with or hell, even place a bet on it.
Her growing frustration was amplified by the words coming out of her mouth.
“Fucking bastard.”
She stuck her tongue out. “ ‘Learn the room,’ he says. ‘You chose this.’ He repeats it like it’s a mantra.”
“That doesn’t mean anything to me. It’s all just like I’m a rat stuck in his maze for his enjoyment.”
Her response thrilled me. I had planned to leave her alone for the majority of the day to become acquainted with her new home, but I couldn’t resist adding just a few words to drive the point home. I was in control.
“You didn’t think I would forget such a little thing, did you? The lights on the appliances were such an obvious first choice for light. I’ll always be one step ahead of you.”
The grin on my face grew wider as she held up her middle finger.
She circled the room, holding it up so that I couldn’t miss it.
Her spirited response was exactly what I was looking for.
My finger held down the button on my phone for the intercom.
“Just remember, you chose this.”
Everything came down to a few moments when a person’s true nature was revealed. This would be the chance to either break her or make her a survivor.
A high was coursing through my body as I watched her struggle to adjust to the darkness. I had warned her this was coming. She’d prepared more than the last woman. That one had walked around bumping into things for two days before begging me to turn the lights on.
Well, I’d given her clues at least. It was up to her to make it work.
Admiration filled me as she floated around the room with an easy grace to her movements. The darkness didn’t seem to faze her in the least after that first initial adjustment. She’d seemed to find a way to walk and be at peace.
Sure, she’d screamed and called me names—it came with the territory. The fact that this brought such pleasure to me was another indication that I was severely damaged.
This was for more than pleasure, it was a desperate need that had to be sated.
Even though it was tortuous for her, I was beyond caring how it made her feel at the present moment. Too many things had piled up, and I needed to have a release. With everything that had happened, it had been way too long since I’d felt the need or even wanted to be bothered with a new plaything.
After all I was paying her, she simply had to make up her mind if it was worth what she was going through. The loss of control, the choice given, and time away from the world generally deterred those that weren’t overly into this type of relationship.
Most people had a response to complete darkness: screaming, panic, other outward reactions. The other group were the exact opposite: they withdrew from the present and went into their heads.
Neither response was good, but those who pushed their emotions outward seemed to recover sooner as they adjusted to the idea.
Collette was of the second kind. She’d tried a few things to make it easier then simply sat on the couch as if she could wait me out.
“You can leave at any time.”
I reminded her. She needed something to focus on, and her anger could be turned on me with little consequence.
I felt she needed the reminder of why she was in this situation. She could leave at any time. Also, she had a way out if she wanted to use it. Her voice was as important to this process as her acceptance was.
That voice. Sultry, even when she cursed me. Others might not think so, but it did something to me. I wanted to listen to her say absolutely anything, even if it was to curse me out for her situation.
Fairly certain that she wouldn’t give in and say she wanted out, I watched, fascinated.
She was trying to think ahead of what I had prepared for. Her determination to outmaneuver me, her sheer strength of will, was intriguing. I never had a woman want to put me in my place so much. It wouldn’t work, but watching her try was more than I could’ve ever hoped for.
As I watched her walk around the room in the dark, touching things. She began reacquainting herself with the room shrouded in darkness. Learning to make sure that she wouldn’t run into furniture.
When the room was first built, I’d had it fitted with the top of the line night vision cameras. My company created our own version, and I was able to watch her while at work. A quick glance at any monitor at any given time, would give me her whereabouts and what she was doing.
She wouldn’t be able to see a thing because there wasn’t a hint of light in the entire room. I would be able to watch her every move and reaction.
People would call my actions stalking. I just looked at it as protecting my assets. My investments were important to me, and I needed to make sure that nothing went wrong. Collette would be a unique type of addition to my company, once properly trained. I just hoped that I’d made a good choice when I’d had her sign those papers.
Owning my own company that produced cameras, night vision technology had its own benefits.
If for unforeseeable circumstances anyone asked why this room exited, I could always tell them I was testing the product. It didn’t hurt that I had enough money to buy whatever type of technology I wanted.
She spent the next minutes searching for anything I’d missed. It wasn’t desperate, more like wanting to win this portion of our match.
Not one little spark of light was present. I’d been very thorough.
I chuckled when she tried to create a static charge by dragging her feet across the floor.
Desperate for something to show me she had outsmarted me.
We’d constructed the entire room with an electrostatic dissipative material. There would be no sparks from her feet. Her frantic gestures made me realize there was something about the darkness that bothered her.
Seriously upset her. If I wasn’t invested in bending her to my will, then I might have been more concerned for her mental state.
Instead, I made a note of it to contemplate later and how I could use it as a possible tool in the future.
“What in the fracking, fucking, hell, are you playing at, Holdt?”
she screamed at me as she realized I wasn’t going to turn the lights back on and she would have to stay in the darkness.
After about ten minutes of walking around, kicking the furniture, feeling her way through the room multiple times, she sank to the sofa.
Collette seemed to pause and regather herself. Deep breaths continued until her breathing calmed, returning to normal.
She put up her feet and sat staring into the darkness as if it wasn’t going to bother her anymore. As if she could handle it now. The change was so drastic from her fear and anxiety only moments before that I realized she was going to be quite a handful, unlike any of the other women who had screamed, cried and pouted about it for days.
There was something about her that was different. I needed more information.
“Rossi,”
I called, and he appeared at my side. “Have we found any more information on her background yet?”
“Only that she was in the foster care system for her entire childhood. It appears that she was in quite a few different homes over the years, but finally found a stable one in her early-teens. They allowed her to stay when they didn’t normally keep children older than toddlers on a long-term basis.”
“No connections to me that we know of?”
I spun in my chair to face him, ignoring the monitors for the moment.
“None, sir. I’ll continue to look. I’ve put an investigator on her whereabouts, but there’s not much information on her before she went to college.”
“How did you get the information on her foster homes?”
“I didn’t. It was included in an essay she wrote for college. Those juvenile files are sealed, and without committing a bunch of illegal activities, I wasn’t sure you wanted me to go that route yet.”
Rossi stood with his arms crossed.
Temptation batted at me to say ‘the hell with it, get me what I needed to know’, but I held off. “No, for now, let’s keep it all legal. I am curious, though. It may be why she has that hard shell around her very lush body.”
“Anything else?”
Yeah, work faster, get me everything on Collette. “No, that will be all for now.”
I turned the chair and tilted my head, watching the screen again.
Collette had known her situation was unusual and made the adjustments to work it out.
The monitors gave me several different angles so that I could see what she was doing at all times. She appeared to be unaffected by the darkness at this point. After ten minutes of sitting completely still, it was as if she’d reset her mind and was able to ignore the fact that it was dark. As if it didn’t bother her anymore.
She got up and with confidence walked back to the kitchen. There was no doubt her don’t give a shit attitude was making me hard again.
Most women, no matter how hot or gorgeous they were, left my dick limp. It took a certain kind of connection to activate my sex drive. The need for control in all areas of my life took precedence.
I’d been hard since she bumped into me in the elevator. The attraction I felt for this woman was growing, along with the admiration of how she was handling her situation.
Mesmerized, I watched as she moved to make a sandwich, having decided that the possibility of food in the darkness was better than the alternative of going hungry.
My need to control her and then bend her to my will, grew rapidly with each moment.
She just might be the one person that would cause me to lose my hard earned control.
I wondered what that would be like. I’ve held it reigned in for so long, I wouldn’t know what would happen.
Her actions and patience with the situation were driving me absolutely mad. I was supposed to be the one driving her insane instead.
Two could play this game, I thought as I walked away from the monitors.
Needing some time to let my body calm down, I put on a pair of running shoes.
Exercise was one of the few ways I could get rid of excess steam. The small gym I’d installed was for instances just like this.
I pounded the treadmill as if it had done something to wrong me.
Each time my shoes hit the belt, I repeated the motto that had stood me in good stead over the years.
I was better than this. Control was everything. Even breaths helped my focus stay on the task at hand.
All of the things I’d normally tell myself to regain control of the emotions running rampant through my body.
She would be mine. But in the end, would she wind up making me her own as well?