Safeword Quinacridone (38 page)

She smiled
. H
ow could she turn him down for anything? “Okay. What can I do to help?”

He shook his head. “I’ve got it, just run up and put some jeans on”.

In the dark, she’d have sworn they hiked a quarter mile to the cliff. In the daylight they walked less than the length of a football field before stepping out of the forest onto bare rock, and the expansive view rendered her speechless. She froze as she stared at the huge, forested canyon below, extending as far as the eye could see with gullies and ravines from the side leading into the large valley stretching before them.

She finally managed a short, “Wow,” and Travis chuckled as he wrapped his arms around her from behind, gently resting his chin on her head.

“Yes. Wow, indeed. I have drawing pencils and a blank sketchbook in the pack, and I brought a camera, too. Please don’t go near the edge without me; there are no railings and it’s a sheer drop-off. If you stay at least seven feet from the edge you won’t go over the side if you stumble and fall.”

He kissed the top of her head and backed up, lifting the two long drawstring bags from his shoulder and propping them on the ground in one hand like two walking sticks before lowering the backpack.

He pulled what looked like a tangle of metal and fabric from one of the bags and Cara was surprised to see him spread it into a chair, complete with footrest. He situated it on a flat piece of rock at least ten feet from the edge and flourished his hand towards it before helping her straddle the footrest and sit without falling into it. The seat proved far more comfortable than it looked, and once her legs were stretched contentedly in front of her she was tempted to rifle through the backpack. Her fingers
itched
for the pencils he’d promised.

He set his chair up beside her before pulling their breakfast from the pack — two sausage biscuits each and bottles of cold orange juice to go with their thermos of hot tea. It didn’t sound like much but it hit the spot and she was pleasantly surprised to discover the seats even had two cup-holders built in.

She finished her first biscuit and reached for the pack, pulling out the promised sketchbook and pencils. Her heart warmed even more when she saw the pencil sharpener and special click-eraser she preferred. “You’re too good to me.”

“And you’re going to eat the second biscuit.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, I am, but I can eat and draw at the same time and the lighting is ideal right now, with the one small cloud perfectly filtering it.”

When they packed up and left the cabin an hour later he took her to see several of the waterfalls in the park — the ones easily reached with a short walk from the parking areas. One of the cascades had the remains of a gristmill nearby, and she took dozens of photos, making a mental note to look online for pictures of the old mill.

They arrived home in time to get dressed for the Arts Council fundraiser, and he surprised her by having his driver take them in the limo. She’d known Kiki was working on a large sculpture in a downtown warehouse, since there wasn’t room for it at the house, but she hadn’t seen it yet. It was set up outside near the entrance as an example of what the sponsored artists could do, and Cara stood looking for a full five minutes, speechless, as she took in every detail.

It was an eagle, with its talons still grasping a tree branch and wings outspread in that instant before it jumps and takes the first flap to become airborne. The top of the claw was taller than Cara, with the majestic creature’s face above her staring intently in the direction he was about to fly. Kiki had created it in metal and had included so many details Cara thought she could study it five years and still find more.

She turned to Travis. “You have to buy it.”

He raised an eyebrow and said, “Okay,” waited a few heartbeats and added, “Where are we putting it?”

“No, it’s not for us, it’s for...” she growled in frustration, and continued. “Your new project, the one the government people have been talking to you about, to get parents more involved in the education of their children and to try to change the culture in schools.” She loved the idea of creating an environment so the smart kids would be popular, where not having your homework would have the class embarrassed for you. Travis had toured a handful of schools that’d made it happen, and been asked if he could create something to use in all schools to build the same learning environment.

He looked up at the eagle, then back to her, and his face lit up. “Yes! It can be the logo for the project, and I can donate it to a park somewhere so the public can enjoy it in real life, too. I can use its unveiling as PR for the program, when it goes live.”

Cara nodded, “Yes, exactly, it’s perfect. The eagle is about to take off, just as we want the kids to take off.” She smiled. “And as a nice side effect, it’ll push Kiki into the limelight and bring attention to her other stuff.”

He frowned. “You’ll have to be careful with that, you know. I’ll get my PR people on it, because if the wrong gossip site pushed the information out the wrong way it could appear you made me buy it to help your friend.”

She shook her head. “I’m not—”

He interrupted. “I know you aren’t. It’s ideal for the project. I’m just looking at how they’ll give the information to the public.” He smiled. “We’ll make sure we release it the way we want it reported.”

“Let’s go find Kiki and Papa Bear and make sure no one else has bought it, and let them know you’re interested.”

* * * *

She awoke the next morning refreshed
,
and managed to get out of bed without waking Travis. She used the restroom, retrieved the camera and sketchbook from their trip, and stole out to the solarium before sunrise. She had an idea for a quick rendering of the cascades and wanted to paint the gristmill before she looked up the picture.

When Travis found her two hours later the painting appeared almost complete, and she’d even painted the sunrise surrounding her while she worked, capturing the pinks, reds, yellows, and a hint of purple in the little bit of sky showing in her painting.

“How’d you do this so fast? It usually takes days to paint something this size.”

“Oh, different technique; I used large brushes and didn’t put much detail in. I’ll paint it again later and add millions of little details, but I wanted to get what was in my head onto canvas. I haven’t tried to find a picture of what the mill looked like yet, but it’ll be interesting to see how close I came. When are Paul and Meg supposed to arrive?”

“Noon, which gives you another two hours to paint before you’ll need to come in for a bath. I’m going to shave you, and I want you in the right headspace when they get here. I won’t insist on a big breakfast unless you want it
. A
re you hungry?”

“Honestly? If I can just eat one of those bar things you like to feed me when I’m working, that’d be good, so I can finish this and start on another idea I want to get onto canvas really quick. It’ll go faster than this one, so two hours should be about right, give or take fifteen minutes?

Travis smiled as he handed her a cinnamon-bun flavored protein bar. “Okay, I’ll leave you to it, then. I’ll blink the lights fifteen minutes before I come get you.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Cara lounged in the dry tub, her legs comfortably thrown over both sides as Travis shaved her pussy. She’d been mortified in New York, but today it seemed perfectly natural.

She was still a little sore from his fist, and as he pulled and stretched the areas he was shaving she could feel it pulling the overstretched tissues. It wasn’t a bad pain, but a warm reminder of their magical night and she wondered if that made it less embarrassing, but decided it didn’t matter. She was comfortable and happy, and should just leave it alone and not pick it to death.

She always seemed to get as much paint on herself as the canvas, and Travis had squirted shaving cream on her paint speckled arms, hands, and face before he started. She reached her left hand to her right and used a fingernail to push what was left of the shaving cream away, testing. To her surprise, the paint easily slid off her skin.

“How did you know the shaving cream would do that to the paint?”

“I didn’t, for sure, but I hoped. Leave it be, when I’m done here we’ll fill the tub and get it all off.”

Within an hour Cara was back in a bald cap, and flesh colored tape across her lips
made her
look as if she didn’t have a mouth. The image in the mirror was disturbing, like something from a horror movie poster. He gave her eye shadow in several shades of purple, with a diagram of how to apply it and a picture showing how it should look when finished.

The eye makeup pushed her past horror-movie-poster, making her even more of a
thing
— a non-person.

Travis sat her on the vanity stool and laced her ballet boots on before standing her to face the mirror as he laced her strictest corset, tightening it until her waist looked impossibly small
,
more like that of an animated cartoon character than a human woman.

The house boasted three garages with a total of fifteen places to park a vehicle, and she was walked to the rarely used four-bay garage, where she noted the RV, four wheelers, and cars normally stored were missing. Several tarps stretched across half the concrete floor, chains hung from the rafters in a few places, and a folding table stood with whips, floggers, paddles, and a wide assortment of other toys.

“You aren’t wearing cuffs because Paul has an affinity for zip-ties. They’re a lot harsher than rope and you’ll let me know if it’s too much.”

She raised her eyebrows, wanting to point out she couldn’t exactly talk with the tape over her mouth, but he pulled a clicker from his pocket, holding it up to demonstrate. “I’ll tape this to your right pointer finger
. C
lick once if you need me to slow down and give you a minute, twice if you have a mental or emotional problem with what we’re doing, and three times for a scene stopping safeword. The first two won’t stop the scene, but will make us back off. The third will involve taking off the tape and having a discussion. Understand?”

She nodded and he continued. “I plan to share you with Paul, but I won’t use Meg sexually. I’ll help him hurt her, and I’ll help get her restrained and into position, but my cock won’t enter her body. Are you okay with that?”

Cara wished she could talk. She wanted him to take pleasure in Meg’s body if it was what he wanted, and if Paul invited him, but he was asking if it was okay for him to help hurt and restrain her
,
so she nodded in the affirmative and made a mental note to talk about it later.

A car pulled up outside as he walked to the table and retrieved a spreader-bar
. He stepped t
o one of the hanging chains and clicking the center of the bar to the chain. He crooked a finger at her and she hobbled to him as gracefully as possible in her ballet boots. She remembered refusing the shoes he’d bought her on their second date, and marveled that he’d managed to train her to walk in shoes far beyond normal high heels.

He pulled the clicker and some tape from his pocket, attached it to her pointer finger as promised, and stepped back.

“Reach up and hold onto the ends of the spreader-bar. I’ll be disappointed if you let go.”

She’d heard the car turning around outside the garage, so when Travis pushed the button to raise the door she wasn’t surprised to see the rear end of a car backing in. She didn’t expect the engine to shut off before the car was all the way in, and was thankful the spreader-bar allowed her to turn and allow a better view.

The trunk popped open seconds before the driver stepped out. Travis pushed a large rolling dolly towards the car and as he reached the trunk the other man lifted something heavy and gently set it on the cart. As they wheeled it towards her she was horror-stricken as the form slowly coalesced into the shape of a woman.

Thin white straps went around her legs every four to six inches, imprisoning them together, and as they turned the cart Cara realized the woman’s arms were forced together behind her back by the same kinds of straps, and her feet had been brought up behind her and connected to the straps around her wrists.

Meg was lying on her side, and when her face came into view as they rolled her nearer, Cara saw she also wore a bald-cap, tape on her mouth, and the same purple eye shadow.

Pain reflected in Meg’s eyes as she lay on her side, her body bowed backwards. Cara wondered how long she’d been in this position, and how long she’d been in the trunk. Suddenly, the image of being stored and transported like luggage hit her, and she rubbed her legs together as warmth bloomed in her belly and her clit throbbed to attention.

She watched Paul pull what looked like heavy-duty wire cutters from his pocket, and he snipped the bands from her arms while Travis hooked another spreader-bar on a chain hanging less than a foot from Cara.