Protecting Heather

This is a work of fantasy and fiction. The author does not condone any sexual activity among persons under legal age in real life.

Ch. 10

After he got her dressed for bed in a nightshirt and panties, he had her lie back on the bed.  She was nervous as he was securing her.

“Why are you tying me up, when there’s no way for me to get out of here?” she asked, a slight tremor in her voice as she watched him attach her collar to the headboard.

He had an embarrassed, almost apologetic look as he replied. “Because… I really like the way you look when you’re tied up.  With your hands and feet chained up like that.  And because it makes me feel like I’m keeping you safe. And that you’re mine… that I’ll come back and still find you here.  Does it bother you a lot?”

She nodded, her eyes wide and a little scared.  

“Well… how about for tonight, we do just the collar and the ankles.” as his eyes searched hers.

She looked back at him, and slightly nodded.  He smiled and gave her a kiss on the forehead, and then proceeded to secure her feet. It did make a big difference for her, having her arms for her own use, giving her just enough freedom to be able to bear it.

With a last goodnight, he left her.  In the silent room, she lay there, exploring the collar and attached chain with her hands, tugging weakly with her feet.  Finally she settled in, fatigue washing over her, silence closing in around her, as she drifted off.

The next morning, she awoke with a start. She suffered only a few moments of disorientation as she became aware of her surroundings. It felt somewhat liberating to be able to scratch her nose, or stretch, or to just roll over when she wanted, in comparison to the prior day when she couldn’t even close her robe.  

As she lay there idly, unable to drift back off to sleep again, she realized she may have some wait before he came in to release her.  

Bored, bored, boring… bored….  I’ll have to remember to leave a book close by. That is, if he leaves me my hands to flip the pages with!   Hmmm… I wonder… what else can I do while I wait?

Experimentally, she tried rubbing her own breasts.  Nice, but… not at all the same.  She let her hands wander lower, touching herself down there.  MMmmmm… well, that’s nice too, I guess. Somehow it all lacked the charged, forbidden aspect that her experience the day before had given her. She rubbed around for a few minutes, not really getting anywhere with it.

Soon, though, that wasn’t enough to distract her from her thoughts.  One thing that Oliver had only vaguely guessed at was her other little secret. She had been blessed and cursed with devastating intelligence. In a better equipped school, with a more attentive parent, she would have long ago been pulled out into a gifted program.  But for Heather, as she became aware of the gap that stood between her and her peers, it was yet another part of herself that she learned to hide.  Yet another thing that called unwanted attention to her.  Even at a very young age she had figured out that there was safety in invisibility.

Her thoughts drifted to what had occurred over the last two days.

He’s so mysterious. What else is he?  She mused, letting her thoughts go out like she did, letting the answers come back in that other voice.  She began to play her questions game.  

What else is he?

A brief pause, then;  He’s… lonely.  Yes, very lonely.  He looks at me, and it feels like I’m the only other person he’s ever seen.

What else is he?  

Curious…  she smiled at that...  Curious and playful.  Like I was when I first kissed a boy, before boys became dangerous. He is definitely curious about me!  She blushed, remembering again how happily and yet, gently, he had approached her and her open robe. The look on his face had not been rat faced hunger.  It had been… reverence!  The thought sent a thrill through her.

What else is he?

My captor. And I am his prisoner.

The sound of the door lock keypad distantly beeping interrupted her thoughts.  With a click, he entered the room.

He entered quietly with breakfast.  Noting that she was awake, he came directly over to release her.  As he bent over her to disconnect her collar lead, he stole a quick kiss.

“Will you change into something nice for me this morning?” he asked. “I’ll get breakfast set out.”  

Just like that, he had a way about him that made her strange new life seem normal. It was almost impossible for her to refuse what sounded like such a reasonable request.  And so she responded to him automatically by going at once to the dresser to pick out a nice sundress and matching stockings.  She only realized after she had already stripped off her panties to trade them for a fresh pair that she was exposed in front of him with no more hesitation than if she had been in her own closet at home.  

She looked to see if he was staring at her, and found that he was putting out breakfast just like he’d said.  With a mental shrug, she went about getting dressed.

After breakfast, after he had chatted with her about some articles that he found interesting and pointed out from the morning paper, he got quiet for a minute.  

She, unable yet to read his moods, felt nevertheless that something of importance was on his mind.  

“So, I thought it only fair at this point, to ask you a question.  It’s an important question, for both you and for me.  I guess the only way to do it is to come right out and ask it.  I brought you here, and I’m very happy that it was you who I brought here.  Now I have to ask:  Will you stay here, or do you want to go?”

Heather gaped at him.  “Go?  You mean… I can go?”

“Yes.”

She considered this for a moment.  She searched his eyes, looking for some hidden trap.  She almost said  I can go home?  But something she caught in his eyes caused her to ask instead, “Where?”

Suddenly, she was scared of the possibilities, of what he might say next.

“Well… before I can answer that, there’s something that I need to tell you. And there’s no easy way to say it either.  Heather, your mother…  she passed away last night.  From that overdose.  There had been a chance, she went into a coma for a bit, but she didn’t wake up.  It was relatively peaceful. I’m… I’m so sorry to have to tell you.”

She sat back in her chair, stunned but not entirely surprised.  She wondered why it didn’t hurt so much. Then she noticed the tears that had already started streaming down her face.  

There it is again, my body is out in front of my brain.  It knows.  It knows because she’s gone!

And then it did hurt.  She let it come then.  It hurt for everything that her mom had done for her, and for everything that she hadn’t done.  For everything that she could never do, and now never would. It hurt her in a physical way, like a punch in the gut.  With tears streaming, unconsciously she stood up, eyes unseeing, and stumbled a step closer to him.  He gathered her into his arms as she collapsed, and he held her tight as she sobbed quietly.  

When she subsided a bit, she became aware of him again.  

“So… where?  Where can I go?”

“Probably a foster home.  Unless you have any other family that will take you in?”

She shook her head. “No.  No other family, at least that I know of.  It’s always been us.  Just us.”

“I’ll give you some time to decide.  Any questions or anything you need, you let me know.”

She thought about it.  She thought about him.  

Anything I need.  And he would.  He’d do that.  He was lonely.  And now I’m all alone.  Nowhere else to go, really.  Foster home?  To be physically or sexually abused like a few of her grade school friends had been?  It might not be as bad as that.  But It could be.

And what about him?  

Without consciously starting her Questions game, the answer came back like lightning.

He’s lonely, just like me.  He’s like a teenage boy, really. Learning, just like me.  He’s been cast aside.  Something is so wrong with his face that it’s all anyone has ever seen about him. It’s all that even HE can see about him.  But I see something else.

I’m scared and alone hiding myself from view. Hiding from wolves and rats.  He’s been through the same thing, and he sees himself in me.  He’s captured me, but he’s not a wolf.  He’s hiding, and he’s hid me away with him because it’s the only way he can make it work.

And he’ll treat me well.  And he’ll keep me safe.  

“I’ll stay.” she said softly, simply, wiping her tears away, staring at her hands.  

“You’ll…. you’ll what?  You’ll stay?”  he asked, incredulously.  

“Yes.  I’ll stay here.”  Words failed her.  She wasn’t sure there was much else to say right then.  She wasn’t sure about anything at all anymore.  Except that this felt, strangely, right.

She climbed up into his lap, put her head on his shoulder, and cried for a while longer.  From over her shoulder as he held her, his expression transformed from puzzled, to relieved.  Slowly an expression of unutterable peace ruled his features.