Chapter 22

A chain ran from the ring on Valerie’s collar to a second steel ring set into the wall. She had come to learn that Dana’s house had dozens of hardpoints scattered about; hidden behind electrical outlets, artwork, or in some cases simply disguised by architectural visual elements. In the cell, where she had first been kept those weeks ago, they were more overt.

It was a rare day that Dana didn’t use at least some of them to restrain her at some point. That day, it was a simple chain from the lead ring of her collar to a single hardpoint, secured by small locks at each end.

Valerie lounged on a large circular cushion in the corner of Dana’s office, watching the woman work. She suspected the cushion was technically a dog bed, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer. The chain was long enough that Valerie could shift her position around to stay comfortable or even stand up, but only just; it was not long enough for her to genuinely move from the spot. Valerie had felt a little thrill race through her body when the shiny padlocks had clicked closed, securing both ends.

Dana had dressed her relatively comfortably that morning, in a black latex catsuit. Comfort is a relative concept, and Valerie was more comfortable than she had been in the previous day’s trying combination of catsuit, corset, armbinder, and ballet heels. Her aching shoulders reminded her that it was the previous night’s outfit, too. The cell’s shower only ran cold, but after a night spent helpless, breathless, and squirming, even that cold shower had been refreshing.

The doorbell chimed, and Valerie looked up at Dana. Answering the door was one of Valerie’s duties; one she could hardly fulfill while chained in place.

“Mistress-…?”

Dana’s large, dark eyes locked with Valerie’s gaze, and the girl faltered, mouth open mid-word. Her breath quickened, and Dana’s cheeks bloomed delicately pink as her eyes, sparking with mischief, moved on, sweeping over the girl’s latex-clad form, and the curves of the collar glinting around her throat. Her eyes traced the collar and along the chain to the wall.

“Ah, I see. I suppose I should answer it, then.”

Dana locked the computer she had been working on, pushed back from the desk, and stood. She wore a traveling outfit, an elegant button-down blouse that clung enticingly to her torso, and dark jeans that must have been custom made, to fit her curves so perfectly.

Valerie watched the woman stand and move, and her body ached, simply from Dana’s nearness, with a need so intense it hurt like physical hunger. She whined pleadingly without intending to. Dana had been experimenting with the girl’s progesterone dose, recently, and had been denying her any release for the past several days. The girl’s libido that morning was louder than she remembered it being any time since she started transition. Dana simply ran a finger across Valerie’s latex-clad shoulder as she left the room; she dared not touch Dana without permission, however desperate she was for skin-to-skin contact. She longed to wrap her body around the woman as she walked past.

Valerie slumped back into the softness of the cushion, trembling with the effort of not moving her hands down across her own body to sate the thirst that burned there. Even if she could be quick enough before Dana returned, the woman would know of her misdeed instantly, if only from the change in her demeanor.

Beneath her screaming arousal, she was a mess of emotions inside- uncertainty about what the next few days held, in Lucca’s care, mixed with excitement and anticipation over the imagined possibilities, and the sheer novelty of the change.

She bit down on a latex-clad finger, whimpering; not hard enough to bruise, but hard enough to hurt in a way she hoped would clear her head. It seemed to only fan the flames of her need until they burned white-hot.

“Where is your little project?”

Valerie heard Lucca’s voice and two pairs of footsteps before she saw anyone, from her limited vantage point.

“I was just in the office, working,” Dana’s voice responded, just around the corner but still out of sight. “She’s leashed up in there.”

Valerie pieced together that Lucca’s little project was referring to her. The wording seemed one step away — if that — from directly referring to her as an inanimate object. She supposed it was Dana’s prerogative to do so, if she wanted; and that extended to whomever Dana entrusted her to, as well. Her skin tingled airily with submissive arousal at this, but she also felt an indignant tensing in the muscles at the back of her neck.

The two rounded the corner and stopped just in front of her lounging spot, before she could fully tease apart her confused emotions.

Valerie wilted under Lucca’s gaze; they looked displeased, and she thought she read disdain in the enby’s eyes.

“That’s what’s been taking up all your free time?” Their voice was not approving.

“What, did you miss me?” Dana teased. Valerie caught an echo of vulnerability in the jab; like Dana is dying for them to just say yes, she thought.

“You’re just hyper-focused on it.” Lucca’s voice was prickly, not quite angry, and a little dismissive.

Valerie felt like she was missing something from the story, but she shrank inward from the implied criticism, and cast her eyes away. Her earlier curiosity and enthusiasm had turned dark. She didn’t see how, or if, Dana reacted to the remark.

Lucca looked down at Valerie with an expression halfway between annoyance and distaste, and Valerie felt tears start to well up in her eyes. She consciously resisted hugging her arms around her body. The excited anticipation she had felt just moments ago had dropped away and left only nervousness about the upcoming few days, overtaken by fear climbing its way up out of her gut, uncontested. She cast a pleading look over to Dana, but the woman wasn’t paying attention; she had eyes only for Lucca, in that moment.

Dana placed a hand gently in Lucca’s bicep. She shifted closer to Lucca, just pressing against the bubble of their personal space. Her head tilted up, and Valerie thought it a bid for a kiss goodbye. Dana stopped short when Lucca didn’t make any move to meet her partway, or reciprocate. They seemed on the verge of ignoring the gesture entirely, but after an awkward few heartbeats, they grasped Dana’s hand with their free one and gave it a companionable squeeze. Dana dropped her hand away and took half a step back.

“I’ve got to catch my flight,” Dana told the two of them, her voice a little uneven, and just hinting at some well-trod sadness that Valerie couldn’t decipher. The woman disappeared up the stairs.

Lucca sighed as they watched Dana retreat up the stairs, and Valerie was surprised to recognize the yearning in it, undetectable before that moment.

They turned back toward Valerie and their expression went cold.

“Stand up.” Lucca’s order was curt.

Valerie moved quickly to untangle her limbs and stand, the chain to her collar pulling taut, but just allowing her to rise.

“Yes, ma-” she was cut off halfway through ma’am when Lucca slapped her. It wasn’t a hard strike, but Lucca was quick and Valerie didn’t expect it, and was too surprised to react in any useful way.

“You speak only when ordered to or asked a direct question.”

Lucca studied a set of keys they had been holding in one hand, flipping through them to find the right size key for the chain’s padlocks.

“And when you do, you will address me as Mx. You won’t get another warning.”

“Y-” Valerie cut herself off halfway through the first syllable, but Lucca pursed her lips in disappointment, anyway.

“That’s one.” Lucca raised an indicative finger.

Valerie burned to ask what one meant, but she kept quiet while Lucca unlocked the padlock attaching the chain to the wall. They pocketed the padlock and grasped the chain, as a leash.

Lucca turned without further explanation, and headed up the stairs, bidding Valerie to follow with a sharp tug on the chain. Valerie heard the chime of the house’s alarm system as the front door open and then closed- Dana’s departure meant that Valerie was alone with Lucca for the next three days. She felt a chill of trepidation shiver through her.

Nervousness was starting to crystallize into fear, a creeping cold wrapping its pincers around her heart. Dana was strict and uncompromising, and she frequently delighted joyously in meting out punishment for Valerie’s shortcomings; but Valerie was allowed her voice, usually, to converse, to ask questions. She was Dana’s toy, safe and cherished, if sometimes played with; but she never felt so like an object, or something less.

Lucca’s treatment felt like the way people spoke to voice assistants, and this one just happened to be in control of a human body. The fear didn’t dampen Valerie’s arousal; she felt herself harden, instead, against the constraining latex. One part of her mind was deeply disappointed about how turned on she was by Lucca’s treatment, but the need created by the past days of Dana’s teasing and denial mingled with the helplessness she felt under Lucca’s control; and the combination was intense.

Her breathless panting was not only due to her struggle to keep pace with Lucca’s much longer stride, as they led her up the stairs and into Dana’s bedroom.