With that thought, despair took over my mind, and I literally swung myself up—not just figuratively, but literally. Even as nausea made me hold still because I would be sick in my throat, my body still swayed back and forth. A new fear gripped me as I realized that I would bounce face-first should the anchor my body was suspended from come loose due to my wiggling. I quickly closed my eyes to steady myself. Through the breeze I caused, I realized that I did indeed appear to be naked—at least partially.
My renewed panic was replaced by the shock of hearing something rustle. Was it a garbage bag? At least that’s what it sounded like. Again I wrenched my eyes open and found to my horror that it was the dark floor from which the sound came, for it was topped with black plastic.
Two highly polished black leather shoes entered my field of vision, and a hand dug into my hair to pull my head up. I could hear a pulley reacting to this movement, and my weight shifted.
“Are you finished?” the man, who had hidden his entire face behind a simple black mask, addressed me.
Goosebumps ran over my body: the man spoke Japanese!
Was this one of Tanaka’s men, or one of his competitors? Didn’t the Yakuza work together against criminal organizations of the other ethnicities?
“Kate,” the man said icily, and instantly I shivered.
That voice! I knew that voice!
Hiro
When I called Kate by her name, her eyes widened. I knew immediately that she had recognized my voice. I had expected nothing less. After all, Kate had been sitting right behind me at dinner for months, Friday after Friday. It would have been strange if she hadn’t recognized me. That being said, it was a test.
“Do you know who I am?” I asked her, and that beautiful face turned abruptly red.
Typically, she was quite capable of hiding her feelings, but not here and not now. Anything else would have surprised me. I just wanted to know if she would lie.
Kate’s reaction decided her fate. Whether she was aware of it, I couldn’t tell by looking at her.
I let go of the back of her head so she could answer my question. As she slowly nodded, her eyes filled with tears. Tears that I wanted to lick up as soon as they fell.
“Good,” I praised and took off the mask.
Just at that moment, a lone tear ran down her cheek, but it didn’t drop to the floor. That sight did something to me—to my body, to be exact—that I couldn’t control. It had been so damn long since this had last happened. I hated it. I loved it.
But I enjoyed the fact even more that Kate didn’t allow herself to sob, even though her chin was quivering. Her gaze avoided mine. Rather still, she looked to the floor as if she already knew that I was now her lord and master.
I concentrated on her face.
It had already been a challenge to undress her, tie her up in the art of shibari, and finally hang her without losing my composure. I knew if I allowed myself to look at her body now, my fingers would want to touch the scars she had carried from the car accident. First and foremost, the scar on her neck and on the right side of her body. They were all cuts that came from glass. Still, I had doubts about some of them if they were really from that accident.
“Are you hurting yourself, Kate?” I wanted to know from her.
Kate winced, causing her free-hanging body to sway again. This time I placed my hand more gently on the back of her head to stop the swaying.
Every time she moved and bounced because of her emotions, I would be the one to stop the nausea-inducing dangling. It was a well planned conditioning. It was how she would learn that I was her calming influence, the order in her chaos.
She looked at me with wide eyes, and neither shook her head nor nodded.
“Promise me you won’t scream when I remove the gag,” I warned her.
Kate
This voice, this wonderful voice that had always echoed in my ears when I dreamed.
In my dreams, Hiroshi’s voice whispered the sweetest promises in my ear and the most insinuating commands.
How could I ever resist that voice when all I wanted was for him to speak to me? He could read me the phone book, and his voice would still do the same things to me.
The sheer thought made me blush and feel all the more keenly what else he had put that rope over.
I nodded cautiously as he extracted a promise from me that I was all too happy to make. Without hesitation, he unfastened the gag and pulled the piece of cloth from my mouth. Strangely, my jaw didn’t feel stretched.
“Well?” he asked me again in Japanese.
“Before, yes,” I answered honestly because I had a feeling he would know if I cheated. “Not anymore,” I added as if it would make a difference.
I looked at Hiroshi, unable to tear my gaze from him, even though I was afraid of the way he was looking at me. Or was it something else?
I felt as if my imagination was mixing with reality. How many times had I dreamed that he would show up at my apartment in the middle of the night
