His to Take (Mastering Melody Book 2)

  His to Take

  Mastering Melody, Book 2

  Talia Zane

  His to Take ©2016 by Talia Zane

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review or article, without written permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover from Designs by Dana

  Kindle Edition

  First Edition: February 2016

  Blurb

  Displeasing the man who marked my body as his own had been unavoidable, and because he enjoyed games, the next one meant learning a few lessons.

  Only things changed after he sent me away, with another man altering the terms, and making me give him something I never would’ve offered willingly.

  What would happen to me when his interest ended?

  1

  I woke up to someone’s hand cupping me between the legs as well as feeling extremely groggy.

  The fingers quickly slid from merely rubbing the ribbons to one slipping through them and finding its way inside me with a hard poke.

  Instinctively, I kicked my leg, an action that connected with something and got me rewarded with a grunt as the hand slipped away. Unfortunately at the same time, the motion caused whatever itchy thing I was laying on to rock beneath me, and I flailed to try and steady myself but it was too late.

  I tipped to the side and fell, the sound of laughter from more than one person reaching my ears, and I put my arms out just before slamming into the ground. It wasn’t enough to keep my forehead from banging against it, and I screamed at the same time something cold, disgusting smelling, and with the consistency of mud registered everywhere, my body touched. Luckily, it wasn’t all over my face, just on my chin.

  Unsure what the fuck was going on, I scrambled up from my prone position on the floor while opening my dry and itchy eyes, instantly happy to discover the lenses covering them had been removed. I was also collar and cuff free.

  Strangely, my vision was blurred, and not thinking, I lifted my hands to rub at my eyes when a deep voice said, “Don’t do that unless you wanna git shit in the last place you want it.”

  Freezing, and not sure whether he was serious or not, I asked, “Shit? This isn’t mud?”

  The laughter again, and realizing the three blurry figures in front of me didn’t need to answer the obvious question, I glanced around trying to see how to get out and hopefully wash myself off.

  Seeing the wide open door, it only registered that I was inside a barn while heading toward it. Once outside, the desire to cry made itself known with the prick of tears in the corner my eyes. I didn’t dare, however; it was too late to cry, no matter how upset my current circumstances made me.

  But, I did wonder where the fuck I was, and who those people were in the barn. Not something I was going to figure out unless I found something to wash my damn self off with.

  Luckily, as I stood there helpless and clueless, a soft and sweet voice came from my right side as a gentle hand clasped my elbow firmly. “You can clean off over here. I’ll turn it on for you, don’t touch anything. Last thing we want is more things to clean.”

  She started walking without waiting for me to respond, turning to the left and going around the corner of the barn before stopping, and shoving me under a shower head coming off the side of it after she turned it on.

  The first thing I washed off were my hands, and once cleaned, I felt her press some soap into my hands as she said, “Make it quick. Nobody wants to get in trouble ‘cuz you can’t handle some fondling of those cute little ribbons of yours without freaking out.”

  So much for me thinking her sweet to help me. Showering quickly, I made sure all of the crap was off of me before rubbing my eyes and was extremely thankful the motion cleared the blurriness away.

  What I found after shutting the shower off and turning around stunned me speechless. From where I stood, nothing except beautiful green grass and a forest of trees a little bit of distance away in my line of sight.

  If I wanted to run, not only would the fact I’m chipped like an animal make me think twice, so would my surroundings because this place was no doubt located in the middle of nowhere. No debate about whether I would fight or not; where the hell would I go even if I did?

  Wanting to see the rest of this place and figure out what was expected of me, I headed back toward the front of the barn, using my hand as a shield against the sun now shining in my eyes.

  The moment I arrived back at the doors of the barn, three clean and curious faces — one female, two males — stared at me from where they sat on the dry grass outside it. That’s when I noticed the warm temperature, the solid and dry ground, and the bright sun in a light blue sky. It was a big change from the snowstorm the night the man picked me up and offered the agreement with me.

  “Where the hell am I?”

  One of the males stood up and walked this way, his green eyes examining my body from head to toe when he stopped once close to me with a cocky smirk. “Ain’t where you wanna be, I’ll bet, with those lovely decorations of yours. You musta done something real bad to git yourself sent to the farm.”

  This was the one with the deep voice who spoke earlier. He stayed silent as I returned his inspection, noting his closely buzzed hair and lean, bulky build. However, I didn’t stray below his chest and returned my eyes to his to ask, “The farm?”

  “Capital T, capital F. The Farm. That’s what we call it anyway.”

  “Why?”

  He looked at me as if I were stupid and pointed at the barn. “Slaves live out here and not in the house is why. Like your new home, Ribbons?”

  Original. Bet they were all going to call me that now. “No. Do you know where this place is?”

  “Naw. Your guess will be as good as anybody else’s so far.”

  “You won’t ever know.” Sweet voice pipes up from where she sits on the ground with her blonde hair hanging midway down her back and her nipples pierced like mine. “Lots of men and women visit, all with accents and even speaking different languages sometimes. None of ‘em wanna use your mouth for talking.”

  Great. As well as nasty, too.

  “What you do, Ribbons? We always know the pets in trouble from the others with them kinda decorations.”

  Glaring at him, I figured he was gonna keep asking until I answered, and it wasn’t like I needed to impress him. “I was told to stay in bed until told otherwise and pissed it, then talked back when he acted like I had any way to stop it from happening.”

  “Oh, so you’re his new pet.” Sweet Voice laughed as I looked at her. “Was a girl sent here at the same time I arrived, she had those ribbons too and said her Master liked playing games that way. Been a while, though.”

  Although her statement caught my attention, her final sentence alarmed me. “A while? How long have you all been here?”

  “Four years,” she answered, after which Deep Voice said, “Three for me.”

  “Just one here,” the guy sitting next to sweet voice said, finally looking up from where he stared at the ground to say that before lowering his gaze again, leaving me to dub him ‘shy guy’ for reference.

  All three seemed resigned, and I wondered why they were here so long, but figured they probably had no idea. Didn't think I would be here that long since the
agreement had been a year, but in all honesty, I doubted he intended to free me after a year.

  I might be many things, including naive for having agreed to this arrangement, but I’m not stupid.

  “Is that girl still here?”

  “Nope.” Getting to her feet, Sweet Voice rubbed her hands together and shook her head. “Left ‘bout six months later.”

  “Oh.” Six months? Would he keep me here that long? I sure hoped not. With a glance around, I noticed nothing except grass and trees and turned my focus back to them. “Where’s the house?”

  Deep Voice pointed through a small break in the woods to the right. “We can’t see it, but there’s cameras watching us. Ain’t no escaping, though, ‘specially considerin’ you’ll git shocked you try to walk past the fence ‘round here.”

  “Invisible?”

  “Yeah.” He pointed to sweet voice as she grimaced. “She’ll tell ya.”

  “I tried when I first got here. Couldn’t walk for hours and got punished for a week after, too.”

  Didn’t even get to process that or ask more questions before they both suddenly dropped to the ground, shy guy scrambling up from where he sat to kneel next to the other two.

  “Git down,” deep voice said with a pull on my hand. “On your knees and eyes lowered.”

  Even doing as he said, I had no idea what was going on and tugged my hand free of his. “Why are—”

  Sweet Voice interrupted with a hissed, “Shut up before you get us all in fucking trouble.”

  Falling silent, the answer to my question came in the sound of a vehicle approaching, and I wondered how the hell they heard it when I hadn’t.

  My heart pounded while I waited for whatever came next, the answer coming with a rough yank of my hair that pulled back my head and followed by a hood being shoved over it and tightened around my neck.

  Then, my arms were roughly placed behind my back, my wrists tied together seconds before I was hauled off the ground and dumped face down on something hard. A hand pushed on my back and barked, “Stay!”

  It was a bumpy ride. By the time the vehicle stopped again, my body had ached all over and left me dreading whatever else the day would bring.

  * * *

  A man picked me up from the vehicle and hauled me over his shoulder before walking, his unsteady gait making my already rolling and hungry stomach heave even more.

  I hoped I wouldn’t get sick with this damn hood over my head and wondered why the hell they covered it anyway. Didn’t the other three say they have no idea where we are? Or was I being treated this way because I would eventually leave one day while they were apparently here forever?

  Yeah, that was probably the reason, but still, the permanent blindness ticked me off before and even more so now.

  Panic was useless at this point and wouldn’t get me anywhere. I was pierced, ribboned, chipped, and am kept under constant surveillance; there was no way out of this trap I put myself in.

  Fear? Maybe a little, but only because I didn’t know what came next. Sent here to learn a lesson, yet not knowing what that might entail did worry me a bit.

  Where the hell was this man taking me to? I didn’t hear any talking, although we went up before going down quite a few steps, and then the man carrying me stopped. A loud squeaking sound — a door opening? — is followed by walking again, with me being placed on my feet a few moments later, the chill air and cold hard floor making it clear I wouldn’t like wherever the hell I’d been placed.

  A monotonous and robotic-sounding male voice spoke. “I will leave and shut the door. You will remove the hood and eat the food in the bowl. Then, you wait.”

  I didn’t know whether to respond or not, but before I could open my mouth, the sound of the door closing flooded me with relief. Taking off the hood, the sight of an empty room perhaps no bigger than ten feet by twelve or so with black walls and a concrete floor with one small covered drain in the center didn’t shock me. A tiny sliver of a window letting in an equally little bit of light, and enclosed inside by a solid, black colored door with a small window at the top where I wouldn’t be able to look out because I wasn’t tall enough.

  What the fuck? Not for the first time, I wondered where the hell he sent me, but my stomach distracted me by clenching with pain, and I found the bowl by the wall.

  Picking it up, I figured I should probably sniff it first, but who was I kidding? I was starving to the point of sickness and it didn’t matter what they fed me or what was in it. Refusing to eat wouldn’t get me out of here and they probably wouldn’t care if I didn’t eat; I would get whatever was coming no matter what.

  A mushy, grey-colored substance came to the top of the bowl, and after sticking a finger in to find it warm instead of hot, I licked it off my finger. Oatmeal. Bland, boring oatmeal with no flavoring, yet I didn’t care because at least it would be filling.

  Lifting it to my lips, I tried not to eat it too fast, only needed to chew briefly before swallowing, and it was gone too soon. Licking the bowl like the animal they treated me as, since I didn’t know when I would be fed again, I made sure to put the bowl right back where it was when finished.

  Then, I waited.

  Paced.

  Walking around didn’t last long thanks to the hard floor, so I sat and put my back against the wall, drawing my bent knees toward my chest and wrapping my arms around them while trying to keep warm.

  Unlike the oatmeal, this room wasn’t even on the edge of decently heated. My fingers, toes, and nose were cold; the rest of me shivered. Being exposed to this couldn’t be good for me and I wondered how long they would leave me in here. I doubt they would freeze me to death but fuck, anything could happen.

  Especially since what little light the window let in started to fade until there wasn’t any left, the room falling into complete darkness. And when I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore, I laid down on the floor, curled into a ball, and went to sleep.

  2

  Upon waking, I noticed morning had arrived by the return of light and another lukewarm bowl filled with oatmeal sat in place of the empty one from yesterday.

  I ate, put the bowl back again, and sat against the furthest wall to watch the door. Still cold, shivering, and uncomfortable, not to mention confused.

  Why bring me into the house and keep me locked in a room? What purpose could this serve to teach me a lesson that he couldn’t have done instead of sending me to this place?

  How long I stared, zoned out and hoping someone would come to the room, I didn’t know, but suddenly the door opened. Then, in strode one of the most gorgeous men I had ever laid eyes on in my life.

  Exotic features, with medium-dark golden brown skin and curly black hair, parted down the middle and hanging to his chin. His straight white teeth flashed when he caught sight of me in the dimming light, and he was tall and built, wearing what might be riding clothes since he smelled like a mixture of barn and sweat and a subtle yet spicy cologne.

  Ugh. And stared at me as if he planned to eat me for lunch.

  He didn’t speak, though; just held out his hand and waited for me to take it with a neutral expression. Thinking it might be a trick, I rose to my feet, biting my lip to hold back whimpers thanks to my aching muscles, and slowly placed my hand on his.

  Closing his fingers around my hand, he swept his gaze from my face down to my feet and back again, then nodded and pulled me behind him out of the room. This was when I became able to see everything I hadn’t gotten to on the way in.

  The room was underground, in a row of cells just like mine, the sound of crying coming from some rooms as we passed them. Was this a dungeon? Perhaps a form of jail in this house? I didn’t know, but I couldn’t keep my eyes from roaming the long hallway, or the backside of the man when we finally stopped at the door leading out. Definitely a riding outfit, his pants outlining his ass perfectly, and giving me the strange desire to touch it.

  After a moment the door opened and he dragged me up the circular steps unt
il we reached the next door. And if I thought I would get a peek at anything exciting when we passed through that one, not a chance. More along the lines of horror at the sight of a room filled with naked men; some on their knees, all performing various sex acts on men and women alike.

  The man strode forward, dragging me through the center aisle of the room, and a stray glance, followed by another for confirmation, shocked me. All the naked men had something between their legs, covering their genitals, and the brief glimpse made me wonder if the men at the barn had worn them as well when I deliberately avoided looking lower than their chests.

  I had never seen anything like it, and pushed the thought to the side, hoping I could ask when I went back to the barn, if they were there. I didn’t doubt I would go back to the barn; I just questioned when that would happen.

  Leaving that room, he led for a good while, but not through any rooms that would tell me anything. Mostly long hallways and up stairs, all displaying brightly colored walls, bright lights with various beautiful shades covering them, and lush carpets. No pictures or photos or decorations on the walls, almost like all personal things were kept out of public room view.

  But then he stopped at a door and knocked, opening it up at the response of someone inside in a language I didn’t understand and took me inside. Closing the door, he released my hand, turned me around to face the door before I could look around, pushing on my shoulders until I understood what he wanted and sunk to my knees with my eyes locked on the floor.

  The man who called through the door for us to come in didn’t sound pleased. He spoke rapid, the language guttural to my ears, and eventually, the man returned to stand in front of me without speaking once. The one he had been arguing with said something I didn’t understand as my captor placed one hand on the top of my head, using the other to tip my chin until I faced his groin straight on, and my body shook as he moved both his hands to his belt.