My Captor, My Love Read online

  As I was about to pull the ties to his breech cloth, we heard loud rustling in the bushes, then a loud roar. In a flash, Honon stood between me and the sound with his knife in his hand, looking like he was ready to attack whatever came out.

  I quickly stood and wrapped the blanket around me, moving closer to the fire as a huge bear came out of the trees. When I ran to the other side of the fire, I looked for a tree to climb. Don't bears climb trees? Can one this big climb? Before my next thought, I squealed as I felt arms grab ahold of me. Kosumi. Liwanu and Muata moved toward Honon, and the three of them made an arc around the bear. Honon yelled something. I heard my name.

  Kosumi lifted me up and carried me as he ran back to his camp. When I twisted in his arms to see what was happening, the trees blocked my view. The roaring of the bear and yells from the men terrified me. I wanted to go back; I wanted to know what was going on, but I was also afraid to do so--and I didn't think Kosumi would let me. He put more wood on the fire, grabbed all the horses and came back to me, lifted me up on a horse, and hopped on behind me. Are we leaving them? But we just stayed where we were. I figured he wanted to be ready to run if the bear came charging through.

  We sat for quite a long time. What if the bear comes? They'll kill the bear, won't they? Maybe the bear…no…do I want the bear to kill them? Would Kosumi take me back? What if only Honon is killed, will Liwanu…? Oh shit… Please, Lord…don't let Honon be hurt.

  My thoughts turned to what I'd almost done with Honon; I'd almost given in. I can't…I need to be stronger. I can't have sex with him.

  Chapter 5

  Kosumi handed my shirt to me, the one I'd tied to the tree. I quickly put on and buttoned up my shirt; then I wrapped the blanket back around me because I still didn't have any form of pants on.

  Everything was quiet for what felt like forever. I gasped when I saw movement in my peripheral vision. When I turned to look at Kosumi, he smiled and nodded. I looked back at the trees to see Honon and Muata walking out with Liwanu following. Kosumi lifted me off the horse and all of a sudden I didn't know what to do. There was a small part of me that wanted to run and throw my arms around Honon, but a larger part had me stand still. The men walked closer to the fire and I could see they were quite bloody.

  I quickly ran closer to them. I pulled Honon near the fire so I could better see his wounds. I yelled at Kosumi, pointing at my backpack. He brought it over to me and I dug out a water bottle. The blanket fell off my shoulders, but I didn't notice at first. I poured water over Honon's wounds and wiped at them with my hand to better see how deep the cuts were. None looked life threatening.

  I walked over to Muata and brought him closer to the fire. After I rinsed the blood off him, I check his wounds which also weren't too bad. I quickly walked over to Liwanu and pulled him over to the fire where I repeated the process and saw that he had a bad gash under his right arm, so I pulled and pushed him until he sat down before me. Kosumi was near my backpack; I called to him to bring it to me. He didn't move. When I stopped and looked, all three men were just standing there staring at me with shocked looks on their faces. Kosumi's mouth was even hanging open.

  "Well, don't just stand there. Give me my backpack, I need the Neosporin. Get me some clean rags. We need to stop the bleeding!"

  They still didn't move. "Backpack!" I yelled again, figuring Honon had learned that word. They all got moving. Honon actually lifted me by my shoulders to get me out of the way so he could get to Liwanu's arm. Kosumi dumped my backpack out; I figured he wanted to see what they could use. He stopped when he saw Honon's knife. We stared at each other for a couple of seconds before he looked over at Honon. He turned back to me, shaking his head.

  I just shrugged my shoulders and held my hands up, "Ooops."

  Kosumi took the knife over to the fire and I got the Neosporin, it was the best I had. He took the flaming red knife over to Liwanu. Ugh, he's searing it closed? I ran over and pushed in between them. "Wait, let me put this antibiotic in his wound before you do that. This should help to fight an infection, it's better than nothing." I squeezed a quarter of the tube in the wound, moved back for them to do the rest, and waited for Liwanu's scream. Burning flesh permeated the air, but I never heard the scream. Wow, impressive.

  The other three got up and started walking to the horses. "Honon, you have cuts that need to be cleaned." He held up a hand and just kept walking. They rode the horses back into the trees and I stood there looking after them for a while before turning back around.

  There sat Liwanu. They'd left me alone with Liwanu.

  He didn't do anything but sit and look at me with a stone face. What's with these guys and their blank expressions? There was no anger or leering on his face, luckily. His eyes slowly went from my face to my legs and back again.

  I then realized I only had a shirt on. I was glad it came to the very tops of my legs, but barely. I put my hands in front of me to help cover me up and took a couple of steps back. He never moved. He said something and nodded to me before turning his head toward the fire.

  Hmm…maybe it'll be okay. I looked over to my backpack. I knew I had more water and Liwanu should drink it. I walked and slowly squatted down so I wouldn't expose myself, grabbed a water bottle, walked it over to Liwanu, and held it out to him.

  "Liwanu," I said nervously, "drink this water."

  He looked up at me before taking the bottle. He said something to me and again nodded his head before drinking the entire bottle and handing it back to me.

  "Good…that's good." I walked away, backwards.

  Time seemed to pass slowly. I stood by the fire, not wanting to sit my bare bottom on the ground (my blanket was nowhere to be found), and leaned on one foot then the other. My shirt was bloody. A slight wind was blowing through the trees. I kept looking in the direction where the others had gone and looking at Liwanu to make sure he was still sitting down.

  He grunted, lay back down, and raised his injured arm up over his forehead. I started to go to him to see if there was anything I could do, but I stopped--I didn't have anything to help him.

  I was getting tired of standing and was just about to bend down to sit back on my legs when my bottom was slapped. I shrieked and turned around to see Honon standing there with more blood on him than before. After moving my hands to hold down my shirt in the front, I realized Liwanu was behind me so I quickly turned my back to Honon. I moved my hands to my front and then to my back.

  Honon grinned before he bent over and picked me up, tossing me over his shoulder. "Ahhh," I gasped in surprise while throwing both of my hands back to cover myself and Honon put his hand on mine.

  "Put me down…now!" I yelled but didn’t struggle because I wanted to keep covered. Honon walked with me into the woods and I heard horses right before he jumped onto his and flipped me over so I landed across his legs. I still tried to keep myself covered with my hands, but he moved my hands out of the way and laid his hand across my bare bottom.

  "Honon, stop…don't," I pleaded. He turned the horse around and I saw Kosumi riding back to the camp. "Where're we going? Where're you taking me?" I yelled. Damn, can't he understand?

  Honon's fingers slowly moved over my bare bottom. "Damn it, stop it." He's crazy. He's covered with blood, possibly hurt. What's going on? What happened? I tried to move his hand away but he just grabbed my hands and held them out of the way while his other hand continued to stroke my bottom until he stopped the horse and pulled me off.

  I could hear water running over rocks. He picked me up and carried me over to the stream. When he set me down, the freezing water came up to my ankles and I quickly tried to jump out, but he grabbed a hold of me and began talking softly. I tried to stop him when he started to unbutton my top, but he grabbed the lapels as if he was going to rip it off.

  "No! All right…all right, I'll take my shirt off," I grumbled while I slowly unbuttoned it and handed it to him. I just stood still with my hands covering me while I looked around, waiting for something to
jump out at me while he washed my shirt against a rock. He finished with my shirt and carried it over to tie on his horse before repeating the process with his breech cloth.

  I tried to keep my eyes averted, but it was difficult. He turned around and I snuck a few peeks at his powerful back. The span of it was huge; I could see the muscles shifting under his skin as he moved in the moonlight.

  He came back to me, put his arm around me, and walked me into the water. I pushed myself backwards out of his arms. "Oh no…that water is freezing. You're the one with the blood on you, you take a bath." He let go of me and walked into the water, sat down, and proceeded to wash himself.

  I became more conscious of my nakedness, more uncomfortable, and began tapping my foot in irritation. I refused to look at him. But I turned to look, once; he was staring at me. I quickly turned away again with an increasing pulse.

  I heard him come up out of the water and turned right before he picked me up. "You're freezing," I gasped and tried to push him away, but he pulled me to the middle of the stream and sat down with me in his lap. I gasped again, even though the water barely covered my thighs, and he scooped water up in his hand to start washing me. I was shivering and squirming in his lap, trying to get away. But I accomplished more than that. I could feel his erection against my back. I stopped moving and tried to scoot away. He let me and started washing my back.

  When he moved his hand lower, I jumped up out of his lap--almost doing a face plant in the water. Slipping away, I ran back toward the horse to grab the blanket off his back, but after a couple of steps I had to stop--I didn't have shoes on and the sharp rocks hurt my feet. Honon grabbed the blanket, came back to me, wrapped me up, and vigorously dried me off. Between the chilly water and the wind, I was shivering so hard my teeth chattered.

  He carried me to the horse and we rode quickly to the camp where he stood me net to the fire and rubbed me all over through the blanket. I started to warm up a little bit even though I was still shivering, but not as bad. Walking around naked, he grabbed another blanket and laid it close to the fire. I turned to look around the camp and saw Liwanu and Kosumi, but Muata was gone.

  Honon came back to me and pulled me down next to him. After adjusting the blanket so it covered the both of us, he pulled me tight against him, spooning. The heat coming off him was amazing and I wiggled my body even closer. I felt him start to grow harder behind me again, but I didn't care. I was beyond exhausted. I fell asleep before I thought to tell him to stop.

  I woke to see the camp empty and all picked up except for Honon's things. I slowly sat up and realized that I felt pretty good; I'd had a great night's sleep. Honon handed me my bandana, which was wet, along with a mint leaf and twig. After I freshened up, he motioned for me to stand and he pulled the blanket away.

  "Honon," I began as I stood there trying to cover myself up, then, I stopped and stared. He had two long pieces of fabric that looked like his breech cloth. He reached around me and tied straps together at the top of both my hips; a piece covered my back side and another covered my front, almost reaching my knees. It looked like I was wearing a long breech cloth. I was still naked underneath and I was still bare on my sides.

  "Gee, thanks…okay."

  He put another piece with a hole in it over my head and tied the straps together.

  "Well, look at that. When did you get this? You wouldn't be able to make me another bra would you?" I said a little sarcastically, and wasn't surprised when I didn't receive an answer.

  My stomach rumbled with hunger and I would've grabbed one of my protein bars, but I wanted to save those for emergency--for when I was able to get away. How am I going to escape wearing this? Well, better than naked. I need to steal the knife again.

  Honon walked over to me and gave me a biscuit. I saw my water bottles were filled again and sitting by my pack. After I finished eating, I got up, folded the blanket, and draped it over the horse. I packed my things in my backpack and tied it to the horse. Let 'im think I'm resigned. We were soon on our way again.

  Putting me on the horse had been a little disconcerting because I had nothing on under my "skirt." My legs and hips were completed bare, but at least the flaps covered what was important. The bottom of the top barely reached my waist.

  Honon had his arm around my waist and would stroke my skin every once in awhile with his thumb. Electricity shot through me each time, and the first time my breath caught audibly. After that I tried to keep quiet so he couldn't hear what his touch did to me.

  We'd ridden for just a bit when Honon had the horse speed up to a gallop. I wanted to hold on to Honon's arm or at least the horse's mane, but I had to keep my hands crossed over my chest. The bouncing was too much for me. Honon seemed to figure out what was going on and he moved his arm up high until it was just under my chest. He held the reins in his other hand, resting on my thigh. I didn't know if he was trying, but I was highly aroused.

  To get Honon off my mind, I thought of home. I thought of Tamara. I could only imagine how she felt. I knew how I would've felt if she were the one missing and my heart went out to her. I was glad I'd made a Living Will a few years back, putting her in charge of my possessions to do with as she wanted--just as long as nothing went to my sister.

  Cyndee and I were never close, the tension had grown worse as we'd gotten older, and everything had come to a head when our parents were killed. It's already been five years? I was glad that Karen was with me at the mortuary taking care of the details, but not Cyndee…she was in too much pain. Right. She and Eddie were at mom and dad's taking everything of value.

  She was greedy even as a child and she was a manipulative bitch who could give Machiavelli a run for his money. Luckily, I was the executor and able to get the courts, with Tamara's help, to force Cyndee to return most of the items so things could be split up evenly.

  I figured she had to know I was gone. They won't find my body. The courts'll wait until I've been missing for a year before I'm declared dead, right? I could picture Cyndee licking her lips in anticipation. She didn't know about my Living Will.

  My thoughts turned to work. I was sure Tamara had notified them of my disappearance. I wondered how Karen was taking it. She was more like a sister than Cyndee, we'd even known each other longer.

  For a while we called ourselves the opposite twins. Where I was pale skinned, with long, red, wavy hair and dark green eyes, she had darker skin with short, straight chestnut hair and dark blue eyes. Though these days, Karen wore her hair long like mine. My bottom lip was fuller than my top; her top lip was fuller than her bottom.

  When I was growing up I was always overweight, she was always perfectly thin--but not skinny, just right. While I had full cheeks, especially when I smiled, Karen had gorgeous high cheekbones. I wished she was with me so I could talk to her. Better yet, I wished I was home and talking to her there.

  We soon caught up with the others and I noticed Muata still wasn't with us. The sun was getting higher and we rode more out in the open, in the sun for the first time. We'd been weaving in and out of trees until now.

  I looked all around me and was awed by the colors. The earth and pine trees smelled good and clean; the sky was clear with only a few wispy clouds and I could see hawks flying overhead. Honon was pointing things out to me again. I saw a huge stag whose antlers would've made a huge trophy for a hunter. I was happy at least that stag was safe and free.

  We'd been out in the sun for a while and my skin was beginning to burn. "Honon, my backpack?" I pointed and he handed it to me. When I saw the Neosporin I remembered Liwanu's cut.

  "Liwanu," I called. He turned to look at me and I held up the Neosporin and pointed to his arm, "How's your arm, do you want some medicine?"

  He grunted and rode his horse on ahead.

  "Oh well," I sighed. He must be okay. I put the Neosporin back and grabbed my sunscreen, handing my backpack to Honon. I applied sunscreen to my face and arms and was going to put some on my legs when Honon grabbed the bottle out of
my hand, squirted some in his hands, and rubbed them together.

  He leaned forward and started rubbing it on my thighs. I tried to knock his hands out of the way, but he bit my shoulder.

  "Ow! Okay, fine." He didn't hurt me, it was just more of a shock--the kind that headed right between my legs. Slowly he rubbed his hands all over my thighs. He kept moving higher, his thumbs just skimming my hair while he was rubbing lotion on my hips. He put more sunscreen on his hands and began rubbing all the exposed skin on my sides, including the sides of my breasts that peeked out. I could feel my desire growing; I could feel his desire growing behind me. My breath was catching in my throat.

  He stopped the horse, jumped off, and grabbed more of the sunscreen. Taking one of my ankles, he rubbed sunscreen into my foot and calf, watching my eyes the whole time. His fingers rubbed between my toes and smoothed up behind my knee. My legs were getting bristly from not shaving and I tried to pull away from him, but he just held on tightly. I was breathing heavier, watching him. His stare was too much for me so I turned my head, but I couldn't keep my eyes away for long. Moving to the other side, he put sunscreen on that leg. When he was done, he slowly trailed his hand all the way up my thigh while he jumped back on the horse.

  I held my breath so he couldn't see how much he affected me; embarrassed, I cleared my throat and kicked my heels to get the horse moving. Honon reached around me to grab the reins and his lips brushed against my neck.

  "Enough," I said, gasping, "stop it. What're you trying to prove?" I knew he couldn’t understand me, but he had to be able to understand my tone.

  He galloped the horse to catch up to the others. Luckily, they stopped to let the horses drink at a small stream and for us to have lunch of jerky and dried berries. I was able to get away from Honon's touch. We're gonna get back on. I can't take it…what if he keeps touching me?