An Unexpected Stipulation

Kyo, of course, saw none of this. A part of his mind still clung to the idea of escape, no matter how much of a vain notion that might have been: his wrists and his ankles were tightly bound, and a few flexes of his limbs served only to confirm this even further. He was trapped in a web that he had walked right into, and as much as he hated to admit this, helpless.

No, that last part wasn't true: he could still find a way to escape. He might just have to wait for an opportunity to present itself first. That, of course, required that he keep a steady head and not give into fear, no matter what Giulia decided to do to him.

It was at that moment, however, that he heard the swishing of...something through the air. He felt the vibration of displaced air against his skin as this thing passed barely a few inches away from him, and involuntarily, he shuddered. It sounded like a long chord of some sort. A whip.

Instinctively, he breathed in and clenched his teeth, his muscles tightening as his entire body tensed, waiting for the stinging pain to come...

Giulia's only intention was to intimidate her prisoner, and that goal seemed to be almost more easily done than said. After the swish of her whiplash, the Italian could clearly see all the tension in his muscles, all the physical preparation for the impact - and it all just gave her a good insight to what was going through his head.

He clearly knew what was coming.

But what fun would there be in delivering it when he was expecting it? Not much.

Contrary to Kyo's expectations, the second whiplash swishing through the air hit the exactly same place - inches to his side. Then there was a third one, but that actually hit to the other side of his body. Then a fourth one - that was overhead.

The fifth one came close though. Giulia made sure that the edge of the whip subtly kissed the skin between his pectorals, but only with a slight touch before it actually hit the floor in front of him.

Then, she waited. The last one had already been so close, that the next one surely had to deliver the pain, right? How much anticipation was Kyo able to handle?

Kyo waited for the lashing sting of the whip to land. He felt another whip lash crack through the air to his side, and despite himself, he flinched a little at it, the expected pain not landing. He heard the coil reverberate through the air, and another whip cracked into the air near him, then another, then another. Six whip-cracks snapped all around him, each missing him by scant inches, each ramping his anticipating up as he kept expecting each one to land on him with stinging pain.

He closed his eyes under his bandana, exhaled a deep breath, and remembered the zen meditations he used as part of his training. He steadied his breathing, and tried his best to quell the rising fear he felt as Giulia cracked the whip again and again. He was determined, more than anything else, not to show fear in front of his captor, to deny her that one bit of power she thoguht she had over him.

In theory, at least. A part of him was still steeling himself for the pain to come, knowing that Giulia was toying with him while at the same time not knowing how far she was going to take this...

Sure, Kyo definitely wasn't the worst at keeping a cool head. As much as Giulia tried to wreck his nerves with the aimless whiplashes, on the outside he appeared as calm and ready as ever, if not for some tension in his muscles. But even that was more just fun, and...entertaining to see. He clearly wasn't going to break easily, or at least had determined not to.

Well, if intimidation didn't do it, maybe finally some brutal action would.

Holding the whip high for a moment that was a little longer than the previous ones, the Italian eventually slashed her whip hard right in the middle of his chest for its full length. Then she raised it back up, and did the same for a second time. And then third. And fourth. And fifth.

Until finally, a pause. "How does it feel?" the girl began, with an overly satisfied tone. "Regret not accepting me your prisoner?"

KKyo anticipation was racking up and up with each false strike from Giulia. She was playing with him, he knew, toying with his expectations, delaying the expected hurt to make it more of a surprise. A small part of him wondered if she was even going to whip him at all, or if she was content just to idulge in psychological torture.

A second later, he got a confirmation that she was very much into the physical kind as well, as her whip scoured across his chest.

White-hot agony burned across his skin, and he almost, almost, cried out, almost from surprise as much as the hurt. Then another lash bit into his skin, and another, each carrying with it the same, biting sting as the last. Behind the bandana, he screwed his eyes shut, his nostrils exhaling hard as he bit back a reaction. He wanted to cry out, to give voice to the hot pain he felt, but he also knew that that was what Giulia wanted.

He heard her question at that point, of whether he was regretting not making her his prisoner. True, if he had done that, he wouldn't be subjected to this, but....

"Unlike you, I'm not a sadist," he hissed, trying to keep the pain out of his voice. "Is this your plan for the night, then, Giulia? You're going to whip me until I scream?"

A sadist? Sure, maybe Kyo considered that to be an insult. Maybe most people did. But Giulia? No, not really. Especially not when it was coming from a guy she was currently enslaving and torturing. If anything, it was a compliment.

Besides, the micro-expressions occurring on his face were already so satisfying. Giulia could plainly detect that he was doing his best to stay hard, to not show any emotion, to not show any pain...even if he was clearly going through them all.

Even his words that followed were full of defiance. Full of that "show-me" attitude, that he so seemed to cherish - and that was all Giulia's to crumble apart.

"For the night? Oh Kyo..." the Italian began, accompanied by a few giggles. "Oh no, no, that would be so boring. But for the next thirty seconds? Umm, yeah, probably!" the mistress then concluded with an ominously cheerful tone, before unleashing a hell of whiplashes to the exact same spot as she had done just before.

He had practically asked for it.

For a few seconds, there was a pause in the whipping as Giulia made her retort to Kyo's comment. For a few brief seconds, Kyo enjoyed a respite from the pain scoring into his chest, the wounds inflicted still feeling raw and angry on his skin.

It didn't last. The whipping suddenly came again, more and more furiously this time.. Kyo clenched his teeth, but this time even he couldnt prevent a slow cry of pain from escaping his lips as Giulia struck again and again and again. Sweat began to trickle down his neck, and thin red welts now crisscrossed his naked chest as Giulia let loose against him...

Giulia may had not gotten Kyo screaming, but his slow cries of pain were more than enough to satisfy her bloodlust - for now. It was obvious that he was trying hard to keep his composure, to refrain from giving his mistress the satisfaction of witnessing his pain - but Giulia knew well enough that even the toughest male was going to eventually break when exposed to a leather whip, keeping him from being successful with it.

Finally, the onslaught of lashes ceased, granting the cuffed guy a moment of respite.

Well, provided that he wasn't already absolutely terrified of what was going to happen next.

But Giulia rarely wanted to be a predictable girl. Being common and fulfilling people's expectations never appealed to her. No, she wanted to be in a box of her own. And tonight, Kyo got to share that box with her. In both pain, but also pleasure.

Letting the whip fall down, Giulia took a moment to admire Kyo's crafted body - and the signs left by the punishment it had just had to endure. But then she proceeded to kneel down in front of the still kneeling guy, who still had the bandana depriving him of his vision. And without touching his body otherwise at all, the Italian mistress then began kissing his chest, right between his pectorals on the spot where the whip had just lashed him.

And then, finally, the onslaught of lashes ceased. By this point, scores of welts were visible across Kyo's body from where the whip had scored his skin. Not that Kyo would have seen any of this, mind you: all he was conscious of was the hot, seething pain that burned in each of these wounds. His breathing had intensified to the point where he was exhaling loudly through clenched teeth, fighting back tears or the urge to let out a loud animal cry of pain. Giulia had come so very, very close to breaking him then and there.

He wanted to say something indelicate at this point-- call Giulia an evil bitch, or declare that she would never break him, or something to that effect. Something that would at the very least keep his own failing spirits up. But then something unexpected happened: he heard movement in front of him, and felt Giulia's cool breath on his naked skin.He tensed, expecting another attack.

Instead, he felt her lips press up against his chest, on one of the spots aching from the lash. He gasped at that point, both because the pain was flaring up from the contact, but also because of how startled he was from the sensation. His body, which had been experiencing nothing but pain and the anticipation of more, suddenly felt a reverse as an erotic shiver went down his spine, and his breathing intensified as he was left confused over what was happening, and what would happen next...

Giulia was sure to be gentle, but also passionate with the kiss, but her focus was actually divided between it and incessant observation of Kyo's reactions. Admittedly, the Samurai was hard to read, especially his body language, but the Italian thought she could still feel a bit of a shiver going through his body, and some variation in his breathing. Obviously, her actions were having effects, as expected.

Raising her head next to Kyo's, the Italian proceeded to quietly say a word with a low, erotic tone into her prisoner's ear. "Surprised, huh?" But without even waiting for an answer, the girl's lips then moved onto the guy's neck, kissing it hungrily once again, in an obvious effort to mark her territory. At the same time, her other hand was slowly wondering downwards on his chest, her nails scratching gently his skin. And the fingers were getting constantly lower, eventually being placed on his lower belly, still descending.