They kept going. At first, Epoc got aroused at the thought of the treat, of the reward, of a job well done. Her whole body tensed up in its desire to fulfill her Handler’s wishes, but every time she failed to follow orders, the disappointment seemed to hit a little less hard. 

“Now,” Antimony said while Epoc’s whole body tensed up in an attempt to kneel again, “normally we could stop after this. If you were a civilian, this would be an okay place to stop, I think. You’d have to be careful with any future relationships, but given several decades of therapy, I’m sure you could find a way to hide those triggers in safer places than “sex with someone who tells you what to do in a confident way.” But you aren’t a civilian,” she continued. Epoc relaxed again. “Epoc. Hound. Take this.” She held out a ball in her hand. Epoc’s arm strained, but she managed to keep from lunging like she had been. “You’re a pilot. Even if you don’t currently have a Frame or a contract, you are still a pilot. You’re a weapon, Epoc. Like a weapon, you need to have a safety.” She undid the gag again. “Are you ready?”

“What time is it?”

“Some time in the evening,” Antimony said. “Have you had the time to think about your trigger phrases yet? About the keys with which you’re going to chain that part of you.”

Epoc drooled a little – the gag’s fault– and she hung from the rack more than she stood. But all the same, she was ready, and she grinned like an idiot. “Yeah,” she said. “I have.” 

“Excellent.” Antimony undid the straps, and Epoc fell to one knee, pushing herself back up. Before she was even halfway standing, Antimony interrupted her. “Kneel,” she said. Epoc paused. Her back tensed. Was this a test? What if the test was to see if she could withstand deprogramming? What if being a good Hound meant kneeling. 

No. It didn’t. Of course it didn’t. She grit her teeth and straightened her back. “No, thank you,” she said. 

“Good,” Antimony said, and Epoc could tell it had taken her some actual effort not to say something like ‘good dog’ or ‘good girl.’ Couple of fucking weirdoes. “Now, for the chains. I will train you. But this time, we will associate each step of the process – command, execution, reward – with a code phrase. No code phrase, no action. Is that understood?”

“Understood,” Epoc said. 

“Good.” Antimony walked away, then looked behind her. “Come on.”

With a little jog, her limbs sore, Epoc followed. Of course the panic rooms had a bedroom with a massive bed. What struck her was that this one was also clearly not slept in. If not here, where did Antimony sleep? Grabbing a bottle of lube, Winter nodded to the bed. 

“Lie down and strip.”

“No,” Epoc said, walking up to her. 

“Cute. But this is a… part… of…” She trailed off when Epoc approached her. Sure, Antimony was taller, and she likely had a lot of martial arts training. But Epoc knew she could take her on. And right now, she was in a mood. And not in the mood yet. 

“Make me,” Epoc said. Antimony’s look went from confusion to a sort of stammering panic. 

“But, but, I can’t, I’m not, um.” She closed her eyes, took a breath, and then opened them again. “Apologies. I misunderstood.” The otherwise so confident woman reached out and touched Epoc on the arm, opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again. “Epoc,” she said, looking her in the eye. “Please. Lie down. It would mean a lot to me, and if I’m going to fuck you I prefer having a soft bed to do it on.”

That wasn’t what Epoc had been steering at but that didn’t stop her from short-circuiting all the same. Parsing error. Reboot in progress. “Hhh?” she said, but turned around and walked to the bed anyway. What was she gonna do, not respond to that? Antimony was going to fuck her? How? 

Slowly, she undressed, not looking at Winter. The anticipation was killing her, and the arousal was already visible. She sat with her knees up a little, not comfortable lying on her back with her dick sticking straight up like a battleship with a tiny mast. 

The bed squeaked a little, and she saw Antimony sit down. The woman was naked. Epoc realized she hadn’t seen her naked. She’d seen her pussy, up close and very, very personal, but not naked. She had her hands in her lap and her hair down, looking a little bashful. 

“Are you okay?” Epoc said. 

“I am. There is an element of the unknown to this situation I am still getting comfortable with.”

“Take your time.”

“Would you come to me?”

Trying not to look too eager, Epoc crawled towards Antimony and sat behind her, far enough not to awkwardly poke her lower back, and put her hands on either side of the woman’s arms. Antimony shivered. Now she was vulnerable. It was deeply, deeply attractive. 

Gently, glacially, Epoc kissed Antimony’s neck, stroking the hair aside. Once. Twice. Taking in her scent. Feeling the heat from Antimony’s body radiate against her lips. She felt the hands on her upper thighs as the other woman leaned back against her. 

The skin of Winter’s breasts was soft under Epoc’s hands, and she gasped at the touch. 

“Talk to me, Antimony,” Epoc whispered in her ear, kissing her lobe gently between words. “What do I do?” Breaking the spell, she shuffled backwards. Much as she wanted to stretch the moment into infinity, she also knew that this was not the time for lovemaking. 

Antimony turned around, a mixture of disappointment and determination on her face. “Now,” she said, “we are going to do some conditioning. We are going to cement your autonomy.” She looked down at Epoc’s body and, maybe it was a trick of the light, but Epoc thought she saw her lick her lips for a second. “We establish the first key. I will command you, and nothing will happen. Then, we’ll use the key, and you’ll receive a command. Second key. Act on it. Third key. Reward. Understood?”

“Crystal,” Epoc said. 

They played the game, back and forth. Epoc had eventually decided that the first lock was a code phrase of her own. A few words that made her more eager, aroused at the idea of receiving commands. That put the power in her own hands and would allow her to prime herself for, say, combat, almost instantaneously. The third key, for rewards, was one word, and they decided they’d associate it with Winter’s voice. It meant that, without Winter’s go-ahead, she couldn’t be conditioned to any new commands. The second key, the important one, was a call and response. Between her and Winter, that made it almost impossible for someone else to force her to act out orders. 

Antimony climbed on top of Epoc. She was wet, but didn’t move much.

“Touch me,” she said. 

Epoc didn’t move. It took a titanic effort, but she didn’t. 

“Taste me.”

Nothing.

“Mount me.”

No.

“Love me.”

Oops.

Epoc opened her mouth and said the first phrase. Antimony smiled and leaned forward, her mouth next to Epoc’s ear. 

“Enter me.”

Epoc nodded. “Yes, Handler,” she said. Her cock twitched. Then, she gave the call. Antimony gave the response. That was it. First chain. Second chain. Two locks. Epoc did as she was told. 

Antimony bucked slightly as Epoc slipped inside of her. Her body had been ready, but she hadn’t been herself. Epoc reached up and took Antimony’s face in her hands and kissed her, proper fucking kissed her, as she slowly slid all the way in. Her Handler’s soft gasps against her lips as the cock drove deep into her, and then stopped.

“Hound,” Antimony whispered. 

“Handler,” Epoc responded. 

“Fuck me.”

Epoc shook her head. “Again.”

“Fuck me.”

Epoc didn’t move. Then, whispered, so nobody in the whole world could have heard her except the other woman in the room with her, she gave the key. 

“Fuck me, Hound. Please.”

“Yes, Handler.” Call. Response. 

“Fuck me.”

Epoc allowed her lust to take over. Her hands found their way on Antimony’s waist and her hips moved of their own accord. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, and then let her body do what it was ordered. She slammed her cock deep into Antimony. This was Antimony. Winter. Handler. But right now, she was none of those things. The woman on top of her, in this moment, was two things. 

The first was hers. She belonged to Epoc, for a brief moment in time, and Epoc devoured her. She licked her breasts and tasted her skin. She twitched when Epoc played with her nipples and moaned when Epoc played with her clit and she was a toy and an instrument and a meal and all the other things people thought of when their partner stops being an entity. She was a lover and an object of desire and she was, above all, Epoc’s. Her flesh was soft and Epoc’s fingers pressed into into it where they grabbed her. Her tongue was sweet when Epoc kissed her. Her breathing heavy when Epoc fucked her. 

The second thing she was, was an order. Epoc had been told to fuck her, and she did. As they continued, they continued their call. Their response. Every time, Antimony added different orders. Touch. Taste. Bite. Feel. Push. Stop. Resume. Groan. Every time, Epoc waited until the right call and response. Antimony even threw in the wrong words sometimes, and Epoc caught them. 

Slowing down for a moment, Antimony leaned down to look her partner in the eyes. “You’ve been with a lot of women.”

“Yes,” Epoc said. It wasn’t a command. She wasn’t a prude. 

“You’re a good lover.” It wasn’t a question. 

“Thank you,” Epoc said with a cocky smirk. 

“You’ve made them happy?”

“I did.”

“Make me scream, Epoc.”

Epoc gave the call. Antimony gave the response, and that was all that was needed. Her brain moved her limbs before she did. It was working. Epoc tossed her off with ease, and she was a little smug about that too. With zero hesitation, she dove down. Two fingers and tongue, and Antimony was squirming, wrapping her legs around Epoc’s head and running her fingers through her hair. 

Epoc wasn’t having it. She’d been given a command, and when Antimony came, bucking her hips, she continued, curving her fingers inward and extending her orgasm. Then she kept going, because she hadn’t achieved her goal yet. 

It wasn’t until she was on her third orgasm that Antimony screamed Epoc’s name, did she snap out of it and roll over. Antimony was a weak, quivering pile next to her. Epoc giggled to herself, and she was hard as a rock. She’d done good. She was a good Hound. She deserved a reward. Treat. 

“Epoc,” Antimony mumbled.

“Yeah.”

“I’m supposed to give you a reward.”

“Yeah.”

“I can’t move my arms.”

“Heheheh.”

“Don’t be so smug.”

“No.”

“That’s fair,” Antimony said, and squirmed happily. Epoc looked over and smiled. “Do you want to use me?”

“Excuse me?”

“To get off. It’s only fair.”

Epoc propped herself up on her elbows. “That sounds dangerous, Antimony.”

Winter rolled over to look at Epoc. She was a mess. Her hair was tangled and clung to her sweaty body. Her skin was full of red splotches and her eyes were unfocused. She was wet and sticky from the pubic mound down to her knees, courtesy of orgasm two. And yet, in that moment, she was perfect. “I trust you,” she said.

“Oh.”

“Say the word.”

“If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.”

Epoc gave the word. Then the call. Response. 

“Come here, my hound,” she said. “You’ve done your task. Treat?”

“Treat,” Epoc said with a smile, and entered Antimony again. It was different this time. She was close to the edge. She had done good. She’d been a good Hound. Treat. “I’m close.”

Lazily, Antimony wrapped her arms around Epoc’s neck. 

“Look me in the eyes, Epoc.” 

Epoc did.

“Are you close?”

“Yes.”

“How close?”

“Any second.”

Antimony bit her lip and pulled her in deep with her legs, then squeezed on her cock. 

“Come for me, Epoc.”

Epoc felt pleasure bloom up from her. As it did, Antimony pulled her in close and whispered in her ear. The key. This was pleasure. This was reward. This was her treat. Only Winter could give it. What that would mean if Winter ever said the phrase out loud, if that word was said in public and what kind of situations that would leave her in, were only on the periphery of her mind. 

She came. She came hard and deep and she growled as stress and pain and anxiety, all of it released at once and her head became blissfully empty with only thoughts of the woman underneath her, wrapped around her, the woman she was inside of as much as she was inside of Epoc’s head. 

It took them a long time to untangle from each other, and when they did, they realized that, after hydrating, they would have to repeat the process several times for the new conditioning to really take hold. But they didn’t really mind.

 

End of Book 1