Chapter 28: Gia Resort 3
The Whimper Inn smelled of old wood polish and something sweeter underneath, something the resort sprayed into every corner so that even the lodgings felt like a promise. The player pushed through the door and there she was, already perched on the edge of the bed, a coin spinning between her knuckles.
"There he is," Gia said, catching the coin and slapping it onto the back of her hand. "Back for round three. I was starting to think you'd had enough."
He hadn't. He never did. That was the whole problem, and the whole point.
Gia watched him with that lazy, knowing grin he'd come to recognize. She wore a plum silk robe tonight, tied loose at the waist, and nothing else under it as far as he could tell. She gestured at the floor in front of her.
"Kneel. We're doing a warm-up, and I'm feeling generous, so I'll let the coin decide how it starts."
She held up the coin, a glint of silver between her thumb and forefinger. "Heads, we start easy. A couple of sock swings to get the blood flowing south." Her grin widened. "Tails, we skip the warm-up entirely and go straight to the punishing stuff."
The player knelt. His knees found the familiar dip in the carpet, the exact spot where he'd knelt both times before.
"Call it," Gia said.
"Tails."
She flipped. The coin spun in the lamplight, winked, and landed in her palm. She didn't look at it. She just smiled and pressed it against the back of her other hand, then lifted her palm away.
"You called tails," she said, showing him the coin. "Tails it is. No warm-up. Straight to the good stuff."
The player swallowed. His balls ached in that low, constant way they always did these days, a baseline hum of tenderness that never quite faded. He knew what came next.
Gia leaned forward and produced the sock weapon from somewhere beside the bed. She held it up, letting the weighted tube swing in the air between them. "You know the drill. Legs together. Present yourself."
He shifted into position, knees pressed together, hips tilted forward so his scrotum rested exposed against his thighs. The position still made him feel foolish every single time. That was probably the point.
"Ten swings at intensity four to start," Gia said. "And I want to hear each one. No wimping out."
The player gripped the sock weapon. It felt heavier than he remembered, or maybe that was just the anticipation. He pulled back, aimed, and brought it down across his balls with a wet thud.
"One."
"Louder," Gia said. "I want to hear the impact."
He swung again. Another wet crack echoed through the room.
"That's better. Keep going."
The swings blurred together after a while. Four, five, six. Each impact sent a fresh wave of pain rippling up through his gut, and each time he forced himself into position before the ache could fade. By eight, his eyes were watering. By ten, he was breathing through his teeth.
"Good boy," Gia said, and the praise landed somewhere low in his chest. "Now here's what I'm thinking. I've been saving a little game for you. Something I stole from Reyna because it sounded too fun not to steal."
She rose from the bed and circled behind him, her robe whispering against the carpet. "We're going to play safeword. You know what a safeword is, right?"
He nodded.
"I didn't hear that."
"Yes. I know what a safeword is."
"Good. Because here's the twist: you can use it any time you want. There's no shame in it." She stopped behind him, and he felt her fingers brush the back of his neck. "But if you use it, the game ends. I unlock everything for the rest of your stay. You go back to your room, take a nice long nap, and come back tomorrow all fresh and unbusted."
The player waited. There had to be more.
"On the other hand," Gia said, "if you don't use it, you get through the whole session, and I give you a reward."
"What kind of reward?"
"The kind that leaves you walking bow-legged for a week." She laughed, light and cruel. "Yours to decide, though. Use the safeword, or don't. It's the easiest choice you'll make all night."
She stepped back and let the robe fall from her shoulders. The fabric pooled at her feet, and she was naked underneath, smooth and tan and utterly unbothered by it.
"Now then," she said, settling back onto the bed with one leg crossed over the other, "let's see how good at clenching your teeth you really are."