He was always hard to read, but his eyes were kind in this quiet moment between us. I felt like I was getting to peer under the surface of the man who could be cruel to others but could be so much more. My heart fluttered as my stomach did backflips. Tears pricked my eyes, and the last thread that tied me to my past life dissolved into nothingness.

He held up the sharp tool with what looked like a scalpel with a sewing foot on the bottom for me to see. Cain adjusted the tool and pulled the blade up so that only a tiny tip was seen below the foot.

“I’m going to cut you, but it won’t scar. Do you trust me?”

Our eyes locked as I mumbled, “yes,” through the ball gag. The look he gave me was penetrating right down to my soul. Nothing else in the world existed but this man.

“It’s important that you don’t move,” he whispered.

I shuddered with anticipation as the blade touched my chest. I closed my eyes and let him create. There was an intoxicating sting to the feel of the blade slipping down my body and over my stomach. The sunshine song played softly in the background, and Cain began to hum along as he drew the blade across my skin. There was a sharp sting but no real pain, and the more he did it, the more my body enjoyed the sensation.

Opening my eyes, I looked down at him kneeling before me, and he was so focused on his task, on his art. He was a true perfectionist. If he’d been a billionaire, maybe he would’ve simply been called ‘exotic with unusual tastes.’ I couldn’t tell what he was creating as his hands glided smoothly over my skin. It didn’t seem to matter what he did, though. He effortlessly kept me on this precipice between sharp pain and pleasure. He made it so strong that the world blurred. They were no longer separate entities to me. They were one and the same.

It could’ve been a minute or an hour when Cain stopped and stepped back from my body. My eyes felt heavy as they fluttered open.

“You are as beautiful as any work of art,” he said as he walked away and came back with a handheld mirror.

Holding it up so I could see his work, I whimpered as my eyes took in the two figures kissing. The image was of the two of us, and the background was filled with intricate lines that made flowers and what looked like raindrops. The image was only accentuated by the trickling of blood that was making its way down my body. Cain laid the mirror down and surprised me as he undid the gag in my mouth. My jaw ached from being forced open for so long, but as he kissed me, the pain faded away.