Chapter 4

"So, um," Luke stammered as he walked alongside his new mistress, uncertain of how he should behave now that he was no longer a free citizen of New Eden. He deserved this, he supposed, as he was complicit in the killing of several innocent girls in the woods behind the Mayfield place. Although he hadn't actually killed anyone himself, he had deadfucked two of the girls after Harv and Jasper had gunned them down, his two 'hunting' companions insisting that his participation in defiling those corpses guaranteed his silence regarding their murderous adventures.

"Yeah?" Crystal asked, stopping to gaze at her new acquisition.

"Um, where do you live?" Luke asked. "You have, like, a barn or something to keep me in?"

Crystal stared at him, completely at a loss regarding what to do with her new acquisition now that she owned him. "I, um, don't have a home, actually..." she began. "I usually just stay at the Preserve. There are beds there, and there's a cook. I don't really need anything else." She stared harder at Luke, as though trying to decide what to do with him. "At least, I didn't..."

"So you're gonna just chain me at the foot of your bunk?" Luke asked, knowing that he deserved punishment, but upset about being handed over to some ditsy cunt who had no idea what to do with him.

Crystal began walking again, and Luke obediently followed, half a step behind. He wondered what would happen if he just beat the crap out of her, then simply ran away.

"Don't be stupid," Crystal murmured, soft enough for him to hear, but not sounding angry even though he realized she'd just read his thoughts. "I'm a Phoenix. You can't run far enough that I won't regenerate and come after you."

She turned around to face him, walking backwards now so Luke didn't accidentally run into her. "Besides, I haven't chained you yet, have I?" she grinned, then turned around on her heel so that she was walking forward again.

"Doesn't mean you won't, though," Luke commented. This was sooo frickin' weird! This female owned him! And she didn't even consider him dangerous enough – or valuable enough – to restrain him! Somehow, though he knew it was stupid, he felt insulted!

In silence, they walked until white plastered buildings became wide fields of bushy-looking plants. "Are we gonna walk back to your precious Preserve?" Luke finally asked, his feet getting sore. The Phoenix girl was barefoot, and the road had uncomfortable stones embedded in its surface, but the girl didn't seem distressed in the slightest, and that irritated him, too. As he followed her, he began to wonder that, since she was lacking shoes, what other garments might be missing – and that led him to think of her bare thighs swishing together as she walked, her bare pussy exposed to the air beneath her knee-length dress.

Crystal looked over her shoulder. "Why? Are you getting tired?" she asked, then turned to continue walking without waiting for an answer.

Maybe she didn't expect an answer. Did she really want to know or did she ask him in order to bait him? She wasn't carrying anything – not even a flask for water. Did she even need water? What would happen if they got hungry? What if he got dehydrated? Would she stop or just keep walking?

Crystal smiled to herself as they traveled, listening to his thoughts as they ranged from self-depreciating to ire at his current status to a growling anger at his captor, though she could see in his mind he didn't consider her his captor. He knew full well whose fault it was that he was in this situation – owned by a lowly female. Surprisingly, he hadn't thought about hurting her since she'd reminded him that she was a Phoenix. She didn't think he was afraid of her, but he at least seemed to respect her – for the moment anyway – or perhaps he was trying to respect the law that had landed him here for her perusal. 'Perusal? Funny word, ' she thought. 'He doesn't seem to be that well educated... '

But she figured the best way to learn who he was – other than simply raid his mind (and she didn't know how to do that anyway) – was to spend time with him; learn how he handles being tired or hungry, or not knowing where he was going or what would happen to him. It would give her a good sense of what she had to work with. After all, she was, presumably, stuck with him for the rest of her – well, for the rest of his – life. At least, according to that Writ of Stone.

'And how is that even remotely fair for either the victim or the criminal?' she wondered, then decided that, someday, she was going to have to seek out and actually read that Writ – to see exactly what it said. 'Is it like we're married now?'

And what about his so-called 'friends'? What if he teamed up with Mayfield and that evil Jasper fellow and tried to overpower the seemingly weaker females? Though she hadn't caught out that thought in Luke's mind – In fact, it seemed that he was glad to be away from their influence. That didn't mean, of course, that he wouldn't plot with them to regain his freedom, but it was interesting that he didn't seem to like them much. Crystal decided that it would be prudent to keep Luke away from those lowlifes in order to maintain better control of him. 'Which means the Phoenix Preserve probably isn't the best place to keep him.'

"I think the Phoenix Preserve is the perfect place to keep him," Sandi chirped as she popped into reality directly beside her. She had her own pet human, and it wasn't Jasper or Mayfield. "Been lookin' all over for you, girl," she added, giving Luke a quick once-over. "Didn't think you'd be 'on the road', though."

"I needed some time to figure things out," Crystal replied, a half-smile on her face as she remembered those wicked thoughts she and Sandi had shared during the ... Trial? Hearing? Whatever that confrontation with those men, two of whom were right behind her, had been.

"I understand that," Sandi told her, then gave a low chuckle. "This sure changes a lot of things for us. For them, too," she added, glancing back at the two men who were now walking farther behind than Luke had been before that other girl had shown up with her own prisoner. "You think walkin' back will make things any better? More clearer ... clear, I mean?"

Crystal shrugged, her blond eyebrows almost disappearing up into her curly blond bangs. "Dunno..."

"Me neither," Sandi shrugged, duplicating Crystal's puzzled look. "When I got shot, I never considered that one day I'd own one of the fuckers who shot me – I was just lookin' to find a way to stay alive."

"Hey," Sandi's new pet complained. "I wasn't even there! I didn't shoot you!"

"I know – that's why I picked you," Sandi called back to him, turning around to face him and now walking backwards like Crystal had been doing earlier. "But you still shot at some of those girls, and you helped that Mayfield creep cover it all up, so I'm sure you understand why you get to share in his punishment." She turned back around and trotted forward to catch up with Crystal.

"What do you suppose the Elmhurst woman will do with Mayfield?" she asked once the girls were side-by-side again.

Crystal shrugged and again replied, "Dunno..." This time she added, "Don' care. He's a bastard deserves whatever she can dream up."

"He's got lots of friends," Sandi remembered. "He had half of Utopia riled up against us; Greenville, too."

"He's been sentenced," Crystal reminded her. "Anybody who contests that can just join him. There's enough girls at the Preserve to handle those creeps."

"Crissy, we can't just take a bunch of Phoenix haters and turn them loose in the Preserve. That'll ruin it for the rest of us!"

"What? Having a bunch of guys around who want to kill us is going to ruin it?" Crystal laughed. "What happened to all those fantasies you were blowing all over the courtroom? You were actin' like you couldn't wait to get some guy's murderous fingers around your throat!"

"Yeah, but I like to feel safe when I'm trying to sleep," Sandi told her.

"You mean 'safe' like when you wake up in the middle of the night and see Ric's big hulk looming over you with a knife in his hands?"

"That's different," Sandi countered. "That's Ric!"

"Yeah, and now it'll be Luke and your guy standing over us and plotting our deaths instead of – or along with – Ric and Tony." Crystal explained. "Same difference, different guys! There's gonna be times you'll wake up dead."

"Been there, done that," Sandi chuckled. "Would do it again."

"See? Nothing's changed." Crystal turned around to tell the guys trailing them, "There's a creek behind those trees. We can rest there," and ambled off the road toward that dark, inviting copse of trees, ignoring the sharp, dry grasses that brushed against her bare feet.

In the shade and off his feet, Luke lay on his back, his soaked shirt on the ground where he'd dropped it after rinsing himself in the shallow creek. His jailor, as he thought of Crystal, was sitting at the edge of the creek, dangling her bare feet in the trickling water. He didn't see the other girl or Robert, and assumed they had simply chosen another private spot to rest. He was pretty sure, from the comments Robert had made about his own jailor, that the pair of them were probably off somewhere fucking each other. His cock twitched at that thought, beginning to itch because of his damp jeans. He hadn't been too careful rinsing off the sweat and road dust.

He heard a soft gasp and a chuckle coming from his sexy little jailor and twisted around to see what she was doing. Crystal had raised her feet out of the water, and was dipping one foot down so that only her toes got wet. She laughed and raised her foot up, then delicately touched her toes to the water again.

"What're you doing?" Luke asked, suddenly smitten by the girl's silly, innocent behavior.

Crystal jumped, then relaxed and actually smiled at him. "There're minnows in here!" she exclaimed, her earlier laughter still evident in her voice.

Luke grunted and lay back down. "Minnow makes good eatin'," he said into the air above him. "A little flour, a little grease in the pan..." he smacked his lips in a parody of swallowing a fried minnow whole.

He could feel Crystal's eyes as she watched him. He didn't turn around to look back, though, knowing that, somehow, he would ruin the moment if he did. What he did was smile and stretch, keeping his eyes closed and pretending that he was all alone, simply enjoying a warm afternoon lying by a gurgling little creek.

Crystal watched Luke as he preened – that was the only word she had for what he was doing – a smirk on her face as she realized he was showing off his chest and torso. He wasn't bad looking – his stomach lean and his arms somewhat muscular from manual labor. He looked like he did good, honest work, and she wondered how he'd become involved with a woman hater like Mayfield. Physically, he was perfectly fuckable, but mentally? He might be rotten inside; she simply hadn't decided yet. He'd been sentenced as though he was, but as his keeper, it was up to her to determine how the rest of his life would go – how the rest of their lives would go!

Luke lay in the shade, forcing himself to relax and keep his eyes closed. He could hear the slight rustle of her dress as Crystal came over and sat down nearby. He could feel her gaze still upon him – almost feel her curiosity. She wanted to talk to him – perhaps find out more about him. Maybe even ... and his cock twitched a bit more, attempting to expand into whatever space it could make for itself inside those tight, wet jeans. He managed not to reach down and adjust himself, suspecting the girl was still watching.

A moment later, he heard more rustling and it sounded like she'd laid down on the ground. He grinned, thinking that perhaps she'd begun to trust him a bit. "What?" he asked quietly, his eyes still closed.

Crystal sighed. He could easily hear her. Then she said, "Nothin' ... Just layin' here..."

Something about the tone of her voice; something – anxious – titillating – and he opened his eyes and turned to see...

'Holy shit! She's NAKED!'

Luke found himself up on one elbow, staring at the curvy, naked goddess lying right there in front of him! She blinked and moved back a bit at his sudden movement, but she was determined – he could tell – that she wasn't going to run away from him; not just yet, anyway, but she wasn't exactly meeting his gaze, either. Maybe he'd frightened her somehow. He sure hoped not; from the reaction his dick was giving him right now, he needed to fuck her! Badly!

Crystal's head moved to watch as Luke sat up. He couldn't help but adjust his jeans, now. If he didn't, his cock was going to tear right through the denim. As he reached down, Crystal's gaze followed his hand and he definitely saw a smirk on her face as he tried to smooth down the bulge that made his jeans fit so poorly.

"Ya'll need some help with that?" she asked, a fake southern drawl coming out of her mouth as she tried to role-play her situation.

"Doin' jus' fine, thanks," was Luke's anxious reply.

"Aw, com'on! Let's see what you got," Crystal whined, laughter in her voice. "I showed you mine..."

He looked over at her. She sure did! And she was stroking one long finger down the side of her ribs and along the deep, sexy curve of her waist, then up and over her sweet, wide hips. And his gaze automatically – almost magically – went to that soft, almost invisible tuft of curly blond hair that seemed to point directly at her...

"Whoa!" the word simply dropped out of his mouth. She was all-natural! Blond hair, blond eyebrows, blond eyelashes and... Blond Pussy! He sighed, knowing that he'd just discovered his one true love.

Crystal leaned forward, resting her arms on the ground so that she could rest her chin on the backs of her hands. Luke sighed as her movement robbed him of the sight of those softly bulging mounds now hidden behind one upper arm and lots of wild, blond hair. One leg slid forward as she rested a knee on the ground in front of her, robbing him of the view of her pussy, as well, though her bare rump was nicely highlighted by a shaft of sunlight beaming down through the trees.

He continued to stare at her, a concerned frown on his face. "Oh, come on, Luke," she grinned at him. "It's just meat..."

Luke sighed and slowly shook his head. "Yeah, it sure is!" And he'd like to feast on that meat until he was completely sated.

"Lemme see," she continued, and he suddenly realized she was talking about him – not her! 'My meat!'