Hungry

“Make me hungry, or I won’t let you eat until you do.”

“Hm. I don’t suppose you mean baking a loaf of fresh bread?”

Her eyebrow arched. “Yeah, you should try that. It’ll work out great for you.”

Silence.

He put his book down, leaned back, and thought. She flipped through web pages listlessly.

It was Friday night.

.:Friday Night:.

A three piece suit and a leash with a collar attached. He had crawled across the room and knelt at her feet.

She had looked down, rocked her head from side to side, evaluating. Then shrugged and went back to typing out an email.

She had a salad and some crackers for dinner, and he had asked if she was serious. Earlier. About not eating. She had gotten him a glass of tap water and told him she was feeling generous. At the moment.

He had taken a shower, shaving carefully and shampooing twice. Walked into the bedroom with his skin scrubbed pink, and found the plastic wrap. It was hard, wrapping it around his own face, stretching the plastic to distort his features, pulling it just tight enough. He tucked the end into a loop, saw that it would hold, and shuffled carefully back to her.

A sharpie hanging out of his mouth, he stood there naked and waiting.

He thought he saw her head move just enough to glance at him through the plastic, then go back to the television. He took the sharpie in one hand, and carefully imagined block letters written in reverse. He dragged it across his skin, until his chest had a jagged, wavering collection of lines that spelled THING.

Nothing.

A little lower, and he marked his body again. HOLE.

A shrug from her, followed by a shake of the head. “Nope.”

He drank another glass of ice water, and went to bed hungry.

.:Saturday:.

“I’m glad you did this on the weekend, it might have been awkward explaining why I was skipping lunch at work.”

She popped another piece of egg in her mouth, and nodded. “You’re right, I am a kind and considerate ma’am.” She stood up, moved towards the dishwasher with her plate, and picked up his glass of water on the way. A quick rinse and she moved back to the table. “Overly kind, since you still haven’t made me hungry. You can stick your head under the tap to drink until I say otherwise.”

He just nodded.

“So, locking butt plugs and butt plugs with holes drilled through. What do you think?”

She flipped back and forth between the tabs, looking them over, and counted off thoughts on her fingers. “They’re nice, the locking one is expensive, and I think you’d get very hungry before they arrived unless you want to spend stupid money on shipping.”

“Oh.”

“And technically I don’t think the one with the hole drilled through would make you a drain. More of a bowl. Or some other container. But I think a drain is open on both ends and leads to something else. Like a funnel, but more permanent and the same size at both ends.”

He moved the cursor up to the x in the corner, and when she didn’t object closed the window. “I’ll think of something else.”

“I’m thinking I’ll have a nice sandwich for lunch while you do that.”

He wiped his mouth off and went back to the living room, stopping by the bedroom on the way. When she came in after him he was naked, handcuffed to the radiator. The curtains were open, and someone was walking their dog across the street. He had swiveled her chair slightly, so that it faced the radiator but was still out of view of the windows. The Hitachi was plugged in, sitting on the arm of the chair.

“I thought, if you wanted to masturbate, I would watch, and eventually you could throw me the key, but with the window there, I still wouldn’t be able to…”

She held out her hand. “Give me the key.”

He shivered slightly and handed over the small key.

“I’m going to take a nap and don’t feel like wondering if you’re going to sneak a snack from the kitchen. Yell if there’s an emergency.”

He watched her leave the room. “Shit.”

Later, still naked, his arms quivering, he struggled to squeeze out one more push up before collapsing on the floor. His stomach twitched from the sit-ups, and his thighs burned from jumping jacks. “Anything?”

She shook her head. “Good effort, but your form sucks. I’d suggest a personal trainer but I don’t know a personal trainer I dislike so much that I’d inflict you on them. Maybe you could watch a video.”

“No, I mean about making you hungry…”

“Nope, sorry.” She had smiled, but he wasn’t sure if the sympathy was real or faked. “Guess you go to bed hungry. The good news is it looks like you can only go about four weeks without food before it becomes a major health complication.”

“Four weeks?”

“Um-hum, we’ll really save on groceries though. So, upside.”

“I don’t know if I can do four weeks without cookies…”

Her feet stomped across the room towards him and he flinched at the sound. One hand grabbed his hair while the other slapped him hard, again, and a third time. “Then. Make. Me. Hungry.” She bit off each word, then shoved his head down and went back to her chair.

He took a shower and laid in bed, thinking. They didn’t talk when she came to bed.

He didn’t sleep much that night.

.:Sunday:.

He wasn’t really hungry anymore, but there was still the dull ache of absence inside him. He was drinking a lot of water.

“Gotta go get something, you need anything while I’m out?”

“Hm, I’ve been thinking about just sewing your mouth shut since your progress is so slow, but I’m not sure what kind of thread I’d use for that. So no. Remember, no food while you’re out though, or I’ll make it a point to have a needle and thread handy the next time.”

He wondered if she was serious, but nodded in agreement. “I know.”

He came back with a bag, the shower ran, and he started fiddling on the computer in the bedroom. She heard the hum of printing, muffled swear words, and finally he walked back towards the living room.

“Um, could you close the blinds?”

The plastic rod twisted until the room settled into a fake twilight. “All right, let me see.”

He came out to her, naked.

Her eyes narrowed.

Parts of his skin had been shaved, and still shined. In the center of these patches images of the muscles and organs just under the skin gleamed. A heart sat on his right pectoral, a large red fist. His upper right bicep was a chunk of muscle with bones protruding out the ends, sinew giving it the dark purple glare of a fresh bruise. He shifted sightly, and she looked down to the muscles on his right thigh. To the image of the red muscle and white fat running down the inside.

“Temporary tattoos?”

He nodded. “Yeah, turns out you can just print them out on an inkjet printer. Rubbing alcohol takes them off, I messed up the first one and had to start over. You might want to use a dental dam though, I’m not sure if they’re toxic or not if you get them in your mouth.” He swallowed hard. “I mean, if you’re hungry.”

She pushed him down on the floor, eyes never leaving the heart painted on his chest. “Oh, I’m hungry. Hold still.” Her head wavered between the image on his thigh and the one on his arm. She’d already decided to save the heart for last.

Her teeth sank into his thigh, and his hips twitched. She held the soft skin and meat in her mouth, pushing her teeth a little closer together, and purred.

She started to eat.

Preview: “I’M INVINCIBLE!”

Copyright Jerry Jones. Unauthorized use is prohibited.