by Anne Rice
“Open it,” he said softly.
Immediately Prince Alexi moved to put his lips to the seam in the Prince’s breeches. With a skill that amazed Beauty he unsnapped the hooks that concealed the Prince’s bulging sex, and revealed it. The organ was enlarged and hardened, and Prince Alexi freed it from the cloth now and tenderly kissed it. But he was in great pain still and when the Prince thrust the organ into Prince Alexi’s mouth he was not prepared for it. He fell backwards a little on his knees and had to reach for the Prince, caressingly, to stop himself from falling. But immediately he sucked the Prince’s organ, and he did it with great back and forth motions that amazed Beauty, his eyes closed, his hands hovering at his sides ready for the Prince’s command.
The Prince stopped him rather quickly. It was clear he did not want his passion brought to a pinnacle. Nothing so simple would happen.
“Go to the chest in the corner,” he said to Prince Alexi, “and bring me the ring that is in it.”
Prince Alexi went on his hands and knees to obey. But obviously the Prince wasn’t satisfied. He snapped his finger, and Squire Felix at once drove Prince Alexi with his paddle. He drove him to the chest and continued to torment him with the paddle while he opened the chest and with his teeth removed a large leather ring and brought it back to the Prince.
Only then did the Prince send Squire Felix back to his corner, and Prince Alexi was out of breath and trembling.
“Put it on,” said the Prince.
Prince Alexi was holding the leather ring not by the leather itself but by some small piece of gold attached to it. And still holding it this way in his teeth, he slipped the ring over the Prince’s penis, but he did not release it.
“You serve me, you go where I go,” said the Prince, and now he proceeded to walk slowly about the room, his hands on his hips as he looked down on the Prince struggling on his knees, his teeth to the leather ring, to follow him.
It was as if Prince Alexi were kissing the Prince or tethered to him. He scrambled backwards, his hands out so as not to touch the Prince disrespectfully.
The Prince with ordinary strides that took no cognizance of the difficulty of his slave approached the bed, and then turning, made his way back to the fire, his slave struggling before him.
Suddenly he turned his body hard to the left to face Beauty, and when he did Prince Alexi had to take hold of him for balance. Prince Alexi clung to him for a moment and when he did, he pressed his forehead against the Prince’s thigh, and the Prince rather idly stroked his hair. It seemed almost affectionate.
“You so dislike the ignominious position, don’t you?” he whispered. But before Prince Alexi might have answered, he struck him a hard blow on the face that sent him backwards and away from him. Then he pushed Prince Alexi down on all fours.
“Back and forth across the room,” he said with a snap of his fingers to Squire Felix.
As always, the Squire was only too happy to oblige. Beauty hated him! He drove Prince Alexi across the floor to the far wall and then back again to the door.
“Faster!” the Prince said sharply.
Prince Alexi moved as swiftly as he could. Beauty could not bear to hear the anger in the Prince’s tone, and she raised her hands to cover her mouth. But the Prince wanted more speed. The paddle came down again and again on Prince Alexi’s buttocks and the command came again and again until he was scurrying to obey the commands, and she could see his terrible misery that he had lost all grace and dignity. Now she understood the Prince’s little taunt. Prince Alexi’s calm and grace had obviously been his consolation.
But had he really lost them? Or was he merely calmly giving this too to the Prince? She couldn’t tell. She winced with each spank of the paddle, and each time Prince Alexi turned to go back across the room, she caught a full glimpse of his tormented buttocks.
Quite suddenly, however, Squire Felix stopped. “I’ve drawn blood, your Highness,” he said.
Prince Alexi knelt with his head down, panting.
The Prince looked at him and then he nodded.
He snapped his fingers for Prince Alexi to rise, and again he lifted his chin and looked into his tear-stained face.
“So you are reprieved for the night by virtue of that all too delicate skin of yours,” he said.
He turned him towards Beauty again. Prince Alexi’s hands were on the back of his neck, and his face, flushed and wet, was indescribably beautiful to her. It was full of unspoken emotion, and as he was led closer to her, she could feel her heart pounding. “If he kisses me again, I shall die,” she thought. “I shall never hide my feelings from the Prince.”
And if it is the rule that I can be spanked until he draws blood.... She had no real idea what that might mean, except a great deal more pain than she had already felt. But even that would be preferable to the Prince discovering how fascinated she remained with Prince Alexi. “Why does he do this,” she thought desperately.
But the Prince thrust Prince Alexi forward.
“Put your face in her lap,” he said, “and your arms about her.”
Beauty gasped and sat up, but Prince Alexi obeyed immediately. Beauty looked down to see his auburn hair covering her sex as she felt his lips against her thighs, and his arms enclose her. His body was hot and pulsing; she could feel the beating of his heart, and without meaning to, she reached out to clasp his hips with her hands.
The Prince kicked Prince Alexi’s legs wide apart and taking Beauty’s head roughly in his left hand so that he might kiss her, he drove his organ into Prince Alexi’s anus.
Prince Alexi moaned at the roughness and swiftness of the thrusts. Beauty felt the pressure against her as Prince Alexi was driven ever more quickly by it. The Prince had let her go, and she was crying. She held tight to Prince Alexi, and then the Prince gave his final thrust with a moan, his hands pressed to Prince Alexi’s back, and he stood still letting his pleasure course through him.
Beauty tried to keep herself quiet.
Prince Alexi let her go, but not without a secret little kiss between her legs right on the crest of her pubic hair, and just as he was being drawn away, again, his dark eyes narrowed in a secret smile for her.
“Mount him in the passage,” said the Prince to the Squire. “And see no one satisfies him. Keep him in torment. Every quarter of the hour remind him of his duty to his Prince, but do not satisfy him.”
Prince Alexi was taken away.
Beauty sat staring at the open door.
But it was not over. The Prince reached out and taking her by the hair, told her to follow him.
“On your hands and knees, my dear. That is always the way you will move through the castle,” he said, “unless told otherwise.”
She hurried along, following him out and to the edge of the stairway.
Halfway down was a broad landing from which one might see directly into the Great Hall.
And on the landing was a stone statue that frightened Beauty. It was a pagan god of some sort with an erect phallus.
It was onto this phallus that Prince Alexi was now thrust, his legs bound apart on the pedestal of the statue. His head was laid back on the statue’s shoulder. He gave another moan as the phallus impaled him and then he lay still as Squire Felix bound his hands behind his back.
The statue’s right arm was upraised, the stone fingers of the hand forming a circle as if they had once clasped a knife or some other instrument. And now the Squire carefully positioned Prince Alexi’s head on the shoulder of the statue beneath that hand. And through the clasped hand, he placed a leather phallus, anchoring it so that it fit into Prince Alexi’s mouth.
It seemed now that the statue raped him both through his anus and through his mouth, and he was bound to it. And his organ, as stiff as before, lay thrust forward as the phallus of the statue was inside of him.
“Now you are perhaps a little more used to your Prince Alexi,” said the Prince softly.
“But this is too terrible,” Beauty thought, “that he must
spend the night in this misery.” Prince Alexi’s back was painfully arched, his legs bound wide apart, and the moonlight from the window behind him made a long line down his throat, his smooth chest and his flat belly.
The Prince tugged gently on Beauty’s hair which he held wrapped around his right hand and leading her back to bed, he laid her down and told her to sleep, as he would soon be doing beside her.
PRINCE ALEXI AND FELIX
IT WAS almost dawn. The Prince lay deep asleep. And Beauty who had been waiting for his heavy sleeping breaths, slipped out of the bed, and on all fours, out of stealth, not obedience, crept into the corridor. She had lain for a long time looking at the door, seeing that it had never been really shut, and she might make her small escape without noise if she only had the courage.
She crept to the top of the steps.
The light fell full on Prince Alexi, and she could see that his organ was rigid as before, and Squire Felix was talking to him, softly. She could not hear what the Squire said, but she was furious to see him awake. She had hoped that he too would now be sleeping.
And as she watched, quite unknown to Squire Felix, she saw him come round in front of Prince Alexi, and torment the organ again with a volley of slaps that sounded very loud in the empty stairwell. The captive Prince gave a little moan, and Beauty could see his chest heave with his breath.
Squire Felix walked back and forth restlessly. Then he looked at the Prince, and it seemed he turned his head from left to right as though listening. Beauty held her breath. She was terrified she might be discovered.
Squire Felix drew near to Prince Alexi and putting his arms around his hips, he covered Prince Alexi’s organ with his mouth and began sucking it.
Beauty was beside herself with frustration and anger. This was just what she had meant to do. She had imagined herself braving all dangers to do it. And now she was forced to watch as Squire Felix tormented the poor Prince. But to her surprise, Squire Felix was not merely tantalizing Prince Alexi. Squire Felix seemed quite in earnest. He was ravaging the organ with a regular rhythm and Beauty knew from the moans that Prince Alexi couldn’t conceal he was now reaching the climax of his passion.
His taut, cruelly bound body shuddered with one protracted groan after another, and then he lay still as Squire Felix drew back and moved into the shadows.
It seemed he spoke to Prince Alexi then. Beauty leaned her head against the stone balustrade.
After a little while, Squire Felix told Prince Alexi to wake, and he gave the organ those tormenting slaps again and when it seemed reluctant, Squire Felix seemed fearful and became threatening. But Prince Alexi was deep asleep in his painful tethers, and Beauty was very pleased to see this.
She turned and silently made her way back to the bedroom door when she realized that someone was near her.
She was so frightened that she almost screamed, a mistake which would surely have destroyed her. But she covered her mouth, and lifting her eyes, she saw in the distant shadows the figure of Lord Gregory watching her. This was the gray-haired Lord who had wanted so to discipline her properly, who had called her spoilt.
Yet he did not move. He stood still watching her.
And when she had stopped trembling, she rushed as quickly as she could back to the Prince’s bed, and slipped under the coverlet beside him.
He had never awakened.
She lay in the dark waiting for Lord Gregory to come but he did not, and she soon realized he would not dream of waking the Prince, and then she was half dozing.
She was thinking of Prince Alexi in a thousand ways, of the redness of his sore flesh after the paddle, of his beautiful brown eyes, and his strong, somewhat compact body. She was thinking of his glossy hair against her, the secret kiss he gave her thighs, and how, after this terrible humiliation, he had given her that smile which was so serene and affectionate.
The torment between her legs was no worse than before, and no better. She dared not touch it with her fingers, lest she be discovered, and it was too shameful to think of such things, and she was sure the Prince would never allow it.
THE SLAVES’ HALL
IT WAS late afternoon when Beauty awoke. She realized that the Prince and Lord Gregory were in an argument. Immediately, she was afraid, but as she lay still she perceived that Lord Gregory had obviously not told the Prince what he had seen. Surely her punishment would be terrible if he had. Rather Lord Gregory was arguing only that Beauty must be taken to the Slaves’ Hall and properly groomed.
“Your Highness, you are enamored of her, of course,” Lord Gregory said, “but you remember, surely, your own censure of other Lords, especially your cousin, Lord Stefan, on account of his excessive love for his slave ...”
“It is not excessive love,” the Prince answered sharply, but then he stopped as if Lord Gregory had hit upon the truth. “Maybe you should take her to the Slaves’ Hall,” he murmured, “though only for the day.”
As soon as Lord Gregory had taken her out of the room, he unfastened the paddle attached to his belt and gave her several cruel spanks as she hurried on her hands and knees before him.
“Keep your eyes down and your head down,” he said coldly, “and lift your knees gracefully. Your back is to be a straight line at all times, and you are not to look to either side, is this clear to you?”
“Yes, my Lord,” Beauty answered timidly. She could see a great expanse of stone before her, and though the paddle smacks had not been very hard, she found she resented them enormously. They had not come from the Prince. And it was just coming to her that now she was in Lord Gregory’s power. Perhaps she’d fancied he couldn’t strike her, wouldn’t be allowed to, but that was obviously not the case, and she realized he might tell the Prince she had disobeyed when she had not, and she might not be allowed to speak for herself.
“Move faster,” he told her. “You are always to take a rapid pace showing your eagerness to please your Lords and Ladies,” he said, and again there came one of those sharp degrading little spanks that seemed suddenly quite worse than harder ones.
They had come to a narrow doorway and Beauty perceived that a long curving ramp lay before her. It was quite clever as she could not have gone down a staircase on her hands and knees, but this she could follow, and she did with Lord Gregory’s pointed leather boots right beside her.
Several times he availed himself of the paddle, so that by the time they reached the door of a vast room on the lower floor, her buttocks were burning a little.
But what concerned her much more was that there were people here.
She had seen no one in the passage above. And she felt torturously shy as she realized that there were many people in this hall moving about and talking to one another.
Now she was told to sit up and back on her heels, with her hands clasped to the back of her neck.
“This will always be your position when you are told to rest,” Lord Gregory said, “and keep your eyes down.”
Yet even as she obeyed this command, she could see what the room was. There were deep shelves cut into the walls all along three sides of it, and on these shelves, on pallets, slept the many slaves, both male and female.
But she could not see Prince Alexi.
She did see a beautiful black-haired girl with very plump little buttocks who appeared quite deep sleep, and a blond-haired young man who appeared to be strapped on his back, though she could not tell, and others, all of whom were in a drowsy state, if not dozing.
And before her were many tables in a row, and among them pots of steaming water from which came a delicious fragrance.
“This is where you will be bathed and groomed always,” said Lord Gregory in that same cold voice, “and when the Prince has had quite enough of sleeping with you as though you were his love, you shall sleep here too, and at any time when the Prince has no specific orders for you. Your groom is named Leon. He will care for you in all details, and to him you shall show the same respect and obedience you show to everyone.”
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br /> Beauty saw before her the slender figure of a young man, directly beside Lord Gregory. And as he drew nearer, Lord Gregory snapped his fingers and told her to show her respect.
At once Beauty kissed his boots.
“To the lowest scullery maid you owe this respect,” Lord Gregory said, “and should I ever detect the slightest haughtiness in you, I snail punish you severely. I am not as ... shall we say, impressed with you as is your Prince.”
“Yes, my Lord,” Beauty answered respectfully, but she was angry. She felt she had shown no haughtiness.
But Leon’s voice calmed her immediately. “Come, my dear,” he said, gesturing with a pat of his hand against his thigh for her to follow him, and it seemed Lord Gregory disappeared as Leon led her into a brick-lined alcove where a large wooden tub stood steaming. The scent of the herbs was very strong.
Leon gestured for her to rise up again, and taking her hands, he lifted them over her head and told her to kneel in the tub.
She climbed into it at once and felt the delicious warm water come almost up to her sex. Leon wrapped her hair in a circle on the back of her head and fixed it with several pins. She could see him clearly now. He was older than the Page boys, but just as fair, and his hazel eyes were very appealing in their gentleness. He told her to keep her hands behind her neck and that he was going to give her a thorough cleansing and that she must enjoy it.
“Are you very tired?” he asked her.
“Not so tired, my ...”
“My Lord will do,” he said with a smile. “Even the lowliest stable boy is your Lord, Beauty,” he said, “and you must always answer respectfully.”
“Yes, my Lord,” she whispered.
He was already bathing her, and the warm water washing down her did feel very good to her. He lathered her neck and her arms.
“Have you just awakened?”
“Yes, my Lord,” she said.
“I see, but you must be tired from your long journey. The first few days slaves are always overexcited. They don’t feel their exhaustion, and then after that they begin to sleep for many hours. You’ll feel it soon, and there will be an aching in your arms and legs, too. I don’t mean from your punishment. I mean only from your fatigue. When that happens I’ll massage you and soothe you.”