‘You misunderstand me, Ruth. My purpose is to make matters clear, to secure an unambiguous understanding. Juliet was not the first woman in my life, but she was the most influential. We never married. It seemed neither necessary nor appropriate to our relationship. She had total freedom of action, and it was her choice, respected by me, to take up an opportunity in the States. We both had regrets, but one of the promises we made to each other before she departed was that our pasts would not stand in the way of new relationships. Even so, parting was very hard, and I never expected to find anyone who could match Juliette’s affinity with me. Until now, that is.’ He paused to sip his brandy, and then said earnestly, ‘Ruth, you must understand that you are not a substitute for Juliette. My feelings for you lie much deeper... they are far stronger.’
She gazed at him steadily, struggling to anticipate where this was leading. She was aware her feelings for him were being reciprocated, that their relationship was more than a transient affair, but she had not resolved the conflict between this satisfying state and her need for freedom to explore all the intriguing corridors of her sexuality, which kept branching out around her. ‘What are you saying, Lewis?’ she asked cautiously.
‘Well, will you marry me, Ruth?’ he asked bluntly.
The question hit her like an emotional tornado, shattering her serenity and nearly stopping her heart. She stared foolishly over her glass at him, her thoughts in utter turmoil. ‘Oh, Lewis!’ she whispered, and in the farthest chambers of her mind the exclamation sounded frivolous even to her.
‘Obviously, my proposal was more unexpected than I had believed it would be,’ he said, a bit stiffly.
‘Well, yes... oh, I’m flattered, certainly... honoured, actually, but I shall have to think things through before I can give you an answer. There’s so much I want to do before I’m ready to settle down, Lewis.’
‘Believe me, Ruth, I’m not contemplating domesticity. I hear what you’re saying. Why else would I have asked you about your desires? Knowing you is tremendously exciting to me. I suppose I want to share your world, and explore it with you, not keep you from it.’
‘Does that include sharing lovers?’ she asked frankly. ‘Would you have been so cool about Oona if we had been married?’
‘I love you, Ruth,’ he said simply. ‘It’s not a condition I’ve just selected off a menu. I’ve felt that way for days now. I believe that exclusivity in marriage is an outdated concept. Fidelity, constancy, call it what you will, includes much more than sex. Monogamous sex is almost a contradiction in terms if you are truly being faithful to each other’s happiness, and truly seeking to fulfil each other’s needs and desires.’
She regarded him with great respect. ‘One of the people I met this weekend is sexually enslaved to one man and married to another,’ she informed him. ‘She lives a perfectly conventional family life, except she has her husband’s consent to have a master who has been granted total control of her sexual being. Could you go that far, Lewis?’
He pondered the implications before he answered. ‘It would all hinge on trust, I believe. The master and the husband could not be rivals. Of course, to be both master and husband would be ideal, but if your happiness depended on such an arrangement, I think I would be able to accept it. So, will you marry me?’
Her mind was calm now; she was sure of his sincerity. ‘It’s going to be interesting working out the details,’ she mused. ‘I quite like the idea of being your sex slave,’ she added, and seeing the light in his eyes, knew she had made a sound choice.
He reached across the table, took her glass from her and set it down. Then he grasped both her hands tightly in his as he gazed into her eyes. ‘Ruth, you have made me the happiest man in the world, and I promise I will strive to make you the happiest woman in the world.’ He raised a hand and clicked his fingers imperiously.
A waiter appeared instantly, and was sent off for a bottle of champagne. When it arrived, and Lewis had poured them both a glass, he raised his. ‘A toast! To the perpetual happiness and total sexual satisfaction of Ruth Stone.’
Chapter 11
Ruth rode back to the hotel in a rose-coloured haze, pleasantly surprised by the turn of events. Following her acceptance of his proposal, Lewis fired off questions about her time at Elsa’s, and grew visibly aroused by her graphic descriptions of the things she had been made to do. As they climbed the hotel staircase a potent excitement gripped her, setting her pulse racing and making her mouth dry.
Inside their room the tension between them soared. She stood perfectly still, gazing at him in feverish anticipation.
He said nothing for a long moment, merely studied her as he might study a painting, absorbing its character. ‘You’re a brazen wench,’ he commented at last. ‘The way you seduced Oona was quite shameless.’
She averted her eyes. Being confronted by her own naughtiness exposed her thinly buried sense of guilt.
He pulled the solitary chair from beneath the room’s writing table, and sat down. ‘Come here,’ he commanded in a quiet voice.
A fierce tremor shot through her body, causing her to shiver in anticipation as she stepped towards him. She knew what to expect, and made no protest as he took her arm and pulled her facedown across his lap. She felt his fingers on the smooth skin of her thighs, and shivered again as his hand slid up beneath her skirt. With a decisive gesture he flipped it back, exposing her bottom, and she bit her lip to contain a moan of excited fear. He caressed her buttocks, smoothing the silk seat of her panties over her soft round orbs. She squirmed.
‘And so you might, you little minx,’ he whispered. Again he smoothed the fabric, this time lingering on the tight elastic waist, fingering the prominent dimple in her back. Then he lifted the elastic, and let it snap back into place. She started, and felt a telltale tingle in her pussy. Very slowly he lifted the elastic and began to peel the tiny garment off her. She squirmed again, her face burning with embarrassment. To be so blatantly exposed by a man was as shameful as it was erotic. Any moment now he would see the damp spot within her gusset and know her for the randy tart she truly was.
He drew the brief panties down to her knees, and then returned to caressing the exposed mounds of her bottom. He eased her legs apart until the elastic, tightly stretched around her knees, threatened to snap. The improved access allowed him to stroke her sex, and the moment his fingers touched her vulva she almost wet herself with pleasure.
He caught one of her arms, bending it across her back to contain her and hold her still. Then suddenly, without warning, he spanked her. He gave her one hard smack with his open palm directly on the fullness of her right cheek.
She cried out.
He smacked her again, provoking a second cry from her, and continued to spank her, raining blows down across her writhing bottom. Again and again, without mercy, he hit her bouncing flesh with his hard hand. ‘You have earned this by your shameless wanton behaviour,’ he told her. ‘Every time you seduce some poor unsuspecting girl into your lascivious games, you must expect a punishment like this.’
The burning, stinging sensation soaked deep into her flesh, spreading all through her body, but especially targeting her juicing pussy. The whole of her vulva, labia and clitoris together, throbbed and ached with longing. When at last he stopped spanking her to press a finger into her soft, moist folds, she climaxed around his digit, squealing in ecstasy and nearly falling off his lap.
‘You are incorrigible!’ he said severely. ‘You’re a sex obsessed little minx, nothing but a bitch in heat.’
‘Yes, master,’ she sighed.
He hauled her to her feet.
Instinctively, she clasped her hands to her burning bottom.
‘This “master” business sounds so contrived, but then this is all a contrivance, I suppose. Let me think.’
‘Master is traditional, sir. It falls naturally from the tongue.’
‘Sir I like better. It sounds good. Yes, you will address me as “sir” until I think of something better.’
‘Yes, sir.’ She gazed at him hopefully. Already the peaceful satisfaction of her orgasm was ebbing and her appetite was reviving.
‘I cannot think how I shall ever contain you,’ he murmured, as if reading her mind. He took off his robe and unthreaded its silken cord. Making it into a lasso, he dropped it over her head and drew it tight around her waist, settling the knot in the small of her back. The long end he threaded through her legs, pulling the cord up into her crotch before threading the spare end under the waist loop.
Ruth wriggled. The sash was lying firmly in her cleft, and its touch was sexy, arousing.
He smiled, and tugged sharply on the cord, causing it to slice into her pussy. Her labia parted to accommodate it and her clitoral hood was pulled back. The super-sensitive bud burned as the material dug into it, and she gasped from the excruciating pleasure. His smile deepened and he pulled on the cord again, drawing it hard against her bud. She was in his thrall unable to resist anything he did, even had she wanted to. At this moment all she desired was contact with her lover, and another massive, mind-blowing orgasm.
He slid a finger inside her, stroking and teasing her sensitised inner flesh, and she moaned in frustration, twisting her hips to try and force his digit in deeper. A second finger joined the first, pushing up on the other side of the cord, and he took one of her nipples between his teeth, nipping it gently while his embedded fingers probed her. At the same time he tugged on the cord, hauling it against her clitoris, and a shaft of burning pleasure pierced her. Her head swam, her vision blurred, and she was sure she must faint with delight as he massaged her vagina. The sweet fire in her pelvis flared, overwhelming all her other senses. She flung her arms around his neck and leaned against him as his fingers stirred heaven up in her womb. With a wail of ecstasy she yielded to another climax, writhing and bucking on his fingers while wave upon wave of pleasure swamped her, blotting out the whole world, its enchanted horizons the glorious spasms in her sheath.
By small degrees Ruth regained some semblance of composure. Lewis guided her onto the bed and she lay there conscious of his finger still inside her and the cord continuing to exert its irresistible pressure against her pussy. She imagined her body was a parcel, her skin the wrapping, the contents pure lechery, all tied up with a magic string. She knew her lucidity was transient. Unless he released her, in a few moments she would once again be submerged in orgasmic paroxysms, and she had no desire to escape.
She shifted her position, brazenly thrusting her pelvis forward, generating a sudden and obvious pressure on her clitoris that surged through her like an electric shock.
‘You are as horny as a sow,’ Lewis said, withdrawing his fingers.
The words sank into her brain like poetry; even insults felt wonderful. But her empty pussy protested, the absence of pleasure the only true pain. She felt abandoned, empty... then she experienced a thrill of joy as warm, living flesh nudged her opening. He eased the cord aside while his swollen organ forced its way into her open, eager entrance. He settled the cord alongside her clit as he filled her body with heat and life, and she seemed to be bursting with him, as though he was stuffing the whole of her belly with his erection.
She focused all her feelings in her vagina, using that miraculous organ to convey her love as she clung to him with her inner muscles. She closed her mind to all distractions, striving to turn the wonderful sensations flooding her body into expressions of regard, respect and worship. And as she tightened around him her own pleasure became amplified. With each thrust the cord was dragged back and forth by his cock so it roughly caressed her clit, stirring sensations within her she had only dreamed possible. Even the most careful masturbation had never taken her this far. Her body was being lifted by his power to new heights of joy. A breathtaking spasm clenched her sex around his marvellous shaft as it filled her completely, displacing all her thoughts, and another wail rising from deep in her chest marked her surrender as he drove in hard, gripping her to him as he spurted his seed into her belly.
Lewis took her lovingly in his arms as their carnal passion subsided, and then he made as if to remove the cord.
‘No, please don’t,’ she murmured. ‘You must understand that, for me, being restrained and controlled is the most wonderful thing on earth. Trust me. Make me your slave. Use me. Hurt me. It’s what I desire more than anything.’
‘But I can’t lavish you with tenderness unless we’re equals,’ he protested quietly, staring soberly down into her eyes.
‘No debate, please, sir.’
‘I admit, having you in my power is the most exhilarating experience. When you respond, and I see that you’re happy, it fills me with an amazing contentment. And, paradoxically, my respect for you grows fantastically, so much so that I want to take you to even greater heights. Forgive me, but I’m still defining parameters. I’m still not certain what is proper and what isn’t.’
‘You see me enjoying pain and want to hurt me more,’ she clarified simply. ‘What’s wrong with that? I’m not forced to accept. There’s no coercion. I can always call a stop. So long as I accept your actions, you’re pleasing me, and yourself. We share, and sharing is the foundation of love. So let me stay in my role as your slave, please.’
He hugged her tightly for a long time before pulling her across his lap to examine the lingering blush of his spanking. When her pulled her buttocks apart to view her anus, she gasped, ‘Oh yes, please, sir.’
‘Minx!’ He spanked her firmly.
She kicked and cried out, struggling under his firm grip, but she made no real determined effort to escape. She knew by instinct that her writhing bottom spurred him on. The increased frequency and intensity of his smacks confirmed it. Her cheeks burned, passing beyond pain into a fiery feeling of lust.
Despite the active night, Ruth woke refreshed and eager for the day. After breakfast, which they had delivered up to the room, she dressed according to Lewis’s instructions. He chose a white cotton skirt for her, the lightest, briefest panties she possessed, and a scoop-necked red shirt that displayed her cleavage nicely.
He insisted they go shopping, and walking beside him in the town square made her feel immensely proud, especially when heads turned to watch them. She was certain everyone could sense how closely she was controlled, and the thought made her pussy juice and hardened her nipples. Their destination was a small jeweller’s shop where Lewis purchased a simple diamond ring for her. Ruth was acutely conscious of it as she left the shop, the unaccustomed presence of it on her finger awakening memories of Judy’s slave ring and renewing her awareness of her gold ankle bracelet, her own voluntary slave adornment.
‘You learn quickly,’ she remarked, as the car sped up the dale. ‘Last night was wonderful. Using the cord was inspired.’
He smiled. ‘Inexperience does not equate with ignorance. Much has been written about domination and submission. One would have to be stupid not to have picked up some basic principles on the subject. You see, I can carry the tune, but I must rely on you to teach me the more refined harmonies.’
‘I’m a mere novice myself.’
‘Then learning together will be fun,’ he concluded.
Oona had opted for a skirt, too. It was short, showing off her shapely legs and flattering her tight bottom. Ruth thought she looked stunning. ‘So, Andrew’s jealousy doesn’t extend to your dress code?’ she commented, as together they moved some of the smaller lots into the salesroom.
‘He likes me to dress provocatively as long as he’s with me. If I go out alone, he expects me to be ultra-conservative. He gets a kick out of seeing men ogle me while he preens. You know the sort of message men can project, “yes, she’s a cracker, mate, and she’s mine, so keep off”. And he knows how that frustrates me. By the way, I rang your friend, Elsa, and she invited Andrew and me to
a party on Saturday. I’ve told Andrew they’re people I met through work, so I’m hoping he’ll go with an open mind.’
‘It sounds to me as though he’s got a definite sadistic streak. You’ll have to find out how to play on it.’
‘I intend to. Yesterday was an eye-opener for me. God, your boss was something else!’
Ruth waved her ring ostentatiously.
Oona clasped her chest in envy. ‘You lucky cow!’ she blurted. ‘I hope you’ll be very happy together, I really do.’
‘I’m sure we will. We’re very clear about the sort of relationship we want.’
The morning was busy and passed quickly. Ruth felt an affinity with Oona, and it was good to confirm the fact that she could share Lewis in a very intimate way without feeling jealous. The carriers arrived and quickly set up the rostra and the seating. The telephone men installed temporary lines, and by lunchtime the empty van was being loaded with unimportant books to be sold off through an associated dealer. Finally, the three of them did a final check of the upper floors.
‘What will happen to the furniture up here?’ Oona wondered out loud.
‘It goes with the house,’ Lewis told her. ‘The few important pieces have been removed downstairs for the sale. Practically all the valuable items were displayed on the ground floor. The Quincy family were extraordinarily mundane when it came to their sleeping quarters.’
‘Sleeping or breeding quarters?’ Ruth asked playfully.
‘I should think sleeping since the line seems to have petered out after a mere three generations.’
‘A great shame,’ Oona said, opening some French windows that led out onto a balcony. ‘My word, look at this view.’
The balcony overlooked the park at the rear of the house. Beyond it lay the full vista of the dale, with the distant town nestled in a fold of the valley. The landscape Parry had seen was discernible, although the dominating feature of the mill and its chimneys had been erased, restoring a more pastoral aura to the scene. Ruth felt transported back in time as she looked out over the rolling hills, seeing the dale very much as the artist had seen it. Parry had captured the essential rural spirit blanketed by industry, and her admiration for his work increased, which brought with it a nagging desire to follow Lewis’s advice and do the research for a book.
Ruth Restrained Page 14