The taxi driver did as Alex requested and made sure that Bryony was safely inside the building before he drove away. She put her key in the lock and went in wearily, feeling exhausted and depressed. Perhaps she should have done as Alex requested and stayed the night. But she was a big girl, wasn’t she? She had gone into this with her eyes open and she couldn’t blame anyone else but herself. Alex had been very explicit with her about the type of sex he was into. He hadn’t tricked her or anything.
She put the kettle on to make herself a cup of tea, then kicked off her shoes. She went into the bedroom and pulled the red crepe dress that Alex had so liked on her and which had got him so worked up at the restaurant, over her head and dropped it on to the bed. She looked up at her naked body in the mirror on the wardrobe. The first thing that struck her was that the little patch of light brown hair that she was so used to seeing between her legs, was missing. She sat down on to the bed and burst into a flood of tears.
When she was all cried out, Bryony sipped her mug of tea and thought about everything that had happened to her since she had agreed to go home with Alex. Was it really just a week ago? It felt so much longer. She went over in her mind everything that had happened between them since she had agreed to go for a drink with him the previous Saturday. She remembered the outdoor shower, the sex against the huge window, the way he had shaved her tonight and those few minutes in the powder room at the restaurant. She felt goosebumps over her entire body and the unmistakable sexual urge between her legs. Alex was the most exciting man she had ever known. Had she given up too soon? Could she get used to that sort of treatment? There was no doubt that the thought of it excited her, but could she stand the reality? Would ordinary sex lose some of its attraction after this? What did he call it, vanilla sex?
Bryony was confused. Should she have stayed and talked about it to Alex? She had an ache in her belly and she knew that the only thing that would make it go away would be to have him inside her. She suddenly remembered her father, Stanley, and him telling her not to be a shrinking violet and to go out and get what she wanted from life. She made a decision.
She quickly put on her jeans and a sweater and called for a cab, before grabbing her purse and running down to the street to await its arrival. On the drive over there she rehearsed in her mind what she wanted to say to Alex – that she should have done as he suggested and stayed to talk things over in the morning, and not just run away from him as she did. Perhaps they could come to some sort of compromise? Maybe Alex would be content with just the hand spanking?
“We’re here, Miss.”
She hadn’t realized she had arrived. She paid the cab and went into the building and towards the elevators. The security man, who she had seen earlier when she had come down with Alex, glanced at her and gave her a smile of recognition. Bryony smiled back at him but didn’t stop. She pressed the button for the penthouse. Arriving at the top of the building, the lift opened on to a small lobby, before coming to the door to Alex’s apartment. She raised her hand to ring the bell and spotted that there was a chink of light down the edge of the door. He can’t have closed it properly after he saw me off, she thought. She pushed gently against the door and it swung open. For a moment, Bryony hesitated. Perhaps she should ring the bell anyway, even if the door was open. She made the decision to go in and surprise him by climbing into bed next to him – assuming he was now in bed.
She climbed the curved staircase and went along the landing towards Alex’s bedroom. She was almost there when she heard a noise further along the corridor. It was coming from the playroom. Her brain was screaming at her not to proceed any further, but she couldn’t stop herself from moving on towards the source of the noise.
The playroom door was slightly ajar, and with her heart in her mouth, she pushed it open. What she saw seared itself into her brain. A naked woman, her hands and feet bound, and with a gag in her mouth, was lying over what looked like a gym horse. Standing behind her was Alex, holding a cane in his hand and bringing it down hard on the woman’s bottom. The marks on her skin showed that she had been hit quite a few times.
The woman spotted Bryony first, and must have conveyed her alarm to Alex, who stopped with his hand in mid-air. He turned towards the door and Bryony was shocked by the fierce look in his eyes, before his brain registered who was standing at the door of the playroom. The cane dropped from his hand.
“Bryony, what… how…” he seemed lost for words, the shock registering on his face.
Bryony was paralyzed for several seconds, unable to move. Then she recovered her movement and turned and fled, almost falling down the stairs in her hurry to get away. She heard Alex shout after her, but she didn’t stop. She reached the elevator and was thankful that it was still at penthouse level. She darted in and, just as the doors closed saw Alex as he was running to try and stop her. She closed her eyes and the elevator continued on its way.
“Fuck!” He was angry, but solely with himself. It had never occurred to him that she would come back again. Well, if there had been a chance that they might have been able to resume what they had started, that chance was well and truly gone now.
He turned around, remembering that he had left Melissa tied to the horse. Melissa was a sub he had known for years. They had never had any exclusive agreement. He knew that she had the hots for him and would come running whenever he rang, but she also saw other Doms too. He was always careful to wear protection with her for that reason.
He untied Melissa from the horse.
“What was that all about?”
“Sorry Mel. I’ve been a fucking idiot. Sorry, but can we call it a night? I’ll call a cab for you.”
He saw Melissa safely off the premises and made sure the door was locked this time. He didn’t think there was any point calling Bryony. He doubted whether she would even accept his call. God, he was shattered and crawled into bed and tried to sleep but sleep evaded him. There was a strange ache in his gut that he had never felt before and all he could see when he closed his eyes was the look on Bryony’s face when she opened the door to the playroom. He cursed himself again for his stupidity and hoped that, in time, Bryony would forgive him.
* * * * *
Bryony stretched as she woke up on the first day of the summer break. She had buried herself in her studies the past two weeks and was pleased with her final grades. She was even more satisfied that she could cross more courses off the list of requirements towards obtaining her degree the following year. Now she had two and a half months before the start of the next academic year and she was ready for a break.
She would have liked to travel overseas like some of her fellow undergraduates, but she couldn’t afford not to work for at least part of the vacation, so she had come to an agreement with the manager of the restaurant that she could have her two weeks paid holiday, plus a further two weeks unpaid before returning to work at the beginning of September.
It had been a long time since she had been to the small town of Oakley, South Dakota, a place that she once called home – or at least, one of many homes of her childhood. But it was the most important one because that was where her father was buried. She had a sudden wish to go to his grave and make sure that it was well kept.
The town only had a population of about 1800 people and few of the people that left Oakley to work or study ever returned to live there. Bryony had spent the last two years of High School there, whilst her Dad worked on a nearby ranch. At least, he had worked there until the car crash that killed him just a couple of weeks past her eighteenth birthday. He had been coming into town to pick her up from the gas station where she had a part-time job before going off to college. He had always been a bit of a hair-raising driver and the police thought that he had had a tire blowout whilst travelling at speed. The car hit a tree and Stanley died instantly they said.
Bryony had put her plans for college on hold. She was devastated by the loss of the man who had been both Mom and Dad to her for most of her life, and it was his
loss that made her go off the rails, with her drinking and partying and going with unsuitable men. If it hadn’t been for Nate, bringing her back to the right side of the tracks, she dreaded where she would be right now. Dead, maybe? The thought had occurred to her sometimes.
Her plan was to get a Greyhound bus ticket to Pierre, the state capital, and then rent a car for a couple of days to drive down to Oakley. After a few days there she would return the car to Pierre, and planned to travel by bus down south and then head east to the coast and back to New York at the end of August. She had enough spare cash to stay in cheap motels on the trip and to pay for her meals, so long as she was careful with her spending. She didn’t really care where she went so long as it was away from New York and from Alex.
A pang of sadness struck her. He had called her repeatedly for the first week after what happened, but she had refused to take his calls. He even turned up at the restaurant one evening but she persuaded the manager that she wasn’t well and was able to go home early without him seeing her. She followed that with a brief text to him:
Don’t come to the restaurant. I need the job.
Thankfully, he didn’t come again and the messages stopped too.
She cried a couple of times in the days afterwards to think that that was probably the last she would see or hear from him. But her sadness was not enough to shake her resolve that theirs was a relationship that had been doomed to failure and that what had happened had been inevitable. She would get over it, as she had gotten over other traumas in her life.
In the meantime, she just needed to put some time and distance between her and New York, and, more especially, between her and Alexander Graham. She booked the bus ticket and set off on her trip, with just a small bag carrying essential clothing and her mobile phone and laptop.
* * * * *
Arriving in Oakley after a gap of several years was strange. It seemed much smaller and quieter than she remembered it. She booked into the small motel next to the gas station where she used to work. If she came across anyone she knew from school, she might stay a couple of nights. If not, well she would just visit her dad’s grave and then be on her way.
The graveyard was exactly as she remembered, except the trees at the entrance had grown a little bigger. She walked down the middle and then over to the right, where Stanley had been buried.
Seeing the grave hit her harder than she had thought it would, and she knelt down beside it, silently weeping for a moment. She spoke to him, as she always did when they had been together, and hoped that somewhere, somehow, he might hear his only child and give her some comfort.
“Hello Dad. I’m sorry it’s been such a long time since my last visit. I miss you so much. I wish that I could run to you and have you put your big arms around me and hug me, like you used to do when I was little.”
She began to pull up a few weeds that were growing on the grave, and put the small bunch of flower that she had brought into the jam jar that she had left a long time ago, before continuing.
“Life has been a bit tough recently, Dad. I met this man and, well, it didn’t work out for us, so I thought I would get away from New York for a bit and come and see you. I’m going to travel around for a few weeks and then go back to start my last year at NYU. I’m doing well, Daddy. You taught me well when you used to make me practice my reading and writing, and helping me with my homework. I’m working hard and you would be proud of me.”
Bryony sat then in the sunshine, lost in her thoughts, until she heard someone walking along the gravel path behind her. She turned and saw a woman about her own age stop at a grave just ten yards away from her. She looked familiar. Bryony decided it was time to go, so kissed the simple stone memorial. “Bye, Dad. I love you and I miss you, and I will try not to leave it so long next time.”
She turned and walked back down the gravel path, glancing sideways at the woman as she went.
The woman looked up at her and there was instant recognition. “Bryony, oh my goodness. I thought it was somebody I knew, but didn’t guess it would be you.”
“Lola, how amazing. How are you?”
They came together in a big hug.
Lola and Bryony had been friends in High School. They used to sit together and giggle at silly jokes, and hang out at the local coffee bar after school sometimes. Lola’s father was the maintenance man at the school and her mother worked in the school cafeteria. They were so kind to Bryony after her father died and told her that she could come stay with them if she wanted to, instead of living alone in her and Stanley’s rented mobile home. Bryony had thanked them for their offer, but decided that she wanted to stay in the mobile home, with Stanley’s belongings around her. Two months later she had left for New York and hadn’t seen them since.
Bryony glanced down at the grave that her friend had been visiting. “Oh Lola, your Dad! I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Yes, he got ill last year. The doctor told us it was stomach cancer and that there was nothing they could do for him.”
Bryony reached out and gave her friend another hug. “How awful, Lola. How has your mom coped with it?”
“She’s okay. It was hard for her at first, but by the time my Dad died, and we saw how much pain he was in, she was almost relieved at the end that his suffering was now over.” Lola paused for a brief moment, for them to both reflect on past memories.
“So what are you doing back here in little old Oakley? We never thought we would see you back here once you left for New York. What are you doing now?”
“I’m a student at NYU, in the second year of a law degree. I worked for a few years, which is why I’m a bit older than most of the other undergrads. I decided to get out of town for a few weeks and travel around during the vacation, and I thought it was about time I came back to see Dad’s grave again. How about you? I see you are wearing a wedding ring. Congratulations. Who’s the lucky man?”
“I married Scott Branson. Do you remember him? He was in the year above us. And we’ve got a little girl called Kelly. She’s nearly two.”
“Married and a baby. My goodness, you have been busy Lola.”
“And so have you. I’m so glad you got into school at last. You were so clever, and you probably would have done even better if I hadn’t distracted you so much with all that giggling at the back of the class.”
Bryony smiled at the memory. It seemed like a whole world away since those times.
“So how long are you staying in town then?”
“I have no definite plans. I’ve checked into the motel for one night and I thought I would travel on further in the morning.”
“Well, that’s settled. You are definitely coming over tonight for dinner. I want you to meet Scott and Kelly.”
Bryony did not need any persuasion. It was so nice to meet someone again who had been such a good friend – even if for a short time. She wished she had stayed in touch more. Life in New York somehow drove all the old life completely out of her mind, and, if she was honest with herself, she was a little bit embarrassed and ashamed of some of the dives she had worked in and the lowlife whose company she once kept. After Nate had persuaded her to return to studying and she had obtained a better job, several years had passed and her old life just drifted away.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Arriving at Lola’s Mom’s house, Bryony found it just as she had last seen it – a timber house, looking a bit shabby, with peeling paint. Lola’s parents had not been very well off, and now that her Dad was dead, Bryony guessed that times were harder still.
However, the warmth of her welcome was as great as it had always been. She came forward with a beaming smile when she saw Bryony, carrying little Kelly in her arms. Handing Kelly to Lola, she put her arms around Bryony and gave her a big hug. “Why what a wonderful surprise, Bryony.”
The next hour was taken up with reminiscences and laughter – as well as playing in the back yard with Kelly, before Lola swept her into her arms and said that she needed to go to put the d
inner on.
“Why don’t you come for dinner too, Mom?”
The women then parted company, with Bryony going back to the motel to freshen up and agreeing to be at Lola and Scott’s at 6:30. Bryony felt more cheerful than she had in weeks.
* * * * *
In New York, Alex’s long and boring meeting with his accountant and some of his management team was drawing to a close. Pouring over accounts was not something he enjoyed, but if he wanted to keep his finger on the financial pulse of his company it was essential. The conclusion he had come to by the end of the meeting was that the past year had, on the whole, been successful financially – with just a few operations that needed looking at for their long term viability.
He drew the meeting to a close and, when the others had all left the office, he asked his secretary to bring him a glass of water and a couple of painkillers. He’d had a headache all day, and studying lines of a financial report had not helped.
It was only five pm – early for him as he usually worked until six, or even seven – but he decided to call it a day. He picked up his cell phone, turned off his computer and left the office, which was within walking distance of his apartment, even though he usually used the car to save time. Today he decided to walk, as it was a lovely day.
When he came to the entrance to Central Park he strolled across, heading towards his apartment block on the other side of the park. He decided to stop and enjoy the fresh air, and it was only after he sat down that he remembered that this was the very same bench that he had sat with Bryony. He had tried to push her out of his mind in the weeks since their last meeting, but she just kept creeping in unexpectedly – sometimes several times in a day.
He hadn’t been with a woman since that weekend – not even Melissa – which was some sort of a record for him. A day without sex, to him, was a day wasted. Of course there had been quite a lot of hand jobs, but he didn’t count that as sex. The image that he most often conjured up in his mind was the one where he opened the cubicle door in the Powder Room and had seen that perfect, peachy bottom, framed by a sexy red dress, and those long legs going down to the black five-inch heels. That second before he swung his hand and slapped it against Bryony’s bottom, he had never felt such intensity of desire, and he had experienced that moment over and over again in his mind hundreds of times.
Bryony's Awakening Page 6