Dramatic Affairs

by Fredrica Alleyn

‘No? Then how come you’ve been given the part of Kay?’

  ‘I’ve no idea,’ said Esther. ‘I wanted to play Hazel.’

  ‘Well you’d certainly have played her better than you’re playing Kay,’ said Damon. ‘Are you trying to tell me that you didn’t know you had a chance of playing Kay? That you didn’t have an opportunity to tell Christopher you didn’t want to do it?’

  ‘When I auditioned he did discuss the possibility of it with me,’ Esther confessed reluctantly. ‘I seem to remember saying something about of course I wouldn’t turn it down because any actress would love to have a chance of playing the role, but I was only being polite.’

  ‘Not polite,’ Damon pointed out, ‘you were just making sure you didn’t slam the door on a chance of joining his company. You wanted to show you were an adventurous spirit, isn’t that true?’

  ‘I’ve no idea why I said it,’ Esther replied. ‘Whatever the reason I’m being paid back in spades now.’

  Damon stretched his arms above his head and she felt his long legs brush against hers as he spread them out beneath the table. ‘I imagine there’s some consolation in all the private tuition you’re getting,’ he said with deceptive charm.

  ‘If you mean those few minutes we spent in the kitchen,’ said Esther, ‘then they were helpful, yes.’

  ‘I’m sure he’ll find somewhere more private for your next lot of lessons,’ said Damon. ‘Don’t play the naive ingenue with me, Esther. I’ve been around far too long to fall for that one. You’ve made it pretty plain that you like him, so don’t pretend you haven’t.’

  ‘I admire him as an actor,’ was all Esther could think of to say.

  Damon gave a bitter laugh. ‘It’s amazing what that expression can mean to girls,’ he said at last. ‘Well, don’t blame me if you get your heart broken again. And this time, I certainly won’t feel sorry for you. Once bitten twice shy I’d have thought.’

  ‘Why do you have to be so deliberately offensive?’ demanded Esther.

  ‘I enjoy it,’ drawled Damon. ‘Anyway, it makes a change from the fawning charm of our actor-director.’

  Esther’s eyes were now sparkling, and she could see that Damon too was enjoying their repartee even though some of his comments had hurt her more than she cared to admit. Before either of them could speak again there was the sound of the pub door opening and then Ellie Ford was standing next to them at the table.

  ‘There you are,’ she said to Damon with relief, not even bothering to glance at Esther. ‘I went back to the flat and you weren’t there. I thought you were coming round for something to eat tonight.’

  ‘I fancied a drink first,’ said Damon. ‘There’s no law against it, is there?’

  Obviously taken aback by the sharpness of his tone, Ellie backed off hastily. ‘No, of course not, it’s just that …’

  ‘What?’ Damon demanded.

  ‘Nothing,’ said Ellie deciding to sit down next to him. She looked across the table at Esther. ‘Are you trying to get some help from Damon, too?’ she asked.

  ‘Help about what?’ Esther asked.

  ‘Playing Kay of course. I should imagine that’s the thing uppermost in your mind at the moment. It must be horrible to be struggling so badly at this stage.’ The forced sympathy in her voice was even more irritating than Damon’s outright condemnation of some of her acting and Esther felt her temper rising.

  ‘Well,’ she said sharply, ‘I don’t suppose you’ll have any problems playing Carol. I mean, it’s easy for you to assume the mentality of a sixteen-year-old, isn’t it? Admittedly you’re not as naive as she was, but if you used a little less make-up then no doubt even that problem could be overcome.’

  ‘I think I’ll take that as a compliment,’ said Ellie.

  ‘It’s quite useful to be able to play a sixteen-year-old when you’re twenty-four; it opens up a lot more roles for you. You’re younger than me, aren’t you?’

  ‘Just,’ conceded Esther.

  ‘Well I don’t suppose you’ve ever been offered any roles of sixteen- or even seventeen-year-olds, have you?’ queried Ellie.

  ‘No,’ Esther replied. ‘I think casting directors find me rather more mature than that.’

  Damon laughed with delight and Ellie seemed to decide that she would be better off keeping quiet. Within a few moments Damon had finished his drink and got to his feet. Ellie linked arms with him and once again Esther was left feeling an outsider.

  ‘See you tomorrow, then, ten o’clock sharp as our esteemed director keeps telling us,’ said Damon.

  ‘See you,’ Ellie said vacantly, and the pair of them drifted out into the night.

  Esther was surprised to realise how much she disliked Ellie. Normally she could rub along with most people but there was something about the baby-faced young actress that she found cold and calculating. Unlike most other actresses, she didn’t even pretend to be interested in anyone but herself and men. It seemed extraordinary to Esther that a man like Damon Dowden would be at all attracted to someone like Ellie, although she wasn’t certain that it was a sexual relationship. It was always possible that he enjoyed Ellie’s barbed comments, which were in tune with his own.

  Unusually for her, once Esther got home she realised that she was feeling quite sorry for herself. For a start she was finding her role difficult. In the past acting had come relatively easily to her and she realised that this was because she hadn’t been stretched. The only other time she’d ever had a problem Marcus had been on hand to help her and, to give him his due, he’d been generous with his time. Of course, that part hadn’t in any way been related to his work; if it had been then it might have been a different story. Marcus, like Christopher, couldn’t bear competition.

  Quite apart from her professional difficulties, Esther was seriously concerned that it wasn’t going to be possible for her to actually get into bed with Christopher. Rebecca was always on hand and now there appeared to be an even more complex situation involving Theresa as well. Esther wondered if this had something to do with the strange casting of Theresa as Madge. Admittedly Theresa was coping rather better than Esther would have expected, but she was still a mile away from what Esther thought J B Priestley had intended.

  She wished that she wasn’t so drawn to Damon; it complicated things too much. By joining the company she had set her mind on a two-fold revenge plan. The first, to shine as an actress, and the second to bed Christopher and hopefully have this news leak across the Atlantic to Marcus. Even if he didn’t want her any more, she knew that it would infuriate him. Now, although it was admittedly early days, it seemed that she was going to have trouble on both counts.

  There was always Lydia to talk things over with but she still didn’t want to involve her friend. The whole business was too complicated and she didn’t feel that she could really admit to her true purpose in joining Christopher’s company. Lydia would have understood, but Esther felt that it showed her in a bad light. If she hadn’t fancied Christopher at all then she wouldn’t have considered the second part of her plan, but the truth was that she did fancy him. If it wasn’t for the unsettling presence of Damon then she would probably be even keener on Christopher, but even the brief time she had just spent with Damon in the pub had set her pulse racing. She could picture him naked in bed, his long-fingered hands demanding and yet knowing.

  It was more difficult for her to imagine what sex would be like with Christopher. If Marcus was a guide then it would probably involve mirrors. Even during their most intimate moments Marcus had enjoyed being able to watch himself. Usually when mirrors were involved in sex Esther gathered that it was to enable the men to watch the women but in their case she was quite sure that Marcus had had eyes only for himself.

  Although she’d intended to go over the play, Esther’s body felt tingling and tight. She wished that she had a casual lover, someone that she could just enjoy a robust session of sex with in order to relieve the tension that had been building up in her throughout the day. Because she
and Marcus had been going out together for so long sex had never been a problem for her. Now she realised that she was feeling more and more frustrated and she hoped it wouldn’t be too long before she achieved her aim of getting Christopher into bed with her.

  Accepting for the moment there was no chance of that, she went to take a leisurely shower. After she had lathered herself well, she stood beneath the warm spray and allowed it to play on her breasts and upper torso. This had the effect of heightening her sexual desire and she decided to soak her breasts again, but more slowly and luxuriously, taking special care with the nipples, which she gently caressed between her fingertips.

  After a few moments she unhooked the shower-head and, holding it in her right hand, allowed it to play between her thighs. Then she raised it a little and let the water drip down over her lower stomach and pubic hair. As the tension began to gather in her vagina she allowed her thoughts to wander. She’d intended to fantasise about Christopher but instead it was Damon’s dark face that appeared in her mind. Slowly and sensuously she began to lather the soft golden fleece over her pubic mound and, as she did so, she allowed herself to imagine that it was Damon’s fingers caressing her so tenderly. After a few moments she stood with her legs clenched tightly together. Then she crossed her legs and started to contract and release her genital and thigh muscles until slowly she felt the wonderful buildup of warmth that told her an orgasm was on the way.

  She loved this particular moment, the moment when she knew that she would soon be flooded by the hot bliss of sexual release. When she couldn’t stand it any longer she stood with her feet planted firmly on each side of the shower cabinet, thrust her hips forward slightly and, using her fingers, slowly started to stimulate herself with two fingers. She refused to allow herself to touch the incredibly sensitive clitoris, concentrating instead on the area around it so that the build-up was slower but more intense.

  All at once she felt a heavy ache deep inside her vagina. This was something that frequently happened to her as her orgasm approached and what she really liked best was to have Marcus slide inside her just after the ache began. It would ease as she was filled by his wonderful hardness. This time, that wasn’t possible, and the ache was almost a source of pain to her – but a delicious kind of pain because she knew that it was a sign of impending pleasure. Finally, when she heard herself uttering tiny gasps of need, she let her fingers lightly move over the slippery swollen bud. Instantly her orgasm broke, with waves of muscular contractions spreading through her lower body. As she climaxed, Esther kept her hand pressed firmly against the whole of her vaginal area. She needed the pressure and the contact in order to gain maximum satisfaction.

  When it was over she gave a soft sigh of contentment and then carefully sprayed herself down once more before climbing out of the shower and wrapping herself in a warm fluffy towel. Suddenly she felt relaxed and sleepy. She only wished she’d been with Christopher tonight instead of on her own.

  It would have surprised Esther to learn that Christopher was thinking the selfsame thing at exactly the same moment. He’d just showered and was sitting in the bedroom of Theresa’s flat wearing only a silk dressing gown while he waited for Rebecca and Theresa to get ready for him. He was already excited at the prospect of what lay ahead of him, especially since he thought that Theresa was going to be slightly shocked by the events. He enjoyed it when girls were shocked; it added an extra frisson of pleasure to watch their innocence dissolve under his and Rebecca’s skilful ministrations and urgings. He had no doubt at all that Theresa would be a very quick learner and that she would gain maximum enjoyment from their session but, all the same, he wished it was Esther who was with them.

  Originally he had intended to bed Esther simply to show Marcus how stupid he’d been to reject her, but now it was more personal. She was an exciting mixture of strength and vulnerability and he found her hourglass figure and soft, blonde beauty an intriguing contrast to Rebecca’s dark, detached, haughty sensuality. Not that he intended to share Esther with Rebecca, at least certainly not to begin with; he wanted to have her entirely to himself, to feel those round breasts pressed against him and to watch her trembling with ecstasy as he brought her again and again to the pinnacle of pleasure.

  He was so excited by his thoughts that, when the door finally opened and Rebecca and Theresa entered, he was already fully aroused. At least, he thought that he was, but when he saw what Theresa was wearing his erection grew so hard that it was painful.

  Naked, Theresa was even more attractive than he’d expected. Her cascading red hair fell nearly to her waist while her body was amazingly slim apart from her very large breasts. Tonight, these breasts were accentuated by the harness that she was wearing. The whole outfit was designed to drive him to a frenzy of desire.

  She was wearing a leather mask with rivets round the eye holes, and a black-leather studded collar with buckles and a leather ring. Straps ran from beneath her thighs, up each side of her lower body, round her breasts, across her shoulders and down her back again. In her hand she was carrying a long latex domination strap and, although it was clear by her hesitant movements that this was an entirely new experience for her, he could tell by the redness of her erect nipples, and the faintest of pink rashes on her upper chest, that she too was already aroused.

  ‘We thought it would be a good idea if we started some tuition now,’ said Rebecca.

  ‘Who’s the teacher and who’s the pupil?’ asked Christopher.

  ‘I thought we’d take it in turns,’ Rebecca drawled, and, as Theresa glanced from Christopher and back to Rebecca, Christopher knew that for once he would enjoy being the teacher just as much as being the pupil.

  Chapter Five

  It took Christopher and Rebecca some time to teach Theresa how to enjoy being dominant. It was clear that this was not what she’d expected when she first joined them, and Christopher was very pleased that they were using the rooms Theresa was renting. In general he always preferred to play away from home unless he was with his steady girlfriend of the moment. That was one drawback to courting the press as assiduously as he did: he never knew when they were about. Since his home was so well known, there would frequently be a freelance photographer somewhere within range of his front door.

  Christopher wouldn’t have been quite so pleased had he known that George Hickey and Mary Fuller were in the room adjoining Theresa’s bedroom. He didn’t know, because Theresa hadn’t seen any reason to tell him, that George had managed to rent the adjoining flat to hers. Both were very convenient for the rehearsal room and had been available for short-term renting prior to the company moving on.

  As soon as George had moved in, he’d drilled a small hole in the wall in order to be able to watch Theresa dressing and undressing morning and night. It was a bonus that was as unexpected to him as it was unknown to Theresa. However, tonight was a bonus not only for George but also for Mary Fuller. George had originally invited her round for a drink and some company simply because, as they were so much older than the other members of the group, they had become reasonably friendly.

  The fact that both of them were turned on by the sight of attractive young girls, although Mary preferred to watch hers with young men, proved a common talking point and they each had favourites in the company. All that was forgotten for the moment, though, as they took it in turns to watch through the tiny spy hole. Another advantage to the flat was the fact that sound carried easily and so even when they weren’t actually able to see what was happening they could hear almost every word that was said.

  Most of the tutoring of Theresa had fallen to Rebecca. To her surprise she didn’t find this quite as exciting as she’d expected. She realised that, while dominating Christopher was thrilling, having to teach another girl how to do it was less of a turn-on. For the first time she hoped that Christopher’s desire for being dominated wasn’t going to take over their sex life entirely and was quite grateful for the fact that she knew that by the end of the night he would as
sume the dominant role again. He would have to because Rebecca knew he certainly wouldn’t want Theresa to think he only enjoyed being dominated.

  To Rebecca’s amusement, Theresa proved awkward when using the latex whip and it had taken her several attempts before she was able to flick sufficiently gently at Christopher’s straining erection. The slight grimaces of pain that had crossed his handsome features when she got it wrong amused Rebecca. It also increased her sexual excitement because she knew that it increased Christopher’s as well. She could see the uncertainty of what was going to happen while Theresa was in charge was a great turn-on for him.

  For Theresa, the entire evening was an astonishing revelation. At first she looked uncomfortable, as if she could hardly believe some of the things that Rebecca was telling her to do to the great Christopher Wheldon. Gradually, though, she seemed to get into the spirit of things; when she was told to instruct Christopher to kneel on the floor while she stood over him, legs wide apart, and ordered him to use his mouth on her, she looked more powerful and sexy than ever before.

  After asking her permission, Christopher circled each of her legs with his fingers and ran his hands slowly up her calves as he tongued the insides of her knees and thighs before finally fastening his mouth between her legs. When he slid his long tongue between her outer sex lips and began to lap hungrily at her, she shivered as if she were in almost unbearable ecstasy.

  Rebecca was watching the couple very closely and when she saw Theresa’s body start to tense she stepped forward and pulled Christopher roughly away. ‘You weren’t doing that right,’ she said angrily.

  ‘Yes he was,’ protested Theresa, who hadn’t yet grasped the rules of the game.

  ‘Of course he wasn’t,’ said Rebecca, giving a hard look at the other girl. ‘I think I’m the best judge of that, Theresa.’

  ‘Sorry,’ mumbled Theresa, who looked as if she were longing for Christopher to resume his attentions.

  ‘That’s all right,’ said Rebecca, softening her tone as she saw the look of anxiety on Theresa’s face. She didn’t want to worry the girl; she was simply trying to make certain that neither Theresa nor Christopher had a climax this early in the proceedings.