Marketplace

by Laura Antoniou

  “Oh my,” Robert said weakly. “And we have to do this... in front of each other?” His voice scaled up.

  “Not only that, big guy, but we get to help each other!” Brian chuckled and turned the water on, adjusting the temperature as it ran. “Anyone wanna help me out? Toss me the soap.” Robert squatted down to pick up the soap the Brian had left on his towel and tossed it to him. Brian winked in thanks and rubbed a little soap on the tip of the nozzle.

  Claudia pulled her own soap and shampoo out of her bundle and went to the other shower. But even as she turned the water on, she kept looking back at Sharon, who was still standing with her hands behind her back. She was already fidgeting, and the look on her face was murderous.

  Oh, this was just horrible! To have to bathe and... and... her bundle had two nozzles in it, and even though she tried to turn her body away from the room, Brian’s coarse laughter followed her. What if I don’t do it today, she wondered. What if they check? Oh, that would be much worse! Fingers trembling, she tried to thread one of the nozzles onto the cable. She dropped it twice.

  “Oops! Don’t bend over to pick up the soap around here, sister!” Brian turned around to show that he had stuck his cigar shaped nozzle up his rear. He shook his butt like a dancer. “Sorry about the indelicacy ladies, but it’s almost time to open the gates of heaven!”

  “Will you shut the fuck up!” Sharon shrieked. Over the sound of the running water, her voice reverberated around the sterile room. She twisted, but tried to keep her hands behind her back. “This is not one big joke to some of us!”

  “Yeah,” Robert chimed in. He was holding his own soap, almost protectively. “Please... we don’t need to be in any more trouble!”

  Brian jerked the plug out of his ass and walked with exaggerated dignity over to one of the toilets. Sitting down, he stuck his tongue out and laughed. He leaned forward with a sigh and began to play with his nipple rings.

  This is a nightmare, Claudia thought, as tears began to form again. She turned to the wall and gasped as she felt a touch on her shoulder. It was Robert. He screwed the nozzle onto the silver cable for her and then retreated to the other shower head. There was no avoiding it. Claudia adjusted the flow and temperature of the water and cleansed herself. Front and back.

  Mistress will be proud of me, she thought, tears streaming down her face. I will be very, very good.

  Robert hurriedly showered. His kit did not contain a razor, and he wondered what to do about the stubble that was already appearing. One of his usual morning rituals was to shave all of his body hair off, and he felt strange not doing it. But he was used to cleaning his nether regions for Mistress, just in case she deigned to make use of him. He just wasn’t used to having another man—or a young, pretty woman, for that matter—watch him.

  To his horror, as tepid water flowed into him, his nasty thing started to misbehave. He turned to the wall, but there wasn’t really enough room. He blushed and tried to cover himself. Frantically, he turned the water off. Then, he glanced quickly at the remaining toilet and dashed for it, his hands covering his growing embarrassment. Sharon, from her vantage point in the middle of the room, made a snorting, derisive sound.

  “You’ll never make it if you’re that shy,” she said, shifting from foot to foot.

  “Hey, sweet tits, you better be nice to him,” Brian said, punctuating his words with a flush. He went back to the shower to wash and rinse off. From under the water, he continued, “Because I sure as hell ain’t giving you my stuff to help make you all nice and spanking clean. You’d better charm the socks off these two shrinking violets, so they’ll be nice to you.” He stepped out, shook the excess water off and began toweling himself down. Deliberately, he let his towel drag along the floor.

  “Bastard!” Sharon spat.

  Claudia ignored both of them as she went about her humiliating duties. She washed her cleaning implements out in the sink with very hot water, and then brushed her teeth. When she was finally finished, she dried herself off and looked forlornly around for grooming tools. The only one in her bundle was the toothbrush. There was no hair dryer, no brush, not even a comb. And there was no cream rinse, and no conditioner, and no styling gel. No soft creams to rub into her skin and make it velvety and sweet smelling. She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to get it to fall attractively, and then stowed her toothbrush, the two nozzles and her soap and shampoo on the lowest shelf.

  “I still don’t hear you begging anyone for their stuff, Miss Thing,” Brian taunted as he picked up his supplies and put them away.

  “Just shut the fuck up!”

  He shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

  Sharon closed her eyes and tried to count to a hundred. She was exhausted, stiff, and despite the steam in the room, still chilly. And her arms were beginning to hurt. And her feet. But she would go to hell before she asked any of these assholes for anything. She looked around. Were they finished? Chris had said that she only had to wait until they were finished. But Robert was still washing, back under the shower like Brian had done, to rinse off. She ground her teeth.

  The bell went off and Claudia and Robert scrambled for the door without looking back. Brian sauntered, blowing a kiss to Sharon on his way out. With a heavy sigh, she shook her arms out and dashed for the shower. She purred under the steaming water. There, she thought, reaching for the soap that Robert left behind. I didn’t need to ask any slave for permission to do anything.

  She took her time, running the bar of soap over her body and luxuriating in the feeling of heat that ran through her limbs. Then, as her hands slipped across her beaten ass cheeks, she realized that they might be waiting for her. The image of Chris with that damn strap flashed into her mind, and she rinsed off. All of the towels were damp, but Claudia’s had been folded neatly, so she used it to dry off as well as she could.

  When she got to the dorm, she had to smile. Not only wasn’t Chris there yet, but the other three looked unhappy and uncomfortable. And no wonder.

  Cute little Claudia was wearing a simple gray cotton dress, with no frills and no real decorative elements. Flat shoes were on her feet. Brian was wearing a gray T-shirt and plain cotton pants. His feet were bare. Robert had the pants but no shirt. His arms were crossed over his chest.

  “Great fashion sense,” Sharon said as she walked over to her bed. She didn’t expect to find anything there. After all, she was going to be a pleasure slave. And she was beautiful. When you have beautiful things around, you show them off. No problem with that. But laid out on the bed was another gray dress. She sighed and picked it up.

  Well, she thought, while pulling it over her head, at least I’ll look better in it then miss French maid over there does. She barely has any tits. But instead of clinging to her body and falling to mid-thigh, like she expected it would, the shapeless frock settled over her body like a tent. It fell below her knees. It was unmistakably hideous.

  Brian smirked and started to say something, but Chris suddenly appeared in the doorway.

  “Knees up against the edge of the bed, backs to me!”

  They moved into position, and he passed between them, touching as he went. He saw all of them, telling them to move or drop or raise clothing as he desired. He poked and ran his fingers along their bodies, made them bend and twist to offer themselves to his observation. When he finished with Sharon, he walked back through them and turned to face them.

  “Disgraceful,” he snapped, pulling his pen out. “Your backs and the backs of your calves are still damp. Your hair is tangled, matted, and unevenly dried. One of you failed to conduct a thorough cleansing. Another didn’t brush his teeth. None of you is in any shape to meet your trainers, let alone eat breakfast with them. I think you’ll break your fast alone this morning.”

  Claudia and Robert both lowered their heads. Brian stiffened.

  Sharon’s stomach growled at the word ‘breakfast.’

  “When you are given an opportunity to help one another, I suggest you take it.
If you had done so instead of wasting time in meaningless modesty and pointless chatter, you could have dried each other’s backs and examined each other. Now. Who loaned their cleaning supplies to Sharon?”

  The question was fired off as strongly as the criticisms. Brian’s mouth twitched into a slight smirk.

  “I asked a question!” Chris tucked the clipboard under one arm and reached for the strap.

  “No one!” Brian said immediately.

  Chris’s eyebrow edged up over the rim of his glasses. “No one? Is that so?”

  “Well, uh, oh dear, I didn’t tell her that she couldn’t use mine,” Robert said, his voice slipping further into his falsetto.

  Chris nodded. “I see. Sharon, report back to the bathroom at once. I will come and get you after breakfast. The rest of you will follow me. In silence, please. You have made enough noise this morning.”

  “Wait...wait.” At the sound of Sharon’s voice, the three other applicants sighed. Brian rolled his eyes back. How much trouble was this bitch going to get them in?

  “What do you mean, after breakfast? Don’t I get to eat?”

  “Eat?” For one second, Claudia saw a gleam of pleasure in the majordomo’s eyes. “Oh yes, my dear. You’ll eat.”

  The three followed Chris to the stairway, where he stopped to signal Ms. Rachel to his side. She was carrying a box of supplies in her arms. Chris said, “I’ve sent you a little helper, Rachel. Have her clean that room from corner to corner. Feel free to use whatever means necessary to get her to behave.”

  The woman nodded seriously, but all three slaves could see that she was pleased.

  “Oh, and Rachel?” Chris hooked a finger into the box, rummaged around, and pulled out a round ball of decorative soap. “Don’t forget her breakfast.” Pleasure turned to cruel delight. Rachel smiled sweetly and dipped her head courteously before going down the hall.

  Chapter Three

  It was hard to believe that after all they had gone through, that the day was still very young. They blinked in the sunlight as they followed Chris out the back door of the house, through a roofed courtyard and into a formal garden. When he pointed, they obediently preceded him to an open area of flagstones, and then turned to face the owners of the house, who were seated. A coffee pot and two cups were on a table between them, and each of them held a clipboard.

  Alexandra raised her head inquisitively toward Chris. Her blonde hair shimmered in the morning light. “Where is Sharon?” she asked.

  “She has been delayed, Ma’am.”

  “Discipline problems already?” Alexandra smiled.

  “Didn’t you hear her serenade this morning?” Grendel asked. He poured himself more coffee. “Go and get her, boy.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “All right now.” Alexandra glanced at her notes. “Since my two are here, I’ll begin. This is the official start of your evaluation period at this house. From now on, everything you say, do, and are will be noted. Before we cover some basic rules and explain what’s going to happen, does everyone understand why they are here?”

  Robert and Brian nodded. “Yes, Mistress,” Robert added, his voice pitched high.

  “I’m not your mistress,” Alexandra replied. “Ma’am is good enough for the queen, it’s good enough for me. What about you, Claudia?”

  “I... I think I understand, ma’am,” Claudia said. “Mistress wants me to receive further training.”

  “Good enough,” Grendel murmured. He turned when he heard the sound of Chris’s boots on the stone walkway. Chris appeared, pushing Sharon ahead of him by a firm grip on her upper arm. Her shapeless gray dress was so wet in so many places that she left a trail of drops. There were still bubbles evident around her throat and in several places on the dress. She looked even more exhausted than before, and very, very angry. Chris pushed her to stand with the others, and she gasped, choked, and expelled a small bubble from her mouth.

  Brian barely managed to suppress a giggle. Alexandra caught his eyes.

  “I hope you receive equal commiseration when you find yourself being disciplined, Brian,” she said.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am,” Brian managed.

  “Getting back to what I was saying. I’m sure Chris went over some of this with you, but there are some fine points you need to hear from us. During the next week, you are required to maintain absolute respect and obedience. We have all your records, we know what you can and can’t do as well as what you can take. You are not allowed to ask questions unless given direct permission to do so. You are not allowed privacy, the freedom of discussion, choices in anything, or pleasure, unless it is directly given to you. You may not touch yourselves or each other without permission. Is this all understood?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” they all chorused.

  Grendel continued. “Furthermore, you are under strict discipline. Anyone in this household has the right to correct your behavior in any manner appropriate.” He glanced at Sharon. “You have no rights. At the end of the week, if things work out, we might permit you to try and earn some. But don’t count on it.”

  “You’ll have chores to do, practical ones.” Alexandra handed a sheet of paper to Chris, who studied it. “You will also be tested in a number of ways, and trained and tested again. This isn’t a fantasy-land, kids, this is a vocational school. Think of it that way and you’ll do much better.”

  “When you’re given an opportunity to do things which are forbidden, take it,” Grendel advised. “In a moment, we’ll let you ask us some questions. Think very carefully about what you want to ask.”

  Alexandra touched the back of his hand gently. “Let’s get the questions over with now. Chris can fill them in on the rest of the rules during the day.”

  “What a good idea.” Grendel turned to the applicants and picked up his coffee. “I’m ready.”

  “Look, master, I think there’s—” Sharon began.

  “Address me correctly, Sharon. Especially when asking questions.” He sipped, and Sharon wiped her lips with the back of her hand.

  “Right,” she sighed. “Sir. Look, sir, I think there’s been a mistake here. Can we talk about this in private?” She jerked a thumb toward the house.

  “That’s an easy one. No. Next question?”

  Alexandra laughed.

  “Hey, wait a minute!” Sharon’s voice scaled up slightly. “I mean it! I mean—this is not what I signed up for, OK?”

  Chris began to come forward, but Grendel held up one hand. He gestured to Sharon to continue.

  “Look, I understand why you do a lot of this stuff. But I am not in this to become Suzy Homemaker slave, OK? I am a pleasure slave, and I’m not used to this stuff. I thought we had a deal. And you never said anything about getting up at five in the morning and cleaning bathrooms, or, or...” She wiped her mouth again. “Or anything!” She brushed back her thick hair with one hand, trying to find some pose that made the sack she was wearing seem even vaguely flattering. Grendel noted that despite the difficulty of the task, she did manage to retain some measure of beauty.

  If we can train her, he thought, just a little, she can move out of here like an Armani suit at Barneys during the warehouse sale. He turned to Alex. Did she want to field this one? No way. She was taking a little pleasure in the fact that he accepted the woman for training. Now, he was stuck with her.

  “First of all, Sharon, those were not questions, they were comments. But seeing as you don’t have the wherewithal to form them into questions, I’ll discuss the matter with you anyway.” He stood up. Might as well make this good.

  “Whatever you were before you came, whatever roles you played, who you lived with, what you did, doesn’t matter here. You are here to be improved, not entertained. What you want to be when you leave here, or what your owners may want you to be, is also irrelevant. Right now, you are nothing. Do you understand that?” He stepped closer to Sharon, and she gulped. And nodded.

  “Then I want to hear you say it, girl.”

  �
�Yes. Yes, sir.”

  “Yes sir, what?”

  She trembled. He stepped closer, lowered his voice. It made him more menacing. She stared into his dark eyes and whined, “Yes! What you said! Whadda you want me to say!”

  “That you’re nothing,” Grendel gently prompted.

  “I’m nothing!”

  He shouted into her face, sending her stumbling back. “You’re nothing, what?”

  “Sir! I’m nothing, sir!” She whimpered and looked down and then had a sudden inspiration. She dropped to her knees and lowered her head to his feet.

  The other three gazed at her, bent into a sexy, trembling package. Claudia nodded approvingly. Robert felt a stirring between his legs and bit his own lip.

  Grendel went back to his chair and sat down. “Now, as I was saying,” he began. Sharon stirred and started to raise her head. “No, stay where you are, Sharon, that’s the first correct thing you’ve done since you got here, and I want to enjoy the moment. As I was going to say, you are especially nothing this week. At the end of the week, if you stay, your education pattern will change.”

  “Except for one thing,” Alexandra noted. “You will still be required to obey everyone else in the house, and you will still be subject to whatever discipline is necessary to help you remember what your place and purpose is.”

  Brian raised his hand, sneaking a glance back at Sharon. God, but that bitch was a laugh and a half. When Alexandra nodded at him, he asked, “Sir, ma’am, will we always get punished for someone else’s, um, mistakes?”

  “Maybe,” the two of them answered at once. The trainers looked at each other and laughed.

  Alexandra said, “During this week, absolutely. You can worry about next week when it comes.”

  “Think of it as an incentive to encourage good behavior in your fellow applicants,” added Grendel.