‘No, of course not. Although it would take your weight quite easily. Haven’t I told you, nothing is going to happen unless you consent to it?’ Her tone was sharp now, and I was impelled to do as she told me, keen to avoid her wrath.
‘Tom, the wrist cuffs,’ she ordered. ‘Hold out your wrists, Ellie.’
I obeyed, and Tom placed the cuffs, which were soft leather, lined comfortably with velvet, around them. Maria clicked them shut, then tightened them so that there was no space between my skin and the velvet lining. The attached chain, although it was light and silvery, clanked with every movement.
‘Is that comfortable?’ she asked, adjusting the length of the chain until it could be attached to the hook. Now my wrists were just an inch or two above my head, my arms secured but not stretched.
‘Actually, yes,’ I said.
‘Do you like the feeling of having your wrists bound?’
I tried to wiggle them in the cuffs. There was no give, but neither was there any pinch.
‘I do, actually,’ I said. ‘It’s quite…mmm.’
Maria took the remote again and pressed a button. The hook began to rise, pulling my arms up with it.
‘Oh!’
She didn’t stop until my arms were taut above my head and I was almost hauled up on tiptoe. I felt as if I might lose my balance and swing wildly around the place, hanging by my wrists. My T-shirt dress was higher up my thighs now, almost at the curve of my bottom. A hint of black knicker would be visible from the rear.
‘How about that?’
‘Oh, God, that feels really –’ I laughed nervously ‘– unstable!’
‘Ah, well, we can’t have you falling over, can we?’ she said indulgently. ‘Tom – the bar.’
Tom handed her the long pole with the cuffs at either end.
Maria knelt to attach one of my ankles, then the other, forcing my feet apart. Now I felt even more unstable and ready to swoop forwards, straining my arm muscles beyond endurance, but Maria surprised me by pulling up a length of the leather tiling to reveal flagstones beneath. She used the remote to call up a pair of eye bolts from recesses within the stone, and attached each cuff to one of these bolts. Now I was securely in position, unable to move in any way except a cursory swivel of the hips.
‘What do you think, Tom?’ said Maria, rising to stand once more.
‘Very nice,’ he said. ‘Great presentation.’
‘Isn’t it? The beauty of this,’ she continued, walking around me, ‘is that you have access to all of her, front and back. Perfect for subs who like to have their tits whipped as well as their booties. And lovely for double-teaming too.’
‘Er…’ I said, alarmed by the mention of tit-whipping. Definitely not a fetish of mine.
‘Yes?’ Maria’s tone was severe. ‘I’m not sure I asked for your opinion.’
‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘But I don’t really like anything painful done to my, uh…front.’
‘Really? No nipple clamps?’
‘I don’t really know…haven’t tried…but I definitely wouldn’t like them whipped. Sorry.’
‘Oh, you don’t mind a bit of a tweak,’ said Tom, before coughing madly and adding, ‘I’m sure.’
‘Perhaps that’s an experiment for another day,’ said Maria. ‘When you are with a trusted Dom. Tell me what you’d like us to do to you. Would you like to be blindfolded? Spanked? Touched, by hands or any of my lovely toys?’
There was a question. I wanted all of those, but only from Tom, and minus the audience.
‘Um, perhaps…a blindfold might be nice.’ Then I could pretend they couldn’t see my face. ‘And…that flogger looked interesting. The suede one.’ By ‘interesting’ I meant ‘not particularly painful’. I hoped that was understood.
‘Ah, a good choice,’ said Maria, heading back to her cupboard. ‘I can instruct you in its use, Tom. I take it you haven’t used one before?’
‘No, never,’ he said.
Now that they were both behind me, I had to listen carefully in order to work out exactly where they were. The padded flooring muffled their footsteps. Only their low voices and the light swish of their clothing as they moved revealed their whereabouts.
A prolonged silence led me to believe that they were still by the cupboard, sorting through its perverse delights, so I squealed in shock when cold silk blocked my eyesight, tickling my skin. Deft hands tied the blindfold tightly behind my head – to whom did they belong? A tiny touch on my neck gave it away. It was Tom.
‘Brave girl,’ he whispered into my ear before stepping back.
‘Let me show you,’ said Maria. ‘It won’t hurt her. Not to begin with, anyway. A flogger can’t do serious damage, but I hold by the rule that we don’t hit any higher than the centre of the cheeks. The sensitive, more erogenous zones are all lower anyway. Do you know the sweet spot?’
Tom chuckled. ‘It all looks pretty sweet to me.’
‘Yes, but the area you have to aim for if you want to set off a fire inside her is down here, almost at the curve…’ She swung it. I heard the tails tangling, then a stroke landed just beneath the hem of my dress, on my exposed knickers.
It didn’t hurt – it was a kind of ticklish buzz – but it made me arch in my bonds like a weeping willow in the wind.
‘Ooh!’ I cried.
I drew in a giddy breath, the consciousness of being whipped by a strange woman while my lover looked on hitting me harder than the flogger. God, it was hot. I almost regretted my blindfold, thinking it would be a fine thing to look at in the mirrored wall. Not being able to move or see sent the sensation beyond titillation into a boiling sea of hotness.
‘There’s an additional issue with a flogger,’ continued Maria educationally. ‘You need to avoid wraparound – by which I mean, the tips managing to overshoot the buttocks and land on the hip. For a sub, this is painful without being at all pleasurable, so it’s important to get your angle just right. Stand far enough away and watch where the tips are going. If you think they’re going to overshoot, then retract the stroke and aim again. Until you are fully confident, it’s probably best to aim for the centre of the far cheek and no further. Like so.’
A swoosh and a tingle, a little sharper than the first time, landed on my lower bum. It was followed, unexpectedly quickly, by three more. I twisted beneath my hook and let the sweet heat flood in. The spread state of my legs was now cause for concern – could they see the dark patch of arousal spreading into the fabric of my knickers? What a good decision the black cotton had been – white would have been too mortifying.
‘Try it, Tom. You’ll need to stand a little further away – your arms are longer than mine.’
Tom’s hand was also heavier. The flogger fell with a surprising sting, making me yelp and try to jump, but of course I couldn’t.
‘Good,’ said Maria approvingly. ‘You have a good eye. Ellie, are you all right with this?’
‘I’m…fine,’ I gasped.
‘If you want us to stop, just say stop, OK?’ she advised.
‘OK.’
Tom laid a few more, lazily and without his full strength, playing with angles and positions until most of my lower bottom had been covered and was beginning to glow.
‘It can be a problem,’ said Maria, ‘when you can’t see your sub’s bare bottom. The colour of her skin shows you all you need to know about whether you are going in too hard or fast.’
‘D’you hear that, El?’ said Tom. ‘Bare-bottomed is better for your health.’
‘I don’t…think so,’ I ground out, longing to be able to rub my behind, flexing my wrists uselessly in their snug leather restraints.
‘Her thighs are bare,’ noted Maria. ‘From the top of those cute socks. More painful, of course, because less fleshy, but let me try for a light touch…’
The flogger fell on my right thigh, then my left, leaving behind a whisper of warmth. Maria certainly was adept at that light touch. But the more she practised it, the hotter my skin grew, until i
t pulsed like a beacon. She swished and smacked from mid-thigh right to the curve of my bottom, over and over again, then she stopped and handed the whip to Tom.
‘Well, I’m not hearing any complaints from her, even if she is trying for the world hula-hooping record. That pelvis of hers hasn’t stopped moving. Let’s see you try it, Tom.’
If Tom hit my thighs as hard as he’d laid into my bottom, I couldn’t see this lasting too long. I shut my eyes, despite the blindfold, gritted my teeth and prepared to scream.
‘Don’t be a hero, Ellie,’ he said, perhaps noticing my newly rigid stance. ‘If it gets too much, say so. Do you promise?’
‘I promise,’ I said, wondering if Maria might read any of our history into this little exchange. Hopefully not.
His first attempt was too slack and the tips fell away before they even touched my tightening skin.
‘I’m a bit nervous,’ he confessed before aiming his second shot. This sent little peppery dots of heat from the top of my thigh to the middle. I gasped, but my knickers were getting wetter and wetter. If he would just uncuff my wrists and bend me over…
The well-targeted stroke gave him confidence. His next strokes were firmer, and the pace picked up. He didn’t restrict himself to my bare skin, but let the flogger wander back up to my bottom pretty often, while I twisted and clenched my buttocks, feeling sweat begin to trickle down my brow and into the blindfold.
‘Oh…ah…oh,’ I yelped. ‘It’s hot! It stings!’
‘But do you want me to stop?’
‘Not…yet…maybe in a…’
A full-force thwack seared the tops of both thighs.
‘Stop!’
I heard him let out a long, uneven breath.
‘I want to touch you,’ he said. ‘I want to feel that heat. Yes or no?’
‘Yes,’ I whispered.
Maria made a little noise, whether of surprise or satisfaction I couldn’t tell.
He put his palm flat against my left thigh, absorbing the heat that flooded from my skin. If he lifted it just a little, he would know how wet I was. Did any steam travel down to hint at my arousal?
He stroked my thighs for a mesmerising few moments, then gave my bottom a cheeky rub. I couldn’t protest. I didn’t care what Maria made of it. I wanted him to slip his fingers inside my knicker elastic and fuck me with them there and then, while I hung in helpless compliance from my hook.
‘Play your cards right, Tom, and you could have this little one calling you Sir,’ remarked Maria, sounding more than a little turned on herself.
‘Would you like that?’ said Tom softly, wrapping one arm around me and letting his free hand drift up towards my breasts.
‘Yes, sir,’ I replied, half-delirious, my head swimming with the bliss of his touch.
‘She’s lost her nerves now,’ said Maria. ‘A good whipping often works wonders.’
He didn’t kiss me exactly, but he buried his face in my neck, nuzzling as he stroked and caressed me. I wanted him to breach the barrier of my clothes, but he held back. The fabric rubbing me at his behest was almost too tantalising. I wanted to wriggle away, but I was held fast, totally subject to his will.
‘Mmm,’ he said, raising his face to speak into my ear. ‘I definitely think we should take this further.’
Maria clapped her hands. ‘I’m a very good matchmaker, if I say so myself,’ she said. ‘Perhaps it’s time you two took yourselves off and got a room, as they say.’
‘What do you think?’ murmured Tom. ‘Shall I unhook you and take you somewhere private?’
‘That…could be good,’ I said, hardly able to speak any more. My body was doing the talking for me, and it was saying, ‘Fuck me now’.
‘I’m seeing a girlfriend at eight,’ said Maria. ‘If you don’t mind, I could start setting up for her now. Tom?’
He let go of me and I heard her throw something jingly at him, which he caught. Within seconds, I was uncuffed and able to move. Well, in theory. In practice, I could just about manage a stiff kind of stagger, combined with a fierce rubbing of my backside. He whipped off the blindfold and I blinked at my blurred reflection in the mirror.
‘Look at your thighs,’ Tom prompted, turning me around.
‘Wow,’ I said, impressed. ‘It didn’t feel as if it got them that red. But it obviously did.’
Maria, putting the implements away in the cupboard, shot a brief smile in our direction.
‘Did you find that instructive, darlings?’
‘Yes,’ I said, and Tom added, ‘Very.’
‘Well, now I can send you off to play in the knowledge that Tom won’t be hitting the wrong spot. He certainly seems to have hit the right spot with you, Ellie, and rather hard. I know chemistry when I see it.’
I blushed and stared at my feet.
‘I’ll let you know,’ she said, shutting the cupboard door and leading us to the steps, ‘when there’s an event or gathering on. I’m hoping you’ll want to join in with the scene. We always welcome new faces.’
‘That would be great, thank you,’ said Tom politely.
‘Is the scene very active?’ I asked, grabbing my coat. ‘I mean…lots of stuff going on?’
‘Quite a lot,’ said Maria. ‘We have some wealthy and enthusiastic participants around here – it makes for some imaginative events.’
‘What if…’ I blurted, wondering whether or not to continue. But I’d started now, and both Tom and Maria were eyeing me beadily. ‘What if I wanted to get more…proficient…at this before going to any parties? Is there any kind of…training school, or…you know?’
Maria laughed. ‘A school for submissives? How very Story of O. A lovely idea but I’m not aware of one – at least, not in this part of the country.’
I tried to hide my crestfallen feelings. Was she simply unaware of The Academy, or was it just too big a secret to reveal to newbies? It had been worth a try anyway.
‘You mean they exist elsewhere?’ I said.
She laughed again. ‘Perhaps. But in my opinion, the very best education a submissive can get is from her Dom. After all, you need to be in tune with each other, not with some standard ideal of what a submissive should be. That ideal doesn’t really exist, I’m happy to say.’ She winked. ‘I’m sure you’ll work your own ways out for yourselves.’
‘I’m sure we will,’ said Tom.
We were at the top of the steps now. Maria opened the door.
‘I hope you don’t mind if I don’t show you out. I need to set up for my next session.’
‘Not at all. Thank you so much. It’s been really…’ I couldn’t quite find the right word.
‘Illuminating,’ supplied Tom.
‘Goodbye, my dears. And play safely, won’t you?’
She shut the door in our faces.
‘Well,’ said Tom, stroking my cheek with a knuckle. ‘Your place or mine?’
‘Better be yours, I think,’ I said. ‘Unless you want to ruin yourself for good by booking another room here.’
He grimaced. ‘I’m living on gruel as it is. Come on then.’
The night was cold and we were both shivering as we climbed into his car. The freezing leather was shocking at first, then soothing on my bare thigh.
‘I’ll tell you what,’ he said. ‘That beating she gave me certainly made the effects of the brandy wear off.’
‘You didn’t drink anything before that, did you?’ I asked anxiously.
He shook his head. ‘No, though I could have done with one. Thought I had a great lead on the council story, but another promising avenue was blocked instead.’
‘Oh!’ I said, remembering what I’d seen before our liaison with Maria. ‘That councillor – the one you’re investigating.’
‘Judd Keane?’
‘Him, yeah. He knows Maria.’
‘What?’ Tom’s hand clenched around the gearstick and he stared at me, almost jumping a red light in his distraction.
‘Red!’ I cried.
He emergency-s
topped.
‘How do you know that? Did she mention him?’
‘No, but I saw them together. Before our appointment. He was kicking up a fuss, said the dungeon was double booked and he had priority.’
‘What? Are you serious? Keane’s kinky?’
‘Yes, and it made me think. Tom, his initial! And he was with a woman. It could have been Mia.’
The cars behind us honked. We hadn’t noticed the lights change to green. Tom put the car into gear and drove off. I was pretty thankful his flat was only a five-minute journey from here.
‘Right,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Bloody hell. A whole new angle. This could be the in I need. But I’m going to have to go carefully. Very carefully.’
‘You don’t think his sex life has anything to do with the corruption, do you?’ I said dubiously.
‘Probably not,’ said Tom. ‘But you never know. Perhaps he’s being blackmailed. Perhaps that’s why he’s pouring council tax money into these people’s pockets. It’s a possibility, at least.’
‘Maybe,’ I said. I was uneasy about this, though. It seemed deeper than we ought to dig, for our own safety if nothing else.
We parked and headed for the flat. I wanted him to put his arms around me, to kiss me or rub my bottom or anything, but he was preoccupied and he marched ahead of me instead.
I was a little way behind him on the stairs, so I heard the woman’s voice float down from the landing before I saw who it belonged to.
‘Tom, we need to talk. Oh.’
She’d seen the top of my head. There was no ducking down or turning back now.
‘Tilda,’ said Tom. ‘What are you…?’
‘Ella, what the fuck?’ Tilda leaned back against the wall, flattening her palms on it as if for support.
‘I…we…’ I started, but Tom didn’t let me fluster for long.
‘We’re seeing each other,’ he said. ‘She was afraid to tell you.’
‘I’m not surprised,’ said Tilda, finding her feet again. ‘You silly bitch.’
‘No sillier than you,’ I retorted. ‘Or aren’t you here to try and get back with him?’
‘I’m…no, of course not…’ But her shifty eyes gave her away. She looked up at Tom, her chin high. ‘So this is why you haven’t called lately? No need for a friend with benefits any more, eh? Well, fuck you. Fuck you both.’
Fast and Loose Page 15