The Pleasure House

by Kitty Thomas

  The scene that greeted her in the cafeteria was surreal. There were several girls, all around college age, in cliques at a couple of tables having breakfast. They looked normal enough. Kind of a mean girls vibe. Other tables were less normal. Some of the girls were naked, with men hanging all over them. Some were being touched by multiple men, fingers penetrating them while they tried to have breakfast.

  She looked away.

  It wasn’t that she’d never seen public sexual things. It was just that this was broad daylight, with the sunlight streaming in and a view of a pool out back. And while the kink clubs might have had nudity and bondage and whipping, there was something subtly different here. There was no sex in public at the clubs, but it seemed certain it was about to start happening here. At least at that one table.

  Mina tried to quiet the urges that woke within her. Her body demanded this. But the price was too high to pay. She’d been kidding herself if she thought any kind of happy relationship lay ahead of her. Even before therapy and Lindsay’s offer, the hope of anything but loneliness and fear around men had been a fantasy—a fevered daydream she’d foolishly tried to make real. Again.

  Mina got eggs, bacon, juice, and a bran muffin and sat as far from everyone else as she could get. She imagined herself a chameleon, fading into the chair so she wouldn’t call the attention either of the mean girls at the center table, or the men engaged in the breakfast orgy.

  The blond who’d rescued her from Brian, approached as she was finishing and putting her tray away. “Lindsay’s back. He wants to speak with you in his office.”

  Something inside her sank. After their earlier interaction, any hope she’d had that the doctor would keep her himself was gone. Now she wasn’t sure she even wanted him. This wasn’t a game, and even the smallest lapse in formality might earn her another punishment just as upsetting as being beaten. If so many things upset her, what did any of her preferences or urges in men even mean?

  The doctor seemed impatient when she reached his office, as if she hadn’t flown there fast enough for his taste.

  “Please shut the door and sit.” He indicated a chair.

  The relationship they’d had as doctor and patient had evaporated, leaving in its wake something she wasn’t sure she liked at all. The freedom she’d felt to speak her mind—to address him even—was gone now.

  Lindsay was silent for a long while as he seemed to gather his words together in a bundle. “Mina, I believe bringing you here was an error on my part. Even with all the therapy sessions, I’m not sure I truly realized the extent of the damage that’s been done to you. I wanted to help you. And in truth, I wanted to help myself. It was a conflict of interests even for me.”

  She opened her mouth but then remembered herself and stopped short.

  “You may speak freely inside this office. It’s still a therapist’s office, and without that freedom you can’t be helped.”

  “You said you couldn’t let me go back home. What does this mean for me?” Surely he wasn’t going to have her killed. That would hardly be more kind than the situation he’d already initiated.

  “My plan was to put you through the standard training protocol, keeping in mind the boundaries we agreed to. However, I realized this morning that without pain as a tool, punishments become more challenging. And with Brian in the house… I can’t risk you with him. I find that I have a personal fondness toward you that clouds my vision.”

  Again, the question of why he couldn’t keep her bubbled to the surface.

  “Before you say it again, I can’t collar you. It exposes you constantly to the danger of Brian. He respects Anton’s claim on Annette, but… he’s taken an unusual interest in you. I can’t speak about his past. It would betray doctor/patient confidentiality, but I can tell you that you are not safe near him.”

  She couldn’t argue with that logic. Though Brian had yet to hurt her, he felt like a bomb that had already been set to go off. It was merely a matter of the clock winding down to zero.

  “W-where does that leave us? If you let me go back home, I swear I won’t say anything about anything.”

  Lindsay shook his head. “I’m afraid that’s not an option. I intend to go ahead and find a buyer for you and get you out of the house within the next day or two. I went through my business contacts late last night, and there are several potential candidates who have bought other girls from us and who I trust implicitly with your safety. A few of them prefer their own training protocols, so your untrained state won’t be an issue.”

  Mina was offended by his untrained state comment. It too closely echoed Jason’s not a real sub accusation. How could she be untrained if she’d lived in so many 24/7 D/s arrangements in the past? Though had she? If such arrangements existed and ever worked out, she hadn’t been lucky enough to be one of the participants. From her view and experience, it had been a nice shady corner for abusive men to hide in. And now she’d moved to the next level of the same fucking thing.

  Why couldn’t she let her fantasies stay fantasies instead of insisting on finding a way to act them out and live them?

  The doctor continued. “I’ll ask that you stay in the tower until it’s time for you to leave us. You may lock your door. I have a feeling it’s the only thing that will keep Brian out. Your meals will be brought up. Again, I want to apologize for everything, and I promise I will do my very best to find a good match for you, somewhere you can be happy. I can at least assure that you will be safe. Do you have any questions?”

  “C-can I get some cigarettes?” Earlier in the cage, at least part of the shaking had been the need of a cigarette. With the stress and uncertainty of her future, she didn’t want to think about how bad the withdrawal might get.

  “No. There will be no smoking here. You won’t be allowed to smoke once you’re sold, so it’s better to work through the cravings and discomfort now. You may go.”

  Lindsay returned to the stack of papers in front of him, effectively dismissing her from his life forever.

  When Mina reached the door, his voice stopped her. “To ensure your care and safety, and because you’ve been my patient, I’ll see you once a week if you still want that. I’ll arrange it with the buyer. We can do video conferencing.”

  “Okay.”

  She felt numb, empty, afraid, the fantasy once again unraveling—this time before it started.

  “Oh, and one more thing.”

  “Yes?”

  “I’ll need to do a health examination and take some photos and video for the auction. You won’t be required to be present for the sale. Everything will be handled behind the scenes.”

  “Photos and video?” Mina wasn’t sure she was comfortable with that, but she hadn’t thought to set no photos or video of me as a limit. That kind of thing could end up anywhere. It could come back to haunt her.

  “They have to see what they’re buying. Would you rather be displayed naked on the conference table and be poked and prodded by myself or Gabe or Anton while bidders look on? Would you rather risk Brian being present for the event and touching you, too?”

  She shuddered. No. She didn’t want to risk any of that. When Lindsay first suggested finding a master for her, and he’d mentioned money changing hands, what had she thought he meant? If it was enough money to bother, of course potential buyers would want to see what they were paying for. Of course she’d be treated like an object on the auction block. Wasn’t not having to be physically present a mercy?

  There was a time when the idea would have excited her, but now… If being here had taught her anything, it was that Jason had truly broken her. Could even a kind master, following the rules of the contract, have any hope of reawakening her? Could she trust anyone to open that side of herself up again?

  For months in therapy she’d focused on what she couldn’t have. She’d obsessed about it and held onto it. Now, presented with it, she began to wonder why she’d been so fixated. Maybe she was meant to be single with some cats. But it was too late for tha
t. She’d signed her rights away. And Lindsay would enforce that choice to save his own ass. Only now, if she fought, he couldn’t hide behind the cloak of doing something noble and kind for her—of fulfilling all her fantasies and giving her everything she’d ever wanted.

  If she fought now, it would be ugly and brutal for both of them. He’d be her captor and kidnapper. She’d be his victim. She couldn’t bring herself to be anyone else’s victim again right now. If she went along, maybe she could find that place inside herself that actually liked this idea.

  “Come on, it’ll be all right, Mina. I’m sorry to have to do this to you. If you knew how rarely I apologized to anyone for anything, you’d know my sincerity. It was foolish to bring you here, and now I’ve started a chain of events I can’t release myself or you from. If it comforts you, everyone at the auction will be a previous buyer—someone the house has a history with and who has honored our contracts in the past. You need not fear anyone who might buy you.”

  Lindsay led her to the end of the hallway.

  “W-wait… we’re doing this right now?”

  In answer, he unlocked the door and pushed her inside. The room looked like it moonlighted as a porn set. A medical examining area, including a table and stirrups, was set up in the back corner. There was lighting and camera equipment everywhere. The center of the room was a simple bed with fluffy white bedding and steel bars for a headboard.

  Lindsay pressed a button on the wall intercom.

  “Yes?” Anton’s thick accent caressed the air.

  “I need you in the auction prep room.”

  “Give me fifteen.”

  Lindsay turned on the lights—not just the normal lights in the ceiling or the ambient lamps strategically placed around the room, but also the studio lighting.

  “Get on the examining table. I need to take samples for analysis.”

  Mina wore the white t-shirt and colorful gym shorts the girls of the house had been given for casual free time. It was weird to think that she’d yet to be involved in anything overtly sexual herself here. She felt like a nun, stumbling upon somebody’s porn stash. The only thing resembling BDSM had been the naked cage incident.

  She sat on the exam table as the doctor took off his sport coat and replaced it with a white lab coat. He scrubbed up in the sink and pulled on blue medical gloves. He set up a tray with a syringe and alcohol and cotton swabs.

  “I’m going to swipe under your tongue for a mineral and hormone profile. Then I’ll draw blood to do a full blood panel. After that I’ll do the gynecological exam. We’ll do photos and video both here and on the bed. Anton will join us for part of it.”

  She’d become so consumed with her fears and the knowledge she had of how deeply her trust could be abused, that she’d forgotten the erotic charge of a little fear. Previous men had never dwelled in that space of erotic fear. They’d pushed right past that. Anticipation had changed to terror, and the mild flutter of flushed excitement had never returned. But inside this room with the doctor, she thought maybe it could melt back into anticipation.

  “A-are you going to videotape t-the exam?”

  “Not the boring parts, but yes. There will be no hospital gown as you may be used to in these types of things. Don’t you think your master has the right to see everything in the exam?”

  “Y-yes Sir.”

  Lindsay touched her cheek. “We will find you someone. He will meet your needs for a master who won’t harm you. Everything you’ve been through up to this point will have been worth it. Just trust me.”

  Lindsay sealed the saliva sample in a bag, then took the needle from the tray and drew blood. When he finished, he put a label on the vial and put it in a bag as well. He jotted notes on a chart inside a manilla folder. Then he put everything he’d gathered into a larger plastic bag.

  She startled when the door opened, but it was only Anton. He moved behind the video equipment like a shadow. He adjusted it to view the examining table. Then he set up the photography equipment.

  “Mina,” Lindsay said. “I want you to undress, lie back on the table, and put your feet in the stirrups for me.”

  She’d thought she could do this. She’d wanted to believe. She’d tried so hard to believe that everything inside her hadn’t been broken already, that the pieces could somehow be glued back together so that no one would ever even notice.

  She wanted the fantasy to work. She wanted to trust one more time. She’d thought she’d felt those hints that her body still wanted this, and maybe it did. But her mind couldn’t take any more of it. If only she’d known this the day the driver came. She wouldn’t have chased him. She would have let him go. But seeing those tail lights had made her panic… like this was her last chance for… anything. She knew it.

  And she was so lonely. How could she go on this way? If some kind man could take her and remake her and heal her… She just wanted to believe the fantasy. That was all. Just one more time.

  “N-no, I-I can’t.”

  The doctor’s eyes narrowed. Something in his expression snapped apart and the mask came off. His voice went dark and low as if a demon had taken possession of him. “What did you just say to me? Maybe I should send you down to Brian. A couple of hours in the dungeon with him, and you’ll be grateful to do anything I ask of you in here. A couple of hours with him and you’d let every man in this house do anything he wanted with you and feel honored for the privilege. Believe me, you would do anything to stay out of one of his cells. You think you’re scared of me? Anton? This? You think this is too much for you? I’ve fucking had it with you!”

  Mina dropped to her knees. “Please… I’m sorry I c-can’t. Please don’t make me do those things. Please. I swear I won’t tell anyone if you just let me go.”

  Lindsay laughed. “Let you go? No my dear, you are in deep now. There is no going except to a master or a pine box. Your choice. I could make you do this. I can just strip you and tie you down, but the buyers we might attract with such footage wouldn’t be the ones you’d want.”

  “Lindsay. Stop! Stop this! Just go cool off,” Anton said, pulling the doctor back.

  Lindsay wrenched out of his grasp and stormed from the room, slamming the door behind him. Mina flinched when Anton helped her up.

  “I should have told him no when he asked about you. When you came to Dome, I was going to do more, but I couldn’t. You had so much fear coming off you. Even with the excitement, it was too much fear. I thought he would kill you, so I said yes. He knows he’s made a big mistake and that you don’t deserve to die for it. Let me talk to him. I’ll try to calm him down.”

  When Anton left, Mina curled up in the bed in the middle of the room. She hoped the sheets were clean, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to disappear. She cringed and clenched the blankets over her head as the shouting in the hallway grew louder. The walls were thick, so she couldn’t make out what they were saying, but she could imagine.

  After a while the shouting became loud talking, and then a murmur of normal speech. And then silence. The door opened again. Lindsay walked back in, composed, Anton behind him. Anton stood in the corner while Lindsay pulled a chair up to sit beside the bed.

  “Here is how it will be,” the doctor said. “I have to have photos of something. No one will buy you sight unseen. So we are going to do photos that aren’t nude. Just normal everyday pictures. I will speak to my contacts and explain the new development in this situation to see if I can find anyone who will be patient with you long term, who can accept that you might be far too broken to ever be anything more than their maid. Can you clean? Can you cook?”

  Mina couldn’t meet his eyes. “Y-yes, Sir.”

  “Good. Because it’s probably about all you’re good for.”

  “W-why can’t I just stay here?”

  “We are not going to feed and house you as a permanent guest. You have no use in this house. And you think Brian is going to resist the temptation to fuck you up beyond repair? You think Jason was bad? Jason
is an amateur next to Brian. Brian is a full-on sociopath. If he wasn’t doing this, he’d probably be a serial killer. Can you tell me you want to stay in a house with a man like that and risk your paths crossing?”

  “N-no, Sir.”

  “I didn’t think so. I’ll do what I can. Just pray I can make a deal. If I can’t…”

  If he couldn’t he’d have her killed.

  Brian got back to the house well after dark. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Mina. In an unsettling turn of events, he’d come to see himself as her protector. The idea of protecting Mina from Lindsay was so absurd, he almost laughed out loud in the entryway.

  He was about to go downstairs when he heard voices coming from the conference room next to the shrink’s office. That was… odd. There wasn’t a meeting scheduled. Were they having meetings without him now? Things had been tense with the partners ever since Vivian. It was as if her presence—and his threat—had finally set them against each other in a more permanent way.

  They were all on one team; Brian was alone on the other. Which was ridiculous. They couldn’t do this shit without him. And they knew it.

  “What in the hell is going on?” he demanded when he crossed the threshold.

  The partners were seated around the table with Lindsay at the head, clearly running this meeting, which was weird because usually Anton ran the meetings. Attached to empty seats around the table were computer monitors where several men had joined the video conference. Brian recognized them all as previous buyers.

  Several modest photographs of Mina fully clothed were scattered across the large table. If Lindsay was running it like a normal sale, the potential buyers had been emailed their own copies as well. But it wasn’t a normal sale because the photos they normally shared were pornographic. Even their medical photos were sexualized and would be at home under the bed of any fetishist who got off on the darker implications of gynecology.

  Not innocent like this.

  What the hell was going on?

  “Gentlemen, I apologize for the interruption,” Lindsay said. He turned to Brian. “We’re holding the auction now.”