Cassandra's Conflict (6 page)

'Please?' she whispered once, hoping that permission might still be given.

'No.' The baron's voice was uncompromising.

'I must, I must!' She sounded frantic, and despised herself for it.

'No,' he repeated calmly, and again his finger flicked the G-spot.

Her body tightened, nerve endings stretched to their limit, her belly arched and her breasts rose as the pleasure expanded into a huge ball of pressure that would tear her apart if it didn't find some release. She tried desperately to distract herself but it was hopeless, the wave reached its peak and with a scream of despair she gave in, and felt her whole body jerk off the bed as the mind-blowing ecstasy finally tore through her.

It only lasted a moment, because at the height of the pleasure the baron's crop struck. It flicked against her hideously vulnerable clitoris causing pain such as she'd never known and as she tried to twist away from the agony Peter reached for her hips, turned her roughly onto her side, pulled her to him and thrust himself through the second hole in the bikini bottom, forcing the swollen glans of his penis through the cheeks of her bottom, still tightly clenched against the agony of the baron's crop. She cried out in pain, and then as she felt the warmth of his ejaculation begin to flood through her, the pain changed into a dark, red-hot pleasure that tightened her stomach muscles again and the baron watched with amusement as her thighs stiffened and her now free heels drummed against the bottom of the couch.

Peter groaned with relief as he was finally able to relieve the aching pressure in his testicles, and he gave no thought at all to the blindfolded, thrashing woman he was using other than to mentally thank the baron for his permission finally to use her.

After he'd withdrawn the boy watched as his employer pulled off his trousers and revealed his own erection, the purple tip glistening with moisture. For a few moments he let it brush against the wounded, scarlet opening of Katya's sex, and he smiled as the flesh jumped and jerked beneath the velvety touch of the soft skin. He was pleased that Katya, her body rigid with fear and rearoused sexual tension, made no sound this time.

After that he climbed lithely onto the couch and crouched above her, pushing his erection down so that it could caress the still red and swollen nipples that were protruding so invitingly through the thick rubber cups. Katya gritted her teeth.
She adored the feel of his manhood on her breasts, gloried in the velvet softness of the touch, but both her breasts and between her thighs still ached with the torture he'd inflicted on them and she knew better than to think he'd finished yet.

For minutes he continued to tantalise the nipples, watching the puckered skin smooth and expand as he rubbed the ridge of the glans against them, leaving a trail of clear liquid behind him. Then the baron took hold of her upper body, twisting it round so that her head was no longer supported by the couch and hung limply back, exposing her throat as she tried frantically to swallow.

He remembered how much she'd always hated what he was about to do and it increased his pleasure. Katya remembered too, and began to thrash her head from side to side but Peter was quickly there, gripping her tightly at the temples while his fingers dug into her scalp until her eyes watered beneath the blind.

'Open your mouth,' the baron said harshly. She did as she was told. If she didn't it would only prolong her torment. 'Good girl!' Her body shivered, and then he was forcing his way into her mouth, pushing his erection down between her teeth and into her throat, moving backwards and forwards, thrusting ferociously in and out until she felt that she would choke. His cock had never seemed so large before. She was terrified that she'd suffocate or choke to death before he'd finished, and in the darkness there was nothing but the feel of him sliding down her throat, filling her airway. She tried to relax the throat muscles, as he'd taught her long ago, but her fear made it impossible and then, when her heart was racing as though it would burst and her throat felt raw from the violence of his movements, he finally climaxed and the hot, sticky liquid erupted from him and flooded her mouth and throat until she began to choke.

The baron withdrew immediately, his eyes totally without expression. Peter started to release his grip, but the baron frowned in displeasure. 'Keep hold of her. She must swallow it all.' Katya swallowed again and again. The back of her neck ached where it had been crushed against the edge of the couch and her whole body was bruised and battered by what had happened. She wanted to cry, with furious humiliation, something that hadn't happened to her for many, many years, but she didn't dare. If she cried then she would have lost before the game had even started properly, before Cassandra had faced a single test, and that thought helped her keep control.

At last, when he was satisfied that she had swallowed every drop of him, the baron let Peter release her head and he himself pulled her back into position. He looked down at her thoughtfully for a moment, then reached out and removed the blindfold.

Katya's eyes stared up at him, still sightless for a few seconds, then she blinked and began to adjust to the light again, but he knew that for once he'd managed to put a flicker of genuine fear into those green depths and he raised his eyebrows at her in amusement.

'Perhaps next time you'll wait until you're invited before you touch, yes?'

Katya wanted to promise him that she'd wait, to swear that she'd never disobey him again; it was what he'd always demanded in the early years, but some sixth sense told her that now the rules were different. 'Perhaps,' she replied coolly, and was rewarded with a look of appreciation before he moved out of her line of vision.

'Get her out of that costume and into a bath,' he told Peter curtly. 'She needs to rest before dinner.'

'I can do it myself,' Katya said fiercely as Peter approached, and the boy backed off, looking to the baron for instructions.

The baron shrugged indifferently. 'Just as she likes. Pierre, it's time you were gone. I hope you aren't expecting extra payment for overtime?'

The masseur shook his head, hardly able to believe what he'd seen and thinking excitedly of what a story he'd have to tell his friends when they met up later that night. 'Good,' the baron continued pleasantly. 'And naturally I don't expect a word of this to pass your lips.'

'Of course not!' Pierre lied fervently.

The baron smiled, watched him leave the room and promptly picked up the telephone. 'Make sure the masseur does not arrive home tonight,' he said softly into the mouthpiece.

When Katya had finally managed to take off the rubber suit and was at last sitting in her deep, shell-shaped bath, she ran her hands down over her bruised breasts, touched herself between her thighs where the flesh was so exquisitely tender and with a shiver of delight recalled all that had just happened and anticipated the dinner that was to come. This time it would be Cassandra's turn to be tested. The beginning of her own, particular kind of torture, the wonderful destruction of innocence.

The first thing that Cassandra noticed as she walked into the oak-panelled dining room was the heat. It had been a very warm day for late May, and she'd been grateful for the ceiling fan in her room when she changed for dinner. She knew from Katya that the house had air conditioning and had been anticipating a cool evening meal with relief. In fact the room was stiflingly hot; thick moss-green curtains covered the windows trapping the heat of the day and preventing any chance of some fresher night air entering. Crossing the room to the long mahogany table, she realised with astonishment that a wood fire was burning in the fireplace.

Katya was already seated at the table. She was wearing a blue velvet dress with a plunging neckline while round her throat a diamond and sapphire necklace glinted in the light from the candles set in the silver candelabra in the middle of the table. Her blonde hair had been piled on top of her head and her skin glowed a soft golden brown, making Cassandra acutely aware of her own pallor.

'What a pretty dress,' Katya said sweetly.

Cassandra had thought it pretty once; it was a pale pink strapless chiffon creation that clung tightly round her breasts before falling in gentle folds to mid-calf, but compared to Katya's sophisticated creation it was pathetic and she felt certain she must look like an overgrown child in a party frock.

'The colour's cute,' Katya continued. 'Pink's adorable, and it gives you a little more colour too.'

'It's very warm in here,' Cassandra ventured.

Katya showed her perfect little teeth in a delighted smile. 'I know! Dieter loves to do things like this.'

'Like what?' Cassandra asked in confusion.

'Unexpected things. When it's hot he lights a fire, when it's cold he opens the windows and turns off the heating. It's all part of his obsession with people learning to discipline their bodies. He thinks that the mind can control everything. Tonight we must think cool and then we'll feel cool. Don't you think that's brilliant?'

'Not really. I mean, it isn't cool, is it? It's hot.'

'Perhaps I haven't explained it very well. I'm afraid I'm really very stupid, not at all cerebral; not that Dieter minds!' She gave a ripple of laughter.

'Does it matter where I sit?' Cassandra asked.

'You're over there, opposite the fire.'

Cassandra took her seat and felt the heat from the flames across the table. She took a tissue from her clutch bag and dabbed at the perspiration on her top lip. It was all becoming a nightmare.

'Haven't you offered Cassandra a drink?' the baron asked as he strode into the room, pulling at the frilled cuffs of his dress shirt. 'What a poor hostess she must think you, Katya.'

As Katya hurried across to the drinks cabinet, the baron lifted Cassandra's left hand to his mouth and brushed it with his lips. It was the lightest of touches, but a small shock of pleasure darted up her arm and she almost snatched her hand away in surprise.

'How were the children?' he continued smoothly. 'No trouble I trust?'

'They were fine. Helena didn't want to eat her rice pudding, she seemed to expect blackcurrant sorbet, but apart from that ...'

'Now and again I change the menu,' the baron explained, watching Katya hand Cassandra a goblet of wine. 'I think it's so much more interesting if life holds surprises.'

'Only if they're pleasant ones,' Cassandra remarked dryly, gulping her wine far too quickly because she was so thirsty.

The baron watched her tilt her head back and visualised the liquid flowing down her throat. His eyes narrowed and his fingers began to tap lightly against the table top. Katya reached across and covered his hand with hers, stilling the telltale sign of his excitement.

'But life holds so many unpleasant surprises it's better for children to learn to face disappointment early on, don't you agree?' he asked.

'Not really. Childhood's precious; life will be hard later on as you say, but if you've had a secure start it's much easier to cope with life once you're older.'

The baron leant across the table and refilled her glass. 'Ring for Lucy to start serving, Katya. I'm afraid I don't agree with you, Cassandra, but then that's part of the pleasure of meeting new people, isn't it? Teaching them that there are different ways of looking at life.'

'Do I teach you or do you teach me?' Cassandra asked, astonished at her own courage and realising that she must drink her wine more slowly.

'My dear girl, we teach each other! Soup, Lucy, how perfect.'

Cassandra had been hoping for melon or a mousse of some kind. The bowl of steaming thick vegetable soup was the last thing she felt like eating and she glanced around the table for some water.

'Salt?' Katya asked, pushing the silver cruet towards her.

'Actually I was wondering if there was any water.'

'No,' the baron said shortly. 'Lucy, bring more wine.'

The candles on the table were scented, and the combination of the wine, the heat from the fire, the sweetness of the candles and the hot soup were nearly too much for Cassandra. She felt her eyelids begin to droop and a small trickle of sweat ran down her back. In the end she gave up and pushed the soup bowl away from her. The baron looked down the table at his mistress and they smiled at each other.

The soup was followed by roast beef, and the beef by a thick crusted apple pie served with clotted cream but while Cassandra simply picked languidly at the food Katya ate everything that was put in front of her with apparent relish. All Cassandra seemed able to do was drink, and since she never saw when the baron refilled her glass it was impossible for her to know how much she'd drunk.

At last, when she was so lightheaded with the heat that she felt sure she was going to faint, the baron pushed back his chair. 'We'll take coffee in the drawing room, Lucy. You may put out the fire now.'

Cassandra got to her feet and swayed. At once the baron was at her side, a hand firmly beneath her elbow. 'Come along, Cassandra. The drawing room's cool, you'll feel better there.' She leant against him, her legs suddenly turning weak as she tried to walk. Katya came to assist the baron but he waved her away with a dismissive flick of his hand.

In the drawing room the curtains were again drawn, but the air conditioning was on and Cassandra took deep breaths of the cool air then sank gratefully into one of the deep armchairs. Before coming down to dinner she'd pulled her hair back into a loose chignon, but the heat of the dining room had made it damp and strands had escaped and now clung to the back of her neck in rich brown swirls that made the baron long to reach out and lift them from the creamy flesh. He desisted. That would come later.

As Lucy entered, bringing the coffee on a tray, the baron withdrew to a chair in the far corner of the room, stretching his legs out in front of him. As soon as Lucy had gone Katya, who was sitting opposite Cassandra, leant forward in her chair. 'Did you try and think cool thoughts?' she enquired gently. 'You looked so hot all the time, and it really would have helped you know. I used to find it difficult, but in time you can learn to master your body in almost every situation.'

'I couldn't think of anything except how hot I was!' Cassandra confessed. Her head was still spinning and she was finding it hard to concentrate on what Katya was saying.

'Drink some of your coffee,' Katya urged her.

'I'd really rather have some water. I feel a little faint,' Cassandra confessed, horribly aware that her dress was beginning to stick to her like a second skin.

'The coffee will clear your head,' the baron remarked. 'Besides, how can you teach my daughters to discipline their bodies if you can't control your own? It all comes from here.' He tapped the side of his head. 'Pain, pleasure, comfort, discomfort, we can control it all, can't we, my darling?' As he was speaking he got up from his chair and moved to stand behind his mistress.

Cassandra watched over the rim of her coffee cup as his hands reached across the back of Katya's chair and slid onto her shoulders. She took a quick gulp of coffee. It was strong and a little too bitter for her taste, but at least it wasn't alcohol. When her cup was empty she replaced it on the small side table and leant her head back against the back of her chair. The room seemed to be expanding, and the figures of the baron and his mistress were expanding with it until they seemed to be almost on top of her. She realised that the coffee hadn't helped at all, in fact, it had made her feel even more peculiar.

Katya's eyes gleamed across the room at her and Cassandra quickly sat up straighter in her chair. The baron's hands were moving over Katya's upper arms now, small circular movements that were hypnotically soothing. Cassandra's own skin tingled as though he were touching her.

Slowly, very slowly, his hands moved back up and the long fingers caressed the sides of Katya's neck before moving inexorably down to where the V of the dress exposed the gentle swell of her breasts. Cassandra's breath caught in her throat. She wanted to look away, and yet she couldn't. Despite the air conditioning she was hotter now than in the dining room, and her mouth was dry.

For a long time his fingers lingered there, moving gently and insistently and Cassandra could see the top of Katya's breasts swelling and the dress tightening round the concealed lower half. The baron's head had been bent, but suddenly he lifted it and stared directly into Cassandra's eyes for a moment before leaning down until his head touched the top of Katya's and then his left hand slid right inside the deep V of the neckline and Cassandra watched incredulously as he tenderly lifted one round globe free of the dress. He then put his palm flat against Katya's ribcage and pushed upwards until he could take the hard peak of her nipple into his mouth.

Cassandra's heart was beating loudly in her ears and her own breasts were aching, longing for his knowing fingers to touch them just as they were touching Katya. No one had ever touched Cassandra that way. Paul's fumblings had borne no resemblance to the delicate way the baron was playing with Katya and even through the drugged mists of her mind she knew that this was what her body wanted, needed, and that if she couldn't have it she would die.

Small whimpering sounds of pleasure were coming from Katya's mouth, and from time to time the baron would take his lips from her breast and press them against her mouth to silence the sounds before returning to the rapidly darkening nipple.

After a time Katya's hips began to move in the chair and she reached up for the baron's free hand, bringing it down to her stomach so that he could press his fingers against her there, rotating his hand in time to the rotations of his tongue round her exposed breast.

Cassandra could hear her own breathing now, harsh and laboured, and Katya was making tiny mewing sounds of pleasure that increased in volume as the baron took the nipple and surrounding area into his mouth and began to suck hard on it, like a child at the breast.

Cassandra's thighs were tense and trembling, there was a dull ache in the pit of her stomach and her breasts felt as swollen as Katya's looked. Her entire body felt strange, so sensitive that even the touch of the chiffon skirt against the soft skin at the back of her knees was almost unbearable and without realising it her hands crept slowly upwards to cup her own breasts.

All at once, Katya's mewing sounds changed to breathless gasps, her hips moved more urgently, the baron's hand slid lower down her stomach and its movements became less gentle and then the petite, silver-blonde woman's whole body bucked violently in the chair and Cassandra stared at the scene despairingly, heavy-eyed and tense as the other woman found release; release which Cassandra unknowingly needed herself.

When Katya's body was finally still, the baron released her and walked towards Cassandra, his eyes going to her breasts where without realising it she was caressing herself through the tight folds of the chiffon. He crouched down in front of her, noting the slack mouth, the feverish brightness of the eyes, and the taut tension of the body. 'You see,' he whispered. 'There are always ways of distracting yourself from discomfort. Katya was just as hot as you in the dining room. She didn't want the food any more than you did, but she knew that if she ate it she'd be rewarded. Wouldn't you like a reward?'

Cassandra stared back at him, trying to will his hands to reach out and comfort her, fondle her aching breasts. The thought horrified her, she knew it was lewd and wrong, but at that moment it was all that mattered.

'Please,' she whispered.

'What?' He smiled his most charming smile and smoothed a strand of hair back off her face.

'Touch me,' she implored him.

'Where?' He was still smiling indulgently.

She couldn't say it; even drunk and semi-drugged she couldn't bring herself to say it and shook her head helplessly.

'Tell me what you want,' he said softly. 'How can I help you if I don't know what you need?'

'I want ...' She swallowed hard. Her breasts were still tight aching knots, the nipples painful against the bodice of the dress, but nothing on earth could make her express her need.

'Yes?'

Tears filled Cassandra's eyes. 'I can't tell you,' she whimpered.

'Silly girl! Here, drink a little more wine.'

She tried to push the glass away, but he persisted, holding the rim of the crystal goblet against her lips until she finally opened her mouth and tipped her head back, letting him dribble the wine down between her teeth and feeling its coolness as it slid down the back of her throat.

'There, that will help. In a few minutes we'll try again.' He got to his feet. 'Katya,' the voice was less gentle now. 'You can leave us.'

Katya stood frozen with astonishment in the middle of the room. 'No! I stay, that's always the way it's been.'

He turned away from Cassandra, his face twisted with temper. 'This is a different game, remember? You've done well tonight, but one wrong move can set you back several places!'

'You bastard!' She was furious with him.

He dropped his voice. 'Don't worry, I won't seduce her tonight. This is just to get her started.'