Marketplace (31 page)

But Shaw, although he was
quick to anger and would take a swat at you with his huge open hand
if you didn’t move fast enough or dig deep enough or pull up enough
weeds, didn’t use any of them sexually. Rachel had a part-time
woman who took the dry-cleaning and handled special errands and did
some heavy cleaning when there wasn’t a handy slave to do it. There
was also a mysterious handyman who came in a few times a week to
make small repairs and maintain the various machinery on the
property, but so far only Sharon had ever seen him, and he only
used her once. There was an alternate driver, who got a blowjob
from Brian while waiting for Alexandra’s guests to leave one
afternoon, but he too was rarely seen. So what was the big deal? It
certainly wouldn’t take a lot of people to replace the steady use
they got from the servants who were taking vacations. And very
early on, it seemed clear that the visitors had very strong
preferences for what kind of a slave they wanted to try out. They
almost all wanted a piece of Sharon.

On that first day, Sharon
found herself serving the desires of the woman named Nancy not
once, but four times before the day was over. The first was just as
Nancy’s lover, Lawrence, was busy abusing Brian in the stable.
Nancy took one look at Sharon’s body and immediately pointed at her
and nodded. Alexandra commanded Sharon through the same set of
moves that Brian did, and Sharon performed them perfectly, and
ended up on her knees, her face buried under Nancy’s flowing skirt
until Nancy sighed and purred with pleasure.

Sharon also found herself
in similar positions at lunchtime, and after the four people took
an afternoon ride, and again after Alexandra and Nancy had enjoyed
a dip in the big jacuzzi.

By the end of the day,
Sharon looked like she had been the biggest grosser at the county
fair kissing booth. And she felt like she had run her mouth over
about thirty acres of carpeting. She had never met a woman with
sexual appetites that matched her own. She fell asleep soundly and
instantly that night and woke up with her hand in her crotch. It
took all of her willpower not to continue what the dream had
started.

* * * *

I can’t believe this,
Sharon thought, getting up one more time to stretch. How can people
remember all this shit? I mean, English is English, and no one’s
ever had any problem understanding me!

“It’s just not proper to
use the word ‘totally’ to indicate that something is exaggerated,”
Robert explained. “Totally great means the same thing as
great.”

“No it doesn’t,” Sharon
shot back, exasperated.”
Totally
great is better than just great. Like these
lessons are
totally
stupid, OK?”

“And don’t end your
sentences or declarations with OK?, OK?” Robert moaned and rubbed
his temple. “Oh God, now I’m doing it.”

“Jeeze, I don’t know what
the fuss is about,” Sharon said. “It’s only words. No one is going
to care how I talk.”

“How you speak. And they
will care if they want a pleasure slave they can take to Europe,”
Robert replied. “Don’t you want to be able to go to Paris, or
Geneva? Europeans hate Americans with accents and speech patterns
like yours. They think that people who speak like that are
rubes.”

“Huh?” Oh shit, here comes
another lecture. Sharon twirled a finger through her hair as Robert
the Sissy explained what a stupid rube was. Like, who cared? She
felt the softness of the hair with satisfaction. Since she had
shown those two guys such a good time yesterday, Chris had actually
sent her a little bottle of some very nice creme rinse.

I’m not doing too bad, she
thought, nodding her head so that Robert would keep talking. I
thought I was in deep shit because the head honchos weren’t fucking
me, but they’re letting all their friends at me. And I know what
they’re saying, too. That I’m the hottest babe they’ve ever had.
Sooner or later, one of them, Alexandra or Grendel and I don‘t care
which, is going to have to give in and take a roll with me, and
that will end all this bullshit once and for all.

“So you do want to change
the way you speak, so it will improve your value,” Robert finished.
“You also want to do it because you’ve been ordered to, and we’ll
both be punished if you don’t!”

“No, we won’t,” Sharon’s
napped, her eyes narrowing. “I’ll be punished. You’ll get some more
sweet talk from your pal Chris. C’mon, sissy, what’s the deal
there? You giving him blowjobs on the side or
something?”

Robert blushed. He was
trying his best to control that reaction, but Sharon seemed to be
very capable of bringing it out in him.

“I mean,” she continued,
“you can’t keep it up even when I suck you off, so you must be
queer. Worse than pretty-boy Brian, even. He can give me a good
workout, if they ever let him. But you? Like, you’re all steak and
no sizzle!”

He winced. “Actually,” he
said, his voice beginning to waver, “the phrase is ‘all sizzle and
no—’”

“I don’t give a fuck!”
Sharon reached over and pushed all of Robert’s books and folders
and papers to the floor. “I don’t care what anything means! I don’t
care how you say anything! This is all stupid! Totally fucking
stupid!”

“Sharon!” Robert hurriedly
put a finger to his lips, and then dived for the floor to pick up
the books. “Shh!” He gathered up one binder and moaned when he saw
that it had opened, and papers were strewn all over the floor.
“Don’t shout, you’ll—”

“Well, I don’t care.”
Sharon looked toward the closed library door, and lowered her
voice. Her tone shifted from angry to petulant, but she didn’t
yell. She watched Robert picking up the things she had dumped to
the floor, and it didn’t occur to her to help him.

Stupid asshole, she
thought. It’s his own damn fault. Who does he think he is, trying
to pretend he’s my teacher or something? Everyone’s got some reason
to think they’re better than me. Even Good-Girl Claudia. Ever since
she and that hyper-bitch Rachel have been running off together, she
thinks she’s Miss High and Mighty! Just look at her, walking around
with a clipboard, taking notes, and even talking about how to make
up our schedules! I mean, the servants are only going away on
vacation, it’s not like she’s going to have a real job or
something. And besides, Rachel’s not that hot, and she’s only a
freaking maid. With biker tattoos! So I don’t know why little
Claudia thinks she’s the way to a better life around
here.

And I can’t stand the way
she flaunts it when Alexandra takes her after dinner. I mean, it’s
not like she was spending the night or anything! And besides,
Alexandra and Claudia’s mistress are old buddies. Alexandra is
probably just being nice.

Throwing herself back down
on the couch, she examined her nails and sighed. Chris had hinted
that manicures might start after she had reached the final stage of
training, whatever that was. No one told them anything around here,
even with the magic three questions and shit. Huh. That was cute.
They give you three questions, but they don’t guarantee a good
answer. And if you ask the question wrong, bang, you’re outta
there! What a racket.

She glanced at Robert,
busily putting his papers back in order. I don’t get you, sissy,
she thought. You’ve got a dick that could choke a horse or
something, but you can’t keep it going. You’re pretty educated and
everything, but you open your mouth and stupid stuff comes out. And
now, you’re just dipped in gold around here. And we get your
punishments. Hey, maybe I’ll ask about that next week. How would I
say it? How come we get punished whenever Robert screws up? That’s
clear, isn’t it?

“D-do you want to
continue?” Robert asked, smoothing out a crinkle on a page. “We
were going on to how to keep yourself from using unnecessary
words.”

“I’m tired,” Sharon said
with a yawn to demonstrate. “Let’s quit for the night,
OK?”

“We can’t.” Robert looked
up at the clock. “We have another hour to go.”

Sharon scowled. “I hate
this shit!”

Robert sighed and agreed
with all his heart.

* * * *

Robert was genuinely
confused at the change in the way he was treated. Chris seemed to
be much more like the cold but kindly man that Robert met the first
day he was here, and almost no one beat him any more. Instead, they
made him watch while they beat everyone else, which in a way was
much worse. And the harder he cried for them, or the louder he
wailed, the harder they were beaten.

Oh, he got his share of
beatings at the evening line-up, for small infractions and such,
but his body didn’t bear the constant bands of pink and the series
of light bruising that everyone else lived with every day. And the
more he got out, to drive the cars or to mow the lawn with the
small tractor, or even to carry the grocery boxes in from the
delivery van, the more he was aware of the amount of time he spent
clothed. If you didn‘t count the coverall that Jack gave his stable
workers, no one else ever got clothing. Of course, Robert was very
careful to strip as soon as possible after doing whatever needed to
be done while covered.

What are they doing with
me? he often wondered. When Alexandra or Grendel brought their
friends around to look at the four slaves, they spent less time
with him than any of the others. And the guests almost never chose
him to play with or use. Only once had someone decided to try him
out, and he got a very light spanking from a woman who looked like
she was doing it for the first time. Compared to Sharon, he was a
virgin. Clearly, no one wanted him, which was just as well. Because
his sessions with Mistress Alexandra weren’t exactly going the way
she wanted them to.

Oh, I’m getting very good
at massage, he reminded himself. A wiry man with iron gray hair and
a densely muscled body had started to come by every other day to
teach him how to do a professional massage. He had learned quite a
bit, actually, about anatomy and different styles of massage like
shiatsu and reflexology. He was even studying acupuncture, to know
that particular map of the body. And according to Alexandra, who
fairly purred and sang when he practiced on her, he was adding
something priceless to his folder, a skill that many people wanted
in a house slave.

Unfortunately, that’s about
the only thing I do well, he thought. Every time she touches me, I
get all hard and then I go limp again, and she doesn’t like that,
not one bit. She wants me to be able to get hard and stay hard, but
I don’t know how to manage that! And every time she mentions
Grendel, I just get scared, and I can’t perform well. And that’s
not fair, because he might be a very nice man. But I am scared, of
him and of other men. I just can’t help it.

Poor Brian. Other men use
him all the time now, and he’s got his nast—I mean, his cock in
that little steel cage. It’s almost as bad as the one I used to
have to wear. And he goes to see Grendel and always comes back
early. Well, I’m not the only one who’s scared of Grendel. So is
Claudia, although she doesn’t say why. I think it’s because she’s
gay, and maybe she doesn’t like men at all.

I’m worried about what’s
going to happen when the servants go away. It’s clear that Claudia
will replace Rachel (who, thank God, has never shown the slightest
interest in me!), and I think that I’ll be driving and doing some
of the kitchen work. But that leaves a lot of cleaning and washing
and folding and, oh, all sorts of stuff. It’s going to be hard to
do all those things and our other chores and try to be good slaves
at the same time.

Oh, he remembered. And I
have to start my recitals tomorrow. He felt a familiar sensation in
the pit of his stomach. I know I’m going to mess up, he thought
miserably. How am I supposed to deliver it? In front of whom? Will
the other slaves be there? Oh, they’ll all laugh, and I won’t be
able to keep my cool, and I’ll cry, and then something terrible
will happen.

“Maybe you’re right,” he
said out loud, shaking Sharon from her own thoughts. “Why don’t you
go to bed? I have some studying to do anyway.”

* * * *

Claudia sponged some more
of the floral scented bubbles over Alex’s back, and then rinsed
them away. Her movements were becoming more assured every day, and
not a drop of water spilled over the side of the high tub. Alex hit
the drain and stood, allowing Claudia to rinse her body off with
the flexible shower head Claudia put it back in the ring with ease
and hurried to fetch a large, fluffy, warmed towel, which she
wrapped around Alex’s body.

Serving in the bath was a
little like serving tea, she thought, suppressing a smile. You have
to be well balanced, know what ingredients have to be offered
first, know how to pour, and pick things up and put them down
again. But afterwards, you have a pretty naked woman instead of a
table of dirty dishes and cups. She widened her eyes at her
disrespectful thought, and tried to concentrate on drying Alex’s
body. But a little smile played across her lips all the
same.

“Would you like me to send
for something to drink, ma’am?” she asked, turning to put the
bottles of oils and gels away.

“No, Claudia. Just turn
down the bed and lower the lights, will you?”