Marketplace (34 page)

“Ma’am?” Robert’s voice did
scale up a bit, and he coughed before he could continue. “How shall
I thank you, ma’am?”

“By saying so!” Alex drew
her arm back and delivered one sharp smack under his ass cheeks,
driving him upwards an inch or two, and he yelped.

“Oh! Ah! Thank you, ma’am!”
he cried out, as she began to paddle him with vigor. “Yes! Thank
you!”

“Now we’re getting
somewhere,” Alex said with satisfaction. She covered his ass with a
band of solid pink, concentrating on the curves below the middle of
his ass, and bringing her strokes in underhand to provide that
“lift” as they hit. In no time at all, Robert had fallen into a
litany of gratitude, and was putting his ass out for
more.

“Good boy,” Alex declared,
putting the paddle down. She ran her fingers over the spanked area
with satisfaction, making Robert hiss with intense pleasure. “Are
you ready for the whip?”

“Yes, ma’am!”

He took his lashes kneeling
on a low platform, so that his back was at exactly the level Alex
needed. She positioned him with his fingers laced behind his neck,
and started his beating with dozens of light blows delivered slowly
so that the soft tresses could drape over his back and caress his
muscles, trailing down to his waist. He shivered in appreciation,
and after one or two false starts, began to thank her
again.

“You’re so kind to me,” he
moaned, arching his shoulders out to meet the whip. “Thank you,
thank you, ma’am!”

Alex smiled to herself and
began giving the heavy whip a bit more speed on each round of
blows. The ends of the tresses landed with precision on his
shoulders and on the big muscles of his back. They began to make
noise, a nice, muted thump, and as she moved to allow more or less
of the whip to hit him, they sounded louder and louder.

Across his shoulders, down
each side of his back, it was a leather rain that fell with a
steady, heartbeat rhythm that Robert matched with moans of
pleasure. His fat cock, already tumescent from the paddling, rose
stiffly between his legs and he trembled with near ecstasy. When
Alexandra moved around to face him and used the whip on his chest,
he closed his eyes, but his lips parted in a series of inarticulate
cries, mixed in with sincere, simple thanks.

Alex stopped when his chest
was about the same color as his ass, and she looked critically at
him. The body is very nice, she mused, just the way it is. I’m not
going to bulk him up, there are plenty of body-builders out there.
And he can take a nice thumping indeed, when he realizes that he’s
supposed to react naturally. We know he can over-react, but it’s
good to note that he can be sensual too. Will he ever be able to
take it stoically?

Never mind, now’s not the
time to test it. Reward desired behavior sparingly but with
encouragement, that was the pattern. She dropped the whip down in
front of him and he opened his eyes with a start.

“Put the toys away and
bring me a leather cock ring that will fit you,” Alex told him.
When he did, his hand shaking as he presented the ring to her, she
approved of it and told him to put it on. When he finished wrapping
it around the base of his balls, he fastened it tight enough to
make his cock seem even heavier and thicker, and adjusted the snaps
so that they were out of sight.

Oh yeah, Alex thought,
admiring the package. We are including one photo of that in his
folder. She touched it, stroking the side of his cock, and he
trembled. “This looks very nice,” she mused. “Have you been
behaving? Have you come at all since you’ve been here?”

“No, ma’am,” he choked
out.

“Would you like
to?”

“Ah! Oh, N—I mean... if it
would please you, ma’am!”

Alexandra cupped the shaft,
holding it from the bottom as if she were weighing it. “It might,”
she said. “I definitely have plans for it. But perhaps you’ve had
enough stress for one evening.”

She let it drop, and Robert
fought the urge to draw his knees together and squirm until the
burning need went away. But he maintained his posture in front of
her, and watched her movements for clues about what he should do
next.

“Would you like to sleep at
the foot of my bed tonight?” She asked suddenly.

“Oh, yes, please ma’am!”
His voice broke, and he blushed, and tried to control himself.
“It—it would be an honor!”

“Yes, it would,” she
admitted. But the look in her eyes had suddenly lost its approval.
“But it’s an honor we’ll have to save for the next time I feel like
rewarding you. Watch your voice, Robert, it’s your greatest fault.
You may return to your studies or go to bed, I’ll see you in two
days. Keep the ring on until you go to bed and put it back after
you shower in the morning.”

She called to him as he
walked quietly toward the door. “Oh, Robert? I suggest... not
command, but suggest... that you strongly consider taking advantage
of what Sharon offers you every day.”

He choked, and then said,
“Yes, ma’am,” and got out of the room with a spinning head and a
throbbing hard-on.

* * * *

Chris reviewed Claudia’s
first day on the job and ran his finger down a checklist. At least
half the items he had listed did not have checks next to them.
Claudia and Brian, both comfortably naked again, were kneeling by
his desk. They had never been in Chris’s office before, and they
struggled not to twist and turn their heads to look around and get
a better feel for the somber majordomo. What they did know was that
he had a computer and a some framed documents and photographs, and
piles of papers and files, arrayed in neat precision. Unlike the
offices/studies of the owners, his workspace did have items of
fetish interest. Hanging from an antique coat rack was a heavy
motorcycle-style jacket, its epaulets hung with silver rings and
strands of chain, for example. Brian’s eyes widened as he snuck
peeks at it. It would have fit in at any leather bar on any given
Saturday night, and he just could not imagine Chris wearing
it.

What caught Claudia’s eyes
was an umbrella stand in which nothing was held that could have
kept rain off. But there were several glossy canes protruding from
the top, one with a curved crook, the others with banded or woven
handles. After feeling the weight and pain of his ever-present
strap, she was astonished to see such civilized pieces of
paraphernalia in his private space. The canes shared their
container with an assortment of riding crops, a thin rod that would
have been painfully familiar to Sharon and Brian, and two or three
long dressage-style whips.

And even from across the
room, they could see that several books on a tall set of shelves
had very familiar spines. Chris, it seemed, had a collection of the
very books that they had searched the library for so many times.
Between the two of them, they spotted several classic SM novels and
two notorious trilogies.

“This is distressing,”
Chris commented, pushing the list away. “You’ve both had plenty of
time to learn what has to be done in this house on a daily basis.
Claudia, you in particular have been given no regular assignments
outside the house, and Rachel had taken you under strict
supervision all this week.”

“I’m sorry, Chris,” she
said softly. “I know it’s my fault, I promise to do better
tomorrow!”

“So you say. However, it’s
clear that many of these things should have been done by Brian, as
directed by you. Are you having trouble managing him? Has he been
unavailable, or slow?”

Claudia shot a glance at
Brian, who felt a trickle of nervousness grow up his spine. Had he
been avoiding her today? Yes, he had, after she stared at him
helplessly for the third time or so. He had just taken more time to
do some simple things, assuming that when she was ready to let him
know what had to be done, she’d find him. He prayed that she
wouldn’t betray him. I swear, he tried to communicate with his
eyes, I swear it’ll be different tomorrow! Don’t mess me up,
girl!

“Uh, it’s all my fault,
Chris,” Claudia stammered out. “Please don’t blame
Brian.”

Chris nodded and turned his
attention to the relieved slave. “Do you agree with that
assessment, Brian? That you did well, and this report reflects
badly on Claudia?”

“Um.” Brian cleared his
throat. He hadn’t expected that he would be placed in this
position! He glanced back at Claudia, who suddenly looked about as
panicked as he felt, and then he looked back at Chris. “I... I did
my best, sir, I mean, Chris... but maybe I can share part of the
blame, it was only our first day—”

“You still talk too much,”
Chris said, cutting him off. “And you still think you can lie to us
and your lies aren’t as transparent as plastic wrap.” He didn’t
sound angry, but he was more than annoyed. “Claudia didn’t get many
of these things done because she wasn’t willing to stay on you as
you did them, and neither was she willing to go looking for you
while you dawdled and wasted your time. That much is her fault, and
we’ll be working on it. The rest is yours, however, and seeing as
you didn’t have the honesty or the courage to own up to them, I
have no alternative but to punish you severely.”

Brian dropped his head and
his entire body tingled with dread.

“For the next three days,
unless your work or safety requires that you stand, I want you to
fulfill the posture and speech requirements of a pet, Brian. Do you
remember reading about them?”

Brian nodded, and his guts
twisted inside him. Pets, he remembered, don’t use furniture. They
crawl, all the time. They carry things in their mouths, but gently,
so as not to leave tooth marks. And they do not talk, but whine,
whimper, mew, bark, or whatever is appropriate for the kind of pet
they were.

“Perhaps in that time,
you’ll learn that when humans are slaves, they retain some of their
humanity. That part should include honesty and integrity. And while
you snuffle and whine your way around the house, maybe you’ll
remember that your answers to questions should be brief, to the
point, and simply phrased, without dissembling or hedging or
flattery. You may find it slightly more difficult to lie without
being able to talk, I think.”

Claudia looked at Chris in
horror. She couldn’t imagine a worse sentence for the talkative,
teasing Brian.

“Claudia, before I dismiss
you, I have something for you.” Chris got up and walked over to the
umbrella stand. Claudia’s eyes widened as he drew out a short,
flexible cane with a wrapped leather handle. He beckoned and she
rose and walked over to him, her eyes on the varnished
rod.

“This,” Chris said
thoughtfully, “is an excellent style of cane. It is made from
imported rattan, finished in England.” He handed it to her. “I have
selected it for use on Brian.”

She looked up at him in
confusion. Brian’s head shot up as well.

“You are familiar with the
principles of using one, I assume?” Chris handed it to
her.

She took it gingerly,
holding it with the deep respect she felt. “Please, Chris... I am
familiar, but never... I only...”

“Yes, well, if you are ever
given a position of authority over other slaves, you will be
expected to know when and how to express it. The strap requires a
little more upper arm strength than you have to be effective, but
your hand-eye coordination is excellent. If you’re unsure, we’ll
have a lesson right now.” Chris took the cane back and snapped his
fingers. “Up, boy. I want you bent at the waist, your hands around
your ankles!”

As Brian got into position,
Claudia felt suddenly warm in the small room. “Please, please,” she
said desperately. “I can’t... I mean, I won’t be able to do it
well, Chris. I’m really just a slave, I can’t be in charge of
anyone!”

“But you will be,” Chris
answered sternly. “This is part of your training. Now pay
attention.”

He walked over to stand at
an appropriate distance and angle from Brian’s upturned posterior,
and showed Claudia how to bring the cane across in a straight line,
keeping the wrist firm. After showing her the movement in slow
motion, tapping Brian each time, he sped it up and delivered a
whistling strike exactly across the middle of Brian’s ass. Brian
yelped in pain, and gripped his ankles harder, gritting his teeth.
The cane left a line that went from white to red in an instant, and
Chris called Claudia up to look at it.

Three more demonstration
strikes, each one getting another cry of pain, and then Chris took
Claudia’s arm and guided her through the swinging motion, looking
for all the world like a golf pro. Claudia’s first practice swings
were bouncy waves of the punishment instrument, but with Chris’s
arm over hers, she helped add a fifth and sixth mark to Brian’s
ass.

“You’ll get better with
practice,” Chris promised. “By the end of the week, I want you to
be able to judge when one of your strikes will mark and when it
will draw blood. Keep it clean and dry, and never leave it laying
on the floor where someone can step on it. Down, boy, we’re
finished with you. Go sit in the corner.” Chris pointed and Brian
crawled.

“Tomorrow and for the next
two days, I will advise you when to use it, but after that, you
will be expected to figure that out by yourself. And Claudia, I’ll
give you this warning only once.” He wrapped his fingers through
the chain that was her collar and pulled her close to him. She
could smell mint on his breath, see the faint lines of a scar on
his cheek. “If I find out that you are being more lenient than the
situation demands, or that you have decided suddenly that Brian
never needs correction, you can find yourself changing places with
Sharon very quickly. I’m sure she’d love to give up stable work in
favor of housework and serving you in favor of supervising Brian.
Am I very clear?” Chris released her and she stumbled
back.