Master (11 page)

"And not tonight," Fiona added with a frown at
Lizzie who just grinned.

"Nah, sadly.
No, sorry, Anna, I didn't
mean that. Tonight is a girly chat, and we're not going to make you run
screaming into the night.
Food in ten."

Anna giggled.
"Oh good, because I'm
starving."
She headed for the recliner that seemed to be earmarked
as 'Anna's chair' and sat down.

She'd become close to the other two girls over the last few
weeks and knew their rituals and preferences. Lizzie always sat on the floor,
not, she'd explained, as a sub, but because she found it more comfortable.
Fiona preferred sprawling on the settee, and Anna curled up in the leather
recliner and tilted it back. They'd enjoyed meals together, been to the cinema,
and taken Dickens for long walks.
Caden
hadn't been
mentioned.

Now she wriggled into a comfy position and sighed.
"Okay, what are you up to? You have those scary we know what's best for
you
looks
on your faces.

Lizzie blushed. Fiona frowned. "I think it's time,
don't you?"

Damn.
"I guess so. I mean I can
go on and on skirting the issue, eating your food, talking about everything
except what I need help for. Yeah, let's start. Hey, I don't have to call you
Mistress, do I?"

Fiona stood up. Anna gulped as her friend seemed to grow in
stature and her face changed.
"In theory, yes.
However, no, not here.
This is friends helping friends,
Anna. Now, come here."

Anna blinked. Even the voice had changed. Although the
accent was the same, the tone was one of command and expectation of instant
obedience. Without thinking of her action, she scrambled out of the chair and
walked to Fiona. Fiona hugged her.

"See, you responded from the heart, Anna. You want to
sub, but won't give in easily. Why not? Oh not to me, I'm happy and want no one
except Lizzie, but you? You're crying inside."

"I know." Anna sighed. "It's a matter of
trust, I guess. Do I trust
Cade
? Well, I didn't, did
I? And he never gave me any reason not to trust him. I just couldn't do what he
wanted."

"Was it him you didn't trust, Anna? Or was it
yourself?" Lizzie had moved to stand next to Fiona and rested her head on
Fiona's shoulder.

Anna sighed. It also came from the heart. "Myself. How
could I hold him when I hated what he wanted me to do? And I loved him so much,
I didn't say no.
But deep down?
I hated what I was
doing, so I ran." She swallowed. "No, that's a lie. I loved what we
were doing, but couldn't understand why he wanted to share it with others. It
was us, private and…" She burst into tears. "Oh shit, why wasn't I enough?
Why did he want other people to see me like that?" The words came out in a
staccato rhythm in between sobs. "The bastard, sharing what was ours,
showing my body to other people, letting them leer, and ogle, and laugh. And I
couldn't get out, I had to stop there and I hated it. He was so proud, he kept
telling me how beautiful I looked and how people envied us and … no …
noooo
."

Lizzie and Fiona held Anna between them and let her cry. For
the first time in years, Anna just let it out. Her frustration, worry, love,
and fear had been repressed for so long that once she started she couldn't
stop. By the time the sobs had become a few hiccups, Anna was shaky and
drained. And, she realized as she accepted a box of tissues from Lizzie,
relieved.

"Thanks. Oh god, I needed that." Anna blew her
nose and wiped her eyes. "I didn't know how much." She took a deep
breath. "Okay, flake over. And I'm starving. Hell, I hope I haven't ruined
the pizza."

Lizzie shook her head. "Nah, you only flaked for a wee
while. I'll go and get it."

"So," Anna said as they sat round the table eating
the perfectly cooked pizza. "What do I do next?"

Fiona chewed a piece of chicken and swallowed. "What do
you want to do,
hon
? After all, you said it was over
fifteen years ago."

Anna put down her cutlery and drank some wine. "Yeah, I
lied. I thought I'd made it over, but one look at him and my thong was soaked.
Hell, I could almost come by looking at him." She put her glass down and
spread her hands. "Three weeks ago I couldn't have admitted that to myself
let alone
tell
anyone else. Even thinking about him,
my nipples hurt. Oh fucking hell, I'm a goner again." She dried her clammy
hands on her napkin. "Ladies, I need major help. Or a
lobotomy,
and I hate pain. Don't laugh, I really don't do pain in any shape or
form."

It seemed to be the last straw for Fiona and Lizzie. They
both burst out laughing. After a few seconds Anna joined in. "Yes,
hmm," she spluttered once they'd calmed down a bit.
"Shut
up, you two.
I might not like pain, but I so know how to inflict it on
others. Watch it, or I might feel the need to get some practice in."

"On a Dom?"
Fiona asked, although her
eyes twinkled to show she wasn't serious. "Not if you hate pain as you say
you do."

"Yeah, right, now then, seriously, I need your help.
What do I do? If nothing else I need to be able to go to the damn club without
throwing up. He still has my picture, and even though his deadline has expired
I want that picture. I don't suppose you two want to do a spot of
un
breaking
and
entering do you?"

Fiona shook her head.
"No, thanks.
Caden
McCourt's reputation goes before him. I'm only
a
Domme
, he's an awe inspiring Master. No one but no
one in their right mind, oh, except you it seems, crosses him and lives to Dom
again. Or sub. So we'll pass."

"
Wuss
."

"Yup.
Think of something else."

That was the problem. Anna didn’t want to think. She knew
what she had to do, and it scared the living daylights out of her.

****

"Okay, now this is step one. Take a deep breath, and
practice those exercises we did. You've done brilliantly so far, and you need
to do this if your plans are to work."

Anna groaned as she stood next to Lizzie in front of the
one-way mirror in the darkened room and looked at the scene in the other room
below. "Yes, all right. You're right, and I'll do it. I'm taking deep
breaths. I will not hyperventilate."

"And open your eyes. That's my Dom down there flogging
a sub, not yours."

"What?" Anna opened her eyes. She hadn't even
realized she'd shut them.
"Where?
I can't see
her. All I can see is a few people sitting round the bar, and oh god,
apparatus. But no one's on anything. You fibbed."

"Yup," Lizzie was unrepentant. "Anna, we've
sneaked you in here. So for fuck’s sake you've got to keep your eyes open.
At least for now.
Right look down.
What do you see?"

Anna looked. "Like I said, scary apparatus and some
people wandering around.
And oh god, someone in
handcuffs."
Her stomach heaved. It felt full of lead, and she
shivered.
"Hell, Lizzie, why?"

"They want to be.
So why not?
Does it do anyone harm? No. Why does it bother you? Do you want to be
her?"

Anna shuddered and ignored the zip of excitement that
hardened her nipples and sent a gush of liquid to pool at the entrance to her
pussy. "Not on your
nelly
… ah okay, not in
public on your
nelly
."

Lizzie spluttered. "Oh god, that's a new name for it. I
must remember … okay, I know it's just an expression. My
Nan
used to say it.
So maybe in private?
Like here and now?"

A sharp prickle of anticipation buzzed through Anna, and she
gasped. "Damn you, Liz. Why do you say such things? This is not private.
Would you do it?"

Lizzie bit her lip. "Hmm, I would have said no, but
besides which, helping you is helping me. Now if it was just
Fi
and me, perhaps, I might. Because we'd be private, but
be here and not at home.
So sort of a halfway point."

 
She had a point. Anna
thought for a moment. "Yeah, but you and
Fi
are
an established couple. I'm in no man’s land."

"Hold your hands out." Fiona had entered the room
unheard by either Lizzie or Anna.
"Both of you."

Anna swung round. Fiona held two pairs of cuffs in her
hands. She looked toward Lizzie who held her hands out. Fiona snapped the
Velcro around Lizzie's wrists and checked for comfort. "Good girl."
She gave Lizzie a kiss on the cheek and turned to Anna.

"Well? Are you ready?"

Am I?
Anna rubbed her fingers
together and ignored the buzzing in her ears. If she couldn't do this, what
hope had she got? She held her hands out and hoped they didn't tremble. Fiona
fastened the cuffs on and kissed Anna's cheek. It was the comfort of a touch of
a friend.

"I'm proud of you both. Now, all I want you to do is
sit on those seats and watch downstairs for half an hour.
Safe
words now.
How do you feel, what's your color?"

"Green."
Anna spoke at the same time
as Lizzie and laughed. "Blimey, that's a step forward. It really is
green." She was pleased that she truly didn't feel ready to throw up. The
cuffs didn't hurt or even restrict her too much.

"Good. Then whatever happens, you don't get up. You're
on your honor, and I trust you both."

It was the one thing she could have said to make Anna
conform. After all, how hard could it be? The cuffs didn't hurt or even
restrict her too much. She sat down and watched Lizzie do the same. In a
somewhat furtive way, Lizzie put her finger to her lips and mouthed
Shh
. Then her
fingers flashed, and Anna had to stifle her grin. The previous week, when Fiona
was working, she and Lizzie had invented their own version of signing. Anna
hadn't thought they'd ever need to use it, even though they'd giggled over how
much fun it could be to pass opinions and no one else know what they were
doing.

So Lizzie reckoned the room was bugged then? Anna had to
agree. It had been too coincidental that the handcuffs arrived just after
they'd discussed that very thing. Anna had the silly thought that if they both
said they'd want to sit in jelly a bathtub full would arrive. A flurry of
fingers, and Anna smiled widely.

"I do hope I won't be sick all over the window,"
she said loudly. Lizzie stuffed her hand in her mouth. "Okay then, if
we’re told to sit and watch I guess we’d better do it." She made a show of
sitting, and the chair creaked in protest, and she wriggled on it.

"Oh yes," Lizzie said, her voice high. "Um, maybe,
let's just look." She sat in the next chair and signed.
"Oh
god, what next?"

Anna looked down into the great room of the club. It had
filled up, and the tall silver-haired Dom she'd spoken to on the night she'd
freaked was checking the cuffs on a woman dressed in a leather bustier and not
much else. She waited for the fear to fill her, and for her skin to itch. It
didn't happen. Her heartbeat sped up, and she blinked a few times. It wasn't
her—it was someone else.
Their kink—safe sane and
consensual—so nothing to her.

"
Er
,
that
sub
over on the far side? She looks like she wants to do the
ironing," Anna said in a level voice. "Why bother if that's how you
feel?"

"No idea, but if anyone can change her attitude, then I
reckon he will."

 
Lizzie was right.
Within five minutes the sub's face was animated and Anna's body was demanding
attention. And there was no way it was going to get what it wanted. Anna
shifted in her seat. Why the great big turn around in attitude? Had her plans
been the right ones? She needed to think and use her vibrator as soon as she
could.

Part
Three

Continuation

Chapter Nine

The computer
pinged
the arrival of
an email.
Caden
opened it up without much enthusiasm.
Three weeks after his deadline and not a whisper from Anna. Had he really
thought there would be? Well, no, but he had hoped there might be something,
even a solicitor's letter. Not this great deafening silence.

The email was a reminder of his schedule from Daisy who had
decided to have two weeks off to cleanse her aura. When
Cade
asked just what she meant by that, she'd grinned and replied, "Painting
the bathroom."

There was no answer to that, especially as he'd done
something similar not long before. He read the timetable with little interest.
Daisy had already set up his electronic calendar on his laptop, written everything
in the diary,
and
emailed every day.
He'd think she was missing him if she didn't also remind him on a regular basis
that he was due to have a meal with her and her partner the following weekend.
And add in bold italic script
was it
going to be for three or four?
When they'd arranged the date, she'd told
him to bring a friend and he'd rolled his eyes and asked her, "
Yeah,
and just who do you think I should bring then?"