Subculture (15 page)

She'd grinned at him easily. ‘Some of them want different things.'

‘Such as?' His heart had changed its beat as images of whipped bare bottoms lifted his libido.

‘You know - water sports, bondage, or to spank and be spanked.'

‘And do you... let them spank you?' he'd asked. He'd hesitated to ask the question, for the last thing he wanted to do was act as a sexual harasser. At the same time he couldn't let a punishment-for-pleasure opportunity sail quickly by.

‘Sure - if I feel like it I lower myself across their laps,' she'd replied.

He'd inhaled hard. ‘Same here - I spank my female staff when they disobey my instructions.'

‘What kind of instructions?' Ria had said. Her eyes had seemed to glitter in the strong Maltese sunlight. She'd crossed then uncrossed her shapely legs.

‘Rules about record-keeping, punctuality, about not smoking on the premises.' He saw Ria's gaze shift to the little table beside her, looked and saw a half-full ashtray. ‘Oh dear, you've transgressed already' he added in a mock stern tone.

‘Sorry, sir, I forgot,' the surrogate had murmured throatily.

‘I'll still have to take down your pants and tan your arse for you,' Michael had said.

Now, remembering her first thrashing, he looked down at his shaft, which twitched into increasing tumescence. Michael turned the shower faucet onto a cooler temperature; he didn't want to masturbate under the spray. What he really wanted was Lisa writhing across his knee. Ria had enjoyed being spanked, and he'd gone on to tie her to the coat hooks and tease her clit in later sessions. But she'd refused to be whipped or caned. Which would have been fine, if the spankings had made her temporarily submissive. But they didn't; they were just a different form of stimulus to her flesh. She hadn't understood the rules - or had chosen to ignore them. He'd had some interesting sex with her, but she could never be the love of his life.

The love of his life was in her room, alone. As was he. Michael turned off the water and briskly rubbed himself dry with a thick towel. Tonight he'd almost told her that he was falling in love with her. Then she'd twisted her engagement ring round her marriage finger and he'd remembered her damned fiance, Reece. Was he, Michael, just a way to pass the time for three months until she joined her partner? He thought that he had a strong affect on her, but was it enough to make her change her long term plans?

She'd let him spank and cane her hard. She'd let him use the paddle and bring her to orgasm. They'd talked and sparred and looked at each other and laughed. He hoped that she was beginning to understand about the corporal punishment. He hoped that she realised he wasn't a sadist - just a dominant man.

There was so much confusion about a sexuality such as his own. So much misrepresentation. The ignorant saw CP as domestic violence, yet the two were worlds apart. Wife batterers punched and kicked their wives in acts of rage and undiluted cruelty. Dominant men spanked and teased and brought their submissive lovers to new pleasure heights. Dominant men didn't physically chasten children. Nor did they spank any adults who didn't desire to be punished deep down.

Lisa wanted to be punished deep down - the strength of her climaxes proved it. As did the fact that she kept coming back for more. She was at the halfway stage now, probably admitting her submission to herself but not to him.

He'd read for a while. He couldn't sleep. As he reached for a medical text the phone rang. Would Lisa call him this late?

Eagerly he reached for the receiver. ‘Dr Landers speaking.' The line crackled - then he recognised the voice of a surgeon whom he'd worked with in London three years before when he himself was still actively practicing surgery.

‘Sorry to disturb you this late,' his respected colleague said. ‘We're in the midst of a crisis with one of your former patients.' He sighed. ‘She urgently requires surgery and insists that she'll only let you do it. Can you fly over here tonight?'

 

What emergency? Lisa rubbed the sleep from her eyes and squinted again at the note which had apparently been pushed under her door some time after she'd gone to bed last night.
Called back to Britain on an emergency
, it said.
Let's talk when we get back
. Then there was a PS:
I know I'll miss you
. It was signed simply,
M
.

Had he gone off to London with that dark haired woman he had kissed, Lisa wondered? Nothing had prepared her for the appearance of a rival in Vitality's lounge. The shock of watching them embrace had affected her almost physically. She'd rushed straight to bed but hadn't slept for long tension-filled hours. It was ironic, she mused, putting the handwritten letter on the dressing table - just as she managed to push Reece from her mind Michael brought new complications to their tryst.

Lisa stood under the warm shower for a very long time, then walked to her wardrobe and gazed at its colourful contents. Nothing looked special. Nothing looked sophisticated enough to match the outfit worn by Michael's stunning friend. The herbalist studied her dresses and shorts for a while then finally selected a lemon cotton dress with a billowing A-Line. She'd go for a casual summery affect and try to make Ms Red Silk Suit look overdressed.

The twenty-eight year old picked up a pair of white briefs and started to step into them. As she tilted her hips forward she caught sight of herself in the mirror. Lisa hesitated, then moved closer to contemplate her small bare bum. Four shadowy spheres testified to where the end of the cane had flicked against her flesh as she bent over the dining table in the casino. The rest of her bottom had returned to its normal paler tone.

She'd swayed with desire and dread as he dragged her panties down over her hips, as he tied her hands before her. Remembering, Lisa felt a rush of lust so intense that she had to sit down. She should be in Michael's arms now or sliding down on his shaft - not alone with her thoughts whilst he winged his way back home.

Marie-Rose didn't seem surprised to hear the news. ‘Really? It's happened before. He made quite an impression as a Harley Street surgeon. I'd better cancel his patients for the next three days.'

‘You reckon he'll be back by then?' Lisa's spirits lifted more. Maybe she'd find that the new woman was his sister or his cousin, that she'd over-reacted. Maybe she was just a close platonic friend.

‘I reckon it would take a war to keep him away.' The receptionist's eyes twinkled. Then her gaze moved beyond Lisa. ‘Hi, Ria, when did you get hack?' she asked.

‘Last night,' the dark-haired woman said. Lisa forced her lips into something resembling a smile. So this was Ria, the Sexual Therapist and Surrogate with the sought-after service. Maybe Michael had just been greeting her warmly in the lounge, the way he'd receive any of his staff.

‘I'm Lisa,' she murmured, holding out her hand then clasping the other woman's ringless fingers. ‘Sorry I rushed off so quickly last night. I'd had a long day and was absolutely exhausted.' A new hope spread through her and she was able to make her smile a genuine one.

‘Happens to most of us in the caring profession,' Ria concurred with a wry grin.

They sat down, Lisa turning sideways in her chair to better observe the other woman's strong yet sensuous features. Her brown eyes were ringed with a black kohl which matched her hair. Scarlet lipstick with a hint of gloss outlined her full mouth and showed off her almost-even small white teeth. She also boasted a light tan. How old was she? Lisa settled on circa thirty. She realised she'd been staring and added quickly ‘I keep meaning to get fit.'

‘Then let's use Vitality's pools and go for regular swims,' Ria said picking up one of the Clinic's brochures and flicking through the aquatic photographs.

The herbalist nodded. ‘I swum back home in Scarborough but since I came here I've been so busy...' Busy thinking about Michael, she admitted to herself. She wondered if the sex surrogate had missed the doctor whilst she was travelling. She searched in vain for a way to bring the topic up. She'd already compromised herself once by asking Achille if the former surgeon was married. She'd be damned if she'd be quite so obvious again.

‘I've started to use essential oils in my practice,' Ria murmured, looking at the inset which introduced Lisa to the brochure. ‘Have you got any tips for giving a full body massage?'

‘Not really, I'm still learning about that side of things myself,' Lisa admitted. ‘But they're really useful for minor aches and ills. For instance, a drop of lavender oil rubbed along the hairline can sometimes stop a tension headache in its tracks.'

‘I'm dealing with their cocks and quims rather than with their heads,' Ria said with a wicked grin.

‘And do you actually... satisfy them?' Lisa murmured, looking at the surrogate's long slender legs and pouting breasts, and knowing that she would appeal to men of all ages.

‘If they're virgins who fear the first act, or people who can't find a sexual partner then yes, I have penetrative sex with them,' the black-haired woman replied. She winked. ‘But for every man I take inside me there's ten I don't touch yet still send back cured to their wives or girlfriends. Most of them just need to relax, to learn to believe in themselves and their power to attract.'

‘And do you... doesn't your boyfriend mind?' Lisa prompted. She held her breath, hoped that the woman would say that she didn't have a boyfriend or that her boyfriend didn't care.

‘Michael? He can hardly object since he employs me,' Ria said with a slightly sneering grin.

The breeze seemed to disappear from the room. Lisa felt the muscles of her stomach contract. So Michael was spoken for. He had just wanted her as a diversion. Thank God she hadn't fully made love to him at the casino last night.

‘What lousy luck,' she murmured, forcing her voice to stay calm. ‘You're separated for weeks then as you reach Malta he leaves for England.'

‘We can always write to each other,' Ria said.

‘But he'll be back before the post arrives,' Lisa answered, turning to look more fully at the other girl.

‘He told you that? You saw him last night, then? I didn't realise...' the Sex Surrogate muttered, turning away to set the brochure down.

‘No, I didn't see him last night. I went straight to bed after the trip to the casino. He pushed a note under my door,' Lisa explained.

‘He's always been thoughtful like that,' Ria toed the ground with one patent heel.

Lisa forced out the painful words. ‘So, how long have you been dating the good doctor?'

‘Oh, many months - ever since I took the position here,' Ria said.

Lisa nodded - so Michael spanked and satiated all his staff with equal measure. If only he hadn't looked at her as if she was special. If only he hadn't written that he'd miss her, and made her foolish hopes lilt. ‘He... doesn't strike me as the settling down kind,' she muttered with difficulty. If Ria was innocent of Michael's philandering she had no wish to hurt her. But the herbalist was curious as to how much or how little the other woman might know.

‘You mean because he punishes the staff when they're bad? He was doing that before me - and he'll continue to do so. Sometimes I spank young Bakar and I reckon that makes us about even,' Ria said.

‘And you don't mind him - well, undressing them from the waist down?'

Ria shrugged. ‘If I'm bored I sometimes watch. It's a lot better than playing Scrabble. They get so embarrassed having an audience, but they put up with it because he makes them come so overwhelmingly.' She turned to Lisa. ‘Talking of which, have you been a bad girl and had to be punished by the doc?'

‘No way - I'm nobody's plaything,' Lisa lied stiffly. She stared unseeingly at her patient list then added, ‘I have to go now. There's a client due in five minutes and I want to do some provisional reading first.'

‘Poor you - I got back early so I'm a free agent till Friday,' Ria laughed, as the herbalist walked self-consciously from the room.

A free agent. The words swum around Lisa's head throughout the intolerably long day. She had to think positive, she told herself. She was free to be Reece's fiance again. Somehow had to forget Michael's caresses. But she couldn't forget the sound of his taunting or the swish of his rattan cane. Though she'd genuinely writhed under each lash, the situation had excited her. Much as she'd hated the humiliation, she'd adored the spectacular orgasm at the end. There had to be a way to incorporate a little erotic punishment into her love life. She had to find a means to tell Reece that she wasn't averse to being spanked.

After much musing, Lisa put together twenty photos she'd taken of Vitality and its plush surroundings. Then she slipped in the one of Carmen lying with her skirts raised over Michael's knee. The girl's panties were pushed down. Her bottom was scarlet. They take an old fashioned approach to discipline here, she wrote on the photograph's back. Then she paused. That simply made the act sound punitive. Makes a change from missionary position, she added in a shaky hand and added six exclamation marks.