Unorthodox Therapy (43 page)

Mistress Sheila – her alter ego, the formidable Dominatrix – was a different story. Today, she had decided on a long black wig that reached the small of her back and murderous violet contact lenses. The black latex corset, fishnet stockings and calf high boots with spiked heels completed the image of a Queen of Pain. The riding crop she was clutching didn't hurt either. My gaze slid to the man at her feet for a brief moment. Early thirties, good looking, athletic, but it was difficult to say for sure since he was facing the floor, on his hands and knees, with his ass in the air so his Mistress could whip him at her convenience. Sheila sure took good advantage of the position. His back was covered with crimson stripes.

Her client looked the part of a perfect pet, which disgusted me a bit. Don’t get me wrong, I was in favor of everyone doing what they wanted in the bedroom, but I couldn’t understand the mentality of such men. Allie would often grill me about it.

All those thoughts drained from my mind as I remembered my current pressing problem. Even Mistress Sheila in her kinky outfit didn't affect me like she usually would have. What? She may have been my friend and mentor but I was still a normal, red-blooded male.

“I can wait in the storage room until you guys are... done.” I tried to get away from the awkward situation, but Mistress Sheila was amused by my discomfort and chirped with the sweetest voice she was capable of.

“Oh, but that would be too rude of me.” Her scarlet painted lips quivered in a wicked grin. “Besides, don't worry about him. He's just my dog. Aren't you my dog, you bad boy?” She emphasized her words by smacking the end of her crop against his ass. He made a sound strongly reminiscent of a dog barking and wiggled his imaginary tail when Mistress Sheila rewarded him with another smack.

“I thought discretion was crucial to you?” I stared with longing at the storage room. Once again it became clear I wasn't even half as kinky as she was. Just five minutes in her nuthouse of a playroom were enough to force me out of my element. “I wouldn't want to bother... your dog.”

“Don't worry. He likes it when people see him as the dirty pet he really is.” She placed the rectangular end of her crop against the sub's chin and made him raise it. “You love it when fine people see you in disgrace, don't you?”

“Yes, Mistress.”

You'd better think over what you wish for, pal
, I thought with bitterness.

“That's a good boy. Now, show how well trained you are and go kiss Master Thomas's feet.”

“Erm, that really won't be necessary, Mistress.” I glared at her and took one step back. She was grinning from ear to ear and kept tapping the guy’s face. Her eyes were gleaming with lust while the man crawled at my feet. For fuck's sake, was he really going to do it?

“No, no, Master Thomas.” Mistress Sheila kept on with her sweet sing-song voice and lowered the whip. “My pet should show appreciation for house guests, like any proper bitch. Come to think of it, dog, clean Master's shoes with your dirty tongue.”

Allie, I'll kill you!

And damn it, the guy did exactly as she told him to. He ran his tongue across my muddied, wet boots with enthusiasm as if his Mistress had told him to eat someone's pussy. I took a few more steps back but the man kept on crawling after me while Mistress Sheila was laughing her ass off.

“Damn it, Al... Sheila, this isn't funny.”

“Actually, it is, Tommy boy. If only you could see your face.” She smirked and then gave me her most stern expression. “That should teach you a lesson. Don’t interrupt my play sessions. Ever.” Sheila was definitely a Mistress when it came to mind games. I had no doubt her disciplinary methods always worked, but it annoyed me when she pulled those tricks on me, especially in my situation.

“Fine, I get it. Now can you tell your dog to fucking back off!” Anger was threatening to get the better off me again so I squeezed my fists and released a breath. She must have sensed my agitation and ordered her client to retreat. My friend narrowed her eyes at me and nodded to the storage room. “Wait for me there. I’ve got some brand new stuff you can take a look at.” Her smile grew wider. “And if you're a good boy, I may lend some of them to you to try with your bratty pet.”

“I doubt I’ll be using anything on her in the near future. Things got complicated.”

Normally she'd have rolled her eyes at me and said something about always having to clear up my mess, but I must have reeked despair since Mistress Sheila nodded with sympathy and said in a quiet voice,

“I'll try to be done with him as soon as possible.”

Half an hour later, the satisfied client left Sheila's studio glowing. He tipped my friend generously and asked if she could arrange such a surprise for him again next time. She grinned at him and said I wasn't a pro-Dom but a surprise could always be arranged, for the right price. I watched their interaction on her supervision screen. It always amazed me that those men paid such generous amounts and weren't frustrated Allie didn't offer sex in her services. The thought didn't bother me too much in that moment, though.

What was Lina doing right now? My heart writhed as I remembered her retreating figure. Luckily, Allie walked into the storage room after about ten minutes so I didn’t have too much time to think. She had taken off her wig, removed her contact lenses and erased her make up.

“Do you want some coffee?” she asked casually while removing her leather corset. Perhaps some would have been weirded out by how casually Allie was undressing in front of me. We were way past such shyness.

“Only if it's Irish coffee. After this morning, I could use getting drunk.”

Allie didn't say anything and changed into a wide flannel shirt and a pair of jeans. I loved her transformation into Mistress Sheila but right then, I needed my smart, geeky friend. It was a relief not to be distracted by leather and latex.

We moved to the small adjacent kitchen where she made two steaming cups of the most poisonous coffee in the history of humankind. It took me fifteen minutes to get to the root of the problem while I was trying not to die of a caffeine overdose. She listened to me carefully, sipping from her cup with narrowed eyes. Finally, Allie spoke without any comfort in her deep voice.

“So, you screwed up royally... again.”

Her honesty was one of the things I valued most about our friendship. She was loyal and always ready to help me but she would also never spare me the harsh truth or hesitate to bust my balls.

“My only sin was that I was stupid and not careful enough.” It was easier to stare at the black abyss of the coffee cup than her accusing eyes.

“Indeed.” Irritation crept into her voice. “How many times do I have to tell you not to keep sensitive information on your hard drive, you numskull? External drives exist for a reason. Also, I’ve been offering to improve your security for ages but did you listen to me?” She clenched her jaw and drummed her fingernails on the table.

“Allie, I know I should have been more careful with those images and their security, especially given her position.” I squeezed my fists around the hot mug. “I was proud of those pictures and so was she. They weren't even pornographic or crude, and really focused on her experience. You know I suck at photography and still these were something special. Lina grew so much more comfortable with submission after seeing them. I...”

I was unraveling again but the pain and fury were suffocating me. “I hate that those assholes would use them to ruin her.”

Allie didn't blink at my long speech and stared at me for a long time with hard, unblinking eyes. When she finally spoke, her voice oozed indifference.

“I know it's not easy, Thomas, but you can't afford to be emotional right now. It's killing your brain resources. Someone had a good reason to try and destroy your pet's reputation. This person clearly didn't lack qualms or the skills to hack your home computer. You must focus on figuring out who this person is. Do you suspect anyone?”

“It may be an inside job. Whoever did it had intimate knowledge of our crucial clients and access to the company mailing list. Unless someone hacked the servers of ChaosTech Solutions but that seems unlikely.” I stared ahead of me with a frown. “It could be some of the board members who weren't pleased she was a CEO. Most of them can't tell a server from an elbow, though. I guess they could always team up with some of the IT specialists.”

Allie took a sip of her coffee.

“Is there anyone who wasn’t happy with Lina at work? Maybe someone she fired?”

“There's this guy at work. I mentioned him to you at one point, Seth Anderson. He's been pissed off about my promotion and made a huge scene this summer.” I told Allie briefly about the scandal, Seth's extreme reaction and the accusations thrown at Lina. “I'm sure he has the skills, but I never thought he hated her enough to try to ruin her. His anger and resentment were entirely directed at me. Lina and Seth go way back.”

“Perhaps that’s the root of the problem, Thomas.” Allie got up from her chair and walked back and forth with her hands behind her back. I could see the excitement waking up in her eyes. “He may have had enough of waiting and being ignored. His initial target may have been you but once he went through your device and saw those pictures, he flipped his shit.”

She kept talking, more to herself than me. Her words made perfect sense, but we needed a lot more than Allie's intuition before throwing shade at Seth.

“After all, what is this bitch thinking, promoting the guy who is fucking her instead of him, the genius?” I knew what she was trying to do but that thread of thinking pissed me off majorly. However, it sounded just like my nemesis. “I know guys with a similar mentality. They think BDSM is some way to get back at the women who pussy whipped them. It's a good thing I supervise the pro sub girls or they'd be dead in the water.”

“He was kicked out of MIT and practically every place he worked at,” I added while Allie kept pacing back and forth. The intellectual lust in her eyes was growing by the minute. “Classic case of a genius with a horrible personality. Lina was the only one who gave him a chance so I thought he was loyal to her, but he’s always been a wildcard.”

I tried to remember details of that day, his mean words to her, his aggression.

Allie drank the rest of the dark witch poison she called coffee and left the mug on the table.

“We can play whodunnit all day but it won't get us any closer to the truth. I need to take a look at your computer before we plan our next move.” She placed her fists on her hips and smiled viciously. “How long until you get back to work?”

“I took the next few days off. I figured I'd need all the–”

“Perfect!” Allie hissed with a gleam in her eyes and headed straight for the door. She really became a monster when she was so high on caffeine. “Let's get that dirty rat.”

While we made our way out into the pouring rain, a fragile stem of hope tried to make its way through my mind, but Allie was correct. This was not a time to get emotional. Lina needed all my focus in the right direction.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Lina

The day of the boardroom meeting came faster than I thought, but the week had been dragging too slowly. I didn't waste any time feeling sorry for myself in the daylight. There was always something to do to prepare myself for the most important battle in the upcoming war. The nights were the worst. No matter how many cups of calming tea I drank, I couldn’t sleep more than a few hours at best. Tears could bring relief in such instances, but shedding even one of them would make me unravel. I feared if I allowed myself to cry I might not be able to stop. The insanity in my eyes was scary enough. It was there every time I splashed water on my tired face or applied make-up.

Meanwhile, the nightmare at work continued. There was enough trouble with distressed clients and employees who felt awkward around me. The tension was obvious whenever I passed through the hallways. Conversations would stop, people would avoid looking me in the eyes or whisper among themselves. To my surprise, most of them tried their best to be respectful and I got no lewd comments, but there were some who resigned because they couldn't work for a person like me. One of the young women who had recently started her internship at ChaosTech Solutions went out of her way to express how much I disgusted her, how disappointed she was. She didn’t miss a chance to remind me of domestic abuse as a societal problem. Normally I’d have dealt with the little bitch but at that point, I was way too tired to fight everyone. I needed to choose my battles wisely.

And then there were the nasty e-mails. They started coming on Monday night and didn't stop until I ordered my team to filter my messages. Katie did thorough research and found that the pictures had been uploaded to a porn site, in the video and picture section, with my e-mail address attached. We contacted the administrator of the website to remove them, but there were enough guys who had already seen it. The pictures of penises I received for that short amount of time were probably more than the stored sausages at a German delicatessen.

Why did he have to go to such lengths to destroy me?

We’d had our misunderstandings but I’d never doubted he cared for me. Well, save for his psychotic episode.

I pushed the thoughts of Thomas out of my mind. It hurt too much and my mind needed to stay focused. All my weapons of mass destruction were in the simple manilla envelope in front of me, but they’d be worthless if I didn't keep my cool.