Jonah Noble - Anticipation is everything (6 page)

“Put yourself in Cameron’s shoes,” I said reasonably. “We are complete strangers, and she is a young woman with no real experience in the BDSM lifestyle. It’s only natural that she is going to arrive here full of reluctant doubts. Taking her to bed – from a purely physical point of view – is the only possible way I can make her comfortable with her body, with me, with you watching… and with the environment we plan on introducing her to.”

Leticia said nothing.

* * *

“I’m nervous,” Leticia said. She glanced at the clock again and then wrung her hands. She had a hectic look in her eyes. It was just after 6pm. The taxi bringing Cameron from her hotel in Groves Crossing would arrive in less than an hour.

“That’s normal,” I assured her. She was standing in the bathroom, leaning close to the vanity mirror. She pressed at her hair for the thousandth time and then sighed as though defeated.

“This is not your normal kind of nervous, Jonah,” Leticia’s voice sounded harsh – a measure of her rising anxiety. “This is your shit-scared kind of nervous. It’s your mother of all kinds of nervous.”

I tried not to smile. Leticia was working herself up into a frantic kind of panic. She pursed her lips, peered close at her reflection to inspect her lipstick, and then turned around to face me. She was wearing just a bra and panties and in the late afternoon sunlight her skin was painted golden brown. The light through the window made the highlights in her hair spark with white fire.

“It’s not nerves,” I assured her. I took her gently by the shoulders and pulled her close so that I caught the scent of her perfume. “It’s sexual tension. You’re thinking too much about what might happen.”

“Of course I am!” Leticia’s voice snapped like a trap. “I can’t stop playing these scenarios in my imagination.” She whirled away again, as though to look at me any longer was to reveal her darkest, deepest fantasies. “I keep seeing you and Cameron on that bed together…”

“And it arouses you… or frightens you?”

There was a long pause. This wasn’t the kind of silence that comes from careful thought. It was the emptiness of reticence.

“It arouses me,” Leticia whispered at last. “So much so that I can barely function, and I just don’t know what to do about it.”

I shrugged and stepped close behind her. I wrapped my arms around her waist and clasped my hands together so that my fingertips were tucked just inside the waistband of her panties. Leticia leaned back against me as though sheltering from a storm in the lee of a rocky boulder. I leaned my mouth close to her ear.

“I have a saying that you might find helpful at a moment like this,” I offered. “Would you like to hear it?”

“Will it help?” Leticia’s voice became soft and melting.

“It will help you understand what you’re going through.”

Another ratchet of tension seemed to seep from her body. I felt the stiffness seep from her neck and shoulders. She sighed.

“Okay,” she said. “Tell me.”

I brushed my lips against her neck and drew a line of soft sexy kisses up the length of her throat until I reached her ear.

“Anticipation… is everything!”

* * *

The doorbell rang at a minute after 7pm. Leticia shot me a fearful glance. She looked rooted to the floor, her legs unable to move. In the background I could hear the discreet sounds of the caterers who were making the final preparations for dinner. Leticia’s glance was a beseeching plea.

I went to the front door and opened it.

Cameron Wylde was a stunning young woman. She had a slim, athletic figure and long hair that looked more blonde than brown under the porch lights. She had dazzling blue eyes and a pretty face that was distorted just a little by a nervous smile. She stood on the front step in a short black dress that clung to the contours and swells of her figure like a second skin. She was clutching a small black purse in one hand… and she was shaking.

“Cameron, I’m Jason Luke,” I said calmly. “So glad you could make it.”

The smile shifted on her face and her eyes became enormous. She looked on the brink of tears, standing in the doorway like a timid forest animal on the verge of flight. I took her hand and felt the tremble of her fingers.

“Hello,” her voice wavered and then gushed. “I can’t believe any of this is happening!”

I smiled urbanely and then led her inside. Cameron stood in the small foyer uncertainly. Leticia came towards us taking small jerking steps. The women were about the same height with similar figures. They began to chat in stilted superficial conversation, each of them acutely nervous – each of them trying hard to overcome their anxieties. I tuned the conversation out and went to the bar. I poured myself a drink and then turned back to face the room.

“Do you drink?” I asked Cameron. She nodded eagerly. “I do tonight!” she said.

“What would you like?” I reached a hand under the bar. “Scotch, vodka, bourbon, gin…”

“Yes,” she said with a nervous giggle. “All of them!”

I poured her a scotch and carried it to her. She took the glass and drank like a thirsty man in a desert. I waited until the glow of the alcohol reached her cheeks and set a glistening sparkle to her eyes.

“Are you wearing panties?” I asked casually.

Cameron frowned for an instant as though she didn’t understand the question. “Yes…” she said after a pause.

I nodded. “Take them off, please.”

“What?”

I kept my face impassive and my tone perfectly reasonable. “Take off your panties,” I repeated. “And hand them to me, please.”

There was a long instant of utter silence. From the corner of my eye I could see Leticia turn so pale I thought she might faint. She had a look of shocked horror on her face.

Cameron took a deep breath. She glanced at Leticia but then her eyes were drawn like magnets back to mine. I held out my hand.

Cameron lowered her eyes, set down her glass. “Where can I…?” she started, glancing around her for doors that might lead to other rooms.

“Right here,” I said simply. “And right now, please.”

She took another breath and held it. Then she reached slowly beneath the hem of her dress and pulled down her panties. They were black lace. She handed them to me, her eyes still averted. I felt the moist, damp heat of them and could smell the heady musky scent of her arousal.

“Thank you.” I tucked the panties into my pocket and then went back to the bar to refill Cameron’s glass. I heard Leticia make a gasp in the back of her throat that sounded like a stifled sigh of arousal.

I handed Cameron a fresh drink and slid my arm casually around Leticia’s waist. I could feel her nervousness. She was breathing in short ragged gulps.

Cameron’s eyes were locked boldly on mine and there was a look of wonder and fascination in her eyes. She sipped at her drink as though the alcohol would give her courage.

“You’re the real deal, aren’t you,” she said softly.

“Yes,” I replied. “Everything about me is real, except the name. Jason Luke is a pen name. Tonight you can call me Jonah. It will make things simpler, and tomorrow… if you decide to stay with us for a week… you will call me Sir.”

We went into the dining room and Leticia and Cameron sat side by side. I stood across from them until a young woman in a starched white uniform set down plates. When she disappeared back into the kitchen I pulled Cameron’s panties from my pocket and set them in the middle of the table like a centerpiece.

I sat down without a word. Both of the women were looking at the panties. Neither of them spoke. Cameron’s face was flushed crimson with a mixture of her embarrassment and arousal.

We ate in silence and when we had all finished eating I pushed my plate aside and looked up, my gaze level and steady. Cameron seemed more relaxed and I attributed that to the effects of the alcohol. Leticia sat like a nervous schoolgirl, fidgeting in her chair. Every few seconds her eyes would dart back to the sexy pair of panties.

“What would you like to ask?” I directed my attention to Cameron. “I’m sure you have lots of questions. I’m happy to answer them all.”

Cameron thought for a moment, perhaps being careful how to address me. Finally she asked, “How did you become so confident with women? I mean… what makes you so assured of yourself?”

I thought about that and tried to form an answer that I hoped would not sound arrogant.

“I spent a lot of time talking to women,” I said carefully. “I loved them, listened to them… and then tried to put myself into their frame of mind – tried to imagine how touches and kisses would feel.”

“And that’s it?”

I shrugged. “I didn’t think it was a complicated question requiring a complex answer. Sexually, I think most women are easy to understand. Once you peel away the layers of their inhibitions and self-consciousness, they’re sexual beings with instincts only slightly different to men.”

Cameron was nodding and frowning at the same time. “Have you ever failed with a woman? Failed to arouse her?”

“Yes,” I said. “But I learn from those moments.” I thrust my hands deep into my pockets and paced across the kitchen. Cameron’s eyes followed me. Suddenly a thought occurred to me that I could use as explanation.

“My father said I should learn to be a good loser,” I said around an ironic smile. “When I was younger I wanted to win – no matter what the cost. He tried to teach me the importance and value of losing… and how to accept such setbacks.”

Then I shook my head.

“I told him I didn’t want so much experience at losing that I became good at it. I didn’t want a life of constant failures just so I could become accustomed and accepting of losing. I wanted to be a good winner. That’s what I set out to be. In love, in life – in everything.”

Cameron nodded slowly. There were elements of intrigue and fascination and curiosity in her gaze. She reached down and fidgeted with the clasp of her purse.

“Anything else?”

“Can I get your autograph?”

Suddenly she had a paperback copy of
‘The Big Book of Rules about Sex and Women’
in her hand. She held it out to me.

“Please.”

I was bemused. I signed the inside cover of the book with a flourish and handed it back to her. Cameron’s smile was one of genuine appreciation. That smile gave me pause.

There was no doubt that Cameron was submissive – a woman naturally inclined to surrender herself to the control of a Master. But she was clearly also a fan of Jason Luke. I needed to make the point clear to her.

“We chose you because you expressed a genuine desire in your email to learn more about submission,” I said to Cameron. “Not because you are a fan of my writing. I need you to understand that. This isn’t like some private author event – it’s an opportunity to learn more about the BDSM lifestyle.”

Cameron nodded. She looked almost apologetic.

“I do understand that,” she said.

“Good. Then do you have any questions about what being exposed to submissive training might include?”

Cameron shook her head. “No questions,” she said, “but there are things I am uncomfortable with.” She looked then to Leticia as though only another woman would understand.

“Of course,” I said. “Naturally every one of your limits will be respected. At no time will there be any pain – it’s not my style. And as for the other aspects of your training that you are unwilling to engage in, you need only to list them.”

We talked for another hour, discussing the training, and chatting candidly at last about Leticia’s insistence on watching. We discussed safe words and accommodation. Cameron would stay the night in the bungalow before we made a decision about whether she would go back to the hotel or remain with us for the duration of her stay.

When I glanced at the clock again it was almost 9pm.

We were alone in the house. The caterers had left hours ago. I reached suddenly for Cameron’s hand and she stood nervously from the dinner table like I was inviting her to dance.

Leticia’s face became pale. She gnawed on her lip as she stared. There was a glazed cast to her eyes – almost like an expression of pure hunger and anticipation. She sensed the moment had finally arrived and now she was breathless with her exhilaration and sheer panic.

“Leticia, I’m going to take Cameron down to the bungalow,” I announced calmly. I slid my arm possessively around Cameron’s narrow waist and then moved my fingers up until they were cupping one of her breasts. “Then I’m going to undress her and take her to bed. I’d like you to follow us in about twenty minutes.”

Leticia nodded numbly.

I led Cameron out through the doors and into the star-filled night.

* * *

When we arrived at the bungalow, I left the front door unlocked for Leticia and went straight to the bedroom. There was a chair set in place beside the bed. I flicked on a lamp and the soft golden glow painted the walls with intimate atmosphere. Cameron stood in the doorway, nervous and pale.

“Come to me,” I said softly.