Marketplace (32 page)

“Yes, ma’am.”

That was swiftly done, the
lamps adjusted so that Alex could put them out with a simple touch.
Claudia drew the curtains and plumped up the pillows before Alex
came into the room.

“Good,” the mistress of the
house murmured. “You’re coming along very well, Claudia. Come here
and let me look at you.”

Claudia approached and
allowed Alex to examine her, turning her body at the lightest
touch, bending when pushed, raising her arms when they were tapped.
Her responses were excellent.

Alex tapped Claudia’s lips
with her fingers, and Claudia took two of them into her mouth,
encircling them softly and wetting them. She sighed as Alex trailed
them down her throat and then returned to get them re-moistened.
Several motions like that ran a trail of moisture from Claudia’s
throat across her nipples (which immediately sprang erect), and
down to her belly. She sighed.

Alex walked over to her bed
and leaned back against the pillows. “Come here and please me,” she
said simply. Claudia turned and eagerly joined the mistress,
poising herself comfortably above her. “Start up here,” Alex
gracefully stroked her own throat, and Claudia leaned forward to
kiss it.

She pressed her lips gently
to the places that Alex liked, and then slowly warmed to the task
by giving little nibbles and flicks of her tongue. Alex encouraged
her, guiding her head and then bringing one of Claudia’s hands up
to start stroking the sides of her breast. Claudia whimpered a
little at the move, but changed her position and did as she was
directed. She waved her fingers lightly over Alex’s body, not quite
teasing and never rough, and passed her kisses down one shoulder.
Alex brought one of her hands up and cupped Claudia’s left breast,
compressing her nipple and making her moan.

“You want this, don’t you?”
she prompted.

“Oh, yes, yes ma’am,”
Claudia responded breathlessly.

“And you love it. Say
it.”

“I love it, ma’am! I love
every touch, I love pleasing you!”

Alex smiled and brought
Claudia’s head up. “Good girl. Turn around and show me how wet you
are. Tell me about it, that’s it, put your head down against the
bed. Spread your legs apart. Wider. That’s it. I can see how much
you need this, Claudia, did you know that?” Claudia moaned in
humiliation, but maintained her position. She folded her arms to
act as a cradle for her head, and straddled Alex’s legs, facing
away. In between the inverted “V” of her spread thighs, her
hairless pussy was open, the sides lustrous with her
moisture.

“Tell me,” Alex said again.
The mistress sat up a little more for a better view, and casually
touched herself as Claudia began to speak.

“I-I am wet, ma’am,”
Claudia began. It was so hard to talk about these things,
especially when she was like this! But the potential rewards
outweighed any embarrassment, so she plunged onward. “I was when I
first came to see you tonight. I always am when I’m with you!
And—and I want your touch, ma’am, oh, I need it! Please, please,
let me serve you, let me make you happy...”

“Get off the bed,” Alex
said gently, “and crawl across the room. Behind the door in the
next room are two things I would like you to bring back here. You
may not carry them in your hands, so think carefully before coming
back. Go.”

Claudia unfolded herself
and climbed off the bed. How surprising! She was positive that
Alexandra would keep her there longer, making her say these things
until she ran out of words. But she scampered across the floor in
an adorable crawl, and found her way into the next room.

Behind the door, sitting on
a square of black silk, was a leather gag and a small brown leather
paddle. She stopped and stared at them. How long had it been since
she saw toys like these? A new rush of warmth spread through her,
and she touched them with one careful finger. Now how to carry
them? She could probably put the strap of the gag in her mouth, and
then one side of the paddle, but that would keep her mouth open
wide, and it would look very unaesthetic. But there seemed no other
way, so she positioned them both carefully and started the long
crawl back. Of course, Alexandra was lying on the edge of the bed,
watching her for every step of the trip. She tried to concentrate
on not dropping the items, or biting them hard enough to put marks
in them.

Alexandra was silent as she
took them from Claudia’s mouth, examined them, and then carefully
buckled the gag on. It had a soft rubber mouthpiece, and it wrapped
firmly around the girl’s lips. It emphasized the pleading quality
in her eyes, and despite the fact that Alex didn’t much like gags,
she had to admit that Claudia looked particularly helpless and cute
in this one. Sitting back in a comfortable position, she patted her
lap, and watched as Claudia climbed up, trying not to show her
eagerness.

The paddle was made of
good, thick leather, and the sounds it made were not as startling
as the sounds that Chris’s strap produced. But Alex wasn’t
interested in punishment. She took time to rub the leather against
Claudia’s body, patting her thighs and her back with it, and then
lightly swatting at her sex. Each change in tactic evoked new
muffled sound of pleasure from the girl, who was squirming
delightfully in no time. She even did that well, managing to move
sensuously without losing her balance or giving the impression that
she was trying to get away.

Alex picked up the tempo
slowly, building up a warm, glowing sensation on Claudia’s rounded
cheeks and taking a lot of time to continue her relentless
tantalizing, stroking and patting and occasionally running her
fingernails along sensitive places on Claudia’s body. Claudia’s
cries became more frantic as Alex circled closer and closer to her
sex.

“You want to come for me
tonight,” Alex said. It wasn’t a question, because there didn’t
need to be an answer. “And you will, if...”

Claudia raised her head,
her nostrils flaring around the gag.

“If... you’re a very good
girl and promise to scream as loud as you can when you do. That’s
why the gag is there, Claudia. I want you to be able to scream into
it loud enough to shake the windows. I want you to thrash around
and arch, and bend and let everything go until the last vestiges of
pleasure are simply screamed out and there’s nothing left but
exhaustion.”

Claudia
trembled.

“If you can’t promise me
that, then we’ll just keep going like this for a while, and then
you’ll go to bed. If you promise, nod your head.”

Claudia’s head pounded with
the weight of the decision. I want to come, she whimpered to
herself. Oh, I want it so bad! But I couldn’t... I never... she
shook all over, as Alexandra trailed her long cool fingers down her
back, and to her delighted dismay, she raised her head higher and
nodded. Oh, what has happened to me? she thought, moaning into the
gag again. I’m becoming nothing but a slut!

“That’s a good girl,”
Alexandra crooned, as though to counter Claudia’s thoughts. “Then
let’s get on with it, shall we?”

And the seduction/torment
continued, with spanks that awakened fire in Claudia’s loins and
strokes that made her twist, and then Alexandra took hold of
Claudia’s right hand and guided it under her body. “You did
realize,” Alexandra whispered, “that you would bring yourself off,
didn’t you?”

And Claudia screamed!
Behind the soft leather of the gag, her mouth opened around the
rubber mouthpiece and she screeched out the first of a series of
yelps of pleasure. Her fingers had automatically slipped into the
most perfect spot, and Alexandra’s soft voice and firm hold were
all that were needed to spark the explosion. Each wave of pleasure
wrenched out another yelp, and when Alexandra’s voice came to her
again, urging her to do it “Again!” and then “Again!” Claudia could
only obey, her body thrusting against her hand and Alexandra’s lap,
her head shaking up and down with a frenetic fury, and even her
pretty little feet rising up to kick at the empty air.

By the time Alexandra let
her slump to the floor, she was a sodden, wasted wreck of a lovely
young woman, still shaking from the after affects of her orgasms,
covered in sweat, tears and the abundant moisture from between her
thighs. Alex bent down and took off the gag, and Claudia made a
sobbing sound as it was drawn from her mouth. Her jaw hurt, her
throat was sore, her ass felt like it glowed, she was positively
raw, and she was absolutely happy. She rolled over onto her belly
to cover Alex’s feet with grateful, wet kisses.

And for the first time, one
of the slaves did not return to the dorm to sleep.

Chapter Sixteen

“...and finally, Claudia,
Sharon and Brian will meet with me after dinner and we will proceed
to the main dining room to hear Robert’s first presentation. Is
everyone clear on their assignments today?”

Three nods, accompanied by
“Yes, Chris,” in perfect unison, and one choking sound answered
him. He locked his gaze onto Robert, who somehow found a way to
fumble the simple act of holding a fork.

“I hope your voice is in
better form tonight,” Chris said with a slight smile. “You are all
dismissed.”

The first day without
Rachel to control her portion of the household and without the
temporary help that walked in and out of the house like industrious
shadows, was a day of barely missed disasters. Claudia, constantly
referring to her pages of handwritten notes on what had to be done
and in what order, got lost and frightened and panicked. In
mid-afternoon, Chris took her aside, organized her notes for her
and, curiously, did not beat the living daylights out of her.
Claudia was too relieved to wonder why. After the wondrous night
she had spent with Alexandra, the hustle of the new day was almost
unbearable.

Brian began to think that
he was living the life of a schizophrenic. He started out working
in the stable in the morning, where Jack was his usual
unintelligible horny self, and then after lunch found himself being
decked out in peach-colored lace bows, including one that he had to
thread through the wire cage around his cock. Thus attired, he
vacuumed and carried things under Claudia’s cautious and apologetic
direction. Since she was unsure of how to actually tell him what to
do and he was unaware of what had to be done next, they often found
themselves hiding from one another, avoiding the inevitable time
when they would have to make believe they knew what was going
on.

Sharon endured yet another
lesson with a very distracted Robert, and then found herself
scrubbing the kitchen floor, dusting the rooms on the first floor,
and then putting stamps on a pile of letters that Grendel had in
his office. In the afternoon, dying of boredom, she found herself
having to spend a good chunk of time going down on Claudia while
Alexandra watched. Since this event took place in the middle of the
second floor landing, right by the rail overlooking the main
hallway, it was a little different than usual. And Claudia, a girl
who Sharon had decided was just plain frigid, seemed more than
willing to let it all hang out today, which made it more fun than
usual. But after that, it was back to work, this time slicing
potatoes for a dinner salad. It was all Sharon could do to keep
from screaming.

As for Robert, the entire
day passed in a blur of varied intensity, until he found himself
unable to eat anything at dinner and shaking like a leaf when Chris
came in to dismiss them. The majordomo took the other three away,
and told Robert to go directly to the main dining room and wait.
Robert sat in the large room, his knees together, running his
memorized poem through his head over and over again. Oh, why did he
have to do it in front of them? And why did Alexandra choose this
poem for him to do first?

I can’t cry, he thought,
closing his eyes. If I do, they’ll all be there, and I just
couldn’t stand it if any of them took a beating for me again. What
if they decided to beat Claudia? I’d just die. I have to stay calm.
I have to be manly. I have to be... dignified. Maybe I can just
pretend that I’m talking to all those men in suits. I used to be
able to sell them electric apple slicers, for God’s sake, I can
just say this stupid poem and get it over with... can’t
I?

Chris came in, snapped his
fingers, and Robert shot up. Together, they set the dining room
chairs up, three front and center, two off to the side. And then
Chris gave Robert a little lopsided smile and left again. When he
returned, Alexandra and Grendel walked in with him, and took the
two seats over to the side. Alexandra said, “Turn around, Robert.
Since we don’t have a curtain, you’ll have to turn to face the
audience when we’re all assembled.”

He did as she said, and
heard the sounds of his companions entering the room and taking
their three seats. It seemed kind of odd to him—why weren’t the
slaves on the floor? And why wasn’t there a seat for Chris? And
how...

Chris’s voice cut through
Robert’s wonderings. “Trainees, tonight Robert will entertain us
with a dramatic reading of a classic poem. Robert, you may now turn
around and begin.”

Robert took a deep breath.
Stay calm! Stay calm! Carefully, trying to be as fluid and elegant
as Alexandra said he could be, he turned around and opened his
eyes. And after a moment of sheer confusion, tried his damnedest to
keep from bursting out into laughter.