Marketplace (36 page)

“I thought you might like
that,” Chris said. “You hate living this way, but you also love it,
don’t you?”

Brian felt a rush of heat
and lowered his head, but Chris followed the movement with his
hand. “You’d love nothing more right now then to be able to lay
down on the floor and fall asleep, just like a faithful dog. Am I
right?”

Brian nodded, his eyes
closed.

“So listen very carefully,
Brian. This may be the best advice you will ever get from me.
Remember this feeling every waking moment. Think of it before you
open your mouth to speak, think of it when you’re doing some
unpleasant chore, and think of it when you’re being punished.
Because this is real, Brian. Your body and mind, attuned to one
thing, to being the loyal and loving pet of a master or mistress
whose feet you yearn to sleep at.” Chris stood up and stretched.
“Your punishment is lifted. You have, however, lost whatever status
you had. As far as we are concerned, you’re starting back at the
beginning. Don’t ever try to lie or dissemble again. Or you’ll be
sent away.”

Brian cleared his throat
but didn’t get up. He spoke his first words in three days. “Thank
you, Chris.”

“You’re very welcome, boy,”
Chris patted his head and shooed him out.

* * * *

When he got back to the
dorm, he was the last one in. He went over to Robert and kissed him
full on the mouth. Robert snapped open his eyes and looked at him
suspiciously.

“That was a thank-you for
your standing up to her,” he said with a grin. “It was the best
thing I’d heard in three days!”

Robert smiled and Sharon
scowled.

“I’m glad they lifted your
sentence,” Robert said, sitting up. “It was getting kind of quiet
in here. And... I’m sorry about today.”

Brian shrugged. “Hey, at
least I got a beating from the big guy himself. As far as I’m
concerned, that’s something.”

“Well, I’m sick and tired
of getting beat on because he fucked up,” Sharon complained. “It
might be OK for you, but when I don’t do anything wrong, I wanna
know what I’m being kicked around for. It’s not fair. He doesn’t
get beat when we fuck up.”

“It’s not my fault,” Robert
said softly. “They won’t even let me ask about it, because it has
to do with my training. I’m so sorry. Really.”

“You mean you don’t get
it?” Brian asked. He sat gingerly on his own bed, amazed at the
sensation of sitting down, with his knees bent and his feet on the
floor. “I thought you knew but you just couldn’t control
it.”

“What do you
mean?”

“They’re beating on us
whenever you act, well, sissy. If you mess up any other way, Chris
just wades in with the strap, right? Like the time you knocked over
the pile of trays in the kitchen?”

Robert nodded.

“But any time you put
yourself up on tiptoes or you start to talk in that funny voice,
wham, one of us gets it.” Brian spread his arms. “I think we’re
supposed to be encouraging you not to do it any more.”

“So stop doing it!” Sharon
interjected.

“Oh.” Robert thought about
it for a moment. “I don’t know, Brian, or maybe I just don’t
understand. How is beating you supposed to make me behave better? I
can’t change so easily! This was the way I was taught everything!
I... I have to think about it. Maybe I asked the wrong question.
I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.” And he turned to go to
sleep.

* * * *

Claudia found herself
caught in all sorts of difficult positions.

First of all, her ability
to relate to and please Mistress Alexandra was improving, which was
good. Oddly, she still hadn’t been in Alexandra’s playroom,
something that only Robert had seen. Now, speculations about
Grendel’s “workshop” had reached the point of accepted truth. So
there were dungeons here! It’s just that they were reserved for
special uses. They all prayed nightly that they would soon see the
inside of one or the other. But the bad thing about Claudia’s
getting better at sensual exercises was that Alexandra kept talking
about it being time for Claudia to have more experiences with men.
She tried not to look unhappy whenever the topic came up, hoping
that her casual acceptance of the possibility would be taken as
enough of an effort.

Secondly, her new job as
housekeeper was an endless array of headaches. Despite copious
notes and assurances from Rachel (who she missed) that the job
really was very simple, there was just not enough time in the day
to make sure everything got done. And even though Brian didn’t
exactly hide from her any more, neither was he much of a
self-starter. He really did need her to tell him where things went,
and he needed her to check things after they were cleaned. And if
she didn’t, then Chris might just come along and notice things
weren’t going well, and she’d have to take that cane to Brian
again! Housekeeping was generally bad.

But she threw herself into
the work with energy and dedication, amazed at the sheer diversity
of skills and knowledge a good housekeeper had to have. And she
found out things that no one knew before, like where Chris slept
(he had a suite of rooms on the third floor), and how they housed
overnight guests who had slaves.

“We never assume anything
about someone’s bedding requirements,” Chris explained, showing her
a special storage closet. “Here, you’ll find pallets for the side
or foot of the bed, and even bedding for them. They should be
placed on the folding rack by the bathroom in each guest room, so
that they may make their own arrangements. If you find the pallet
on the floor in the morning, replace it after the regular cleaning
and treat it as you would a bed. Of course, some guests may have
special preferences or needs, but most of them know to approach me
with them.”

How endlessly
interesting.

When Brian was summoned to
go to Alexandra’s sunny studio, he thought it might be for some
menial task that Robert was unavailable for. Instead, he found
himself standing with his hands behind his back while Claudia
worked his body over with her fingers and her mouth. It was
excruciatingly pleasurable, especially when he got a hard-on and it
thrummed with painful intensity against the narrow bars of the
steel cage he still wore about his cock.

“Yes, that’s it,” Alex said
encouragingly. “Go ahead and get your mouth on the nipples, the
rings are old, you don’t have to worry about special sensitivity.
Of course, if you are working on a top, you may have to make sure
before you begin how they feel about your even touching body
modifications such as piercings.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Claudia
whispered. And trying not to look up into Brian’s eyes, she put her
lips to each of his nipples in turn and flicked the rings up and
down with her tongue.

“When you leave them, use
your fingers on them, and let your mouth trail down the center of
his chest, that’s it. Now you’re working your way down to his
belly, so let the nipples go and put your hands around his hips.
Good. Nice. Now like you did on me, across his abdomen, just like
that. See how effective it is?”

Claudia could see how
effective she was, and hear it, and even—oh, God—smell it. She was
blushing again too, partly from doing this to poor Brian, who was
forbidden to come at all, and partly from Alexandra’s casual
references to what Claudia had done with her in Alex’s bedroom on a
number of nights. It was disconcerting to hear of those intensely
private times being discussed as though these were things done
while shopping at the mall.

“Very good. Now go around
to his back and start at the back of his neck.”

Brian moaned but stayed
still as the young woman pressed her lips to that sensitive spot he
loved so much. It was all the more agonizing when Claudia was told
to remove his belt and cage and kiss and lick at his cock. He bit
his tongue and squirmed, and somehow managed to keep himself from
coming. It was truly a Herculean effort. Although without Sharon’s
expertise, Claudia was still talented, and her attentions, amateur
as they were, had a charm to them that was refreshing and
undeniably hot. By the time Alexandra called the end of the
session, Brian had a hard-on that just wouldn’t quit, and there was
no way it was going back into the cage. Alex eyed it, sighed, and
gave it a brisk, backhand slap.

Brian howled! And his knees
came together as he doubled over in shock and pain. He literally
saw stars.

“Well, at least we know he
doesn’t get off on that,” Alex commented to Claudia as she ushered
the girl out of the room. “Get the cage back on and get to work,
Brian!” she called over her shoulder.

* * * *

Grendel was watching as
Chris taught the basic information about wine. It was such a huge
topic that they could really only touch on it, so all four slaves
were gathered to learn. They heard about types of wines, and how to
drink them, and with what. They learned how to decant, and what
letting wine “breathe” meant, and how to distinguish good crystal,
and then how to pour. Chris let Claudia explain how to listen for
the ringing sound that liquid made as it filled a glass, and they
were all impressed at her skill at hearing it and using the sound
as a tool to help her handle the wine better.

They each took turns at
pouring, and tried to listen, and then practiced different ways of
presenting glasses, bottles, and trays. It would have just been one
of their useful lessons on a specialized topic if Robert hadn’t
noticed Alexandra coming in with a riding crop in one hand (she had
just been out riding), and allowed his eye to wander from the tray
he was holding. The tray survived, very well in fact. He whirled to
catch it when it was falling, and bumped his shoulder into Brian,
who was leaning over a glass that Claudia was slowly filling so
that he could hear the ring. He fell into Claudia, who tried to
save the bottle, and did so with some admirable grace before
landing on her rump. Brian’s glass spilled, sending red wine to
spread all over the table top and splash onto the floor.

And in one moment of
supreme panic and confusion, Robert simply lost it.

“Oh dear! Oh no! Oh,
please, let me help—oh, I’m so sorry!” His voice was an
unrestrained falsetto, rising and falling in intensity as he
wavered back and forth between steadying the glasses on the table
and trying to help Brian and Claudia. He bent down to give Claudia
a hand up and hit Brian, who was trying to keep his balance, and
Brian gave up the second time and just fell. Sharon, for once way
out of the way of things, barely managed to stifle a giggle, and
she quickly moved out of the tangle of bodies to grab one of the
towels from a tray and use it to wipe up some of the spilled
wine.

Chris stood off to the
side. He looked toward Grendel and then to Alexandra as he
unfastened the strap from his belt loop, but didn’t move as Alex
approached him. She pointed to the knot of slaves. “Bring Robert
and Claudia to my playroom, right now.”

He nodded and moved in,
pulling at arms and hanks of hair until the three were
disentangled. Grendel just shook his head and left the room with
Alex.

In the hall, as he caught
up with her, he asked, “Now?”

“Oh yes,” she smiled back
at him. “Now.”

“Oh, goody. Can I
watch?”

“Hell, yes. You can
help!”

Robert finally managed to
contain his wailing when his knees hit the hallway carpeting. That
was also when the enormity of the situation hit him. He had behaved
like that in front of everyone! There could have been no worse time
to lapse into that role, and he had managed to do it. He stumbled
trying to get up, and Chris’s strap caught him neatly at the back
of one thigh.

“Crawl there, you idiot,”
Chris snarled. “After that performance, you’ll be lucky if you get
the privilege to walk out of this house! And for God’s sake, keep
your mouth shut! Claudia, move! Follow the ungrateful asshole.” He
pointed down the hall and turned back to the dining room. “And you
two, clean up and get back to work!”

He followed Robert and
Claudia down the hall and around the corner through the wing to the
door to the playroom. Without knocking, he opened it and pushed
them in, Claudia with his hand, Robert with a well-placed kick. And
when Alex caught his eye and pointed, he dragged Robert across the
room by his hair, and then pulled him to his feet. A pair of heavy
cuffs were suspended from a rigging set into the wooden frame
Robert remembered from the last time he was in this room. While he
bit into his lip to avoid whimpering, Chris wrapped the cuffs
around his wrists and locked them on. When Chris walked away, he
hit a wall switch and a gear mechanism drew the cuffs, and Robert,
upward. The motion didn’t stop until Robert was balanced on the
balls of his feet.

Claudia was given the same
treatment, her body placed opposite Robert’s, facing him. When they
were bound, they were about five feet apart, and given perfect
views of each other.

“You’ve been warned,”
Alexandra said, coming forward. In one hand, she had one of the
whips that Robert had been afraid of when he saw her collection. In
the other, she held a fat butt-plug. She passed it to Chris, and he
came back over to Robert, and held it up to the man’s
mouth.