Master of the House (21 page)

‘I don’t mind talking about it,’ said Trixie. ‘I love my work.’

But her kind offer was aborted by the arrival of an unmanacled O, who glided across the wood laminate like an elegant cat before stopping and holding out a hand to me.

‘Lucy. You need a costume, I believe.’

I ground my teeth a little to be parted from my exclusive interview opportunity, but I made a mental note to engage Trixie in conversation later and stood.

‘I’ll come with you,’ said Joss.

‘Of course,’ said O. ‘Your approval is necessary.’

His approval was necessary. I considered this all the way downstairs to a basement room, Joss behind me, O in front of me. I felt strange and tense, like a prisoner being escorted to her doom. A sense of having had my power and agency taken from me was strongly to the fore of my consciousness. From now on, I had to do as Joss told me. His approval was necessary.

The basement room was huge and lined with clothes rails. Boxes and boxes of God knows what were stacked high, to the ceiling. O switched on the single bare bulb and pulled out a full-length mirror on castors before leading me over to one of the racks.

‘What size are you?’ she asked, looking me up and down.

Joss sat on a wooden chair in the corner and took out his mobile phone. I had the horrible feeling he was going to take photographs.

‘Oh,’ I said, distracted. ‘Er, ten.’

‘Let’s see … have you worn a corset before?’

‘Never.’

‘Oh, goodness, Lord Lethbridge, you ought to corset her, you know. Not that it’s my place to advise you, of course. Please tell my master if I have spoken out of turn and he will deal with the matter.’

It was all so
odd
, to hear this kind of thing spoken as if it were routine and not incredibly embarrassing. Wasn’t she embarrassed? Not even a tiny bit?

‘We haven’t been together long,’ he excused himself. ‘I’m sure it will come in time.’

‘Are you her first master?’

‘Yes, I am. But I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’ve earned that title yet. It’s early days. I hope to be worthy of her full and free submission in time, but for now, we are experimenting.’

‘Ah, the delightful experimental phase,’ said O. ‘What a lucky girl you are, Lucy, to have such a thoughtful man for a dom.’

‘I would hope all of them were thoughtful,’ I said. ‘The idea of giving such power to a careless brute is rather frightening.’

‘It is, I do agree. Some doms are naturally sensitive to their subs’ needs and others need a little help along the way. I think your lovely Lord Lethbridge falls into the former camp, and I’m very happy for you. Ah, now,
this
.’

She pulled a hanger off the rail and held it up before me.

It looked like some kind of cartoon dairymaid outfit, but of beautiful blue silk with a boned bodice and cross-lacing at the back, and a full skirt.

‘I think this will fit nicely, don’t you, my lord?’

Joss nodded. He had an avid look in his eye which was a sure giveaway that he was already turned on. The thought of me in that dress obviously worked for him, which made it work for me.

‘OK,’ I said. ‘I’ll give it a go.’

O unzipped my dress for me and helped me out of it. Her hands were light and deft and the long ovals of her fingernails brushed the skin on my shoulders.

‘What lovely skin you have, Lucy,’ she remarked.

‘Thanks, I think it’s all the spa bathing,’ I said.

‘Spa bathing? At Lord Lethbridge’s estate?’

‘No, in Hungary, where I lived until recently. They’re mad-keen on it. Wonderful palaces of spas everywhere.’

‘How marvellous – I should love to visit Budapest. I wonder if Mal will take me one day.’

‘You must make him – it’s such a beautiful, unique city.’

‘Well, you know, I can hardly
make
him do anything,’ she said, and disapproval frosted her tone.

‘No, but, well, you know. Subtly, I mean.’

She lightened again. ‘I’ve become very good at the subtle approach, over the years,’ she admitted.

I tensed as her fingers unhooked my bra so expertly that it was off before I knew it.

‘Do I have to …?’ I hid my breasts beneath crossed arms.

‘Lucy,’ said Joss warningly. ‘Behave yourself for O. It’s a dress fitting.’

‘But don’t I wear anything
under
the dress?’

‘Oh, no,’ said O, with a feline smile. ‘That would quite defeat the purpose. The idea is that you are freely accessible, all the time. Your master doesn’t want to be fiddling with clasps and knicker elastic every time he feels like availing himself of your charms, does he?’

This remark sent hot and cold shivers all over my near-naked body. I was to be accessible to Joss at all times – and presumably all places. A fervid vision flashed through my mind of him having me in a public corridor, against the wall, while revellers came and went and occasionally stopped to watch.

My sidelong glance at his face confirmed that this had occurred to him too. His lips were parted and his chest rose and fell more quickly than was natural. His eyes, always a dark brown, were almost inky and fixed on the only item of my clothing that remained – my knickers.

‘It’s all right,’ said O, more gently. ‘Nobody else will see what Lord Lethbridge can see. The dress will cover you, until he wants you uncovered. Now, would you mind slipping off those rather pretty knickers for me?’

I followed her command, for it
was
a command, however kindly spoken, and I felt it came by proxy from Joss.

Standing bare and chilly in front of two people was a new experience for me, and one I couldn’t decide whether I liked or not. O took it all in her stride; after all, she must have seen scores of naked women in her time, but Joss was less composed. I heard him swallow. It tipped the balance from mortifying to delicious for me and I pressed my thighs together, feeling the little buzz between them.

‘Lovely,’ whispered O with a wink, then she held out the dress for me to step into. At first it was barely there, swishing and frothing against my skin like foam, but once she had pulled it all the way up and left it to rest loosely upon me, I could see how it would work. Although the skirts were full, they were not all of a piece. They consisted of two lengths of fabric that overlapped at front and back but could be parted like curtains to expose my sex and bottom.

As for the bodice, the corset part ended just a squeak above my nipples. Once the laces were pulled tight, the nipples would be partially hidden but could be pulled out with the slightest effort and my extravagant cleavage turned into fully bared breasts.

O turned me so my profile was to Joss and began to pull at my corset laces.

‘Look how this accentuates the bust,’ she purred, turning me to face Joss before she pulled me even tighter. ‘Once I’m done, they’ll look enormous compared to her tiny waist.’

I wasn’t sure I could take it any tighter, but O squeezed me until I begged her to stop, then tied the laces securely.

She stepped back and clapped her hands.

‘Oh, perfect! But I must ask your lordship for your opinion.’

‘It will do very nicely, thank you,’ he said, his voice low. ‘Come over here, Lucy.’

‘How do you want her hair?’ asked O, as I walked towards him, still trying to accustom myself to the constriction of my waist and ribs. The skirts shifted as I moved and I feared they might come apart, but they didn’t. The silk sent tiny wafts around my loins, tickling them. I felt very much as if I was nothing but sex. It was what I was dressed for, what I was made for, what Joss would have from me.

‘I’d like to see her neck,’ he said.

‘I’ll put it up then. I’ll come up and do your make-up too, if you like,’ she offered. It was a moment or two before I realised she was talking to me and not Joss.

‘Thanks,’ I said, not taking my eyes from his.

His attention was absolutely riveted to me; if I could have taken a photograph of the measureless depths of lust in his eyes I would have done.

Once I was close to him, he put his hands around my waist, feeling how much smaller than usual it had been made.

He let out a low sigh of pleasure, then said, ‘I can’t wait to show you off.’

The back of my neck prickled. I could almost feel O’s eyes burning into my back, imagine the little ironical smile playing on her lips.

‘Seven,’ Joss whispered.

I was confused at first – what on earth did he mean by that? – but then the swift downward drop of his eyes revealed his intention. I knelt at his feet in the required position. The floor was stone and my silken skirts did little to ease its hardness on my knees but I stayed where I was bidden all the same. I wanted to perform for O, to show her that I was as ‘real’ as she was in her submission. Was I? I probably wasn’t, but it seemed important to play the part to the absolute hilt.

When his hands cupped my breasts, moving around and assessing their new contours, I gasped. He was feeling me up right in front of this woman! But still I did not move or protest, but let him take his time with me, stroking and pressing at my presented mounds, until my nipples were throbbing and my thighs a-tremble.

‘Mm,’ he said. ‘The corset does a lot for your submission, doesn’t it, Lulu?’

‘Works like magic,’ remarked O.

‘Yes, sir,’ I whispered.

‘And if I want to see your nipples,’ he murmured, lowering the ribboned top edge of the garment and freeing them. ‘This is all it takes.’

I almost unclasped my hands from the back of my neck in order to take a swift glance at O, but I held on until my arms ached from the effort of it, determined to convince our expert voyeur that I was no neophyte.

Joss played with my nipples for a while, with a considered slowness that almost mesmerised, then he let go and said, quite sharply, ‘Nine.’

I scrambled to my feet, keeping my hands locked behind my neck, as I had practised so many times. All the rehearsal had paid off and I was able to do it with a semblance of grace. I stood before him, breasts thrust outwards, legs apart, waiting for his next move.

‘She’s lovely,’ remarked O. ‘Look at that flush on her cheek. You’ve got her in the palm of your hand, my lord.’

‘You don’t have to call me my lord,’ muttered Joss, sounding slightly embarrassed, but by the look of him he was pleased by the implied compliment to his domination skills.

‘Oh, I like it,’ she said. ‘It’s so rarely one gets to say it with true accuracy. I do beg your indulgence, my lord.’

‘All right,’ he said with a chuckle.

‘She’s unpierced?’

‘For the moment,’ he said, never taking his eyes off me, so he saw the little start, the sway of my skirts, the widening of my eyes that his words occasioned. ‘What’s that, sweet? Do you have something to say? I didn’t hear you ask permission to speak.’

It wasn’t worth contending the issue here and now. We would discuss it later, in private.

‘No, sir.’

He leaned back in his chair and gave me one long, louche going-over with his greedy eyes before bending forwards again and sliding a hand between the folds of my skirts.

I let out a little cry.

He had taken a swift and firm hold of my bare sex, right here, in front of this stranger.

Of course, she could not see it, because the skirts draped themselves around his arm, concealing the naked truth, but it was obvious that she would know what he was doing.

‘Perfect,’ he said, moving his hand so his palm rubbed between my lips. ‘Completely accessible.’

I stood, unsteady on my wide-planted feet, so very, very close to releasing myself from my position and jumping back, hands crossed over my skirts.

But I didn’t stop him. I didn’t move. I let the situation cloak me, cover my natural reluctance and bring out the enormous erotic charge of it.

‘We’re among friends, Lulu,’ he whispered, so that O couldn’t hear. ‘Be brave.’

I shut my eyes and felt it all. The wetness and heat of my sex as Joss manipulated it in this basement room in front of a stranger. The dress, a kind of enchanted thing, making my body feel twice as full and ripe and rich with wanton desires. My nipples, out on show, begging to be touched.

Joss used his other hand to stroke them, first one, then the other, while he continued to probe the soaked folds below.

I wanted to buck, to moan, to fall into him, but I maintained my stance.

‘What a treat for a little submissive,’ purred O. ‘To be pleasured by her master in the presence of another. Oh, you lucky, lucky little slut.’

‘I think she might come very soon,’ said Joss.

He was right. Everything was tensing and shutting up, ready for the gush.

He took his hands off me and smacked my thigh.

‘But that’s not allowed. Not until later. Come on. Let’s go upstairs and sort out the hair and make-up.’

I was still half-drugged with frustrated desire as he clapped a hand on my shoulder and steered me out of the room, O at our side. I could barely take in the surroundings or the stairs or the people who passed us on them. All I could think of was how cruelly my climax had been taken from me.

But this was submission. I was voluntarily subordinating my own desires to his. I had known the score all along. I couldn’t complain about it now.

* * *

O piled my hair into a tumbling French knot, praising me all the time, while Joss watched from the bed.

‘How long have you and his lordship been together?’ she asked me.

‘A year,’ Joss interrupted swiftly before I could answer.

‘He’s training you very well,’ she said. ‘You’re wonderfully obedient. Mal will be trying to make bargains with you, my lord. I’m sure he’ll think Lucy here would make a nice little addition to our stable.’

‘She isn’t joining anyone’s stable,’ said Joss shortly. ‘She’s mine.’

O put down her combs and hairpins and sprayed my new style all over.

‘Such a pity,’ she said. ‘But at least some of us will get a nice show. There. Now let’s make you up.’

She left me with red-stained lips and perfectly creamy skin. She advised me, before leaving, to put some rouge on my nipples. No perfume was allowed, because the dominants liked to smell the natural scent of arousal.