The Darker Side of Pleasure (16 page)

This was a revelation. The full weight of what she was doing hadn’t really struck her until Master Robert had her over his lap. That sense of yielding she’d felt with him was so much more than she could have hoped for. That sense of giving over control. She felt more a woman than she ever had before. And she felt more natural about the yearnings that had haunted her all of her adult life.

And then there was the mysterious stranger. Would she ever see him again? With all that was happening to her, all she was already discovering about herself, why was it
him
she couldn’t get out of her head? Even as she remembered the sensation of Master Robert’s hands striking her naked flesh, the sense of pure freedom it brought along with the pain and the pleasure, the other man’s face lingered in her mind’s eye.

Finally Mika came back with a bed tray and set it over Cassandra’s lap. A European-style breakfast was set on fine china of the purest white, with one narrow black line around the rim. The tray held a croissant, some cut-up fruit, a small ramekin of yogurt, and a cup of tea.

Suddenly she was famished, and she ate everything on her plate while the petite Japanese woman stood silent sentry by the door. After she finished eating, Mika lifted the tray and motioned her into the bathroom. When she came out the tray had disappeared and Mika took her to the bed, snapped the cuffs to the chains there once more, and left her alone with her thoughts.

She again had one moment of panic, left alone and helpless. She pulled against the restraints, but of course they held tight. The idea that she truly couldn’t escape calmed her somehow, and as she drifted helplessly toward sleep, she thought of the stranger. Of his strong features, his clear golden-brown eyes, of his touch as he wiped her tears from her cheeks. What an unusual thing to do. What an unusual man. Even now, her body craved his touch, his presence.

She must see him again! But how? She wouldn’t even be allowed to ask his name. The sense of helplessness, of letting go of all power, still came as a relief. Yet at the same time, it brought a pain she knew wouldn’t leave her until she saw her stranger again.

CHAPTER THREE

M
IKA GENTLY SHOOK
C
ASSANDRA AWAKE AND
once again she was fed, then bathed by the two blond women while the late afternoon sun filtered in through the shaded windows. Their soft, careful hands were a sweet caress on her sensitive skin. The flesh on her bottom was still sore to the touch, and they rubbed a cooling, lavender-scented cream there.

No blindfold, and so she was able to watch them as they worked. Though she had never before felt any attraction to women, she saw them now with new eyes. The taller one had truly spectacular breasts; large and pendulous when she bent over, with pale pink nipples that stiffened noticeably when she touched Cassandra’s skin. She was surprised to find herself wanting to smooth her hands over that full, soft female flesh.

The smaller of the two had a lovely figure. Her breasts were small, which suited her petite form. And she saw again how the little blonde was completely shaved, her sex peeking out enticingly in pink, velvet folds.

By the time she was taken back into her room she was thoroughly aroused once more. From looking at the two women, from the sensation of their hands on her, and from the entire ritualistic tone of it all. The bathing, the way they treated her as an object: treasured, yet still an object.

She loved it all.

Mika came in with a wooden tray of cosmetics and had Cassandra sit on a small chair by the window. She worked on her face for perhaps thirty minutes, then started on her hair. When she was done, Mika led her to the mirror which hung on one wall.

Mika had transformed her. Her hair hung in russet curls about her shoulders, part of it piled atop her head in delicate coils and held in place by a series of pins decorated with tiny, golden butterflies. Mika had shadowed her green eyes in gold, as well, and used a golden-sheened powder to accent the high, rounded curve of her cheeks, her collarbones, the tops of her breasts. Her lips were glossed pink and layered with something gold and iridescent. She looked exotic, decorated.

When Mika stood behind her and reached her arms around her, Cassandra caught her scent. Something floral and subtle and clean. When the woman’s tiny, delicate hands came around to her stomach she held very still. And as Mika fastened a fragile gold chain around her waist she felt a surge of pure lust. A need for her small, clever hands.

But she was immediately distracted by the sight of the gold chain in the mirror. It made her look entirely different. Or perhaps it made her feel different. More decorated, somehow. But also bound, owned. Her whole body shivered and her sex plumped between her thighs.

Behind her, Mika’s gaze met hers in the mirror and a small smile played at the corners of her serious little mouth. Cassandra smiled back. She couldn’t help it.

Their eyes locked in the mirror. Mika snaked a hand up and tweaked her left nipple, just hard enough to hurt. Her smile broadened when Cassandra gasped.

She was absolutely soaked instantly.

What was this sudden lust for women? Was it really about the women, or more about the constant, steady atmosphere of sensuality? But she hardly had time to think about it before Mika led her away.

When they reached the door of what Cassandra had come to think of as the living room, Mika gave her the now familiar signal to lower to her knees, then left her there, kneeling in the doorway. Curious, she peered into the room, took in the elegant décor, the amber light cast from several lamps, the faint scent of good Scotch whiskey.

Master Robert sat in his brown leather chair, one ankle crossed over his knee, in that attitude of repose only the most confident of men adopt. He smiled a little when he saw her at the door.

“Very pretty, Cassandra. The gold suits you. Enter.”

She did so, on her knees, not even lowering her hands to the floor, but keeping them clasped behind her back, thinking this might please him. She stopped in the middle of the Persian rug, on the very center of the design. She thought proudly for a moment of how the gold decorations on her body would match the colors of the rug and the velvet drapes that lined the tall, paned windows.

But where was the other man, her dark stranger? A tug of disappointment tightened her stomach, even as a surge of adrenaline flowed through her. But Master Robert was there. And even though she didn’t feel the intense attraction for him she had for the stranger, he was the man who would train her. That alone made her yearn to be near him, to please him. It was still damn exciting.

“Yes, lovely,” Master Robert murmured. “Stand for me.”

She rose to her feet, a sudden surge of dizziness unbalancing her. But it wasn’t from standing up too fast. It was excitement, anticipation of what was to come. And the overpowering presence of Master Robert as he sat watching her with those wise gray eyes of his that matched his perfectly groomed hair.

He stood and took both of her hands in one of his, drew them high up over her head, then stepped back. She left her hands in the air, twined together above her head, while he made a circle around her.

“Hands clasped behind your back now.”

She complied, the motion making her breasts thrust outward. They were tingling already, sensitized and full, the nipples taut beneath his gaze. She felt no embarrassment. There was something so utterly freeing about giving over all control to him. Her body was his to do with as he wished. She thought it had been from the moment she’d met him at that café in Santa Monica.

He reached out with both hands and lightly caressed her nipples, which came up hard and pulsing at once. Her sex swelled and pounded with heat.

“Before we begin tonight I want you to talk to me. I’m going to ask you a few questions. They won’t be complicated, but they will be of a personal nature. I want you to reveal yourself to me. While you are naked, vulnerable, under my command. Do you understand? You may speak to answer me.”

“Yes, Sir. I understand.” But did she? What was this? Her heart was fluttering again.

“Tell me what brought you to me, what attracts you to this life.”

It was hard to think, already sunken into the dreamy state of arousal as she was. But Master Robert required an answer. And the answer was so much a part of her, she trusted her mouth to find the words, to express the thoughts she’d had nearly her entire life.

“It began a long time ago. I almost can’t remember a time without it, without this wanting.” She paused, licked her suddenly dry lips. “I’ve had an eternity of people telling me what to do, of following their commands blindly, because I didn’t have a choice. Now the choice is ultimately mine. Do you understand how important that is for me?” Her eyes burned with tears, her throat tight.

“I know exactly what you mean, my dear.”

Again that surge of gratitude.

“I have spent most of my life striving to please those who can never be pleased, for whom I will never be good enough, perfect enough, no matter how I try. And here, for the first time, I feel accepted as I am. That’s an epiphany for me, yet somehow I knew that’s the way it would be if I came here, if I entered the BDSM lifestyle. Everything I read told me so. So did my instincts, on a very deep level. I don’t know how to explain it.”

Master Robert caught her gaze, delved deep into her eyes. “You explained it perfectly, Cassandra.”

She smiled. The tears still threatened, but she was suffused with happiness at his simple words, at the pleasure and freedom of opening herself to him, as he had said.

“Now for a more basic question.” Master Robert smiled, and said in his elegant voice, “Have you ever worn nipple clamps before, Cassandra?”

“No, Sir.” Her voice was barely above a whisper, her heart and her sex instantly throbbing.

“You are about to.”

While she stood, trembling, he pulled a pair of small clamps from his pocket. Unlike the chrome clamps she had seen on the Internet these were gold in color, with a thin chain running between them that matched the chain about her waist.

She shivered. The clamps had evil-looking little teeth. Her breasts ached for them.

She took a deep breath and waited, her nipples stiffening more with each moment.

He began with the right one, tugging and pinching it until it was as hard as it had ever been, the tugging going straight to her pulsing sex. She struggled to hold her hips still. Then, pulling her nipple out, stretching it, he opened the dangerous looking teeth of the clamp and let it close around her flesh.

The pain was exquisite, lancing through her body like white heat. The pleasure was just as intense.

Her head felt light and she was breathing in hard, short pants. Master Robert’s hand came around to the back of her neck, steadying her.

“Long, deep breaths, Cassandra. Convert the pain to pleasure. Take it in, then breathe it out.”

She tried to do as instructed, but she was totally overwhelmed by sensation.

“Concentrate.”

His hand was still on her neck, and she thought of it as an anchor in the storm of sensation. Eventually she calmed and was able to breathe normally, even though the pain was still there. Pain that was pleasure at the same time. This was different from being pinched or spanked. It was more, for one thing. And deeper, somehow.

It was really doing a number on her head.

While she was still trying to sort it all out, he grabbed her other nipple, drew it out long and hard, and clamped it.

The pain was just as searing as the first one had been. Maybe even worse, as though now that her body recognized the pain, it fed it even more. Her breathing once again came in gasping pants while she tried to get a handle on it. A rush of wet heat between her legs made her squirm despite her efforts not to.

“Still, Cassandra.”

She stopped, gritting her teeth, trying to control herself. For him. Her nipples burned, her sex burned, and her entire being was suffused with pleasure. And with gratitude once more.

Tears welled in her eyes, spilled over finally, and ignoring her instructions to be silent, she whispered, “Thank you, Sir.”

As a reward for her errant behavior, Master Robert gave a sharp tug on the chain running between the clamps. She yelped aloud, which made him chuckle. After a pause he did it again.