House of Intrigue

by Yvonne Strickland

  He regarded her face and that part of her body visible above the desk. He had always thought of Pauline as a very attractive and desirable woman. Her legs in particular were an important element in his sexual fantasies, competing successfully with the rest of the girls in the house. No mean achievement under the circumstances! He imagined her naked before him, even as he sat in the presence of her intimidating gaze. He would have given much to penetrate the glacial facade and know what she thought of men in general, and of him in particular.

  'We have a little problem,' she went on. 'There's a show arranged for this afternoon and our male star has turned his car over. He's going to be in hospital for a day or two in Marseilles, so he obviously won't be showing up here. Sonia's persuaded James to come back so it's important that we come up with something to make the show possible.' She relaxed back in her chair. 'You're the something!'

  'What am I ... er, what does it involve?' asked Mike.

  Pauline looked at him without expression. 'Do the details matter? Isn't it all the same to you in the end?'

  'No, it isn't,' he replied. 'Some things I don't mind doing, other things I do!'

  'Well, let's say our little friend Jackie is starring in it, if that gives it more appeal.'

  'There are some people downstairs. What are they here for?'

  'Oh, them,' she replied with a wave of her arm. 'They're just here on business, visiting Sonia.'

  'Look,' he said, 'I'm not sure I want to be pushed into anything I don't know about. You've set me up before and I don't care for it!'

  'Then go and complain to Sonia. I'm sure she could find someone else to do your work - someone who isn't wanted by the UK tax authorities, that is!'

  He leaned back in his chair and held her gaze. This might not be the best time to attempt to gain a rapport with her, but it was the first real opportunity he had encountered to date. If he was beset by doubt, it was because he had never been a man to take his life in his hands, except when it came to financial affairs, and he knew, as did Sonia and Pauline, how that had ended up. Still, he had never liked other people to get the better of him and what a coup it would be!

  He hoped now, as he smiled back at her, that the acute nervousness he was aware of inside was not in evidence on the surface. He took a deep breath.

  'I hope you don't mind me asking, changing the subject that is, but er, you don't have any male friends of your own here, Pauline. Don't you ever fancy going out to dinner in the evening?'

  He felt an odd current passing through him as he spoke.

  'Are you trying to proposition me?' she asked, her face betraying not the slightest hint of a smile. It was a challenge he had to meet.

  'Yes, if you like. I've thought about it a few times. I know you're in a different situation to the other people here, but then so am I, and, er ... personally, I consider you a very attractive woman. I just feel that, well ... I don't get out all that much myself. So if you found yourself free one evening and you don't mind my company ...'

  Mentally, he swallowed hard. Was the unseen blow about to fall?

  She began to laugh. He tried not to look perplexed. The rumour was that she did riot possess the facility of laughter as nobody had ever seen it utilised.

  'I'm glad you find it funny,' he said weakly, the blood rushing to his face.

  She had triumphed over him.

  'Well, well, a secret admirer! What would the rest of them think?'

  'I don't know,' he replied. 'Would it matter?'

  Her face regained its former composure, it would to me,' she replied with a hint of finality.

  He considered further progress in this direction to be unlikely and so remained silent until she spoke.

  'Two thirty,' she announced, 'at the first room on the right if you come up the main stairs. You'll take your shower in there first. Jackie and Lorna will be there.'

  He left the office and hurried down to the entrance, feeling like a naughty schoolboy dismissed by the teacher after the uncovering of some misdemeanour. He could not have known how portentous that sentiment was. Meanwhile, the thought of what he might get up to with Jackie and Lorna fuelled him with enough enthusiasm to offset the rebuff. Fantasising about Pauline could take a back seat for the time being.

  He did not knock on the door at 2.30, but tried the ornate brass handle and pushed it open. The small ante room was empty save for two green leather upright chairs. There was no sound from beyond the inner door but he opened this with caution nevertheless. To his left and right were hung blue and green striped curtains, obscuring most of the room. Directly ahead, a door stood ajar. He continued on into the room, his feet silent upon the rich oatmeal carpet.

  A curtain moved aside nearby and Jackie's face appeared.

  'Oh, Mike, I thought I heard the door. Just go straight ahead for the shower. I'll see you in a few minutes. Put your towel around you when you come out; OK?'

  'Er, yes, sure,' he replied, glancing at her.

  She was dressed very much as she had been in the garden. There was no sign of Lorna. Jackie vanished back behind the curtain.

  He thought, while under the hot water, that he should have taken the opportunity to ask about the curtains. There must be a reason for them; there must be something hidden behind. So many things in this house turned out to be hidden behind curtains.

  When he stepped out barefoot on to the soft carpet, wearing only the blue towel about his waist, Jackie was back in view and with her was Lorna, her long raven hair swept back over her shoulders.

  'Hello there!' Lorna said.

  The two of them waited until he was with them, then both put their arms about him and alternately kissed his mouth and cheeks. He returned their kisses, slipping his arms about their slim waists and feeling his organ of lust stir beneath the towel. The three continued for some minutes with increasing passion until his arousal was obvious. At that point he began to pull Jackie's T-shirt out from under the waistband of her skirt, then up and over her head, freeing her young, firm breasts.

  'Come over here with us,' said Jackie, pulling his arm.

  Lorna took his other arm and they walked towards the curtain. Lorna pulled it aside with a smile and said, 'We've got a little treat for you!'

  'Ah, no!' responded Mike, stepping backwards. 'Not this time we don't!'

  The object of trepidation was a black timber X, some two metres high, standing purposefully with black leather straps hanging from behind its four arms.

  The two girls smiled at him and walked up to the sinister artefact. They stood at either side of it, each with a hand placed on top of its upper limb, and fixed their eyes on him. Lorna reached to the top of her blouse with her free hand and started to undo the buttons. He watched her intently as one by one they came undone and the blouse fell open. After the last button, she pulled the front of the blouse away to reveal her breasts. Like Jackie's, they were well developed and firm, with her nipples dark, hard and prominent.

  He moved back towards them, urge overcoming caution, then stopped.

  'Come on, you two, let's just get together. What's the point of that?'

  Neither of the girls moved, but posed, swayed their hips and teased him to exasperation.

  'Love us, love our cross!' pouted Lorna.

  'OK, OK,' he said, raising his hands, 'I'll go along with it if you like, but I've got to check all of this out.'

  He turned to the curtain from behind which the two girls had first appeared. This room was smaller than the other guest rooms he had seen and was brightly lit by natural daylight, looking out as it did from the front of the house. By one wall there stood a number of small tables and a stack of boardroom chairs. Opposite were two doors, neither of which would open when he tried the handles. The movable spot lamps above hung purposefully from their tracks. The small cameras were obvious as well, not having the elaborate furniture and fittings in which to be hidden from view.

  There was nobody to be seen. He pushed back through the curtain. The two girls stood ba
re breasted in front of the wooden cross, hands on their hips, smiles on their faces, waiting. He approached them and was again engrossed within their arms and hot kisses. Once more he was aroused beyond prudence and gave himself over to them, kissing them in turn on the mouth and breasts, finding the zip fastener on Jackie's skirt and falling to his knees before her to pull the skirt down, while Lorna kissed him about the neck and shoulders. Jackie ran her fingers through his hair as he turned to Lorna and released her skirt too, pulling it frantically down and pressing his lips against her warm stomach. Intoxicated by their sexuality, he wanted to suck and tongue every part of their sensual bodies.

  'Come on, young man!' urged Lorna, pulling him towards the wooden cross.

  'Yes, come along!' added Jackie. 'Time for our little game.'

  He allowed them to pull him towards the sinister object and turn him around so that his back was pushed against the cool, hard timber. Each of them took an arm and lifted it up against the wooden cross. He closed his eyes and let them encircle each wrist in a leather strap, which they passed through slots in the timber arm before buckling fast at the rear. They quickly passed straps around just below his elbows and fastened these too. It was obvious what their next moves would be and, having gone beyond the point of no return, he did not attempt any resistance as they pulled apart his legs and secured these at ankles and thighs to the lower members of the device.

  Jackie and Lorna stood back and regarded him with obvious satisfaction. Mike, spread out and helpless, found his arousal all the more intense because of his inability to move and conceal it. The two girls turned around and Jackie, moving past him, pulled the rear curtain along its track all the way to the far wall. He had not bothered to look behind this other curtain because a gap at one end showed it to be close to the wall, but he now saw a school blackboard and easel, to the side of which was a desk and chair in a wide alcove. The other curtains were also drawn aside to the walls, lightening the room considerably, all the way through to where the wooden cross stood.

  He fully understood the obligation he was under to take part in these rituals from time to time, but always maintained his preference for being in charge. Since becoming involved, however, he had also come to appreciate the element of uncertainty inherent in a situation like this. He had Annette to thank for all that. Had it not been for their clandestine meetings and secret revels together all those months ago, he would have seen none of these upstairs rooms and probably only have guessed what transpired within them. Now, he had become a convenient pawn in their games.

  The girls stood before him, fully dressed again and waiting, when a sound to his right told him someone was entering through the main door. He twisted his head to see who the intruder was but was unable to turn it far enough. The figure passed behind him, watched by Jackie and Lorna, then Pauline's voice said, 'All right, you two, let's get these things arranged!'

  He flexed hard against the straps, hoping against hope that they would give way and allow him to escape, but they would not. She was here! Why? She was the last person he wanted to see. She had never been present before when he took part in these sexual escapades. After the failed attempt to assert his masculinity over her, his humilation would be complete.

  She walked by him without acknowledgement, a smile on her face. The two girls followed her across the room. They pulled out the small tables and moved them across the floor to form a group of nine in front of the cross. To each table was added a chair.

  'What's going on?' he demanded, having made his mind up that now was as good a time as any to speak out. Jackie and Lorna glanced at him momentarily. Pauline ignored him completely. 'Come on! Let me in on it, will you?'

  This time, Pauline, making her way across the room back to the desk, looked at him coldly and continued on. She shuffled the easel and board closer to the wooden cross and dragged the desk forward. Turning his head to the left, Mike could see them more easily now. From a wall cupboard near where the desk had stood, she produced a school cane and a rolled up sheet of paper about a metre across. The cane she placed on the desk. The paper she unrolled and fixed with clips to the front of the blackboard.

  On the sheet was printed, in full colour, an anatomical diagram, complete with captions, of the male sex organ. When he turned to look at Jackie and Lorna, they had gone. He heard Pauline open and close the desk drawer but she did not come into view. Instead, he sensed rather than heard her moving close behind him. Something flashed in front of his face and he instinctively opened his mouth in surprise. At once the red rubber ball was thrust into his mouth. The tightening strap across his cheeks and the sound of the buckle being done up at the back of his neck confirmed his predicament. He was effectively silenced. Pauline walked from the room, leaving him helpless and gagged to contemplate the forthcoming possibilities.

  It was not long before a thought which had been for some time at the back of his mind became a conscious conclusion. There were nine desks. There were seven visitors plus Jackie and Lorna. But for the moment there was no one other than himself and the quiet surroundings.

  The silence was broken by a voice and the door opened and closed and the two girls appeared before him. Both wore white blouses, blue ties and pleated blue mini-skirts. On their feet were white socks and wedge-heel brown sandals.

  The words, Tor God's sake undo me before she gets back!' were perfectly clear in his mind but the, 'Ha, nnng!' which actually emerged meant nothing to Jackie and Lorna. It would have made no difference even if they had understood.

  'Oh, poor old Mike!' cooed Jackie, moving close up to him, so close that her body was lightly touching his own. She placed her hands on either side of his torso, her nails pushing tightly into his flesh, and kissed his ear and neck. Lorna's hands squeezed through the towelling which still circled his thighs and her lips played their sensual game about his neck and ears from behind. He knew they were working to arouse him before Pauline returned, but despite attempts to think of other things, he could do nothing to prevent it even with the towel in place. It would be impossible to hide.

  There were voices and laughter outside the door. Jackie and Lorna hurried over to the group of small tables and took their places at the front. The door swung open and Pauline's voice rang out, This way, class! Come along now!'

  The seven girls entered, looking younger still in the same style of school uniform as worn by Jackie and Lorna. Each carried a pale blue exercise book. They all glanced at him, particularly at the blue towel, and smiled as Pauline ushered them into their seats. He saw that Pauline had changed as well. She wore a mortar board and black lecturer's gown over a dark blue, two-piece suit.

  She walked to the desk next to the chart and picked up her cane.

  'Now then, ladies! I do hope you have all been attending to your homework! Please open your books!'

  He was aware of their eyes, shifting from Pauline to him, looking at the bulge in the towel, and saw them prodding each other, smiling and making eyes at him. How much of it was contrived and how much was genuine mirth he had no way of knowing, but he suspected the former. These were far from being the naive schoolgirls they were intended to portray.

  'Pay attention, all of you!' Pauline tapped the board and pointed to various parts of the diagram, asking questions of different members of the class. Jackie and Lorna frequently met his gaze, both narrowing their eyes at him, and Jackie provocatively running her tongue about her lips.

  The game of questions and answers continued for some minutes until one of the girls spoke and Pauline cut her short with a whack of her cane across the diagram.

  'How many times have I told you?' she shouted. 'And still you can't get that right!' There was a moment of utter silence. Then Pauline, hand on hip, gestured at the recalcitrant pupil with her cane and ordered firmly, 'Step over here at once!'

  One of the girls from the back chairs, a girl with grey eyes and long blonde hair, stood up and made her way to the desk. Pauline opened one of the small drawers and pulled out a pair
of bright steel handcuffs from which, attached by a short chain, swung a leather collar.

  Turn around!' she ordered.

  Pauline looped the collar quickly about the girl's neck, pushing her hair aside and fastening the steel buckle at the side, leaving the cuffs resting between her shoulder blades. She twisted each arm up behind her back and in a moment, the cuffs were snapped shut on the girl's wrists. The remainder of the class watched in silence as Pauline unfastened her skirt and pulled it briskly down to her ankles, revealing a pair of white cotton briefs. These followed the skirt down her legs to the floor.

  'Lift your feet up and step out of them!' she ordered.

  Mike, his head turned aside to keep his gaze fixed on the scene, saw her naked behind with her wrists pulled up together well above it. He attempted to adjust his position in the straps to make turning his head more comfortable. It had no such result. It did, however, cause the towel to loosen about his waist so that slowly, it began to move. He stopped squirming and for a time the towel stayed in place. His erection had died down over the last few minutes, but with the scene taking place nearby and the thought that he might soon be exposed to them all, it began to revive.

  Pauline seized the manacled wrists and pulled them upwards, at the same time pushing the girl's head and upper body until she was bent face down over the desk with her naked behind on view to the others. Pauline, maintaining her grip on the girl's wrists and keeping the arms pulled away from her body, took up the cane with her free hand. She slapped the backs of the girl's legs with it and shouted, 'Open!' The legs opened until her most intimate parts were on view to everyone. 'Wider! Come on - wider!'

  At last the girl's legs were spread as wide as she was able to spread them, her sex and her anus on full display. The cane rose, poised like a snake waiting to strike, then fell with a swish and a crack across the soft flesh. The girl shuddered and let out a sharp yelp. The cane fell once more and Pauline declared loudly, 'You will in future pay more attention to your lessons!'