“I’ve got to go, Mom. I just wanted to say that I was thinking about you.” I shook my head, wondering what I had hoped to get out of calling her.
“Just a minute, Jane. As I don’t know when I’ll hear from you again, let me say this: I know you don’t think I’m much of a mother, but Jane, please hear me out. I do worry about you now in a way I never did when you were single. If you’re truly happy I will leave it alone but if not I’ll always be here if you need to get out.”
“Wow, that’s a little pessimistic, Mom. But thanks for being there if I need you.”
I should’ve been warmed by her concern but instead it festered in me, as if she had cast a curse on my happiness, foreshadowing my fate.
My final bizarre choice that day was swinging by Pandora’s Box. Instead of driving back home along the beach I drove down Dania Beach Boulevard. I didn’t realize my motivation for stopping there until I stood in front of the counter with Christian looking back at me.
“Hi, Jane,” he said, laying down the receipts in his hand.
He didn’t come around the counter as he had in the past. I couldn’t interpret the vibe he was putting out.
“Is there something I can show you?” he said when I still hadn’t returned his greeting.
“Oh no, I’m not here to buy anything.”
“What then?” he said, impatience in his tone as if I kept him from important work. He did not seem pleased to see me.
“Was wondering if you heard anything about a party happening at my place?”
“No, I haven’t. Must be a private party. Why not ask Luke?”
“He’s keeping it a surprise. I was just wondering if you knew anything so I could prepare myself. Sorry to have bothered you.”
He lifted his eyebrows casually and said, “No bother.”
“Okay, thanks,” I said and headed toward the door.
“Glad to hear things worked out with Luke,” he said to my back, his tone sarcastic. “My money was on Marcello.” He was laughing as I pushed my way through the door.
His parting comment bothered me all the way back to the house. For the first time in the last few months I felt like running away. I knew I would not follow through, but the urge kept getting stronger in the two days leading up to the party.
* * *
The night before the event I was sitting in my room writing when Luke came in.
“Jane?”
“What?!” I said, jerking up in my chair.
“Didn’t mean to scare you,” he said. He swiveled my chair to face him and gave me a hug. “Are you okay?”
“Worried about your plans for tomorrow night,” I said, looking up at him. I felt tiny and vulnerable as he loomed over me.
“You don’t trust me,” he said with a hearty laugh. “Jane, take my word, you will thoroughly enjoy yourself.”
That’s what scares me most, I thought.
“Will Marcello and Janice be here?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Oh,” I said. The energy drained out of me and I let go of Luke’s waist.
“Janey, love, just trust that you’ll have the time of your life. I will see to it.”
“Not sure our ideas of fun are quite the same, Luke,” I said, swiveling my chair away from him.
“Hey,” he said, bringing me back toward him. He lifted my chin, forcing me to look at him. “You worry too much. I will be here the whole time and we’ll get a lot of wonderful shots for your spread online.”
“Okay,” I said, mostly because I had no other choice. I would go along with what he wanted. I already knew that about myself.
I felt butterflies in my stomach knowing Marcello would be in our house again. I didn’t know how he’d act toward me and I planned to stay as far away from him as I could. I looked forward to seeing Janice and hearing all about her new life but that didn’t help calm my fears.
* * *
Luke liked me with no makeup or clothes, so there was little need for me to prepare for the party. After I shaved and cleaned myself out, I still had over an hour to wait. He hadn’t disclosed any of the details of the gathering other than confirming Marcello and Janice’s presence. I tried not to think about Marcello but my mind kept wandering back to my time at his home. Part of me hoped he would ignore me—I planned to ignore him—but another part still craved his approval.
I held up in my writing room as Luke prepared the house for the festivities. I fantasized about staying in there all night just vaguely aware of the goings on in the other rooms. My role, however, did not allow me to steal away and document my woes in my journal.
“Time to greet our guests,” Luke said, waltzing into my room dressed in black slacks and a button-down black collared shirt.
“You look nice,” I said, standing up and stretching my lower back by twisting either way.
“Thank you, my love. I’m very excited about tonight as you should be.”
I wrinkled my nose but did not reply. Excited would not have been the word I’d have chosen to describe the moment. Panicked, afraid, and/or anxious would all have been better adjectives.
“Come here, silly,” he said, holding his arms out to me. He gave me a quick hug and scuttled me out into the living room.
We sat on the couch together waiting for our first guest to arrive. I could smell the wonderful aromas of garlic and baked bread wafting from the kitchen.
“From Marcello’s?” I said, pretending we were just having a nice dinner in. I actually sat there for ten minutes in complete and utter sweet denial snuggled up next to Luke.
“Yes, of course. It would be an insult to him any other way.”
I laughed, because I was well aware of the size of Marcello’s ego, which was only rivaled by Luke’s. “But of course,” I said.
At the first ring of the doorbell, I started like a spooked cat.
Luke laughed at me and said, “Relax, love.”
How I hated having people tell me to relax when relaxation wasn’t possible!
“Welcome,” I heard Luke say. I waited anxiously to see who would appear from beyond the door. I relaxed a bit when I saw Jack enter the foyer. Jack was the older gentleman I met on my first day of being naked in our old apartment.
“Hi, Jack,” I said, inching toward him. He wore jeans, a pink Polo shirt and loafers.
“Always a pleasure to see you. I’m very excited about tasting you as well.”
“Excuse me?” I said, stopping a few feet away and lowering my outstretched hand.
“Would you excuse us for a moment?” Luke said, grabbing my upper arm and pulling me along with him. He forced me through the first doorway, which led to his office. “What the hell was that?” he demanded, hands on his hips.
“What was what Luke? Are you expecting me to fuck all of your guests?”
“I expect you to be respectful to each and every client and if I want you to fuck from here to Japan, you will. Do you understand me, Jane? Because I will not have you embarrassing me in front of our guests.”
“Why is it you don’t feel it necessary to prepare me for these things?”
“Because your body’s mine, or have you forgotten who you married? Marcello was right that I let too much time pass without reminding you. After tonight, you will never again forget.”
Looking back I can see that we were all set for your everyday orgy, but my attitude changed all of that. Did I intuit the direction the party would go in, or had I manifested all my fears into reality?
Luke went to the back of his office to fetch rope and wrist straps that I knew he had intended to leave be.
“Come with me, Jane,” he ordered. He was clutching my upper arm hard enough to leave marks and forcing me to walk partially on tiptoe as we returned to the living room. “Jane apologizes for her poor behavior and would love to make it up to you,” he told Jack.
Jack gave me a reassuring smile. “It will be my pleasure and hopefully yours as well.”
His kind words didn’t help me fee
l any better about the situation I had partially brought upon myself.
Luke retrieved a platform from under the couch and pushed it directly under an eye bolt in the ceiling. In that moment I knew what he was doing. He had chosen to craft the nightmare I had recounted to him long ago. I can’t explain how I was so certain of this. I began to shake even before he bound my wrists together with the leather strap.
He made quick work of securing my arms over my head. I could barely reach the ground with the balls of my feet. He left me there for a few minutes and returned to attach a spreader to my ankles. Now I was only able to balance on my toes, for my legs were in a fixed, wide-open position. I could tell he was making the scene up on the fly because he left the room at one point and came back with a selection of whips and paddles. He also carried a chain, which he attached between my nipple piercings. It connected to another chain that wrapped around my waist. The initial jolt of having my breasts forced downward caused excruciating pain—a pain that quickly subsided as my sick, demented body caused a metamorphosis from pain into pleasure.
“Luke, I’m having déjà vu,” I said, trying to calm my breathing as fear seared through me.
“I would think so, Jane. I have not forgotten the dream you had right after we first moved in together.” His smirk really scared me. “Maybe we should wait and see who the highest bidder is?”
“Luke, I know you’re mad but you wouldn’t ...”
A knock sounded on the door, diverting his attention. Jack stood next to me, sorting through the items Luke had laid out for my discipline. I hadn’t seen this side of Luke since the day I’d run away from the house months ago. I wished I was having one of my wacky dreams that I would wake up from and realize I could do that one moment over.
How could my life spin so far out of control over the two silly words I said to Jack?
I kept praying for Janice to show up because I needed her support, but I was not looking forward to seeing Marcello.
As more people streamed into our home and Luke greeted them warmly, I felt cut off from him. Because I had disappointed him, he was denying me his energy. I knew I had to make it up to him and hoped the punishment would be over with quickly, so I could escape from this painful contraption. I should have been concentrating on my predicament, but instead I was worrying about how I stood with Luke.
Marcello and Janice were the last to arrive. As best as I can recall there were about fifteen people at the party. Janice and I were the only women.
When Marcello and Janice came into the room and made eye contact with me, I was struck by the expression on Marcello’s face. Luke’s earlier sense of Marcello’s feelings for me showed clearly on his furrowed brow and narrowed eyes. He must have known Luke’s party plans ahead of time and seemed confused by what had happened to change them. As sadistic as I knew he could be, I was surprised that his reaction to seeing me strung up was concern, not excitement. Janice’s bright smile spoke of her feelings for me but not of worry, since for all she knew I was a willing victim. I must have held their gazes too long, because Luke did not look happy.
To my utter humiliation, Luke announced to the group, “Jane has misbehaved, and to make it up to me and our guests she is free for the taking. Use her in any way that doesn’t leave a lasting mark. Jack will be first but after that please help me assure her obedience in the future.”
“ ‘Free for the taking’? Can one of us take her home for the weekend?” said a man I recalled from the wedding. He was tall and slender with thinning brown hair and a ridiculously large mustache.
Luke replied, “That’s a possibility, Jim. Let me think about it.” I could see that Luke expected me to react—to yell out no or something stupid like that—but all I did was narrow my eyes. He returned my look in kind—a reminder that my fate lay in his hands. I made my eyes go blank as I registered his coldness toward me. Sadness consumed my heart.
“So what’s it going to be,” I heard Marcello ask Jack.
“I really want to taste her but thought I might warm her up a bit first.”
“Might I recommend that whip? She likes that one,” Marcello said, pointing to the softest whip Luke owned.
I didn’t look at either of them. I wished I had a blindfold to save me from having to witness my punishment. I had no idea how Marcello knew what I liked and found it even more bizarre that he would encourage the gentlemen to take it easy on me.
Janice approached from the other side and stepped up on the platform.
“What the hell did you do, girl?” she whispered in my ear. “Have I taught you nothing?”
“I was rude to Jack and so now I’m strung up.”
“You choose the oddest times to misbehave. I overheard some of the men talking and they all want to take you home.”
“Luke wouldn’t allow that. He’s just trying to scare me.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Jane.”
“Did he send you off to other men when you were with him?”
“Other than Marcello, no, but that doesn’t mean he won’t.”
“I would never consider going and he promised me he would never send me to Marcello’s again.”
“He said that?”
“Yes, but please don’t say anything to Marcello, because I don’t want to start anything.”
“Are you sure he said never to Marcello’s?” she said, no longer whispering.
Marcello looked up at both of us.
“You did that on purpose,” I hissed at her.
“What is it?” Marcello said, coming closer.
“Nothing,” I said, struggling to keep my balance and my temper. “Just girl talk.”
“Janice?” he said, ignoring my plea to let it go.
“Janice—” I said before she had a chance to respond.
“I’m sorry, Jane, but I’ve pledged my loyalty to Marc and I take that pledge seriously.”
“Is nothing sacred? Do you have any idea what you’re about to do to me?”
“Yes, and for that I’m truly sorry.”
“I’ll protect you,” Marcello said and I knew he meant it, but the irony scratched at my heart as my blood ran cold.
“No one can protect me,” I said. I looked at Marcello and then back at Janice. I pleaded with her with my eyes.
She shrugged her shoulders as if it was no big thing. She faced Marcello and said, “Luke promised Jane that he wouldn’t send her to your house again.”
He laughed and said, “Did he now?”
“This is funny to all of you? I have entered the world of the insane,” I said in a loud whisper. I tried to shift my wrists to relieve the pain in my shoulders, but Luke had strapped them too tightly.
“I’ve known him for a long time and know what motivates him. He’s funny and transparent as well. I will take you home tonight, mark my words.”
When Marcello spoke those words to me, with such confidence and authority, I felt a rush of arousal that went straight to my clit. He saw it in my eyes before I could look away.
“If you’ll excuse me,” Jack said to Janice and Marcello as he stepped in closer to me.
I looked at Marcello one last time before closing my eyes in a self-imposed blindfold. I remained that way until released from my confinement sometime later.
Jack whipped me lightly half a dozen times and then knelt before me, taking the taste he had wished for from the beginning. I hoped he would take all night, so that no worse fate would befall me. I tried to ignore his persistent tongue, determined that not a single person there would have the satisfaction of making me cum. However my body, with its individuated personality, and Jack’s continued manipulations of my clit made me cum in front of all of Luke’s clients and friends. I tried to minimize the groans and moans but between my aching shoulders and feet and the orgasm ripping through me, my will failed me.
“Oh fuck,” I said, hanging limply after my release. I couldn’t enjoy the sensation for long because my joints began to ache. I tried to transfer my w
eight onto one foot to give the other a rest but it proved impossible to balance.
A few of Luke’s guests didn’t seem at all concerned about my suffering. Suffice it to say that my lower orifices and breasts were thoroughly manhandled and my physical torment didn’t keep me from cumming. While strung up, I thought many times of the similar predicament I had faced at Marcello’s house and how that experience had felt so very different.
One or two overly enthusiastic guests made sure my punishment would cohere in my mind. I’m not sure how long I stayed strung up before I left my body altogether. Perhaps I hovered in the sub space that Luke referred to or maybe the sheer endorphin overload freed me from my torment. At some point, however, the excruciating condition of my body brought me back to consciousness. When the pain of my shoulders became intolerable I finally opened my eyes to see Marcello staring back at me. I didn’t say anything, but he knew.
He came over and decreased the tension in the rope ever so slowly. “I need to release your legs first, so you won’t fall.” He bent down and unlocked the shackles that kept my ankles attached to the spreader bar.
I felt grateful to be able to close my legs. I wondered what Luke was doing and if he would be mad at Marcello for taking me down. Looking around, I saw that the party was still in full swing.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing,” Luke bellowed at Marcello as he approached us from the kitchen.
“Taking her down, obviously.” Turning away from Luke, Marcello announced, “I need everyone to move outside for a bit.” His authoritative tone broached no argument. As soon as everyone scampered outside, he said, “Janice, get the doors.”
“Marc, you better be very careful because you are crossing a line here; she doesn’t belong to you.”
“She can only be left vertically suspended so long without it causing permanent damage. You should know better. You are letting your anger get the better of you.” He looked over his shoulder and said to Janice, who waited quietly by the door, “Help me lower Jane’s arms.”
“There are guests who haven’t had a chance to—” Luke said, stepping forward as if to take over the rope Marcello held.
My Body-His Marcello Page 14
