The Maestro

by Leo Barton

  'I talked to Maria, before I talked to you. You know you were wrong about me. I wouldn't let Delgado or anybody else dominate me. I really do have too much confidence in what I have achieved; partly I have to say thanks to Delgado.'

  'I know, I'm sorry. I should have told you.'

  'No, that's not what I wanted to tell you. I have asked Maria to be my agent and she has very happily agreed. It's about time the art world had a few more strong women in it, don't you agree?'

  Alfonso smiled. 'Oh Linda, you are irresistible.'

  Later that afternoon Matteo examined Linda's paintings and declared that they showed considerable potential. He had the natural guardedness of an art dealer, but he did offer her a lot of money for them. Linda told him that he would have to talk to his daughter. Matteo went off triumphantly to find her and came back twenty minutes later to scowl at Linda.

  'What's wrong, Matteo?'

  'She won't sell them to me, the witch. Nothing is to be sold until after the exhibition. Naturally she said that my bid would be considered with everybody else. How did I have a daughter like that?'

  Linda started laughing again. She had obviously made such an intelligent choice for an agent.

  Chapter 13

  Linda was tired now. Her legs ached with having stood on the marble floor for the best part of the day. Maria had been really wonderful, not only arranging for her work to be exhibited in one of the most prestigious private galleries in the city, but in the excellent publicity work she had done. She had made sure that everybody who mattered in the art world would come to view her work. Maria had also been fabulous in other ways, finding a flat in the heart of the city, arranging for her a private studio, and entertaining her with new friends and adventures that maintained an erotic spark in her life that it had never previously had before she came to Barcelona.

  She looked over at Sebastian who smiled back. He stood surrounded by a crowd of girls who recognised him from his films. She recognised his smile and recognised that there was a lot of pain behind it.

  Over the last couple of months they had talked frequently over the telephone and gradually it had dawned on him that Linda was leaving him. He had loved her, he told her, he always would, but eventually he had come to accept that she had moved away from him, and that she was really a different woman to the one he had married.

  His film had ended ahead of schedule and he wanted to come to the exhibition. Linda wasn't sure whether she wanted him there, wondering if yet again he would steal her thunder, and she would end up playing the lesser role of superstar wife than that of talented artist. However, she relented, thinking that it would be too selfish to think like that, and also after so long she really did want to see him, and she wanted him to see her new world and new life. There was part of her that sought his approval for what she had done and for the new life she had chosen to lead.

  She'd met him at the airport. He wasn't expecting her. She saw him coming out of the sliding doors with Simone Jaeger. She was fantastically beautiful, much more beautiful in reality than on screen. The black waves of her hair resting enticingly on the shoulders of her olive-green two piece, the breast pushing out the lapels, the long slim legs, the startling limpidity of her eyes. No wonder Sebastian had been attracted to her.

  His face dropped though when he saw Linda, knowing he'd been caught out. He had intended as Linda later found out to hide Simone away in a hotel, assuming he would be staying with his wife. He mumbled something into the black-haired beauty's ear. Linda really didn't care any more. It made her laugh to see Sebastian looking so sheepish when he saw her. She strode over to him and embraced him, hugging him tightly. If he still loved her, she still loved him. That hadn't changed. He pulled away from her and turned to Simone.

  'Linda, this is Simone, she's staying here for a couple of days.'

  'Hi,' she said, her pouty lips parting into an ambivalent smile edging closer to displeasure than greeting.

  'Pleased to meet you. You must be exhausted. I have a car outside. I can take you both to the hotel.' Sebastian looked at her, mystified. 'I've put you both up at the Europa,' she lied, she hadn't at all. 'I hope you don't mind. It's a beautiful hotel. I stayed in it when I first came here. I booked a double.'

  Simone looked at her cautiously, wondering what kind of game Linda was playing. Sebastian looked baffled.

  'Is that okay, Seb?' She never normally called him Seb. She knew he hated it.

  He started laughing at his wife. 'That's fine, Lindy.'

  As she drove into the city, Linda insisted that Simone sit beside her in the front and Sebastian in the back. Linda told them all about her exhibition and how she hoped they would both come, Simone speedily saying that she had an appointment with a director in Madrid and that she could only stay for a couple of days.

  Sebastian told her all about the film, what a load of twaddle it was and what a prima donna the director had been. Simone adding quite caustically that it was the worst film she had ever been in.

  Reaching the centre of the city, Linda's heart leapt. It still gave her a buzz to live here and as long as it did she would stay. Place was important to her.

  'It's a great city. I came here once,' Simone said. She had relaxed a little more, having adapted to the strange situation she now found herself in, and never once forgetting that she was in some competition with Linda, and preparing for the possibility that things could turn nasty at some stage.

  The days were shorter now and there was a sense of autumn encroaching but the summer had not relented in its heat. And it was the heat as much as her desire to have Sebastian again that excited her. She knew she was going to have Sebastian whatever happened. She knew she still had that power over him, and she could tell by the way he had been looking at her that he was desperate to have her too. If Simone was going to be part of their menage, all the better. She had cast intermittent glances at the tanned stockinged legs, the olive skirt riding up above the knee. Yes, Linda wouldn't mind Simone staying at all.

  She left them momentarily in the car, while she raced into the foyer, making sure that they had a double available, and then she went back to fetch them, Simone looking disgruntled, Sebastian smiling at the new temerity of his wife. He loved strange situations, incongruities, chaos. It was one aspect of his character that Linda had always found appealing.

  She led them up to the most expensive room of the hotel, a huge room letting out onto the dusk light and cheery buzz of the thronged street below. The room had a big brass bed in one corner, and dark, heavy-wooded furniture added a sombre tone. Above a crystal chandelier hung.

  'My, oh my,' Simone exclaimed, 'this is quite something!'

  'I'm glad you like it,' Linda said with mock politeness.

  'I didn't say I liked it,' Simone replied, casting an asperse glance at what she assumed was her enemy.

  'Well I suppose you two want to freshen up,' Linda said, ignoring Simone's caustic, quizzical stare. 'I'll leave you to it. I'll wait for you downstairs. There is a little bar across the road, has very good tapas, if you're interested.'

  'Give me twenty minutes,' Sebastian said.

  'Is that long enough?' Linda said cheekily.

  Sebastian laughed, Simone looked shocked.

  Linda sat in the bar downstairs nursing a martini. Sebastian appeared ten minutes later.

  'You're certainly quicker than you used to be,' Linda said as he kissed her on the cheek and sat down beside her.

  'Is this the same woman that I married three years ago?'

  'I think that is the point. I am not. That's why I can't go back to live in England. That's why I can't be the same person I was for you before.'

  Sebastian looked at her. He didn't realise up until that moment that their relationship, at least how it had been, was irreconcilable to his wife's new life.

  'Simone?'

  'Yes.'

  'Where is she?'

  'She said she was bushed.'

  'Really?'

  'It was a bit of a
shock to her when you turned up at the airport.'

  'She wasn't the only one who was shocked.'

  'No, she wasn't.'

  'Is she a good fuck?'

  'As a matter of fact she is.'

  'She's not really your type though. What is the attraction?'

  'I don't know?'

  'Do you spank her?'

  'Sometimes.'

  'Come on Sebastian, don't be so reticent. So she likes spanking?'

  'As a matter of fact she does.'

  'Do you go further? I mean do you punish her?'

  'Yes, sometimes. She likes it. She likes being taken by surprise.'

  'So do I.'

  'Look, Linda, never mind Simone, what about us. Are you telling me that we're finished, that its time for the lawyers and all that.'

  'I don't know about that, but what has passed has passed. I told you, I'm staying here. I don't want you out of my life Sebastian, but I think that if you still want to see me, and I want you to, you have to be more honest, and more understanding and we have to do things on my terms. I don't want to spoil your career. Go off to Hollywood; make your money and your actresses. It's okay, it's really okay with me. See me when you want, and when you want to see me, let me know. I won't stop loving you.'

  'Nor me you.'

  'It's a new kind of pact.'

  'That's okay then, Linda. It would really kill me if you were leaving me forever.'

  'No, I think I'll always want you in my life.'

  'I hope so.' Sebastian took hold of her hand and they kissed, his lips brushing against hers. Then he lit a small cigar and Linda took a long sip on her martini.

  'Now back to Simone, you didn't tell me. I know there are sides to you, from what Alfonso said.'

  'Alfonso says a lot.'

  'But its true isn't it. All that time when you used to spank me I would be dying for you to tie me up or to hit me harder, to take a whip to me for godsake, but there was always some restraint with you. Why could you never share all that with me?'

  'Because I was frightened I'd lose you, by showing a side to me that you wouldn't like, you wouldn't approve of. Maybe it's an old-fashioned aristocratic thing, you know, that you can beat your mistress but not your wife. I got it all wrong, didn't I?'

  'You silly boy.'

  'Yes, I think you could say that.'

  'You still haven't told me about Simone. So you beat her with your belt?'

  'I do actually. Simone likes surprises. She likes to be taken quickly and suddenly.'

  'Are you making a suggestion?'

  'My god no, Linda. I thought we might go back to your flat.'

  'You mean you want to cheat on your mistress by sleeping with your wife?'

  'It is a mad world in which we live. But I think Simone half expects it.'

  'Well she sounds like a girl who doesn't like to do things that are expected. I know, Sebastian, that you're not making any suggestions, I am.'

  He raised his eyebrow theatrically in such a hammy way that he would not have done if he had been on the stage.

  They held hands as they walked up the stairs. Sebastian knocked on the door. Simone opened it. She was wearing a beautiful vermilion slip.

  'I thought you would be longer,' Simone said brusquely, seemingly annoyed at having being disturbed from her sleep.

  She had a deep, husky voice. The combination of the voice, her slip - her nipples protruding through the smooth fabric - and the beautiful black locks of hair, as well as the look of astonishment as she saw that Linda was standing behind the tall figure of Sebastian, made Linda tingle with anticipation.

  Simone looked at her as if to ask what she was doing there.

  'Come on, Simone, let us in,' Sebastian said, a measured tone of weariness in his voice.

  Simone left him to the door, tutted and then retreated back inside the room. She flopped onto the sheets of the bed, the white of the fabric contrasting so beautifully with the red satin of her slip.

  They sat either side of her and stared at her, gripping her arms.

  'What's going on?' she screeched, the brittle nasality of her accent present in her protestation.

  'Linda thinks you are a naughty girl to steal me like that so she wants to punish you. I've told her all about your dirty little habits,' Sebastian said, turning her over while Linda sat on her so that she could not move.

  'This is ridiculous!'

  'Oh shut up, Simone, you know you're going to enjoy it,' Linda said, pushing the beautiful jet-black head into the pillow, while Sebastian began tethering her arms with her own stocking to the brass bedstead. There was resistance, but it was token. If she had really wanted to escape she could have done. Her other arm dangled free. Sebastian passed Linda the other white silk stocking so that Linda could fasten her other arm.

  'Now her legs,' Linda said urgently.

  'Don't you dare!' Simone protested.

  'Oh Simone, please shut up! You sound like such a ham.'

  Sebastian added, 'Listen Simone, we all know what a rubbish actor you are. Maybe you could be good if you weren't such a spoilt bitch. So we are going to help you explore your emotional field a little bit. You know that is the problem with her,' Sebastian turned and spoke to Linda, 'she's such a spoilt bitch and she knows it. That's why she enjoys correction. She knows she needs it.'

  'You're talking garbage,' Simone responded stridently.

  'Oh listen to her. If you don't shut up I'll hurt you more,' Linda said.

  'Don't say that or we'll have to listen to her all night,' Sebastian added. They enjoyed mocking her; it added a frisson to the pleasure they were just about to enjoy.

  Simone was quiet now, staring steely at them.

  'Shall I tie her with the scarves?' Sebastian asked.

  'Good idea.'

  Sebastian picked out a selection of Simone's scarves that lay at the top of her opened suitcase, passed one to Linda and tied Simone's left ankle, while Linda tied the other, her legs splaying on the bed, her arms now stretched tight. She lay prone below them.

  'Rip the slip, Sebastian, tear it off her body.'

  'Do you know how much that cost?'

  'I'm really tired of listening to you,' Linda said, crouching over her and gagging her mouth with one of Simone's own expensive silk scarves.

  Sebastian grabbed her slip and pulled it from her body. The rip sent a shiver of delight through Linda's body. She watched as Simone's pert buttocks appeared before her. She wasn't wearing panties.

  As Sebastian rent her slip and then pulled it from under her body like a waiter removing a table cloth without altering the crockery on the table, Linda took one of the remaining scarves and delicately moved it across the cheeks of her bottom.

  'Spread her,' Linda commanded. Sebastian knelt on the bed and spread her bum cheeks, opening up her taut, tiny bottom hole. Linda took the scarf and dangled it between her spread bum cleft, touching as lightly as she could the little aperture.

  The light tickling must have been an agony as she twisted and turned, her bottom shaking trying to bring relief from the terrible tickling. She could hear her moaning through the gag. Linda wouldn't stop. It was a delicious form of torture to inflict, and she could see what torment it was bringing to the girl. In a way although she enjoyed inflicting such pain, she partly wished to be a victim of it.

  Simone's bottom quivered, then her body shook, but whatever she did, however she fought against her bonds there was no relief to be found.

  While Linda continued with her torture, spreading the scarf all along the sensitive flesh of her thighs and then up to her spinal column, Sebastian knelt down behind her, pushed his hands up her pearl white dress and pulled her panties down. It was so wonderful to feel Sebastian's hands on her again, grasping the top of her thighs in his hands and pushing his head between the cleft of her bottom and exploring her with his tongue.

  It was a strange and exhilarating combination for Linda, to watch the woman writhing in an agony of tickling and to feel Sebastian's to
ngue on her and then in her, moistening her intimate flesh, feeling the wetness and the heat of his tongue. His hand threaded through her legs and while he licked her from behind, he rubbed her between the legs, her love juice mingling with the perspiration on his hands. She could have stayed like that forever. She wanted Sebastian inside her, but she also wanted to punish Simone more.

  'Not yet, my darling,' she said to Sebastian, reaching behind her and placing it gently on his head, the other hand finally letting the scarf drop on the bed beside the outstretched actress, Simone throwing her head back in relief.

  'Get me a belt. I want to thrash her,' Linda said with a mischievous timbre in her voice.

  Sebastian found it strange to play this role of compliant accessory, but it also aroused him and he fetched another belt from the wardrobe with glee.

  'Bought in New York, but made from the finest Spanish leather,' Linda said, inspecting the long black belt with a wooden buckle, before coiling it around her hand and then bringing it down firmly onto the white flesh of Simone's bottom.

  The lash jolted her, the stretched tendons of her arms contracted as soon as the belt made contact with her skin.

  'Don't worry, Linda, she loves it. You can hit her as hard as she likes, and preferably with the buckle end.'

  Linda thrashed her again, lower down, the buckle catching her on the top of her thigh. It caused a great surge of release in Linda's mind to inflict the lash. She hit again, increasing her speed and power until Simone's body convulsed in pain, her skin smarting, before passing the belt to Sebastian.

  Sebastian hit her as firmly, bringing the belt down on the meat of her bottom in a succession of well-aimed blows.

  'I have an idea, spread her again,' Linda instructed.

  After Sebastian had parted the ruby cheeks of Simone's bottom once again, Linda dangled the scarf onto the puckered crater of her anus, the tickling sensation driving Simone into a demented frenzy. Linda picked up the belt and squatting on Simone's back near her shoulder blades she aimed the belt onto her anus, remembering the delightful mixture of pain and pleasure brought to her with the same treatment.