As Nancy digested that, Madison picked up a book selection. “How about one Friday night, you suggest reading to him? He can put his head in your lap, close his eyes.”
She put the book in Nancy’s hands. “This one is a ménage a trois, with one man and two women, written with both genders in mind. Plenty of things to intrigue him, as well as you. There are sketches in it as well.”
Nancy flipped open the book and blanched. “Wow . . . ” She gave it a closer look while Madison suppressed a smile. “That’s actually very . . . nicely done.”
“Yes. There’s some erotic photography in there too. Again, things that will appeal to him visually and you emotionally, the best of both worlds.” Letting her hold on to the book, Madison took her to a different section of the store and picked up a remote control panty with bullet vibrator in the crotch. She made a mental note to order more, since she’d sold about half a dozen of them this week.
“Encourage him to be interactive. When you’re reading, switch this on, show him what you’re doing. Get yourself worked up, and draw him into the spell. Then turn the remote and the reins over to him, so he feels like a man, like he’s taking the lead. I bet things will take a good turn.”
She took a breath. “If they don’t, then maybe you need to dial it down further—or shoot him in the head and bury him in the backyard—but what’s most important is getting in touch with what you want, Nancy. Pleasure yourself and invite him to take the journey with you. That’s the key to reconnecting to him. If he’s worth anything at all.”
A few minutes later, as she was checking Nancy out with a generous purchase that included a couple of the books and the panty, she saw Clarence’s UPS truck turning into the alley. Today was Friday, and not just any Friday. It was one of those Fridays where he might be bringing her something from Logan. When she heard the motor idle outside her back door, then Clarence turning the back room door latch, delight surged through her.
Nancy flicked a glance at her as she swiped her credit card. “You must have ordered something nice. You look like a pony just arrived at your birthday party.”
She hadn’t ordered anything at all, which was exactly why she had that look on her face. A week ago, Logan had told her it was time to give her the guided fantasy he’d promised her, a tantalizing erotic threat. She expected whatever Clarence was delivering would officially kick that off.
That same night, Logan had taken her for an after dark walk in a park near her neighborhood. He’d done nothing more than hold her hand, flirt, and let her talk about a hundred different things. Then he’d backed her against a tree and given her long, hot kisses that made her feel like a teenager out necking past curfew. She’d had a stubble burn on her throat the next day she’d caressed with her fingers when she discovered it.
He’d refused to take things further that night, but he left her reeling with the possibilities, thanks to his parting words.
“Can you clear your Sunday next weekend?” At her nod, those brown eyes had kindled with heat. “Then do it. I have plans for my sub.”
She still leaned toward keeping their relationship a chain of erotic sessions, nervous about moving too fast into deeper territory. However, the obvious care Logan put into making those sessions special and unique perversely transferred those qualities to their relationship as a whole. The man was far too clever.
Nancy took her leave with a smile and a nervous look, but nervous in the right kind of way. Madison well understood the feeling. While she engaged Clarence in pleasant conversation, she had to quell her impatience to shoo him out of the store before more customers arrived and she’d have to wait to find out what was in the package he left on her counter.
As he was leaving, though, he paused at the curtain to the back storeroom and looked back at her. Like most UPS drivers, he was fit. Not very old, maybe a couple years younger than Madison, but she’d often wondered about his story, because there were lines around his eyes, and a look in them that said he’d had some interesting journeys in his life.
“I bet Alice smiles every time she looks down from Heaven and sees you behind that counter, ma’am,” he said. “You fit here. You really do. Not like you’re her, but like you were the best person to honor this place. To honor what she made of it. I think that’s why she gave it to you.”
It was the most she’d ever heard the quiet man say, and it left her staring after him as he beat a hasty retreat. He lifted a hand before he disappeared out the door, though, and she automatically raised her hand in answer, giving him a warm smile again so he didn’t feel awkward about it. After the door shut behind him, she thought about it, though. And smiled.
“I really didn’t fuck this up after all, did I, Alice?”
Each person walking through her doors was a potential story or desire to realize, just as Logan had said. As Alice had said. Madison wondered why she’d spent five years of her life doing something that didn’t speak to her heart the way this job did. And pursuing relationships so different from the one she was in now.
The answer to that was pretty simple. She’d been looking for love, a relationship, instead of actualizing herself. Moving to a new place, realizing how much she enjoyed doing this, gave her a different sense of who she was, almost as if she was becoming a more evolved Madison. One who was involved in . . . something . . . with an extraordinary man. A Master.
As she picked up the box, she knew she might be about to evolve even further—if she could hold on to her courage with both hands.
The box wasn’t as small as the last one, but too small to hold a full costume. Shaking it, she heard what sounded like several loose items.
“Why do you shake a present before you open it?” She remembered her eight-year-old self asking Alice. “You’re going to open it anyway.”
“Why do you smell chocolate before you bite into it?” her sister had rebounded. “It’s the same thing.”
Lately, Madison had been shaking packages as well as savoring her chocolate. Good changes.
When she opened the box, the first thing she saw was an embossed invitation on heavy, cream-colored paper. When she opened it, the handwriting looked like a woman’s script.
Novitiate, your training is complete. It’s time for you to be claimed by a Master. At six p.m. this coming Sunday, you will wait in a kneeling position inside the door of your quarters, leaving the door unlocked. A servant will retrieve you for the auction. It will be the last time you see your home. Wear and bring nothing but what is contained in this box. Prepare yourself exactly in accordance with the instructions. —Training Mistress
What Logan had coaxed from the deepest, most shameful corners of her mind was her recurring desire to play out a fantasy where she was a female sex slave, trained to serve a Master. The pinnacle of the fantasy was an auction where the highest bidder would take possession of her. A particular bidder—a soldier. Quelling a little quiver in her lower vitals, she looked deeper into the box.
She lifted out a utilitarian collar, no more than a buckled strap with several D-rings placed around its circumference. There were chains attached to it. A diagram showed her how it fit. The chains ran to a set of nipple clamps, and then continued around back to be reconnected to the collar. As she registered the weight of the chain, imagining the pull, her nipples gave a twinge.
At the bottom of the box was a thong like she’d given Nancy, a bullet vibrator inserted into the crotch panel. There was no obvious way to turn it on, suggesting it was remote-controlled, but that piece wasn’t included. Her heart fluttered as she thought of the control in Logan’s hands. The thong’s back strap had a metal ring sewn into it. Glancing at the bottom of the box, she found out why. She also found she was starting to breathe a little more shallowly. The room had become even more silent, the air dense, pressing on her exposed skin.
She pulled out a butt plug. It was about three inches long, but thick as a man’s coc
k. As Logan’s cock. Opening the folded sheet included with the announcement, the referenced “instructions,” she started to read. The quiver of the paper told her she was shaking.
From here forward, you are not allowed to pleasure yourself in any way. Or be pleasured. A single infraction will incur severe punishment. Twenty-five strikes with a switch.
You will not speak to anyone about your preparations or the auction. For eight hours before you are picked up, you will not eat, or drink anything but water. You will not watch television, read or do anything to occupy your time except think of how you will serve your new Master.
Four hours before the auction, you will do the following:
You will use the cleansing products included and flush out your vagina and anus thoroughly, purging away the leavings of other males you endured as part of your training. You come to your Master clean and pure, never again to be touched by anyone except him and whom he designates.
“Whom he designates.” Logan had said he would give her a guided fantasy, that other men wouldn’t really be touching her. He would just make her believe it “might” be happening. He was doing a good job, because she was already wondering if she’d misunderstood, or if she needed to reinforce the message with him.
Take an hour-long bath, soaking in the oils included in this package.
Wash your hair, braid it and put it in a tight topknot on your head. Use the sculpting clay so not a single strand is loose. Put on the collar.
A half hour before the pick-up time, attach the chain and nipple clamps. Put on the thong, making sure the bullet is positioned against your clit and the plug is pushed all the way inside you. The back ring will hold it in place.
A webcam was included in the box, with a separate note attached to it.
As you prepare yourself, you will keep this webcam turned toward you at all times. The footage will be a live feed to the individuals interested in bidding on you. They will view the property they wish to purchase, and verify your obedience. As you learned at the training center where you have spent the last six months, you have no right to privacy of any kind with your Master.
Wow. Had she bit off more than she could chew?
At ten minutes before six, while kneeling by the door, you will put on the blindfold. Remember Alice.
“Remember Alice”? What did that mean? Unsettled, she folded the paper and sifted through all the items. Maybe she needed to talk to Logan about this. But she knew enough about how he planned things to know the note’s wording was carefully chosen, like “you will not speak to anyone about your preparations.” In the fantasy, she wasn’t the Madison who ran this store and he wasn’t the store owner next door. But she still wanted to see him. Needed to see him. Remember Alice?
Joey W. Hill is the author of the Knights of the Boardroom series, including Honor Bound and Controlled Response; the Vampire Queen series, including Taken by the Vampire; and the stand-alone novel, Unrestrained. Having received multiple Top Reviewer Picks from RT Book Reviews, Night Owl Romance, ParaNormal Romance Reviews, TwoLips and others, she has also been awarded the RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award in Erotica.
Naughty Bits Part III: Bound to Please Page 12
