Subculture

by Sarah Veitch

  ‘I think you’d jump up and try to run away, my dear. I’d have to tie your wrists to your ankles.’

  ‘Lower down, then,’ the herbalist substituted. ‘Where my bottom curves in towards my legs.’

  ‘I thought we agreed that the word was arse,’ Michael Landers said lightly, taking his pleasing digits away.

  ‘On my arse. Cane me on my arse,’ Lisa got out, all but begging. ‘Bend me over a table and tie me over it and turn my arse bright red.’

  ‘Ruby red or crimson?’ the doctor queried, returning his touch to her tender most parts.

  ‘Ruby,’ Lisa said gutturally, rocking against his hand like a dog against a lamp post.

  ‘Good girl. Now I think you should describe that arse’s heat.’

  She was going, going. A few more ignominious words would take her over the edge to a new level of rapture. ‘So hot and sore I can hardly bear it,’ Lisa whispered, then ground down upon his fingers and promptly came.

  Her orgasm seemed to start somewhere behind her aching clitoris. It spread out, pleasure beyond description rippling deep within her lower belly. Every millimetre of her pubic mound was on fire. The electricity travelled all the way up her salve-slicked vulva. It suffused her outer petals and inner thighs. Lisa convulsed again and again, her almost eerie shrieks echoing around the private salon. Michael kept pleasuring her until the very last vestiges of sensation had faded and she curved her body to pull her mons away.

  ‘Let’s make you more comfortable,’ he whispered. He sounded tender. But hadn’t he used similar words to Jamilla recently? Lisa allowed herself to be repositioned until she was sitting on his knee, her legs to either side of his, her feverish face against his shoulder. Surely she was special to him, she told herself.

  ‘Is it almost suppertime?’ she whispered dazedly.

  Heard him chuckle and sensed he was looking at his watch. ‘Don’t worry. No one will come in,’ he answered. ‘Are you hungry?’

  Lisa realised that she just wanted to lie in his bed and in his arms. ‘Uh uh,’ she said, closing her eyes and feeling something akin to love for him. ‘I just want to go straight home.’

  ‘Home?’ she felt him tense up slightly.

  ‘To Vitality,’ she said.

  ‘Alright, let’s get you dressed.’ He set her down carefully on her caned and spanked bare bum. She realised that her climax had somehow robbed her buttocks of the pain caused by the punishment. They just felt pleasantly warm and tingling like her vulva did. ‘Can you stand, sweetheart? Lean against me. That’s it,’ Michael Landers murmured. Lisa stared down at his strong hands as they lifted each shod foot then pulled her pants back, edging them carefully over her cheeks. She smiled as he smoothed down her curve-clinging blue dress. Her flirtation might not have gone to plan, she mused, but the results had been out of this world.

  ‘Back in a moment,’ Michael said. He took his wallet from his inner pocket and left the room. Lisa sat down and finger-combed her hair, then took a phial of lavender oil from her bag and smoothed a drop of it behind her neck and along her hairline. She was aware of the perspiration which tends to grow with arousal, but she didn’t think Michael would care. Now, surely, they’d stop trying to outdo each other. Now they’d go to his bedroom and make love for the very first time.

  As she mused, the doctor returned. ‘My chariot awaits.’ he said with an endearingly broad smile.

  Lisa stood up and managed a little curtsey. Her panties immediately stuck to her soaking slit. She’d better shower when she reached the Clinic, she told herself. She needed it.

  He kissed the top of her head when they reached his car, then held open the passenger door for her. As she got in, he drew the rattan cane from his sleeve.

  ‘I’d forgotten about that,’ she muttered, swallowing.

  ‘I hadn’t,’ Michael said. ‘This is how I smuggled it out - and, of course, smuggled it in.’

  Lisa forced herself to make eye contact. ‘So the management didn’t know?’

  ‘Of course not. It’s a highly respected establishment.’ He looked at her evenly. ‘You must learn to trust me, Lisa. I’m very discreet.’

  ‘All the time you were...’ baring my bum, she finished silently. ‘I kept thinking someone might walk in on us and see.’

  ‘Of course you did. And that same danger just made your climax the sweeter,’ Michael Landers said. ‘The discos will still be buoyant here,’ he continued as he nosed the car out into the St Julian’s streets. Lisa stared at the half-drunk youths. They no longer looked appealing. She had a real man here. A man with intellect, sexual prowess and verve. She wanted to tell him so, but couldn’t quite find the words, or the right moment.

  Still, she’d show him half an hour from now as she undressed him and herself and slid rapturously into his bed.

  There were downstairs lights on at Vitality when they finally got back.

  ‘Bakar may be entertaining one of his lady friends,’ Michael said.

  ‘Hope we don’t disturb some big seduction scene,’ Lisa murmured. She wasn’t too worried. With Michael as her partner she felt that she could deal with almost anything.

  ‘I think he tells new girlfriends he owns the place,’ the former surgeon continued, a trace of amusement entering his voice. ‘But he’s young and just finding his way, so what the hell?’

  He unlocked the door and the two of them walked into the perfumed lounge. ‘Michael,’ a high-pitched voice squealed. Lisa took a step back as a raven-haired woman of around thirty launched herself at the immobile doctor. She wound her arms around his neck and lifted her face to receive his lips.

  ‘You’re back,’ he said, kissing her. ‘I’ve missed you so much.’

  ‘The feelings mutual. That’s why I waited up.’ The woman kissed Michael once, twice, thrice. Her breasts were against his chest, her thighs against his thighs. Her crotch was pressed close somewhere in the region of his.

  Lisa stood swaying with shock and pain and disappointment. She felt dislocated and slightly sick.

  ‘Well, see you tomorrow.’ she muttered to her clearly distracted employer. Then she fled.

  Chapter Eight

  Good God - she’d run out on him again. Michael stared over Ria’s shoulder at Lisa’s retreating back. She’d been so huggable and sweet after her orgasm in the salle privee that he’d dared to hope... If she could climax like that just by moving against his fingers, how much more intensely she’d orgasm if he made love to her deep and slow in his King Size bed. He could talk her down whilst staring into her eyes as he thrust inside - every cell in her body would love it. Her vulva would pulse its pleasure even as her mind tried to deny each sexual charge.

  Feeling temporarily jaded, Michael carefully removed Ria’s fingers from behind his neck. He kissed them lightly.

  ‘Save these fingers for massaging the patients, darling,’ he said. He watched her lips part then tighten.

  ‘You mean you don’t want...?’ she muttered disconsolately.

  ‘Oh, I do.’ He looked down at her full firm breasts in the sheer silk suit and realised that he would always find her desirable. ‘But I’m involved with someone else.’

  ‘That’s never stopped you before,’ Ria said, moving her hands to his waist. But then he’d never met anyone like Lisa before, Michael admitted to himself. The intellectual, emotional and sexual energy between them was almost tangible. He’d never tire of her thoughtfulness, wit and physical charms.

  ‘So who’s the lucky woman?’ Ria asked, letting go of him at last. He watched distractedly as she walked over to one of the overstuffed chairs and settled herself elegantly within its confines. Her legs looked alluringly slim and long as she put them together and slanted them to one side. She’d always known how to make the best of herself, he acknowledged, taking the chair across from her. But then as a Sexual Surrogate she had to have widespread appeal.


  ‘Lisa, our new herbalist - that’s who I’m seeing,’ he said slowly. ‘She arrived with me a moment ago.’ He was still coming to terms with Lisa’s abrupt departure. Had she been jealous of Ria? He’d have to explain.

  ‘So it’s serious, huh?’ the therapist prompted.

  To his surprise, Michael found he didn’t want to discuss his newest relationship. He shrugged. ‘It has potential, yes.’

  ‘And three’s a crowd, right, doc?’

  ‘Got it in one.’ He hesitated, feeling he should offer Ria some kind of alternative satisfaction. But that was ridiculous - they were adults who knew the score. Their affair had been mutually pleasant. Neither of them had pretended it was anything more.

  ‘Gets off on being thrashed, does she, Mike?’ Ria continued. Michael felt his jaw tighten with a rarely-experienced rage. He stared coldly at the Sexual Surrogate until she looked at her nails. How dare she pry into his emotional life or refer to Lisa in this derogatory way?

  ‘I think we’ll confine our future conversations to work,’ he said. ‘Marie-Rose has a list of patients who’d like to hear from you. Jamilla’s kept your suite aired and Dania’s updated your accounts.’ He stood up. ‘I’m glad that you’re back, Ria - Vitality needs you. Now I’m off to bed.’

  Before she could object, he turned and walked smartly from the room. His prick had been straining when he’d caned and spanked Lisa and brought her off, but now it had deflated. His whole body felt unusually tired. Damn Ria for choosing tonight to return to the Clinic. Damn Lisa for rushing out of the door so fast. Maybe she was still awake and he could talk to her. Perhaps... He made his way to her bedroom door to find it closed. No chink of light escaped from under it. She’d gone to sleep. He’d better let her rest.

  Thoughtfully Michael made his way to his room. He locked the door - he wouldn’t put it past Ria to try to join him. She had an enthusiasm for sex that he’d initially adored. Unfortunately her passion was for almost every kind of sexual activity, whereas he only wanted to raise his spanking hand as he pulled down a woman’s pants...

  Neither approach was wrong - they just hadn’t been right for each other, Michael acknowledged sadly as he stepped into his en suite shower. Yet at the onset she’d seemed ideal. She’d been a week into the Sexual Surrogacy job at Vitality, and they’d been having a casual discussion in her therapy suite when the talk had gradually turned to CP-style sex.

  ‘I get the impression that performance pressure is the biggest problem,’ he’d said, thinking of the jaded fifty year old businessmen who came to his surgery.

  ‘Mmm, I get round that by forbidding penetration,’ Ria had replied.

  ‘And they get sufficiently aroused?’ he’d asked.

  ‘Trust me, doc - they get rampant.’

  ‘A satisfied customer that hasn’t actually been satisfied,’ he’d said.

  She’d grinned at him easily. ‘Some of them want different things.’

  ‘Such as?’ His heart had changed its beat as images of whipped bare bottoms lifted his libido.

  ‘You know - water sports, bondage, or to spank and be spanked.’

  ‘And do you... let them spank you?’ he’d asked. He’d hesitated to ask the question, for the last thing he wanted to do was act as a sexual harasser. At the same time he couldn’t let a punishment-for-pleasure opportunity sail quickly by.

  ‘Sure - if I feel like it I lower myself across their laps,’ she’d replied.

  He’d inhaled hard. ‘Same here - I spank my female staff when they disobey my instructions.’

  ‘What kind of instructions?’ Ria had said. Her eyes had seemed to glitter in the strong Maltese sunlight. She’d crossed then uncrossed her shapely legs.

  ‘Rules about record-keeping, punctuality, about not smoking on the premises.’ He saw Ria’s gaze shift to the little table beside her, looked and saw a half-full ashtray. ‘Oh dear, you’ve transgressed already’ he added in a mock stern tone.

  ‘Sorry, sir, I forgot,’ the surrogate had murmured throatily.

  ‘I’ll still have to take down your pants and tan your arse for you,’ Michael had said.

  Now, remembering her first thrashing, he looked down at his shaft, which twitched into increasing tumescence. Michael turned the shower faucet onto a cooler temperature; he didn’t want to masturbate under the spray. What he really wanted was Lisa writhing across his knee. Ria had enjoyed being spanked, and he’d gone on to tie her to the coat hooks and tease her clit in later sessions. But she’d refused to be whipped or caned. Which would have been fine, if the spankings had made her temporarily submissive. But they didn’t; they were just a different form of stimulus to her flesh. She hadn’t understood the rules - or had chosen to ignore them. He’d had some interesting sex with her, but she could never be the love of his life.

  The love of his life was in her room, alone. As was he. Michael turned off the water and briskly rubbed himself dry with a thick towel. Tonight he’d almost told her that he was falling in love with her. Then she’d twisted her engagement ring round her marriage finger and he’d remembered her damned fiance, Reece. Was he, Michael, just a way to pass the time for three months until she joined her partner? He thought that he had a strong affect on her, but was it enough to make her change her long term plans?

  She’d let him spank and cane her hard. She’d let him use the paddle and bring her to orgasm. They’d talked and sparred and looked at each other and laughed. He hoped that she was beginning to understand about the corporal punishment. He hoped that she realised he wasn’t a sadist - just a dominant man.

  There was so much confusion about a sexuality such as his own. So much misrepresentation. The ignorant saw CP as domestic violence, yet the two were worlds apart. Wife batterers punched and kicked their wives in acts of rage and undiluted cruelty. Dominant men spanked and teased and brought their submissive lovers to new pleasure heights. Dominant men didn’t physically chasten children. Nor did they spank any adults who didn’t desire to be punished deep down.

  Lisa wanted to be punished deep down - the strength of her climaxes proved it. As did the fact that she kept coming back for more. She was at the halfway stage now, probably admitting her submission to herself but not to him.

  He’d read for a while. He couldn’t sleep. As he reached for a medical text the phone rang. Would Lisa call him this late?

  Eagerly he reached for the receiver. ‘Dr Landers speaking.’ The line crackled - then he recognised the voice of a surgeon whom he’d worked with in London three years before when he himself was still actively practicing surgery.

  ‘Sorry to disturb you this late,’ his respected colleague said. ‘We’re in the midst of a crisis with one of your former patients.’ He sighed. ‘She urgently requires surgery and insists that she’ll only let you do it. Can you fly over here tonight?’

  Chapter Nine

  What emergency? Lisa rubbed the sleep from her eyes and squinted again at the note which had apparently been pushed under her door some time after she’d gone to bed last night. Called back to Britain on an emergency, it said. Let’s talk when we get back. Then there was a PS: I know I’ll miss you. It was signed simply, M.

  Had he gone off to London with that dark haired woman he had kissed, Lisa wondered? Nothing had prepared her for the appearance of a rival in Vitality’s lounge. The shock of watching them embrace had affected her almost physically. She’d rushed straight to bed but hadn’t slept for long tension-filled hours. It was ironic, she mused, putting the handwritten letter on the dressing table - just as she managed to push Reece from her mind Michael brought new complications to their tryst.

  Lisa stood under the warm shower for a very long time, then walked to her wardrobe and gazed at its colourful contents. Nothing looked special. Nothing looked sophisticated enough to match the outfit worn by Michael’s stunning friend. The herbalist studied her dresses and shorts for
a while then finally selected a lemon cotton dress with a billowing A-Line. She’d go for a casual summery affect and try to make Ms Red Silk Suit look overdressed.

  The twenty-eight year old picked up a pair of white briefs and started to step into them. As she tilted her hips forward she caught sight of herself in the mirror. Lisa hesitated, then moved closer to contemplate her small bare bum. Four shadowy spheres testified to where the end of the cane had flicked against her flesh as she bent over the dining table in the casino. The rest of her bottom had returned to its normal paler tone.

  She’d swayed with desire and dread as he dragged her panties down over her hips, as he tied her hands before her. Remembering, Lisa felt a rush of lust so intense that she had to sit down. She should be in Michael’s arms now or sliding down on his shaft - not alone with her thoughts whilst he winged his way back home.

  Marie-Rose didn’t seem surprised to hear the news. ‘Really? It’s happened before. He made quite an impression as a Harley Street surgeon. I’d better cancel his patients for the next three days.’

  ‘You reckon he’ll be back by then?’ Lisa’s spirits lifted more. Maybe she’d find that the new woman was his sister or his cousin, that she’d over-reacted. Maybe she was just a close platonic friend.

  ‘I reckon it would take a war to keep him away.’ The receptionist’s eyes twinkled. Then her gaze moved beyond Lisa. ‘Hi, Ria, when did you get hack?’ she asked.

  ‘Last night,’ the dark-haired woman said. Lisa forced her lips into something resembling a smile. So this was Ria, the Sexual Therapist and Surrogate with the sought-after service. Maybe Michael had just been greeting her warmly in the lounge, the way he’d receive any of his staff.

  ‘I’m Lisa,’ she murmured, holding out her hand then clasping the other woman’s ringless fingers. ‘Sorry I rushed off so quickly last night. I’d had a long day and was absolutely exhausted.’ A new hope spread through her and she was able to make her smile a genuine one.