The Gallery

by Fredrica Alleyn

  Sir Nicholas Rodgers didn’t need inviting twice. He hurried up to the fastened figure and caught hold of the edge of the flowing dress with both hands, drawing it up and away from her body then tucking it tightly beneath her trapped left knee so that she remained exposed to their view.

  Cressida had expected Lady Alice to be naked beneath the dress, but she was wearing a black high-cut thong with three strips of leather riding over her hip bones on either side of her body. The thong was tight, the crotch pressing tightly against her vulva, and as Sir Nicholas moved away he couldn’t resist lightly brushing his hand against the area between her thighs.

  Cressida watched as Lady Alice’s face tightened and she averted her face as far as she could from the watching crowd, but she couldn’t disguise the tell-tale flush of pink that stained her pale, English-rose cheeks.

  ‘Because poor Alice has been so neglected she’s very anxious to make up for lost time,’ continued Guy, his eyes scanning the watching guests whose sexual arousal was obvious from the way they were either touching their partners or pressing towards the imprisoned Lady Alice.

  Cressida had never been in such an erotically charged atmosphere and she was both ashamed and excited by her own desire. She found that like everyone else in the room she couldn’t tear her gaze away from Lady Alice, but when Guy stopped speaking she looked at him and for the first time saw his eyes burning with a feverish excitement that made her tremble.

  ‘I think it would only be polite if we allowed one of the ladies to start the proceedings,’ continued Guy. ‘Cressida, as this is your first visit here perhaps you’d like to come and meet Lady Alice? I’m sure a new friend is almost more welcome than an old one since she feels that her old friends have let her down. What do you say, Alice? Would you like to meet Cressida Farleigh, Rick Marks’s new girlfriend?’

  Alice didn’t reply, but it was clear Guy hadn’t expected her to. Instead he looked steadily at Cressida, his eyes almost hypnotic in their power to draw her towards the front of the group. ‘Cressida, please start the game for everyone.’

  Rick released Cressida’s hand and gave her a gentle push in the middle of her back. ‘Better do as he asks,’ he murmured.

  In truth, Cressida didn’t need Rick’s encouragement – she was already moving towards Guy and the woman chained so provocatively to the wall behind him.

  ‘What do I do?’ she asked softly, hardly daring to look at either Guy or Alice but knowing that she must play her part if she was to keep Guy Cronje’s confidence.

  He smiled, and for once there was no sarcasm in the smile. ‘Don’t look so anxious, Cressida, you can do anything you like. There are no rules here, providing the pleasure is mutual. Just introduce yourself with a soft touch; the kind of touch you’d like to receive from someone who really cared about you.’

  Cressida realised that she had no idea what to do. She’d never touched another woman in a sexual way before, and tried to imagine what sort of touch she’d like to receive if this were happening to her. She looked to the fastened woman for guidance but Lady Alice’s head was turned to the side and it was clear there would be no help from her.

  Once she was standing close to Alice, Cressida found that it was the black leather thong covering Alice’s vulva that most excited her. The material was tight over the lightly oiled body and almost of its own volition Cressida’s hand moved towards the three strips that covered the right hip bone. She ran one fingernail down across the straps and then back up again, leaving a tiny mark on the white skin, and she saw the imprisoned woman’s flat abdominal muscles ripple gently as her belly drew in.

  Cressida was fascinated by the instant reaction and her hand moved down over the curve of the hip and the outer thigh until she could reach between the long colt-like legs and let her fingers stray over the tight leather crotch. Again the muscles of the abdomen moved and she heard Alice’s breathing quicken.

  Without realising it, Cressida had forgotten her surroundings; forgotten that there was a crowd of people watching her as she greeted the young blonde in this bizarre fashion. All she was aware of was a sense of power and a driving need for some kind of sexual satisfaction, either her own or for the woman she was touching.

  Watching Cressida, Guy’s pulse quickened with excitement. He had quite expected her to refuse to touch Alice, or at the very least make a half-hearted attempt at some mundane gesture. Instead, he could tell by the look of intense longing on her face that she was lost to everything but the eroticism of the moment, and he knew then that he had to have her.

  He’d guessed that she must be more sensual than her appearance suggested, especially once Rick became besotted, but tonight she was displaying signs that she was more complex than even he had guessed, and at that moment he mentally dismissed Rick from the scene. Cressida must be his, and before too long.

  ‘That’s enough for now,’ he said quietly. ‘The others want to say hello as well.’

  Brought back to reality, Cressida was overcome with embarrassment and she quickly stepped away from the leggy blonde, moving to Rick’s side and trying to hide herself from the other guests. Rick smiled at her. ‘You looked as though you enjoyed that.’

  ‘Yes,’ murmured Cressida, who didn’t want to analyse her feelings.

  ‘I can’t wait until we can leave,’ he muttered, but Cressida hardly heard him. She was watching Guy as he moved closer to Alice and slid a hand between her thighs, slowly massaging the taut muscles that were becoming uncomfortable as she remained fastened to the brackets in the wall.

  ‘There, a new friend for you, Alice,’ he whispered. Alice felt his hand press upwards against her vulva and beneath the thong her flesh started to swell and her outer sex lips opened slowly, allowing the thong to press directly against her hard, erect clitoris.

  Marcus Lloyd was the next person to approach Alice, and after running his fingers through her hair sucked and licked the tops of Alice’s rapidly engorging breasts. ‘He used to be her hairdresser,’ whispered Rick. ‘I think he stopped taking her calls after her husband died. There’s been some kind of scandal over the estate and as she wasn’t ever one of the set her husband belonged to she’s been deserted very fast. That’s the way these people treat you,’ he added.

  Cressida noticed that Alice’s heavy lidded eyes watched Marcus while he worked, and when he reached inside her dress and pinched each of her nipples in turn a small tremor ran right through the blonde’s body as she had her first climax of the evening.

  Cressida wished that she could come as well. It was unbearably arousing to watch the semi-clad haughty blonde being pleasured without any control over the situation, and if there hadn’t been so many people in the basement with them she’d have leapt on Rick there and then, although the person she was watching the most closely was Guy Cronje, the man orchestrating Lady Alice’s pleasure.

  It was Marcia’s turn next and she took a hairbrush from her handbag and moved it in circular motions all over Alice’s exposed lower torso, although she avoided the area between her thighs. To Cressida’s surprise this soon had Alice moaning aloud, her head twisting from side to side as much as the neck restraint would allow, and all the men pressed closer as they watched Alice gasping helplessly before she was shaken by a far stronger orgasm than her first.

  Marcia stepped back and Cressida saw how Alice’s skin was glowing red where the brush had touched her. When Sir Peter approached Alice, he rubbed what Cressida assumed to be a cooling gel over the same area, cooling and yet re-stimulating it at the same time. Rose moved to her husband’s side and as Alice suddenly began to cry out for Sir Peter to stop, Rose crouched down and nipped sharply at the tender flesh on the inside of the blonde’s right thigh.

  With a scream of mingled despair and ecstasy Lady Alice Summers climaxed again, and this time her entire body was shaken and Cressida watched as all the muscles contracted beneath the surface of the pale skin. She tried to imagine what it must be like to be so tightly bound at such a time and found tha
t the very idea was making her breathless with suppressed desire.

  To her surprise no one suggested that Rick should approach Alice. Instead, the final part of the entertainment was left to Sir Nicholas Rodgers and Guy himself. Guy waited until Alice’s body was still again and then he crouched down and very lightly circled her right ankle with his left hand, allowing his fingers to stray along the tense calf muscle and also down beneath the high arch of her narrow foot.

  Cressida watched his face, which was in profile, and her own legs trembled simultaneously with Lady Alice’s leg as she too felt the cruelly tender caress of the slim, knowing fingers. As his hands moved higher, massaging the aching muscles of Alice’s right leg, Cressida shifted restlessly and felt herself growing damp between her thighs.

  The atmosphere in the room was electric. Marcus Lloyd and his partner Fliss were no longer watching Lady Alice Summers – they were already wrapped in each other’s arms and Marcus had his hands cupped tightly round Fliss’s pert buttocks as he pulled her lower body against his erection.

  Cressida moved even closer to Rick and waited for him to he put an arm round her, but he didn’t. All his attention was on the woman on the opposite side of the room, and Cressida wondered if he was converting the scene into a drawing or simply mesmerised by the way her body had reacted to the variety of caresses it had received.

  When Guy finally started to roll the black leather thong down Alice’s legs, the guests all held their breath and for a moment there was total silence. Even Marcus noticed the change and lifted his head to see what was happening.

  Because of the way the blonde woman was fastened to the wall, the garment couldn’t be removed. Instead it was left just above her knees, at an angle that allowed everyone to view her light brown pubic curls and her vulva, swollen now by the stimulation she’d already received. ‘Over to you, Nicholas,’ said Guy with a tight smile. Sir Nicholas Rodgers quickly knelt and began to nuzzle between the blonde’s separated thighs.

  Cressida moved to the side of the room so that she could see what he was doing. His hands were holding Lady Alice’s sex lips apart while his tongue was busily moving up and down her inner channel.

  At first Alice ignored the sensations. Until this moment she’d managed to detach herself from everything that had gone on, and even her orgasms had been private because she’d closed her eyes and blotted out her so-called friends, assembled by Guy as a punishment for the second visit from her lawyers. It was a visit that Alice had been unable to stop.

  Now though, as Sir Nicholas’s tongue circled the entrance to her aching vagina and then flicked inside, she found that she was unable to forget her audience any longer.

  She grew more and more excited as his tongue touched every side of her vaginal walls, and when it pressed against her G spot she moaned with pleasure and felt her breasts start to ache with rising desire.

  He knew how to use his tongue to great effect, and within minutes she was writhing within the restrictions of the cuffs, her muscles sore and aching but her whole body on fire with what she knew was nothing more than pure lust. A lust that needed slaking, however great the humiliation.

  She closed her eyes and tried to twist her hips so that he touched her exactly where she wanted, but immediately she felt Guy’s cool, purposeful hands on her hips and a cushion being pushed between her lower body and the silk hanging of the wall so that she was even more exposed to view. And still Guy’s hands kept her motionless, enabling Sir Nicholas to work at his own speed and control her reactions as he wished.

  Time and time again Alice’s body started to peak. The tightness would suffuse her pelvic area, her pulse would quicken and the blood drum in her ears, but just as she started to topple over the edge, Sir Nicholas would fail to supply that final, vital amount of pressure to enable her total release.

  Cressida, watching with hot cheeks and dry mouth, realised what was happening from the way Alice was moaning and trying to move. Her own level of arousal was incredibly high now, and she understood only too well the blonde’s need for satisfaction, but it seemed that Sir Nicholas, without intending to, was preventing the blissful satisfaction Lady Alice craved.

  All at once, with an ear-shattering scream of frustration, Alice took matters into her own hands. Ignoring the pain in her arm and leg muscles and Guy’s restraining hands, she pushed her body down as hard as she could so that the snake-like flickering of Sir Nicholas’s tongue became fiercer and more rapier-like, but still it wasn’t quite enough and to her horror Alice felt tears of frustration forming behind her closed eyelids.

  Guy saw them and decided enough was enough. If Sir Nicholas Rodgers couldn’t satisfy the frantic young widow then he’d have to make way for someone who could, and so Guy tapped him on the shoulder and indicated that he was to move away.

  Alice felt the tongue slowly withdraw and cried out again, but within seconds Guy had taken his place. Opening her up with one hand, he slid his erection inside her while with other hand he slowly massaged the skin at the top opening of her sex lips so that her aching clitoris was at last stimulated. Immediately Alice’s body spasmed furiously, arching away from the wall as a climax tore through her.

  It lasted several seconds and Cressida watched in silence, wishing that she was the one enjoying the even, measured thrusts of Guy’s penis and the sensation of his hand between her thighs. As Lady Alice finally slumped limply against her bonds, Guy withdrew and walked away from her, leaving Sir Nicholas to take her down.

  The rest of the guests, knowing that the evening’s entertainment was over, were quick to disperse. They collected their coats and bags, said goodnight and vanished into the darkness, all of them hurrying home, consumed by sexual desires that had been activated by the scene they’d witnessed.

  As Rick handed Cressida her bag, she realised they were the last to go and opened her mouth to thank Marcia for the evening. Before she could speak, Guy flung himself down into an easy chair.

  ‘I’d rather you didn’t go yet, Cressida. Marcia and I want to speak to you about the man we saw you with on Monday night.’

  Chapter Eight

  ‘WHY DON’T YOU sit down again?’ suggested Guy, watching the expression on Cressida’s face with interest. ‘This might take a few minutes.’

  ‘What man?’ demanded Rick, looking far more shocked than Cressida at Guy’s words.

  ‘He wasn’t anyone special,’ Cressida assured Rick. ‘I had no idea you liked Indian food,’ she added casually to Guy, as she took a seat opposite him.

  ‘There’s a lot you don’t know about me,’ he said flatly.

  ‘We both like Indian food,’ put in Marcia, crossing one leg over the other and absent-mindedly stroking her knee. ‘I saw you too. The pair of you looked very intimate.’

  As Cressida opened her mouth to give them the speech she’d already mentally rehearsed for just such a confrontation, the door opened and Sir Nicholas Rodgers put his head round the door. ‘I’m running Lady Alice home now,’ he said, smiling broadly. ‘She realises that I never meant to ignore her after she was widowed. I was caught up in my own divorce and somehow never got around to calling. Too self-centred, that’s my problem.’

  ‘I’m sure Lady Alice is delighted,’ replied Guy coolly.

  ‘Seems rather pleased,’ agreed Sir Nicholas.

  Glancing over her shoulder, Cressida saw that Lady Alice Summers was now dressed in an impeccably tasteful lightweight summer suit complete with a double strand of pearls, and that her fair hair looked soft and curled round her face. There was no trace of the wanton abandonment they’d all witnessed earlier in the basement; only a gleam in her heavy lidded eyes gave her away.

  ‘I thought they’d suit each other,’ remarked Guy to Marcia as the two of them departed. ‘That should keep her sweet for a time.’

  ‘As long as he gets her off our backs,’ said Marcia irritably, but when Guy shot her a warning look she tried to lighten her tone. ‘I really meant off yours,’ she added quickly. ‘The way
she’s been pestering you has been highly embarrassing.’

  Cressida knew that this wasn’t the truth and that Marcia had made a mistake in mentioning any professional relationship with Lady Summers, but she stared into space as though she wasn’t listening to a word they were saying, choosing instead to exchange an intimate look with Rick.

  ‘Now that everyone else has finally gone,’ said Guy smoothly, ‘perhaps you’d like to answer our original question.’

  ‘I don’t honestly see what it’s got to do with you,’ retorted Cressida. ‘I assume my private life is my private life. You don’t pay me enough to consider I’m yours, body and soul, day and night!’

  Guy smiled in appreciation. ‘That’s very true. In fact, we pay you very badly, but the world of art, like the world of publishing, isn’t one where you get rich financially. The sense of satisfaction in promoting good works of art is meant to compensate for the lack of money.’

  ‘If anyone’s entitled to know about Monday it’s Rick, not you,’ continued Cressida, certain that attack was her best line of defence.

  ‘Again that’s true, but we do have a special reason for asking. I’d be grateful if you’d bear with us and let us know,’ said Guy quietly.

  Cressida gave a very audible sigh. ‘Marcia already knows,’ she announced.

  Guy turned his head towards his mistress, who looked more than a little surprised. ‘I don’t think I do,’ she protested.

  ‘But you asked me about him once before,’ explained Cressida. ‘He’s the customer at the gallery who keeps coming in and asking me to go out with him. You saw him once and we talked about him then.’

  Guy’s fingers moved impatiently against the arm of his chair and Marcia frowned as she tried to remember. ‘Oh yes, I do recall something like that happening,’ she admitted at last. ‘I didn’t realise it was the same man on Monday night though.’