by Lily White
Alone with Rebecca in the hall, I knelt down to remove the clamp from her tongue. There was a slight depression from the amount of time it had been in place, but otherwise, she’d suffered no physical damage. Gripping her chin with my hand, I forced her face up to mine. “Open your mouth wider.”
She obeyed the command immediately. A quick examination showed that her teeth hadn’t been damaged by the long handle of the clamp either.
Satisfied, I pulled my gaze up to her eyes, expecting to find them glaring at me, but instead they were directed to the floor. It was a requirement of courtesans that they only meet a Master’s stare when he gave them permission to do so. It was also a requirement that Rebecca failed to abide by nine times out of ten. Had the game I played hurt her so much that she couldn’t stand to look at me?
“Look at me, Pet.”
Her eyes met mine. Assuming I’d find pain and anger flitting behind her gaze, I was surprised to discover nothing at all. Her face a blank mask, she held my stare as she’d been instructed, but the usual humor I often caught in her - the love and the rebellion - wasn’t there. She’d slipped into the position of the dutiful courtesan, but she wasn’t my Rebecca.
My Rebecca…
Mine.
The word was becoming exceptionally irritating.
“Did you enjoy it? Having Molly’s mouth between your legs while my cock was buried deep in her body?”
Prodding her for a flash of the emotion I knew was inside her, my brows pulled together in confusion when it didn’t appear.
“Yes, Master. I enjoy watching you fuck another woman’s cunt…”
“Ass,” I corrected her, my dismay evident in my voice. To take a woman there first was a cruel, but effective, training technique. Not only did it prevent pregnancy, but it also violated a part thought to be the most private by many women and men. By taking that first, a Master is confirming absolute ownership of the woman he trains. No part is too private. No line exists that he cannot cross.
Her eyes widened, no doubt remembering her own reaction on the night I first fucked her in that room. She’d screamed and cried, at least up until her body reacted with an orgasm that betrayed her.
“Ass? Really? But she didn’t even…”
“I know,” I muttered. “I assume that area is not as virginal as yours had been.”
We both contemplated that bit of information before settling back into our roles as Master and courtesan. The second her personality was banished from her gaze once more, I regretted it. But, I couldn’t let her win. Couldn’t let her drag tenderness out of me after I’d worked to hurt her in that room.
“Follow me, Rebecca. On your feet, if you wish. Your punishment this evening is over.” Strolling casually through the halls, I led her to her private bedroom.
Over the past few months I wasn’t in active training, I’d allowed her to grow accustomed to sleeping with me, but I couldn’t allow that tonight. She had to learn she didn’t have a claim on me. Not as her lover, and not as her only Master. For as many times as I told myself I’d refuse to let her go, I’d also come to the conclusion that, given my profession, holding on to her would end up being a regrettable impossibility.
Walking into the room behind her, I instructed, “On your knees, Rebecca. Eyes directed up towards me.”
She did as she was told - as I knew she would - and waited for my next command.
I’d had it in mind to force her to taste the new whore on my dick, to humiliate and disgust her because of where my dick had been. But something in the blank way she looked at me bothered me. This wasn’t her, and I couldn’t comprehend why. I hadn’t pushed her this far. I hadn’t done anything that would break her spirit so thoroughly.
“Stay in that position for two more hours. Then you may go to bed.”
Walking away, my hand was on the doorknob when I stopped, opened my mouth to say something else, but decided against it. Leaving the room, I shut the door behind me wondering the entire time if I hadn’t just been played. The thought thrilled me when it shouldn’t have, but I was interested to find out just how far the game could go.
Through the years, Rebecca had seduced me, she’d angered me, and she’d delivered every other type of emotion or behavior in an attempt to strong-arm my dominance. Ours wasn’t a battle of will alone. It was a battle of one keen mind against the other.
A grin tugged at my lips when I finally understood the complicated puzzle that lay before me. I had two courtesans to train at once, a bothersome problem I’d always avoided by not keeping a courtesan of my own. Having held on to Rebecca for so long, the problem had finally presented itself, and I had no choice but to face the challenge.
Rounding the corner of the hall, I stepped into my office and closed the door. My shoulders pressed against the wood and my head fell back in exhaustion. Tonight had been a long night and with the game that now lay ahead of me, I knew I wouldn’t have a good night’s sleep until Christmas.
I wasn’t completely upset about that fact. Interestingly, I found myself smiling.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
REBECCA
I was driving him mad. That much I could tell. There were never many clues Aiden gave about what he was feeling. Not unless you’d been around him long enough that you picked up the subtle tics and behaviors that gave away parts of him he’d rather remain secret.
Two weeks had passed quickly since the night we stole the newest courtesan, two weeks in which I’d reverted back to the perfect whore Aiden had always demanded. It wasn’t hard to fall back into line, especially when that line seemed to bother Aiden so much.
The tells, of course, were so subtle they were almost non-existent, but I’d still seen them in his eyes - heard them in his voice when he made his demands. Every day he tested me, examined me, poked and prodded in hopes that I would act out, that I would rebel, that I would give him a reason to become creative in the manner in which he continued to train me.
I’d be lying to say I didn’t enjoy refusing him everything he wanted.
Sure, I gave him my body. I gave him my submission, my obedience and my heart, but I never gave him my spirit. I never fought. I never argued. And I was slowly driving a knife beneath his ribs by pretending to be perfectly broken.
A new problem had presented itself, one that I wasn’t sure I could fight against simply by being the perfect courtesan.
That problem’s name was Molly.
If I were merely a veiled facsimile of what a proper and perfect courtesan should be, Molly was the poster child.
Neither Aiden nor I had guessed how quickly, and enthusiastically, she would take to the life. In the first few days, she screamed and wailed, just like the rest of the women whose life paths had been led through the halls of Aiden’s large home. However, by days four and five, the fear in Molly’s eyes - the pain and humiliation that were implicit to Aiden’s training methods - was replaced by addiction and a lazy, seductive, and unquenchable need. She smiled to crawl at his feet. She thanked him for every small bit of pleasure or attention he gave her. She did nothing to bring about his punishment, and as a result, she never received one.
Molly happily shed her former life to zip up the skin of a new one. And what a new life it was. Her only purpose was pleasing the man who trained her, and as long as he was amused by whatever degrading, humiliating or tyrannical demand was made of her, she accepted the task without question.
She no longer had to answer to conservative and authoritarian parents who demanded she act the part of a proper, prim young woman. She could finally be the rebellious, party girl who enjoyed drowning herself in luxury, hedonism, and sin. Aiden hadn’t had to break her spirit to rebuild her as a courtesan. He’d merely had to strip away all the tethers and chains that had prevented her from becoming one by choice.
Molly hadn’t yet met the buyer that would own her after Aiden. She didn’t understand that some of the society members had kinks that would make any woman squirm in fear. And as I learned already
through several conversations, she didn’t believe she ever would. Molly was one hundred percent certain that Aiden would sell me away to the buyer instead of her.
At first, I laughed at her naivety. But as the days passed and Aiden hadn’t corrected her in that belief, I was beginning to worry. The only thing keeping me from falling apart completely was that he hadn’t confirmed or agreed with her belief either.
While sitting in the kitchen attempting to enjoy a breakfast that Aiden’s housekeeper, Theresa, had prepared, my solitude had been disturbed by the presence of a young woman dressed in nothing more than a red, lace thong.
As she leisurely strolled into the room, she ran her hands through her hair, shaking out the tresses so they framed her angelic face in a wild mass of curls. Her breasts were on full display, and the seductive sway of them as she walked was enough to draw any person’s eye.
“Like what you see?” Molly winked at me and took quiet, barefooted steps towards the table. She was attempting to intimidate me, but I wouldn’t let her. I was far too experienced for that.
Brushing off her question with a shrug of my shoulder, I ignored the way she rested one hip against the table beside me. My eyes remained focused on the food I was scraping onto my fork.
“You’re going to get in trouble for wearing red around this time of year. Aiden hates Christmas and anything having to do with it.”
She scoffed. “Maybe you don’t know Aiden as well as you think you do. He hasn’t taken issue with anything I’ve worn. And I love red. Or don’t you remember? When you ran your lips up my legs in the bathroom at the party, it was my favorite red dress that you had to push out of the way.”
Laughter bubbled over her lips when I didn’t respond. “In fact, I bet I can convince him to celebrate Christmas this year. After all, isn’t a new courtesan the perfect present?”
Anger coursed through my veins, only tempered by the knowledge that making that request of Aiden would only end up with a punishment she wouldn’t enjoy. Maybe I’d luck out and he would let me be the one to carry it out. My master enjoyed watching me deliver pain to other women. It was one of very few sights that truly turned him on.
“Maybe you’re right. You should ask him when you see him again.”
Taking a bite of scrambled eggs, I chewed slowly while Molly hovered silently beside me.
“Doesn’t it bother you that you’re being cast aside?” She laughed again before adding, “I guess it makes sense. Aiden is a man just like any other. They always like to replace the old with something new, young and exciting.”
The anger in my blood was slowly steeping into pure rage.
Leaning down so that her hair brushed over my shoulder, she taunted me with vile words. “When Christmas Day comes, you’ll be shipped off to the man that wanted to purchase me. Aiden is smart enough to keep the best for himself.”
Her hands cupped her breasts, the double D beauties pressed up so that they were a hair’s breadth from my face.
“But maybe, if you’re nice to me, I’ll convince him to keep us both. I still want to fuck you, Rebecca. I want to fuck you like Aiden fucks you. I wonder if I can be good enough that he’ll give you to me as a plaything.”
Rage. It was pure unadulterated rage that flowed through me, and all I could see was red.
Molly made an unfortunate mistake at that moment. She reached for my plate to take my food away from me.
Stabbing my fork onto the back of her hand, I broke the skin with the tines and slammed her palm against the table.
“That’s my bacon, you stupid bitch.”
Looking up, my eyes met hers and I was pleased by the fear I saw welling inside them.
“And Aiden isn’t yours. He’ll never be yours. I don’t know why you think you’ll replace me, but you need to understand that, whereas you might be willing to happily spread your legs for anything that walks by, I’m not. And that, my stupid friend, is why Aiden has already grown bored of you and will gladly ship you away.”
Tears fell down her cheeks, but I wasn’t sure if it was because of what I said or because the prongs of my fork were still embedded in her skin.
As soon as Aiden stepped into the room, she cried out in pain and pulled her hand away. His appearance was shitty timing.
Pushing off from the table, she dropped to her knees in front of him, clutching her hand to her chest and crying while I hid my face to conceal my rolling eyes.
“Well, apparently it’s true,” Aiden said dryly, his voice a deep, thick satin that was as soft as it was suffocating. Chills ran up my spine in response to that voice, and heat exploded in my veins. “When the cat’s away, the mice do play.”
“Pet…”
I turned my head to answer him, but my mouth was left hanging open when I saw him staring down at Molly.
“Tell me what just happened to you.”
“Rebecca stabbed me with her fork.”
My eyes were directed at the table, but I could still feel him watching me. Aiden’s aura was enough to fill the room, and I could pick up every bit of amusement he felt. I choked on the mercurial temper that was far scarier when it ran cold instead of hot.
“Did she now?”
“Yes, Master. See?”
Peeking over, I saw Molly raise her hand up for Aiden’s inspection. And I didn’t miss the way the corner of his lips pulled up into a smirk.
His tone a gentle crooning thing, he asked, “Why did Rebecca stab you with a fork?”
“I -” She sniffled to make her words more vomit inducing. “I just wanted a piece of her bacon.”
Aiden didn’t openly laugh at her statement, but I could feel his enjoyment rolling through the energy in the room. His voice deceptively calm, he said, “You shouldn’t take something that’s not yours from another courtesan, Pet. Especially not her bacon.”
I hated the slight trace of humor in his voice.
“Only her Master has that right.”
At least he was defending me. A smile tugged at my lips, but was hidden behind the curtain of my hair.
“A courtesan also has no right to mark someone that belongs to her Master. And that particular act is longer lasting.” Two beats of silence and then, “Rebecca. I want you over here and on your knees right now.”
Smile gone, I pushed up from my seat to dutifully comply with his every command. Just because he was pushing at me and trying to hurt me with his soft treatment of Molly, it didn’t mean I’d let him win.
Aiden wanted a perfect courtesan - at least he claimed he did - and I was willing to give that to him, whether he liked it or not.
His piercing blue eyes were locked to mine, disapproval and something vicious implicit in the set of his sculpted lips, in the tension of his broad shoulders. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?”
To say something would be arguing, and a good courtesan never argues.
“No, Master.” Pressing my forehead to the floor at his feet, I added, “Please, Master, please forgive me.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
AIDEN
She was absolutely stunning in everything she did. It didn’t matter if she was submitting or fighting, seducing or rebelling, crying out in pain or crying out in pleasure, she was a woman who drew the eye because, beneath it all, there was impenetrable strength and fearless resolve.
I adored those aspects in her because they reflected the same traits in me.
Molly, on the other hand, was a disappointment. Yes, she’d please most men in the society by her love of the lifestyle, but for a man like me, she was simply too easy. Despite the way she failed to hold my attention, she had her other uses. Particularly when it came to training Rebecca.
Additionally, Molly also made a fatal mistake in her role as courtesan, one I intended to correct by the time my game played out fully.
I was almost beginning to have too much fun.
Almost.
“You’ve damaged something that belongs to me, Courtesan. I think you know I can’t sta
nd for that. What kind of Master would it make me?”
Rebecca’s arms were outstretched above her head, her body elegantly folded over bent knees, her forehead tight to the floor. It was a pity I didn’t have my camera because it was a vision I didn’t want to forget.
My cock became hard at the sight of her perfect submission, my hands tightening into fists as I fought to keep from touching her.
“It would make you a weak Master. I should be punished.”
Punished. There it was, her favorite thing in the world. She knew that having to force my will upon her made me want her even more, and given the fire of need coursing through me at the moment, it appeared she was right.
Creativity, however, was the name of this game. A fact that was to her misfortune.
“Yes, you should.” Kneeling down so that she could hear me while my voice was whisper soft, I asked, “How do you think I should punish you?”
“In whatever way pleases you the most, Master.” Her words were stunted and lined with steel and I could tell she was speaking through clenched teeth. Still the perfect courtesan, she hadn’t slipped. I admired her tenacity, but knew I’d eventually push her too far.
Rebecca refused to give me the emotion - the rebellion - I wanted, and I was determined to open her up and rip it out by force, if necessary.
Cold and cruel, I smiled at the punishment I decided to give. It would be torture for my beautiful girl, an opportunity to teach a lesson to Molly, and above all, an entertaining time for me.
“I’m giving you to Molly, Courtesan, so that you can be her pet and tend to her until there is no longer a mark on her hand. Once she’s completely healed because you did everything she asked of you to ensure she was comfortable during her recuperation, you’ll no longer have to serve her.”
Rebecca’s body flinched.
Molly laughed and clapped above me. She’d eventually pay for that enthusiasm.
“Is my punishment fair?”
“Yes, Master.”
If her words had been any more clipped, they would have sliced through my skin as easily as they sliced through the air.
