"Standard procedure for all arrests." He held out the cuffs. "Don't give us trouble. It will be easier for you."
"Very well, but only if you agree not to restrain my girls. I guarantee that they will come quietly."
The colonel glanced over at us. I've never seen a more miserable-looking man in my life.
"Okay." He nodded to his associates, who stepped forward to take our arms.
Ajarn held out her hands to the colonel. "I guess I'm your prisoner then. For now at least."
Chapter Sixteen
The police kept us for hours, but even so I got home earlier than I would have on an ordinary work night. Each of the girls was photographed, fingerprinted and fined five hundred baht (which came out of my pocket) before being released. In my case, since I was the bar owner and a foreigner, the process was more complex – and considerably more expensive. Still, nobody laid a hand on me. Despite the Thais' reputation for courtesy, it's not all that uncommon for prisoners to be physically coerced into confessing. In this case, of course, there was no doubt about my "guilt". The worst part of the ordeal was being locked up in a hot, humid cell that stank of mold and disinfectant while the creaky bureaucratic wheels turned.
Apichat disappeared as soon as he'd delivered us to the Bang Rak district station. Good thing, too. I was furious at his disloyalty, especially at first. As the time wore on, however, I realized he probably had no choice in the matter. He was only a colonel; his power was limited. Apichat just happened to be the officer responsible for carrying out the sentence. Someone higher up had decided to close my bar.
Who? I was willing to bet Sam Prendergast was behind it. He'd practically come right out and admitted that he could pull all sorts of strings. The bar closure was likely his revenge for my butting in and stopping Phichit. The notion that Sam would rather endanger a woman's life than upset an influential customer only fanned my rage.
Yes, it had to be Sam. In addition to demonstrating his power, he also stood to gain from the closure of The Academy. At the moment, my girls were unemployed. I knew most of them couldn't afford to be without work for long. I'm sure he thought that The Academy's loss would be Club Lacoste's gain.
Well, we'd see about that.
Although I found the door to my condo locked, the dead bolt hadn't been thrown. A chill crept up my spine. Could someone be inside waiting for me? I turned the key as quietly as I could, cracked the door open, and stopped to listen.
All was silent.
The single lamp I keep on a timer provided dim illumination. My living room looked normal. Nothing seemed to be amiss. I pushed the door wide and hesitated on the threshold, sniffing the air. I caught only the slight metallic scent of the air conditioning I'd left on for Oy's comfort.
Oy. I knew before I rushed into the guest room that she'd be gone. Foolish girl! Well, I'd done what I could for her. She'd made her choice. She was no longer my responsibility.
Still, her absence combined with the events of the evening weighed heavily on my spirits. I stripped off my work clothes and left them in a messy pile near my bed. Then I stood under the shower for a long time, trying to wash off the stench of the jail. I felt numb. The Academy was closed. What was I going to do now?
With water pouring over my head, I almost didn't hear the door chime. At first, I thought I'd imagined the sound, but when I turned off the faucet it came again.
Who could be at my door at one in the morning?
I shook the drips out of my short hair and shrugged on a robe. The bell rang a third time. As I headed for the door, it hit me that I might be in danger. I grabbed an ethnic sculpture of carved teak from the top of a bookcase on the way past.
The view I saw through the peephole assuaged my fears. It was Apichat.
"Well, well, Colonel. Have you come to arrest me again?" I brandished my makeshift club, just to see him wince.
"Please – Ajarn – may I come in?"
He looked terrible. He still wore his uniform, but it was wrinkled and damp with sweat. One corner of the shirt hung loose in the back. He reeked of cheap rice brandy and cigarette smoke. His eyes were bloodshot and haunted.
No sooner had I closed the door than he fell on his knees and pressed his forehead to the floor.
"Forgive me, Ajarn. I beg you. I had to do it."
"You had to betray me?" Anger and pity swelled simultaneously in my chest. "And why is that?"
"My instructions – they came from very high up. If I refused, I might lose my job, or worse."
"Worse? What could be worse?" I nudged him with my foot. He raised his head a bit, as though to check my expression, then sank into even deeper prostration.
"Sometimes officers who are fired – sometimes, you know, they're found hanged – or shot through the head with their own guns. Everyone will say it's depression or stress or the shame of being dismissed from their posts. But there are so many suicides..."
I understood. As much as The Academy meant to me, it wasn't worth Apichat's life. "Who ordered you to close my bar? Look at me, Apichat. Who's responsible for ruining me?"
The policeman shook his head. His cheeks were streaked with tears. "I don't know, Ajarn. Honestly, I don't. It was a routine afternoon at the station and then the general called me into his office... I knew right away, from the location and the description, that it was your place. I felt sick, Ajarn. I wanted to vomit. But I had to obey. And I figured it was better to have it be me than someone else."
Perhaps that was true. "So what now, Colonel?" I asked, softening my tone. "What can I do? Do you think there's any chance I can fight this?"
"Do you know any poo yai? Anyone important, anyone with connections?"
I thought about Sam. If he could make this happen, maybe he could reverse the effects as well. "Maybe. I'll see." I prodded him again. "What about you, you disloyal dog? What should I do about you?"
He posed there on his hands and knees, very much like a devoted pet, gazing up at me with a mixture of fear and devotion. He was having difficulty speaking. "Punish me," he managed to choke out at last. "I deserve to be punished."
His words – along with his desperate, needy manner – made me suddenly wet. I was surprised. After all that I'd been through that night, did I still have the energy to top this poor creature?
Apparently I did.
"Get into the bedroom." I pointed to the open door. "No, don't get up! On all fours. Now."
He began to crawl across the polished parquet.
"Wait. Remove your shoes." He flipped over onto his butt to obey my order. "Place them by the door. Neatly. Good. On your knees now. Crawl. Faster, dog. Faster!"
I snatched an umbrella from the rack near the door and swatted his ass with it. "I should ride you like the animal you are," I added, though given the difference in our weights I'd probably break his back if I straddled him.
Urged on by my umbrella, he made awkward but impressively swift progress. My mind raced ahead, considering my next move. What did I have to bind him with? What could I use as an instrument of punishment?
I remembered my fantasy about bending him over the bed and fucking him. I didn't keep cuffs or spreader bars here in my apartment, but I did have a coil of rope on the shelf in my bedroom closet. And of course, I kept my favorite vibrator and harness near the bed, though I hadn't had a chance to use the latter, at least, in quite a long time. It’s not difficult to find sexual partners in Bangkok, but most of the men and women I’ve fucked are too vanilla to really satisfy me.
Unlike most of the condos sold these days, I'd bought mine unfurnished. The king-sized bed was a bit of an indulgence, with its modernistic head and foot boards of brushed brass rods, welded into different-sized triangles. I won't deny that I considered the bondage possibilities when I purchased it. I'd never had the opportunity to take advantage of those elements in its design – until now, that is.
"Stand up, you worm, and take off those filthy clothes." Apichat obeyed without the slightest hesitation, in contrast to o
ur previous session. His prick was half-hard. I prodded it with the tip of my umbrella. As I expected, he swelled further.
"You disgusting excuse for a man! You like the idea of being punished, don't you?"
"No – yes – I don't know, Ajarn." He licked his lips, his eyes on the floor. "All I know is that I deserve it."
"You certainly do. And believe me, I'm going to give you what you deserve, and more. Turn around and face the bed."
The rail running along the top of the headboard was just about level with his waist. Perfect. I grabbed one of my pillows and balanced it on the brass bar in front of him, so the metal wouldn't cut into his skin. "Bend over. Rest your chest on the bed."
He'd begun to comply when I realized that his cock would project through the bars and rub all too pleasantly against the mattress. I'd better do something about that. "No, wait."
I didn't tend to keep kinky paraphernalia around my place, but a skilled dominant can always improvise. A cotton sport sock to cover his erection, held in place by a couple of elastic bands, and some surgical tape to fasten it to his belly, and voila! I had a makeshift cock cage. "If you come," I warned while I handled him, "you'll wish you'd never been born."
"Yes, Ajarn," he replied through gritted teeth.
"Now you can bend over. Reach backward to grip the rail. Raise that ass of yours up where I can reach it."
Once he was in position, I retrieved the rope and began to secure him to the sturdy brass bar. My slick thighs rubbed together and my clit pulsed as I moved behind him. He looked so deliciously vulnerable. Eager as I was, I forced myself to slow down, building the tension each time I wound the rope around his wrist and the bedstead. The white hemp strands made a lovely contrast with his swarthy skin.
"Spread your legs."
I bound his thighs to the internal bars of the headboard, to immobilize him further as well as for the aesthetic effect. By the time I was finished, neatly aligned loops marched from his groin halfway down to his knees.
Apichat lay completely still, waiting for my next command. I traced a fingernail over the monochrome tattoos that decorated his brown shoulder, curlicues and ancient characters no doubt inscribed by a monk to ward off evil. He flinched at my touch.
"Are the ropes too tight?"
"No, Ajarn."
"Are they tight enough?"
He didn't answer. I reached between his legs to test his balls. They were taut and high. My colonel was very excited.
"Now for your beating. I'm not going to use your belt, though. That's for when you're well-behaved."
Returning to the closet, I retrieved one of my own belts. Like the colonel's, it was fashioned of leather, but barely a centimeter wide. It would move faster and carry more of a bite, almost like a whip. And of course, if I really wanted to cause him pain, I could use the buckle end.
I shrugged off my robe and strolled to side of the bed, so Apichat could see both me and the belt. I brought it down hard on the mattress, half a meter from his face. "This is going to hurt like hell. And then, after your beating..."
Leaving the sentence hanging, I pulled my harness out of the drawer in the bedside table and buckled it on. The soft leather-and-elastic straps fit snug as a second skin around my hips and thighs. The confusion in Apichat's eyes morphed to terror when I exhumed the dildo and settled it in place. I'm not sure whether that look or the press of the toy against my clit aroused me more.
"No...please...not that!"
I stood akimbo, looming over his bound and prostrate form, my cock jutting from my loins.
"Will you disobey me, then?"
"No, Ajarn... But I'm a man..."
"You're a dog. A worm. A disloyal snake. Shall I untie you and send you away? Unpunished? I will if that's what you want."
"No, no, I need you to punish me."
"But it's up to me to decide on the nature of the punishment. Don't you agree?"
Fear, disgust and desire battled for ascendancy in face.
"Look at me." I gripped my cock and stroked it as though I were masturbating. Little sparks of pleasure sizzled through my pussy. "Am I your mistress?"
"Yes...yes."
"Do you trust me?"
A long silence and then, a whisper. "Yes."
"Then do I have the right to fuck your ass, if that's what I feel like doing?"
"Um...uh...yes." A violent shudder seized him.
"Yes what?"
"Yes, Ajarn. You have the right to fuck me."
I laid my palm on his sweat-drenched forehead and gazed into his dark, desperate eyes. "Good boy. You remember what I told you to do, last time, if you can't bear any more?"
"Uh – 'elephant'. Say 'elephant'."
"Right. Very good. So let's begin."
I didn't start right away though. I circled behind him to admire the perverse perfection of his neatly presented buttocks. I ran my hands over each smooth, walnut-colored globe, then cupped and massaged his heavy balls. His tension ebbed under my caresses.
Only then did I whisk the belt through the air to land on his left cheek. His brown skin darkened in the belt's wake.
He sucked in his breath but did not cry out.
I brought the strap down on the other cheek, leaving a symmetrical mark. He twitched as the pain sank into his awareness. Whoosh! Snap! The leather bit into his butt again and again. Trying to escape the inescapable, he strained in his bonds, His thigh muscles stood out like steel cables. I lashed him, first from one side, then the other, increasing the speed and intensity with each stroke.
His breathing grew ragged. Still, he did not cry out. Not a grunt or a moan passed his lips. My colonel was one tough guy.
Sweat trickled down my chest as I beat him with even greater ferocity. Wetness painted my thighs. Arousal hummed through me, louder each time the belt made contact. Would I break before he did?
At last I paused. Once more I palmed his ass cheeks. Heat radiated from his punished flesh. I scraped a fingernail across a welt. He tensed at the pain. I pressed my lips to the abraded skin and felt him relax.
"I think that's enough of the belt, for now at least." Apichat did not disagree. "Let's try something a bit more pleasant – for me at least."
Pulling his buttocks apart – ignoring the way he flinched when I dug my nails into his whip-branded flesh – I gazed at the whorl of muscle between them. "Did your wife ever penetrate you?" I asked.
His reply was so quiet I could barely hear it. "No, Ajarn."
"Well, there's a first time for everything."
He shuddered at the obscene, wet sound of lube squirting into my hand. I worked one slick finger into his sphincter. He clenched down, trying unsuccessfully to keep me out.
"The more you fight me, the more this will hurt." I inserted a second digit next to the first. For the first time that night, Apichat moaned. I spread my fingers to stretch the rubbery loop of muscle and he let out a wail.
"Oh come on! Don't be a baby!" Then I realized, as my fingers sank deeper into his hole, that he wasn't moaning in pain at all.
He tilted his pelvis, pushing back to swallow another joint. Ah! I felt him loosen and surrender to my probing. Lust washed over me. He was mine!
I slathered more lube on my rearing cock. Every time I touched the silicon rod, vibrations tickled my clit. I was ready to explode.
Stepping between his spread thighs, I pressed the lubricated bulb of the dildo against his slick, stretched anus. The artificial prick slid a centimeter or two into the orifice, then stopped. "Let me in," I growled, increasing the pressure. "Don't fight me! Let go!"
All at once his resistance vanished. His flesh parted. I drove my cock into his well-greased ass. A geyser of pleasure erupted in my pussy.
"Argh!" He arched off the bed, yanking at the bonds that held his wrists. I worried he might dislocate his shoulders. When I withdrew, though, he bulbed his ass out toward me, silently begging for more.
I slammed back in. "You want me to fuck you, boy? Do – you – like – m
y cock – in your – slave ass? " I punctuated each word with a new thrust, burying the dildo to the hilt in his welcoming rear.
"Yes - argh – oh – oh – oh, yes..."
He gave himself to me, fully and completely. I took everything he offered and then gave it back, harder and hotter, deeper and fuller each time. High on the power he'd bestowed, I fucked him raw, knowing that's what he wanted. There was nothing in the world but my cock in his ass, connecting us as surely as if it had been my flesh.
An orgasm coiled in my pelvis, tighter with each stroke. I hammered him, fingernails biting into his hips, while the climax built, slow but inexorable. Slam, slam, slam! We breathed in time now, my slave and I, gasping each time I tightened my pelvis and plunged my dick home.
I don't know how long I fucked him. It felt like forever. I do know that when I finally came, screaming like a banshee, he yelled too. Ah, I gloated as I drifted down from the peak. He couldn't control himself. He came despite the cage. I can punish him some more.
I was wrong, though. He didn't come until I unbound him, laid him out on the bed, untaped his cock, and gave him my permission. Then he exploded upon command like the perfect slave he was.
Chapter Seventeen
I went to the wat the day after the police came. I must have done something terrible in my last life, to have such bad luck. First came the farang, turning me inside out. Like an addict, I still wanted him. I thought about him all the time. It didn't matter what Ajarn said about him. I knew in my heart that she was right, but my mind and body wouldn't listen to reason.
And now the bar was closed. Oh, I could get another job. Every bar in Patpong had signs up for dancers and hostesses. I wouldn't make even half of what Ajarn paid, though. And I knew I wouldn't fit in. I'd have to pretend to be sweet, soft and obedient. That was the kind of girl most men wanted. That wasn't me. Okay, Sam could make me want to obey. But he was an exception.
I sat in front of the golden Buddha image for a long time, praying for a clear mind and an end to my troubles. I prayed that my desire for Sam would disappear. Instead, my phone rang.
Bangkok Noir Page 7
