He didn’t wash her, cleaning his come off her thighs as he usually did. Instead, he gently buttoned a few of the buttons on her nightgown and pulled it down over her body. Tenderly he covered her up and tucked the blanket around her. Kissing her cheek, he grabbed a pair of pajama bottoms and left the room.
Chapter 9
Their house resembled a chateau Chéri had seen in a brochure of France and it took her breath away. Even the setting was perfect and it amazed her that this lovely piece of wooded property could be so close to the city, yet so completely private. Susan opened the door and darted out as soon as they pulled into the drive.
“Come on, welcome. We’re so happy you could come, aren’t we, Mark,” she cried taking Chéri’s hand and nearly pulling her into the house. She barely had time to look around before Susan was tugging her to the stairs.
“I’m going to show Chéri my room, Daddy,” she called over her shoulder as her husband closed the heavy front door.
Chéri didn’t miss the change of dynamics. As soon as they entered the house, Mark became Daddy. Looking over the banister at Michael, she smiled. He shrugged his shoulders. Apparently, Susan was a human bulldozer and Chéri let herself be towed up the winding staircase without protest.
Her room was spectacular, a high vaulted ceiling, leaded windows and the most beautiful antique French provincial furniture Chéri had ever seen. She knew her mouth dropped open in shock, but she couldn’t help herself.
“Susan,” she gasped, “it’s gorgeous.”
“It is, isn’t it,” Susan agreed with a grin as she flopped down on a settee upholstered in rose brocade satin. “Mark has wonderful taste and strongly feels the furnishings should reflect the design and time period of the house. I pretty much go along with anything he says, but I do love it too.”
“What’s that?” Chéri asked pointing at an intricately carved wooden plank high above them.
“That’s my swing,” Susan said with a laugh. “Want to try it?”
Chéri nodded, speechless and Susan bounded off the settee and pressed a button. Slowly the plank began to descend. There was a slight mechanical hum which stopped when the swing was about three feet from the floor. In awe, Chéri ran her fingers lightly over the highly polished surface.
“It’s great, isn’t it?” Susan asked with a giggle. “I got it for my last birthday. I generally face this direction,” she continued, sitting down and looking toward the huge windows. “That way I can see the grounds and feel like I’m outside, even when the weather is bad.”
“Do you use it often?” Chéri whispered.
“Almost every day. It’s good exercise and I find it very relaxing.” Pumping her jean clad legs, she was soon flying, her dark ponytail swinging behind her. After a few minutes she stopped and lowered her toes bringing the swing to a smooth stop. “Come on, try it,” she encouraged with a smile as she hopped off.
Chéri sat and tentatively began to pump her legs.
“Do you want a drink? I have a stash,” Susan said with a wink.
“What do you have?”
“Just about anything,” she replied with another wink. “Mark likes a well-stocked liquor cabinet. How about a glass of white wine?”
“That’s fine. Susan, this is fabulous,” Chéri cried. She flew higher and higher as she watched her friend move around the room. Susan opened the door and listened for a moment before shutting it quietly. Then, going to the window she opened a large window seat and removed the top tray.
“Don’t tell Michael about this,” Susan warned opening a bottle of white zinfandel and getting two glasses. “If Mark finds out, I’ll get it for sure. Plus, it will take me months to restock.”
“I won’t,” Chéri promised, slowing the swing.
“If they come in by any chance, try to hide the glass and grab one of these mints,” Susan instructed, pointing to a crystal bowl on the table before the settee. “It will mask the scent.”
“Got it.”
Reluctantly getting off the swing, Chéri joined her friend and took the glass she held out. Susan plopped her fuzzy pink stockinged feet on the table and leaned back with a sigh as she sipped her wine.
“I’m really so happy you came over today. I don’t have many friends, at least not ones I can invite into my private rooms. It sort of requires an explanation,” she sighed, waving her hand around the room.
“I take it you have a suite of rooms?” Chéri asked, curling her feet beneath her and looking around.
“Yes, this is the main room, my sitting room I guess you would call it. My bedroom is through there,” she said, indicating a tall set of white pocket doors trimmed in gold. Each door had cherubs painted in the panels. “I’ll show it to you before you leave if you’d like,” she offered.
“I’d like that very much,” Chéri replied. “How long have you lived like this?” she asked quietly.
“In such magnificent splendor, or as a little girl?” Susan asked with a wicked grin.
“Both, I guess.”
“Always, well I guess not always. I did have a life of sorts before I met Mark, but I try not to think about it, and to tell you the truth I don’t, much.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Very bad, worse than you could even imagine. In fact, I often wonder whether I’d still be alive if I hadn’t met Mark,” she said softly.
“We don’t have to talk about it, if it upsets you,” Chéri insisted. “I guess I was just curious.”
“No, if we’re going to be friends, real friends, we should know something about each other, don’t you think?” Susan asked seriously.
“I do, but I don’t want to pry and the last thing I want to do is cause you any pain.”
“It’s not so painful anymore. I’ve sort of reinvented myself over the years. I lived in Atlanta then.”
“Really?” Chéri asked in surprise. “I’d never have guessed.”
“I’ve worked very hard to lose my southern accent,” she admitted, “although y’all have to understand that sometimes it sort of slips out,” she continued with a grin.
“Why would you want to lose it? It’s charming.”
“I’m sort of living under the radar.”
“What, like in the witness protection program or something?” Chéri asked with a gasp.
Susan laughed, really laughed until Chéri was giggling with her.
“Perhaps I’d better start at the beginning,” Susan said, wiping her eyes. “My family was poor, very poor, like never enough to eat, dodging the landlord every month, poor. I managed to graduate high school by the skin of my teeth, but I had trouble finding a job.
“I didn’t have nice clothes; half the time we didn’t have hot water. Well, let’s just say people weren’t interested in employing a skinny eighteen-year-old who dressed like a rag doll. Then my brother said he knew someone. The guy owned this club downtown and he was looking for dancers. They would supply the costume and the money was good, especially the tips. You were supposed to be twenty-one, but they fudged my birth certificate and got me in.
“I was terrified, I couldn’t dance and was about as far from sexy as a girl can get, yet they dolled me up and put me in this silver sequined outfit that barely covered the important parts and out I went. The heels were so high I stumbled the second I hit the runway. Thinking back, I must have been quite a sight, hanging onto the pole for dear life and wiggling my ass like a fool.” She snorted and drained her glass.
“Mark was in the first row watching me, appalled and shaking his head. I glared at him and tried to step it up, jiggling my boobs in his direction. You could tell he had class and money. It was written all over him and it sort of made me mad that he was looking down his nose at me. I tried to get the beat of the music and watched a couple of other girls strutting their stuff. They made swinging around that pole look easy, so I tried it. I hooked one skinny leg around it, never realizing the thigh-high stockings would be slippery. I’d never even worn a pair.
“Needless to say, it
didn’t end well. I lost my grip and ended up falling right into Mark’s lap. The entire place erupted in laughter and I was mortified. For sure they weren’t going to keep me on. I hid my face in his suit jacket but he tipped my chin up and made me look at him.”
“How old are you?” he demanded.
“I’m twenty-one,” I insisted haughtily.
Then he pinched my ass, really pinched it, hard.
“I don’t like little girls who lie,” he said sternly.
“I gulped and told the truth. I’m eighteen. He sat for a moment holding me, and then he stood up and carried me to the door. Stopping near the door he tossed a wad of bills on the bar and set me down. He took his overcoat and put it on me. Then he picked me up and carried me right out of the club.
“I was scared, really scared, but I felt something else too. He was so strong he wasn’t even out of breath when he signaled for a cab and tossed me inside, and he smelled so good.”
“I’m not a whore,” I said as I huddled on my side of the cab.
“I never said you were’, he replied, giving the driver the name of the best hotel in Atlanta.
“Once we arrived he tossed some money at the driver and when the doorman opened the cab door, he pulled me out, sweeping me up into his arms once again.
“I swear he marched into the hotel like he owned the place. It was pretty impressive,” Susan continued with a grin. “He stopped at the concierge and ordered dinner.”
“I’ll have a thick steak, medium rare, baked potato and a salad,” he said. “She’ll have a cheeseburger, well done, fries and a milk shake. Chocolate?” he asked looking at me.
“I nodded. I think he won my heart at that very moment, just by asking me what kind of milkshake I wanted,” she sighed.
“Richardson, room 1175, in an hour,” he barked.
“Then he walked to the elevator as cool as a cucumber, ignoring all the strange looks we got.
“Do you want another drink?” Susan asked Chéri as she rose and walked to her little bar.
“Will we get caught?” Chéri asked.
“It’s possible,” Susan said truthfully. “I guess it depends on how much you want it.”
Chéri got up and passed her glass with a shrug.
“So then what happened?” she asked, taking the wine.
“He took me to his suite, tossing me over his shoulder while he used his pass key. By this time, I was getting a little frantic and started struggling. He swatted my bottom, hard and ordered me to be still.”
“I’m not a whore,” I repeated, gritting my teeth.
“I know you’re not,” he said, putting me down. “Now, say that word one more time and I will soap your little mouth.”
"Chéri, I thought I’d fall over I was so shocked at the sincerity in his voice. This man wasn’t kidding. Instantly I clamped my mouth shut. I was starving and kept focusing on the cheeseburger that would soon arrive.”
“Sorry,” I murmured, looking at the floor.
“His expression softened immediately and he walked to the closet and took out one of his crisp white dress shirts.”
“Go wash that gunk off your face and take a shower,” he ordered. “Then put this on,” he said holding out the shirt.
“I didn’t know what to do. I just stood there staring at the floor. A moment later, he took his coat off me, tossed it on the bed, turned me in the direction of the bathroom and swatted my ass again.”
“Get going,” he said.
“I went. I didn’t know what else to do, or what I’d gotten myself into. I could hardly leave the suite dressed as I was, so I snatched the shirt out of his hand and marched to the bathroom, wobbling on those damn shoes.”
“Stop,” he barked and I froze. He came to me, went down on his knees and slipped the shoes from my feet, tossing them aside. “That’s better,” he said as he rose.
“The bathroom was a revelation, like out of the movies and I wanted to sink into that huge tub in the worst way, but I was too afraid he’d come in and find me naked so I showered as fast as I could. Not that he hadn’t seen and felt nearly every inch of me in the scrap they called a costume, but still,” she laughed.
“I felt lovely afterward and noticed the thick white robe hanging on the back of the bathroom door. I put it on over his shirt and left the steamy room with it trailing behind me on the floor. You’d have thought I was royalty,” she said and giggled.
“He was sitting on the bed, his sleeves rolled up when I walked back into the bedroom. He motioned me to him and I went, taking my own sweet time. There was a stern look on his face I didn’t trust, sort of disapproving, you know, like my face was still dirty.
“Lose the robe,” he ordered.
“My hands were shaking, but I managed to undo the belt and let it drop from my shoulders. His shirt was huge and covered me to my knees, so I figured it was okay. Still more than what I had been wearing in any case. Then he took my hand, his fingers rubbing gently across the back, like a caress,” she sighed, remembering. “I thought, this guy’s okay. Then all hell broke loose.
“As soon as I relaxed, he yanked me over his knees and wrapped his arm around my waist.”
“I don’t know your story,” he said. “I will before you leave this room, but for now this will have to do,” and he started spanking me. Really spanking me! I was stunned.”
“Chéri, I’d never been spanked before, not in my whole life. I’d been slapped around, kicked, slapped in the face and had my hair nearly ripped from my head, but no one ever pulled me over their lap and spanked me!
“He lectured me the entire time.”
“You are never to set foot in one of those clubs again. What were you thinking? A little girl like you could have been raped, or worse. What’s your name?”
“Susan,” I cried out, wiggling to get away as he flipped up his shirt and took after my bare cheeks.
“Well, Suzie, your days of clubbing are over. I absolutely forbid you to paint your face like that and if I ever hear of you wearing something so disgustingly vulgar again, I’ll take my belt to you. Do you understand?”
“You’re not my daddy,” I screamed at him. He paused; his hand on my hot ass was scorching.
“Do you have a daddy?” he asked.
“No,” I sobbed.
“Well, you do now,” he stated matter of factly and the spanking commenced again.
“I was completely undone. Here was this man, a stranger, taking care of me in a way no one ever had. He cared that I was hungry, that I was ridiculously dressed and working in a hell hole. He cared that I’d lied to him, which he pointed out while wailing away at me, and before I knew it, I was crying my heart out and begging his forgiveness, promising to be a good girl forever and ever.
“I think the only thing that stopped him was room service knocking on the door. He flipped me up on his lap, cuddled me close and called for them to come in. I was so embarrassed, but they wheeled the cart in and left quickly.
“Mark dried my tears, kissed them away actually and rubbing my back until I’d calmed down. Then he seated me at the table, grinning when I yelped as my ass touched the chair.”
“Let that be a lesson to you, little girl,” he said. He uncovered the plates and placed mine in front of me. “Do not drink all of that shake before you’ve eaten your dinner,” he warned.
“Yes, Daddy,” I replied a little cheekily. He simply looked at me until I lowered my eyes and began to eat.
“Do you want to go home with me?” he asked finally.
“Where’s home?”
“Does it matter?’”
“No, I said, and I meant it.”
“We were married a few months later.”
“Wow, that’s quite a story. So your family doesn’t even know where you are?”
“No, and I want to keep it that way. I have everything I need right here. I love him, Chéri, everything about him, everything about our life together. I would never put that in jeopardy.”
Chéri nodded in understanding.
“Do you want to see my room now?” Susan asked with a bright smile.
“Yes, I’d love too,” Chéri answered, handing Susan her empty glass and watching while she hid it away.
Taking her hand, Susan led her to the double doors then stopped and looked at her.
“Remember Chéri, it’s not about the trappings. Any idiot can go out and buy baby clothes and diapers. Any man bigger and stronger than you can make you do things, submit to things you might not want to. It’s about what’s in here,” she said touching her heart, “about what you feel inside. A man can spank you, buy you a crib and make you call him daddy, but that doesn’t make it true. Not if he’s not your daddy in his heart and soul. You can always tell the players, at least I can now.
“A real daddy will do anything he can to make you happy. He’ll love and care for you above all else. Even when he’s harsh, he believes he is doing what needs to be done to keep you safe. Don’t ever be ashamed or embarrassed by what you feel. We’ve been blessed, my friend. Now, come and see my fabulous nursery and don’t be jealous. He spoils me shamefully,” she teased as she opened the doors.
Chéri was absolutely flabbergasted by Susan’s nursery. Besides being every little girl’s dream room, the feel of it was one of beauty, grace and comfort. She was jealous she realized, at the number of lovely toys Susan had to amuse herself with. Her doll house was a castle, complete with a royal family and Susan had her own jeweled crown to wear when she felt like playing with it.
There were hundreds of books, dozens of dolls and more games than Chéri had ever seen in any place beside a toy store. She had her own big screen TV that pulled out of an armoire as well as stacks of movies and her own computer.
Her bathroom contained a fabulous claw foot tub built on a pedestal as well as a bidet and a massive glass shower with dozens of jets. Inside there was a bench and Chéri had no trouble picturing what it was for.
“Are you feeling brave, my friend?” Susan asked.
“I guess so; I’m just so envious right now it’s hard to say. Here I was wondering what I would do with myself all day and seeing all this, well it’s not hard to imagine how lovely it would be to spend time in here.”
More Rules For Cheri (New Rules Book 2) Page 9
